The Story
Kayla’s father presides over an isolated community of snake handlers – a sect of Pentecostals who willingly take up venomous snakes to prove themselves before God. When ritual ends in tragedy, Kayla is compelled to return to the family she left behind, reckon with her past, and take control of her future.
You might like this if…
• You’ve got a Stomp & Holler rockabilly playlist on Spotify
• You’re intrigued by Educated by Tara Westover or Salvation on Snake Mountain
• You dig contemporary chamber music
• You can hum along to “Ain’t It A Pretty Night” from Susannah
• You can’t look away from gritty family dramas
What’s cool about this show?
• Composer Kamala (yep, pronounced ‘Comma-la’ just like the Veep candidate!) Sankaram uses some unusual instrumentation in the pit – including electric guitar, waterphone, and whirly tubes
• Baritone Michael Mayes has created a signature role in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking – the tattooed death row inmate Joseph de Rocher, which he’s played opposite superstars like Joyce DiDonato and Jamie Barton on stages from Atlanta to Madrid
• Librettist Jerre Dye drew on his own upbringing in writing this original story, and has described it as a love letter to his mom
• Kamala’s work has been commissioned by Washington National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and indie opera powerhouse Beth Morrison Projects; her acclaimed opera Thumbprint, performed at LA Opera, was featured on NPR’s Weekend Edition
• Jerre will have a COT double-header this season – he’s also the librettist for Stacy Garrop’s Vanguard opera The Transformation of Jane Doe!
• Kamala’s work often explores the intersection of opera and tech – her output includes a virtual reality opera released on Samsung VR, a techno-noir thriller incorporating metadata from willing audience members’ phones, and the world’s first Zoom opera (#quarantunes)
• This is a newly expanded version of Serpents, co-commissioned with On Site Opera in NYC