Breakfast and Dinner

Libretto by Sara Cooper

written for New York University’s Steinhardt School of Education Vocal Performance Majors in 2013; based on a shorter chamber version of Breakfast presented by Metropolitan Opera Project in 2010.

Summary

Breakfast

The kitchen table can serve as a positive space for families to gather and foster connection. In Breakfast, however, this space becomes the epicenter of a family’s demise. This one-act chamber opera portrays a middle-aged couple, Ange and Gretta, and their adult child, Stu, trying to enjoy a morning meal together. There are only two problems: 1. They’re out of juice, and 2. They can’t leave their house, because the outside world is a post-apocalyptic hellscape of “dust and electrical storm”.

Character List

• Gretta (Soprano)

• Ange (Baritone)

• Stu (Tenor)

Dinner

Ordielle’s water just broke. She’s about to give birth to her baby, “The World”. As she communicates with her child, Primo, Ordielle’s relatively indifferent husband, comes home exhausted from work. A new twist on the age old search for an appropriately metaphoric creation story, the world is born into a typically dysfunctional, yet surprisingly loving, family.

Character List

• Ordielle (Mezzo)

• Primo (Baritone)

• Baby (Soprano)

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