Three teams have received grants of $18,000 each for the development of their new operas through the IDEA Opera Grants program, which supports composers and librettists of color.

The funding will support the production of a workshop, reading, or other performance-based event, as well as a high-quality video of the work in development. Through the grant program, the cre­ators will also have the opportunity to introduce their works to field leaders at OPERA America’s New Works Forum and Opera Conference.

The teams receiving funding are:

• Amir ElSaffar, composer | Zahra Ali, librettist
  Ruins of the Encampment
  This three-act opera, set in the present-day Arab world, is based on themes from Al-Mu‘allaqat, a collection of pre-Islamic Arabic poems.

• Alphonso Horne, composer | Tara L. Wilson Noth, librettist
  Storyville: The Opera
  Storyville is a fictionalized account of the rise and fall of America’s first legalized red-light district, which existed in New Orleans from 1897 to 1917.

• Alex Wakim, composer | Gregory Jafari Van Acker, librettist
  The “B!tchelorette”
  Yara Saliba, a Lebanese-American medical professional, embarks on a journey to find her voice that takes her to the Italian countryside, a Greek funeral, a beach in Tulum, and beyond.

IDEA Opera Grants are supported by the Charles and Cerise Jacobs Charitable Foundation.