Key Change · The Santa Fe Opera

America Is Impossible Without Us: Revisiting Hometown to the World

June 5, 2019·29 min·2 clips

Discover why the audience is the hidden character that only appears on opening night in opera.

This episode revisits the opera "Homet" and the ongoing Opera for All Voices initiative. Hosts Brandon Neal and Andrea Fellows-Walters of The Santa Fe Opera guide the discussion. They are joined by composer Laura Kaminsky, librettist Kimberly Reid, and collaborators from San Francisco Opera. The episode focuses on the second developmental workshop for "Homet," hosted by San Francisco Opera. The opera is set in Postville, Iowa, a town branded as "hometown to the world." Laura Kaminsky and Kimberly Reid created this commission for the Opera for All Voices consortium. The hosts reconnect with Ruth Knott and Kim K. Kretta from San Francisco Opera, who were featured in the podcast's first season. The conversation examines the collaborative process of bringing a new opera to life. It questions whether opera can change the world or represent all voices. The initiative itself has evolved from simply commissioning works to addressing broader industry questions. One insight compares the audience to a vital character that only appears on opening night. A presenter's perspective describes a multi-layered contract between creator, interpreter, and audience for a work to live. Andrea Fellows-Walters humorously struggles to describe the workshop's quality, comparing herself to a "Top Chef" contestant calling food merely "yummy." The episode probes if adding more "seats to the table" is sufficient or if the field needs "a bigger table" entirely. The foundational question of how many stories exist receives the answer: "Too many to count." The tone is reflective and conversational, blending personal anecdote with philosophical inquiry about the art form. The style is educational, aiming to pull back the curtain on opera creation and its communal nature. This episode would deeply interest advocates for new music, contemporary opera creators, and those curious about artistic collaboration. Listeners seeking a purely historical or plot-driven narrative of a finished opera might find it less engaging.

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