Inheritance - A Chamber Opera (2018)
““…Inheritance is a meditation of the meaning of Winchester’s life and on the hopelessness of the rampant gun violence in American culture...
The opera is dreamy and ethereal...But there are moments of clarity and references in the music to gunfire, manufacturing machinery and the pounding of hammers, contrasted with the keening of spirits …”
Music by Lei Liang
Libretto by Matt Donovan
Commissioned and produced by Susan Narucki with support from the National Endowment from the Arts, Creative Capital Foundation, NewMusicUSA, ARTPower, Phyllis and Dan Epstein, Catherine and Robert Palmer and Dr. Julia Falk.
Production Design Ligia Bouton
““…This opera in 10 scenes is constucted so that Susan Narucki’s great set piece, Sarah Winchester’s narrative of dread, hope and madness...emerges not so much out of the story.. but from the depths of accountability amplified by personal grief.
In this and the following even more hair-raising scene, Narucki forces her character to experience almost impossible contrasts of beauty and pain.
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About the Opera
Conceived in late 2015 as a collaboration between composer Lei Liang, soprano Susan Narucki, librettist Matt Donovan and artist Ligia Bouton, Inheritance is a chamber opera that focuses on Sarah Winchester, the eccentric widow and heiress to the Winchester rifle fortune. According to popular belief, Winchester imprisoned herself in her labyrinth-like home to seek refuge from the spirits of those killed by the same weapons whose manufacture and sale gave her a life of indescribable wealth. The legends surrounding her life are impossible to extract from her actual history; to the creative team of Inheritance, the contradictions speak to America's inability to separate fact and fiction in the contemporary debate about guns and gun violence.
Events in Winchester's life - whether the stuff of legend or plain-spoken truth - are one aspect of Inheritance. These episodes are juxtaposed with contemporary events, moments ripped from headlines that play out on grand platforms of news and social media, which seem to be interpreted differently in the eye of each beholder. In this way, Inheritance explores America’s violent legacy and deeply complex relationship with guns.
World Premiere
Inheritance was co-presented by ARTPower and the University of California San Diego Department of Music. Its world premiere performances took place on October 24, 26 and 27, 2018 with the support of major grants from the Creative Capital Foundation, New Music USA and National Endowment for the Arts. UC San Diego Division of Arts and Humanities, along with generous underwriting by Dr. Julia Falk, Robert and Catherine Palmer, and Phyllis and Dan Epstein.
Soprano Susan Narucki created the role of Sarah Winchester and was joined by a trio critically acclaimed young singers: Mexican baritone Josué Cerón, and sopranos Hillary Jean Young and Kirsten Ashley Wiest.
The production was directed by Cara Consilvio, a dynamic young stage director, with lighting design by Mary Ellen Stebbins and production design by artist Ligia Bouton.
Renowned conductor and percussionist Steven Schick led an ensemble of virtuoso musicians, including clarinetists Madison Greenstone and Anthony Burr, bassist Mark Dresser, guitarist Pablo Gomez, trumpeter David Aguila, percussionists Fiona Digney and Sean Dowgray and harpsichordist Takae Onishi.
