Art that Speaks Truth to Power
Music of Remembrance 10th-anniversary production of After Life / media design by Peter Crompton
“MOR has increasingly underscored the relevance of the past to present-day threats to human rights.” –Seattle Times
After Life: Art that Speaks Truth to Power
Music of Remembrance Mounts 10th-Anniversary Production of
Newly Expanded Opera by Tom Cipullo and David Mason
Seattle • Benaroya Hall • May 18, 2025
San Francisco • Presidio Theatre • May 21, 2025
SEATTLE, WA – April 14, 2025 – Next month, Music of Remembrance (MOR) presents a newly expanded 10th-anniversary production of After Life, an opera by Tom Cipullo and David Mason that exemplifies MOR’s season-long consideration of art and defiance. Praised by the Washington Post as “a finely wrought exploration of the role of art in times of grave crisis,” After Life will bring its timely themes to Seattle’s Benaroya Hall on May 18, 2025, and San Francisco’s Presidio Theatre on May 21, 2025. The opera imagines a confrontation between the ghosts of Gertrude Stein and Pablo Picasso, who chose starkly different paths during the Nazi occupation of France in the 1940s. The robust debate over their legacies and actions is a topic of immediate relevance to the artistic landscape in present-day America.
“We’re accustomed to thinking of great artists as those whose works endure because they resonate beyond the circumstances of their creation,” said MOR Artistic Director Mina Miller. “Still, those artists are products of their own times, and their works reflect how they understood and responded to the world around them. Picasso and Stein reacted in very different ways to the spread of fascism in WWII-era Europe. After Life is a much-needed reminder of how artists can make a difference by speaking truth to power.”
The evening will begin with a series of instrumental features showcasing members of the MOR Chamber Ensemble. Set in the legendary Left Bank Parisian home of Stein and her partner Alice B. Toklas, the repertoire will welcome the audience into the sound world of the era, featuring composers who might have attended one of the home’s storied gatherings. An illuminating conversation with the creative team will complete MOR’s tripartite structure, declared by San Francisco Classical Voice to be “a striking fusion of intensity and emotional range, historical context and dramatic immediacy.”
“This is a story about artists in relation to history – the darkest history imaginable,” said librettist David Mason. “Today, as autocratic governments ascend all over the globe, most shockingly in the United States, an examination of how great artists survived Nazi-occupied France feels newly urgent. We ask: What is the position of art in a time of war? How does art respond to political disaster? And what can artists possibly do in the face of massive evil?”
Cipullo aimed to capture Stein’s outsize ego and Picasso’s virility in his musical depictions of these fascinating, larger-than-life characters. Baritone Michael Mayes takes on Picasso, who famously said that “Painting is not made to decorate houses – it is an instrument of war against the enemy.” Mezzo Gabrielle Beteag inhabits Stein, who advocated a less involved approach, writing that “It is awfully important to know what is and what is not your business.” The third character, a young orphan girl who steers the bickering friends toward deeper reflection, is sung by soprano Alisa Jordheim.
“After Life asks opportune questions about the role of art in a troubled world,” said Miller. “Are artists obliged to confront inhumanity directly? Or is the very act of creating a form of resistance? Today, at a time when so many of us are concerned about threats to free expression, I hope audiences who witness this production feel called to stand together as a community and move forward with strength and courage.”
After Life
Tenth Anniversary Performances
Composer: Tom Cipullo
Librettist: David Mason
Conductor: Alastair Willis
Director: Erich Parce
Media Design: Peter Crompton
Pablo Picasso: Michael Mayes
Gertrude Stein: Gabrielle Beteag
The Youth: Alisa Jordheim
Music of Remembrance Ensemble: Demarre McGill, flute; Laura DeLuca, clarinet; Mikhail Shmidt, violin; Eric Han, cello; Cristina Valdes, piano
Sunday, May 18, 2025 @ 4:00pm
Seattle, Washington
Benaroya Hall (200 University Street)
Tickets $60; Students $25 (ID required)
musicofremembrance.org/afterlife
Wednesday, May 21, 2025 @ 7:30pm
San Francisco, California
Presidio Theatre (99 Moraga Avenue)
Tickets $39-72
musicofremembrance.org/afterlifesf
About Music of Remembrance
Established in 1998, Music of Remembrance (MOR) pays tribute to historic memory and directly confronts challenges to human rights and dignity today. In addition to its work discovering and performing music from the Holocaust, MOR is admired around the world for its leadership in commissioning, having premiered 48 new works by leading composers. This includes varied chamber ensembles, song cycles, choral works, dance music, film scores, musical dramas, and full-length operas – all using art to confront compelling issues in today’s world. MOR’s online concerts, nine albums, three documentary films, and many outreach programs have added to the impact experienced by live audiences. MOR’s annual David Tonkonogui Memorial Award welcomes new generations along on this journey, nurturing young musicians who seek to address issues of human rights through their art.
Press Contact: Beth Stewart
Verismo Communications
Tel: 618.444.3183 | Email: beth@verismopr.com
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