ID, Please, the opera for which I wrote the libretto, opens this week as part of CoOpera, a festival of new opera, which is a collaboration between the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama, Music and Heinz School of Management, as well as Pittsburgh Opera.
Written with composer Soosan Lolavar, ID, Please is an opera about immigration and border security. Which has been a topical theme of late... and a personal one. Earlier this year, President Trump's "muslim ban" meant that for a few days it looked like Soosan wouldn't be able to return because she is a dual citizen in the UK and Iran. It's been a crazy couple of weeks.
Given the international and timely nature of the story behind our opera, Soosan and our opera were featured last month in the Times of London, The Hollywood Reporter, The BBC, and the Associated Press (see below). Most recently, The Pittsburgh Post Gazette covered the opening of CoOpera and interviewed Soosan upon her triumphant return to the US to see the premiere of our opera:
“Parts of her libretto poignantly express her own anxiety in traveling. “I clutch my passport so hard my hand hurts / I’m never going back to where I’m from / I do not like the way you look at me like that.””