Framed by the opening aria sung by a former slave named January, Southern Crossings is a chamber opera that takes audiences back in time, to 1838, when the famed astronomer, John Herschel and his wife, Margaret, are about to return to England from Cape Town where, two years earlier (1836), they had hosted Charles Darwin on his return voyage on the Beagle. Darwin took inspiration from Herschel to tackle ‘the mystery of mysteries’; Herschel hoped Darwin would join his crusade for abolition. Nonetheless, the dinner was not a great success. While packing with January and Leah, whom the Herschels have manumitted and who now await their freedom in a period of mandatory apprenticeship, Margaret recalls the dinner in the dream-image of what might have been. As she does so, January and Leah have their own conversation about what they overheard that evening (tales of people abducted from Tierra del Fuego and animals they have never seen), and what they desire for a future after bondage.
ZAID JABRI is a Syrian-born composer trained in Poland at the Academy of Music. Since he won the prestigious Adam Didur Prize when still a young student, Mr. Jabri has acquired a reputation as one of the most innovative composers working in Europe, an artist who bridges worlds while inventing the new. His work has been widely performed in Europe, North America and the Middle East and has been commissioned and performed internationally by such ensembles as Gidon Kremer’s Kremerata Baltica; the English Chamber Orchestra; Ensemble Zeran; the Orchestra of the Teatro Communale, Bologne; the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra; Neue Vocalsolisten, Stuttgart; the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra and the Syrian National Symphony Orchestra.
Yvette Christiansë, librettist and co-producer
Rosalind Morris, librettist and co-producer
Crystal Manich, director
Mark Shapiro, conductor and musical director
Tláloc Lopez – Watermann, set design and lighting
Philippe Leonard, projections
Carla Bellisio, costumes
Kate Casaline, wigs and makeup
James Schaeffer, executive producer
Carly Levin, production manager
Alexa Rosenberg, stage manager
Glenn Sevel Allen
Jesse Blumberg
Kerstin Piper Brown
Sarah Heltzel
Juliet Petrus
Kevin Thompson
Composers in the crosshairs of our attention