"Vernatter said a kind of wild, episodic opera like “desert in” most definitely wouldn't exist right now if it weren't for the pandemic. The rigid conventions that have long dictated how operas are financed, conceived and made have been disrupted.
“COVID completely stopped the mechanism of every organization, the sort of structural machine that keeps things moving forward, but sometimes makes it so difficult to make changes and to think about things differently,” Vernatter said.
The series' co-creators were liberated to innovate as they began imagining and executing the commission.
“desert in” has eight writers and composers. Six are women including Pulitzer Prize-winning co-creator Ellen Reid.
For Reid, “desert in,” is a radical for opera in myriad ways. “It's a bunch of mini operas,” she said.
“Each episode is written by a different composer, more or less, and that we're sharing that space is radical,” Reid said. “I think there's a community vibe that isn't present in a lot of high art.”
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