“by turns poetic and conversational...remarkably expressive vocal writing...elegantly realized and compelling”
Music by Zaid Jabri
Concept and libretto by Yvette Christiansë & Rosalind Morris
Crystal Manich, director
Mark Shapiro, conductor
In the century of discovery, of empire and emancipation, six characters confront each other with their fears and doubts about what science demands, and what it may cost them and those whose world it is about to transform. 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.
Sponsored by Barnard College with major support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation