“The most evocative of these new works was L’autre Moi (The other me)… The music and lyrics beautifully — and rather dreamily — manifest the transformative nature of the ocean as Claude (whom her lover describes as a “shape-shifter”) contemplates this new-to-her seascape — a transformation that carried over into the dramatic scene that followed.”
—San Francisco Classical Voice
Stephanie Fleischmann’s tersely eloquent libretto sprang to life in composer Matthew Recio’s rapturous and fine-grained score.
excerpt commissioned by Chicago Opera Theater
developed via West Edge Opera’s Aperture Sprints 1 & 3
snapshot 2023
complete opera commissioned by West Edge Opera, premiering August 2026
Not only did the work of gender-bending Surrealist artists Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore prefigure the photographs of contemporary luminaries including Cindy Sherman, but this-duo—life-long lovers and artistic collaborators—fearlessly deployed a massive covert resistance against the Nazi occupation of Jersey Isle from 1941 to 1944. The Other Me explores these radical acts as Claude and Marcel, disguised as a pair of cat-loving, middle-aged spinsters, arm themselves with the arsenal of their imaginations. Surrealist dream logic intertwines with a dynamic, suspense-filled narrative, forging an opera that is at once prismatic and dramatic, epic and intimate, a paean to authenticity, the ambiguity of identity, and enduring love.
duration: ca 2 hours + intermission
3 principles, 4 ensemble
orchestra: 11
samples and libretto available upon request
“And there was no longer any sea.”