From the Field (2019)
a micro-opera

Composition by Christopher Stark
Libretto by Megan Stark
Visuals by Andrew Lucia

Dorothea and Artemisia

presented by
Left Coast Chamber Ensemble

World Premier

Z Space, San Francisco
June 1 + 2, 2019

CREDITS
Nikki Einfeld, Dorothea Lange
Anna Presler, violin
Leighton Fong, viola

Jenalie Auth, costume designer
Allen Willner, lighting designer
Andrew Lucia, projections
Elisabeth Reeves, stage manager

Christopher Stark, composer
Megan Stark, libretto

From the Field, composed by Christopher Stark with Libretto by Megan Stark, is a micro-opera presenting three brief glimpses into specific moments in American history in which the government chose to contradict environmental research it commissioned for financial and/or political gain: Dorothea Lange’s Farm Security Administration photographs of rural poverty during the Great Depression; John Wesley Powell’s 19th-century warning about water usage in the American West; and Nobel Laureate Steve Running’s current research on climate change. 

Taking visual inspiration at its source, Lucia’s projections fuse the actual images, negatives, and field notes of Dorothea Lange, as well as official governmental documents of the time, working them into a highly provocative visual accompaniment to Stark’s experimental opera.