World Premiere of White Snake Project’s Domme & Giovanni, a Modern Twist on Mozart’s Classic Opera, May 5-6

Second Annual “Opera Through the Looking Glass” Series Reexamining Operatic Classics 

Unique Intimate Production at Brookline’s French Restaurant La Voile

Arranged with Rock-Tinged Music by Composer Ryan Oldham with Performances by Four Leading Singers and Jazz Ensemble

BOSTON, MA (For Release 04.02.24) — Celebrated for creating diverse, timely and relevant opera, activist performing arts company White Snake Projects (WSP) and its founder Cerise Lim Jacobs today announced the group’s season-ending production of Domme & Giovanni, a contemporary retelling of Mozart’s famous opera Don Giovanni (1787). Presented in back-to-back dinner-performances Sunday-Monday, May 5-6, 2024, in the intimate La Voile restaurant in Brookline, Domme & Giovanni better ensures the relevance of traditional opera with today’s diverse audiences in this sexy, modern, darkly comedic update of the centuries-old Don Giovanni.

Mozart’s Don Giovanni is a tale of consequences about male desires by a cruel, conscienceless man who takes no account of his objects of affection. In this modern-day twist, Domme & Giovanni centers the strengths of the female roles by flipping the narrative and retelling the story from the female perspective.

Anna, the most desired and respected domme in town, has built her life around getting revenge on Giovanni, the local Mafia Don, and the man who killed her father. She teams up with Elvira, an FBI Agent who has centered her career around bringing Giovanni to justice. Leporello has made a life supporting Giovanni through thick and thin but dreams of quiet retirement. And Giovanni stands at the center of it all, including the mythos he has built inside his mind.

“The opera canon is very limited and the stories are not great for women. Most operas are written in an earlier historical period with a different gender reality unacceptable to us now. Don Giovanni (as well as many other famous operas) has historically been romanticized by heroizing the leading character as a rugged man and marginalizing the women characters. With Domme & Giovanni we interrogate the original story and reimagine this old opera full of sexism and misogyny from a modern-day point of view. We hope this new opera provides some good starting points for reflection on our culture.”                                       

CERISE LIM JACOBS, artistic director/librettist, White Snake Projects

Domme & Giovanni marks the second installment of WSP’s “Opera Through the Looking Glass” — an annual series dedicated to reexamining traditional operas with a contemporary critical lens. The inaugural 2022 “Opera Through the Looking Glass” examined Mozart’s misogynistic opera Così fan tutte (trans.Women We Are Like That) by turning the tables on the men in the premiere of Così! Men Are Like That (2022).

White Snake Projects’ 2023-24 programming is supported by a generous grant from the Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Mass Cultural Council, the Boston Cultural Council, Reopen Creative Boston Fund, administered by the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture and the Ditson Fund.

About White Snake Projects      
White Snake Projects (WSP) is an activist opera company making mission-driven work that unites artmaking with civic practice. It envisions a world where the power of opera expands our collective understanding of community and transforms lives through creative storytelling. The company’s recent efforts have been devoted to the live digital productions of the Pandemic Trilogy: Alice in the Pandemic addressed the disproportionate strain of COVID-19 on communities of color and essential workers; Death by Life explored long-term incarceration and institutionalized racism; and A Survivor’s Odyssey dealt with the ongoing crisis of sexual and intimate partner violence. A critical element in the exploration of these themes is the establishment of authentic connections with thought leaders in social justice to ensure that the company’s creative work lives in an ecosystem of activism. WSP sees opera not just as performance, but as performance with purpose, a vibrant and vital art form that is also a champion of change. WhiteSnakeProjects.org

Program Ticketing Information:

La Voile, 1627 Beacon Street, Brookline, MA, 02445

Sunday, May 5, 2024, at 7:15 p.m. (doors open 6:00 p.m., dinner service begins 6:30 p.m.).
Tix: $500 includes three-course dinner with wine pairing and show.

Monday, May 6, 2024, at 8:00 p.m. (doors open 7:30 p.m. for dinner).
Tix: $175 includes one entrée, glass of wine, and show.

Program (sung in English)

Domme & Giovanni (2024) world premiere

Composer: Ryan Oldham (b.1977)

Co-Librettist: Liz Abram-Oldham
Co-Librettist: Cerise Lim Jacobs
Stage Director: Stefanos Koroneos

Music Director: Tianhui Ng

Performers

Donna Anna: Carami Hilaire (soprano)

Don Giovanni: Andrew Simpson (bass-baritone)

Donna Elivira: Pascale Spinney (mezzo-soprano)

Leporello: Kyle Oliver (baritone)

Jazz/Rock Band: David McGrory (keyboard/accordion), Dan J. Pelletier (percussion),
Gillian Dana (bass), and John Tyler Ken (guitar)

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