Astronaut Jessica Meir, who participated in the first all-female spacewalk in 2019, is one of the only people on or off the planet to have played her high school piccolo on the International Space Station. Her melody of choice? The theme from Star Wars, of course. Back on Earth, composer Jennifer Jolley, who heard that performance, is turning Meir’s famous walk into an opera in seven vignettes, one for each hour of the NASA broadcast that accompanied the walk.

Space exploration has been top of mind in Amer­ican culture lately, with the recent explosive launch of the SpaceX rocket in April, talk of Mars expeditions, and wealthy business owners fly­ing to the stars. Perhaps it’s no coincidence, then, that several of the collaborative teams that earned Discovery Grants from OPERA Amer­ica are developing operas set among the stars or writing librettos exploring science fiction concepts of the future.

Jolley and librettist Hai-Ting Chinn are in the early stages of develop­ing Spacewalk, but she says the flute will feature prom­inently in the orchestration as a nod to Meir. “The opera is about celebrat­ing this historic moment and how much expertise these women demonstrated,” Jol­ley says. “I’m just in awe of that.” There’s also an opera in development focusing on Dr. Sally Ride, the first American woman and first LGBTQ+ astronaut to fly to space. Another project, a col­laboration between composer Tamar Muskal and librettist Daniel Kramer, is set in the future during post-World War III times, which sees Presi­dent Abraham Canaan blast off to Mars with his AI co-pi­lot robot, Siri. “We know we’re going to want to use frame drums, which have a low, beautiful, desert sound,” Muskal says. “You feel like the earth swallows you.” She describes the opera as pes­simistic and tragic — it’s something of an indictment of wealthy individuals pur­suing space travel rather than using their money to tackle problems at home.

Immortal Labia, which is in development with an IDEA Opera Grant from OPERA America, is set in the year 5029, where two-headed intersex humans reproduce asexually. These advanced beings discover in the annals of history that the human race used to consist of two sexes, and then research the history of womanhood around the world across time. “I thought it would be quite funny if a woman sang coloratura while having a baby,” says Victo­ria Moy, who began drafting the story back in 2015. “I don’t want this to be depress­ing,” she continues. “Human beings are terrible sometimes at facing reality. I thought it might be easier to face today’s challenges through this fictional history.”

CIVIC PRACTICE GRANTS

OPERA America in March announced Civic Practice Grants totaling $180,000 to eight U.S. opera companies. The grants, funded by OPERA America’s Opera Fund, are designed to support opera companies’ efforts to address civic priorities in their communities more fully; develop robust, reciprocal relationships with other arts and non-arts organizations; and deliver greater public value through authentic, mutually beneficial partnerships.

Both Tulsa Opera and Los Angeles Opera, for exam­ple, are using funding from OPERA America’s Civic Prac­tice Grants to support music therapy programs, rooted in the burgeoning scientific liter­ature about music and health outcomes. “It’s pretty cool to be singing ‘Ain’t Nothing but a Hound Dog’ at a senior cen­ter and then to hear a resident with memory loss say, ‘I remember when Elvis came to town!’” says Dani Keil, Tulsa Opera’s director of outreach.

She explains that the Songs by Heart project is an exten­sion of a program developed by the opera singer Nancy Gustafson to provide music therapy to seniors living in memory care commu­nities. Generally, Songs by Heart is a 45-minute sin­galong with music from seniors’ formative years.

The grant funding from OPERA America will pro­vide Tulsa Opera support to continue to train its sing­ers and develop relationships with area memory care facil­ities. “There’s research about how tapping into musical memories can delay cognitive decline and reduce stress,” Keil says. “We’re trying to improve people’s quality of life.”

2023 Civic Practice Grants

• Kentucky Opera (Louisville, KY) for Songs of Transformation
• Los Angeles Opera (Los Angeles, CA) for Music as Medicine
• Opera Baltimore (Baltimore, MD) for Avenue for Change
• Opera Birmingham (Birmingham, AL) for accessibility programs for low-vision/low-hearing artists and audiences
• Opera on Tap (Brooklyn, NY) for JOAN OF THE CITY
• Pittsburgh Opera (Pittsburgh, PA) for Embracing Our Roots
• The Santa Fe Opera (Santa Fe, NM) for Pueblo Opera Cultural Council
• Tulsa Opera (Tulsa, OK) for Songs by Heart

DISCOVERY GRANTS

Discovery Grants are part of OPERA America’s Opera Grants for Women Composers program, which promotes the work of women composers in opera and raises their visibility across the field. Grants totaling $100,000 will support the development of new opera and music-theater works.

Discovery Grants are made possible with the gen­erosity of the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.

2023 Discovery Grants

• Juhi Bansal, for Star Singer
• Annie Gosfield, for Peggy and Jackson
• Jennifer Jolley, for Spacewalk
• Dana Kaufman, for Sally Ride
• Tamar Muskal, for Nadia
• Shara Nova, for The Subnivean Zone: Under the Snow
• Bernadette Speach, for The Little Rock Nine
• Jennifer Williams, for Dis/Inform

IDEA OPERA GRANTS

Since 2019, IDEA Opera Grants (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access) have provided funding for composers and librettists who identify as Arab, Asian, Black, Latinx, Native American, and/or Pacific Islander to develop new operatic works. Each creative team receives a grant award of $18,000.

IDEA Grants are generously supported by the Charles and Cerise Jacobs Charitable Foun­dation. Applications for the next round of IDEA Opera Grants will open in fall 2023.

2023 IDEA OPERA GRANTS

• Alan Chan, composer, and Victoria Moy, librettist, for Immortal Labia
• Bonita Oliver, composer/librettist, For AR Arias: Sojourner Truth
• Olivia Shortt, composer/librettist, for The Museum of the Lost and Found: gaakaa-zootaadiwag