Out Today! David T. Little and Royce Vavrek’s Opera 'Dog Days' Reissued by Bright Shiny Things

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
Contact: Katy Salomon | Primo Artists | VP, Public Relations 
katy@primoartists.com | 646.801.9406

 
Composer David T. Little
and Librettist Royce Vavrek’s
Groundbreaking Opera 
Dog Days Available Now! 

Bright Shiny Things Reissues the
Haunting, Post-Apocalyptic Tale
Today Digitally and on CD

“[Little’s] rustling, raunchy, eclectic score showed real imagination." – The New York Times

"David T. Little and Royce Vavrek’s savage, rock-infused, amplified Dog Days (2012) was a
shot across the bow of contemporary opera." – The Wall Street Journal

"It's only a matter of time before this riveting show is confirmed as a groundbreaking American
classic.”  – The New York Times

www.davidtlittle.com
 

New York, NY (April 25, 2025) – Composer David T. Little and Royce Vavrek’s haunting post-apocalyptic tale Dog Days has been reissued by Bright Shiny Things, out today digitally and on CD. Based on a short story by Judy Budnitz, Dog Days is a groundbreaking opera that investigates the psychological unraveling of a working-class American family in a not-so-distant-future wartime scenario. Out of print for nearly two years following the closure of VIA Records/National Sawdust Tracks, Dog Days now finds new life in this reissue, available here.

Dog Days is a searing work that proves “beyond any doubt that opera has both a relevant present and a bright future” (The New York Times). Praised as “stunning in its ferocity” (Alex Ross), Dog Days examines the fine line between animal and human in severely trying times. The opera is told predominantly from the perspective of Lisa, a thirteen-year-old girl. The world slowly falls apart around her as her family progressively starves, her mother gives up on life, her father struggles to fulfill his own myth of the provider, and her brothers turn to beasts. When we meet Prince, a man in a dog suit begging for food, serious questions are raised about the nature of humanity: Is he mad or the only one who can still see clearly? 

Recorded live during its performance run at LA Opera, produced by Beth Morrison Projects, and led by conductor Alan Pierson, the cast features baritone James Bobick, soprano Marnie Breckenridge, tenor Michael Marcotte, tenor Peter Tantsits, soprano Lauren Worsham, mezzo-soprano Cherry Duke, performance artist John Kelly, and features Little's ensemble Newspeak as the orchestra.

Dog Days Tracklist:

David T. Little/Royce Vavrek – Dog Days (2012)
Based on a short story by Judy Budnitz

1. Prologue: A Man in a Dog Suit (David T. Little, Royce Vavrek, Newspeak, Alan Pierson) [6:22]
2. Act I: Summer, Scene 1 Dinner (David T. Little, Royce Vavrek, Newspeak, Alan Pierson) [10:19]
3. Act I: Summer, Scene 2 Friends (David T. Little, Royce Vavrek, Newspeak, Alan Pierson) [12:44]
4. Act I: Summer, Scene 3 Parents – “My Legs Won't Walk Me” (David T. Little, Royce Vavrek, Newspeak, Alan Pierson) [4:07]
5. Act I: Summer, Scene 3 Parents – “We should have went” (David T. Little, Royce Vavrek, Newspeak, Alan Pierson) [3:44]
6. Act I: Summer, Scene 3 Parents – “The Fresh-dead Deer” (David T. Little, Royce Vavrek, Newspeak, Alan Pierson) [3:26]
7. Act I: Summer, Scene 4 Brothers (David T. Little, Royce Vavrek, Newspeak, Alan Pierson) [3:43]
8. Act I: Summer, Scene 5 Letter (David T. Little, Royce Vavrek, Newspeak, Alan Pierson) [2:45]
9. Act II: Fall, Scene 1 Naming (David T. Little, Royce Vavrek, Newspeak, Alan Pierson) [7:44]
10. Act II: Fall, Scene 2 Alea – “I think that everybody_s…” (David T. Little, Royce Vavrek, Newspeak, Alan Pierson) [3:02]
11. Act II: Fall, Scene 2 Alea – “Stand Up Like A Man” (David T. Little, Royce Vavrek, Newspeak, Alan Pierson) [2:42]
12. Act II: Fall, Scene 2 Alea – “This...fucked.” (David T. Little, Royce Vavrek, Newspeak, Alan Pierson) [2:12]
13. Act II: Fall, Scene 3 Mirror (David T. Little, Royce Vavrek, Newspeak, Alan Pierson) [2:36]
14. Act II: Fall, Scene 3 Mirror – “Mirror, Mirror” (David T. Little, Royce Vavrek, Newspeak, Alan Pierson) [8:51]
16. Act III: Winter, Scene 1 Odds (David T. Little, Royce Vavrek, Newspeak, Alan Pierson) [6:16]
15. Act II: Fall, Scene 4 Rubicon (David T. Little, Royce Vavrek, Newspeak, Alan Pierson) [9:44]
17. Act III: Winter, Scene 2 Endgame (David T. Little, Royce Vavrek, Newspeak, Alan Pierson) [9:08]
18. Epilogue: The Three Ravens (David T. Little, Royce Vavrek, Newspeak, Alan Pierson) [10:46]

