On May 17, 2022, American Lyric Theater will present “InsightALT: Opera in Eden,” at National Sawdust in Brooklyn.

This performance will feature three, new one-act operas based on themes of temptation, and developed by Resident Artists in the company’s Composer Librettist Development Program. This season marks the first collaboration between ALT and the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, whose artists will perform the new works.

The first opera is “I Will Follow You Into The Dark,” by composer Jasmine Barnes, librettist Marcus Yi, and featuring artists Brittany Logan, Cierra Byrd, and Vladyslav Buialskyi. The second opera is “The Magic Cabbage,” by composer Johanny Navarro and librettist Joshua Banbury, featuring artists Jonah Hoskins, Cierra Byrd, and Samson Setu. The third opera is “The Forest of Secrets,” by composer Alex Weiser and librettist Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton, featuring artists Sylvia D’eramo, Siphokazi Molteno, and Jonah Hoskins.

“For this project, the three writing teams are all provided with the same structural outline that serves as a thematic scaffold upon which the writers develop their operas – but the stories for each opera are completely up to the artists,” says ALT Artistic and General Director, Lawrence Edelson. “The structural outline is designed to encourage architectural and motivic thinking by librettists and composers alike. This project has been a core element of the CLDP since the program’s inception and has proven invaluable in fostering collaboration throughout the writing process – from a work’s early outline – through the development of the libretto – to the composition of the score. Over the past fifteen years, this project has not only strengthened composers and librettists’ dramaturgical skills, but has also yielded a wide array of exciting one-act operas, many of which have gone on to full production.”