Snapshot 2026 to Showcase Four New Operas

West Edge Opera logo for Snapshot performances

A little over a month ago, West Edge Opera announced the return of the Snapshot program. Readers may recall that this series has served as a showcase for new and developing works with particular attention to West Coast composers and librettists. This season’s program will showcase four operas as follows:

1. Cry, Wolf is a variation on the werewolf narrative with two students at the University of California at Los Angeles as the protagonists. Clare Fuyuko Bierman created the libretto. The music was composed by JL Marlor.
2. Lisa Flanagan wrote the libretto for Threshold of Brightness. The narrative is about the Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad, a woman that defied conventions of expression usually associated with male poets. Niloufar Nourbakhsh composed the score for this controversial story.
3. The Joining is a contemporary reflection on past golem narratives. In this story they serve as artificial companions for the citizens of the Underground, who, in turn, rely on the prosperity of the Overland. The setting amounts to a confrontation between “artificial” and “human” intelligence. Isaac Io Schankler composed the music, working with a libretto by Aiden K. Feltkamp.
4. Case Closed is a “disaster narrative” about an aging local television news reporter and an accidental death; the libretto for that narrative was written by Steven Blum with music set by Martin Rokeach.

Only one performance of this program will be given in San Francisco, beginning at 3 p.m. on Sunday, March 1. As in the past, the performance will take place in the Diane and Tad Taube Atrium Theater, which is located on the fourth floor of the Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Avenue on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. Tickets will go on sale in January.