Total Time: [01:50:18]

Cast
JAMES BOBICK – Howard (Father)
MARNIE BRECKENRIDGE – Mother
CHERRY DUKE – Captain
JOHN KELLY – Prince
MICHAEL MARCOTTE – Elliott
PETER TANTSITS – Pat
LAUREN WORSHAM – Lisa

Newspeak
JAMES JOHNSTON – piano, synthesizer
TAYLOR LEVINE – guitar
EILEEN MACK – clarinets
COURTNEY ORLANDO – violin
KRIS SAEBO – bass
NATHAN SCHRAM – viola
BRIAN SNOW – cello
PETER WISE – percussion
MOLLY YEH – percussion

ALAN PIERSON – conductor

BSTC-0207
Produced by David T. Little & Alan Pierson. 
Recorded June 11- 15, 2015 at REDCAT in Los Angeles.
Recorded by Nick Tipp, mixed by Andrew McKenna Lee, mastered by Joe Lambert.
Published by Hendon Music, Inc., a Boosey & Hawkes Company.

About David T. Little
A natural musical storyteller with “a knack for overturning musical conventions” (The New York Times) and “one of the most successful out-there American opera composers” (LA Times), composer David T. Little is known for stage, concert, and screen works permeated with eclectic influences and the power of the unexpected. Little readily probes the deep corners of human psychology, invoking religious, political, historical, spiritual, and social themes as pathways for exploring the human condition. He has drawn acclaim for operas including Dog Days, JFK, and the comedy Vinkensport, or The Finch Opera (all with libretto by Royce Vavrek), as well as his opera Soldier Songs. His broad catalog speaks to the mix of light and dark that we experience in life, unafraid to invoke the mythical, bewitching, disturbing, surreal, or comedic. His work Black Lodge was nominated for Best Opera Recording in the 2024 GRAMMY® Awards.

In September 2024, Little unveiled his newest opera What Belongs to You, based on Garth Greenwell’s critically acclaimed debut novel, at the Modlin Center for the Arts at the University of Richmond (VA). Developed for GRAMMY®-winning tenor Karim Sulayman and Alarm Will Sound, the 20-piece ensemble is led by Alan Pierson, and with stage direction provided by renowned dancer, choreographer, and director Mark Morris, the "ravishing, ambiguous, and frankly erotic" (Night After Night) work was praised for its “intense juxtapositions of lyrical radiance and a hard edge” (The New York Times). Little, who is composer and librettist for the piece, took up Greenwell’s text as the starting point for an opera in his own inimitable style, approaching What Belongs to You as a chance to reflect an evolution in his compositional energy and a turning inward, looking back to look forward; leaning away from the rock bombast of Black Lodge, toward something more introspective, informed more by Monteverdi than Metallica. 

