Waking the Witch

Composer: Ashi Day
Librettist: Ashi Day
Company: Opera Ithaca

Synopsis

Waking the Witch is a one-act (~75 min.), immersive chamber opera for solo countertenor, mezzo-soprano, or contralto and Pierrot ensemble that explores human vulnerability to absurd beliefs as well as the danger of mixing authority and religion with black-and-white thinking, fear of those with less power, and conspiracy theories. The audience assumes the role of an accused witch, physically surrounded with a single-minded interrogator and animal familiars of questionable reality (played by the treble instruments of the Pierrot ensemble). The libretto is derived from the words of both historical witchfinders and modern-day leaders and movements with eerily similar messaging. Listeners must consider how we might navigate the seemingly impossible logic of power lost in moral panic, while remembering the dangerous reality that these things did, and in many ways still do, happen.