Atelier Workshop Presentation Premieres New Small-Scale Opera

A singer with musicians rehearsing in a room with burgundy curtains.

Singers and musicians perform at an end of the semester developmental workshop featuring a section of Custom of the Coast, a new small-scale opera. Photo by Jon Sweeney

Person playing the violin in front of red curtains with music stands nearby.

Singers and musicians perform at an end of the semester developmental workshop featuring a section of Custom of the Coast, a new small-scale opera. Photo by Jon Sweeney

A woman speaks to seated participants in a room during a workshop.

Kamala Sankaram speaks to the audience prior to presenting Custom of the Coast at a Princeton Atelier developmental workshop. Photo by Jon Sweeney

A person gestures expressively while speaking, with a blurred poster in the background.

Kamala Sankaram speaks to the audience prior to presenting Custom of the Coast at a Princeton Atelier developmental workshop. Photo by Jon Sweeney

A woman singing with a music stand in a room..

Singers and musicians perform at an end of the semester developmental workshop featuring a section of Custom of the Coast, a new small-scale opera. Photo by Jon Sweeney

Two individuals, one standing and smiling next to a music stand, and another seated playing an accordion.

Singers and musicians perform at an end of the semester developmental workshop featuring a section of Custom of the Coast, a new small-scale opera. Photo by Jon Sweeney

An older person with gray hair and glasses wearing a dark blazer.

Paul Muldoon speaks to the audience prior to presenting Custom of the Coast at a Princeton Atelier developmental workshop. Photo by Jon Sweeney

A music conductor leads musicians in a large room.

Princeton music composition Ph.D. candidate Hope Littwin conducts an excerpt from her new small-scale opera, My Edna. Photo by Jon Sweeney

Woman in a white blouse conducting in a room with seated audience.

Princeton music composition Ph.D. candidate Hope Littwin conducts an excerpt from her new small-scale opera, My Edna. Photo by Jon Sweeney

A person with short dark hair is singing with a blurred tablet in the background.

Singers and musicians perform at an end of the semester developmental workshop featuring a section of Custom of the Coast, a new small-scale opera. Photo by Jon Sweeney

Musicians and a vocalist at a rehearsal playing violins and accordion.

Singers and musicians perform at an end of the semester developmental workshop featuring a section of Custom of the Coast, a new small-scale opera. Photo by Jon Sweeney

The Princeton Atelier hosted an early developmental workshop presentation of a section of Custom of the Coast, a new small-scale opera written by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon and award-winning experimental music/contemporary opera composer Kamala Sankaram.

This new work, the subject of a fall Princeton Atelier course, intercuts the life stories of an 18th century Irish pirate sentenced to death and an Indian-born, Ireland-based dentist who died in 2012 having been denied an abortion. The music for the opera draws from both traditional Irish and medieval music and Indian classical music to connect these two stories separated by time.

The opera will have a showing at the Guggenheim Works & Process series in February and will premiere at the Kilkenny Arts Festival in Ireland in August.

The performance also included an excerpt from My Edna, a new small-scale opera work by Princeton music composition Ph.D. candidate Hope Littwin.