This arrived on the heels of another major work, the searching theatrical choral work, SIN-EATER, premiered in Philadelphia by The Crossing and Bergamot Quartet in the fall of 2023, conducted by Donald Nally. Co-commissioned by The Crossing and Penn Live Arts, SIN-EATER is based on the ancient practice of paying the poor to ritualistically “eat” the sins of the rich, allowing the privileged to move onto the next life cleansed of their guilty deeds. Of the premiere, The Wall Street Journal said that "The theatricality of Mr. Little’s music, coupled with his original and adapted text, is so intense that it hardly needed the visual cues to have a shattering impact." 

Little’s GRAMMY®-nominated Black Lodge is a metal-infused film opera drawing on the complex mythologies of William S. Burroughs, Antonin Artaud, and David Lynch, with a libretto by celebrated poet Anne Waldman and performances by Timur and the Dime Museum and Isaura String Quartet. Black Lodge premiered by Beth Morrison Projects at Opera Philadelphia, and the soundtrack was released by Cantaloupe Music. It was awarded the 2023 Music Theater Now prize.
 
Among his other key compositions are several large-scale instrumental works, including the “ghost play” Haunt of Last Nightfall for percussion quartet, and AGENCY, a companion string quartet about the nature of choice and knowledge, in which “episodes of crushing sonic violence coexist with oases of serene lyrical beauty for an overall sense of smoldering, luxuriant noise” (The New York Times). Yet other works explore life’s many highs: the ecstatic, almost manic energy of Spalding Gray, the Iggy Pop-inspired “joyous honk” of raw power, the wry humor of Speak Softly, the fond nostalgia of 1986, or the moonstruck aches of first love in JFK and What Belongs to You. 

Little set the tone for his operatic work with the 2006 premiere of Soldier Songs, drawing praise for “the imaginative way he draws on his varied musical interests to produce arresting and coherent works” (Musical America). Based on extensive interviews with military veterans, the work has been performed by Los Angeles Opera, Atlanta Opera, San Diego Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, and by Beth Morrison Projects at the Holland Festival, among many others. A film adaptation of Soldier Songs was later produced for the Opera Philadelphia Channel, earning a 2022 GRAMMY® Award nomination and a 2022 Opera America Award. 

Little’s many compositions for solo performer or small ensemble often include ghostly or spiritual themes. Ghostlight, commissioned for Eighth Blackbird by The Kennedy Center, looks to surrealist art and fairy tales for their unspoken lessons, while dress in magic amulets, dark, from My feet is a meditation on Christ on the cross commissioned by The Crossing and International Contemporary Ensemble. Still other works draw from literary sources or history, such as The Crocus Palimpsest, a Samuel Beckett-inspired work for solo cello composed for Matt Haimovitz. The same is true for Little’s works for orchestra and large ensemble, including The Conjured Life, a centennial tribute to Lou Harrison, and CHARM, a celebration of city life commissioned by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

Little is the founding artistic director and former drummer for the amplified chamber ensemble, Newspeak, which explores the relationship of music and politics, while confronting head-on the boundaries between the classical and rock traditions. They have released four commercial recordings, with a fifth on the way.

Little has been commissioned by the world’s most prestigious institutions and performers, including recent projects for The Metropolitan Opera/Lincoln Center Theater new works program, the Kennedy Center, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, New World Symphony, London Sinfonietta, The Crossing, Kronos Quartet, and Beth Morrison Projects. His music has been presented by Carnegie Hall, Holland Festival, LA Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Opéra de Montréal, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the LA Philharmonic. Little's recorded catalog includes over 20 commercial releases, on such labels as New Amsterdam Records, Pentatone, Sono Luminus, Bright Shiny Things, and Cantaloupe Music.

David T. Little is a recipient of the Copland House Residency Award. His music is published by Boosey & Hawkes. Learn more at www.davidtlittle.com.

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