Program note

An immersive, one-act chamber opera for solo countertenor, mezzo-soprano, or contralto and Pierrot+ ensemble
Written for Min Sang Kim, countertenor
Opera America Discovery Grant for Women Composers Awardee

In Waking the Witch, the audience assumes the role of a 16th-Century accused witch facing interrogation from a Witchfinder who believes they’ve made a pact with the devil. The libretto is drawn from from the words of historical witch hunters, found in religious texts and trial documents, as well as from modern day leaders and movements whose rhetoric is eerily familiar. The treble instruments of the ensemble play possibly real, possibly hallucinatory animal familiars—demons in the shape of small animals.