Aqua Net & Funyuns has announced a podcast opera featuring five newly-commissioned, original stories, each written by a different librettist/composer combo.

The 25-minute, serial episodes will be designed specifically to tell compelling narratives with voices, instruments, and immersive sound design. The new podcast will feature music by Tariq Al-Sabir, Jason Cady, Kamala Sankaram, Aaron Siegel, and Michi Wiancko, and librettos by Jason Cady, Cara Ehlenfeldt, Annie-Sage Whitehurst, and Daniel Shepard.

The episodes will highlight the cliff-hanger nature of serial narratives and the playful possibilities of the podcast medium, by alternating between all five operas in “round-robin” style.

The stories and librettos featured in Aqua Net & Funyuns emerged from a one-month iteration of EiO’s innovative Writers’ Room project.

The podcast will stream between May 1-June 30, 2021 as part of the New York Opera Festival.