COMPOSER SABRINA PENA YOUNG | MUSIC TECHNOLOGY | FILM | CLASSICAL | OPERA

Budget Friendly Opera Production When you think about writing an opera, often your vision is tempered a little bit by reality. After all, the libretto might call for two hundred Roman soldiers marching in perfect rhythm or require insurmountable months of rehearsal to sing your score just right. You might need a full orchestra or a rock band or need to hire a dozen jugglers for that one scene before the heroine plunges a knife in her lovers heart (it is  opera, so we must be dramatic).  The last couple of decades have seen splendor and extravagance, once the calling cards of great opera, give way to smaller chamber operas, short opera productions, and experimental operas where technology replaces lavish sets and a handful of characters play out a complex, sometimes nonlinear, story. When I set out to write Libertaria: The Virtual Opera I knew that I wanted grand splendor. I wanted to recreate the grandiosity of the operatic heyday, when audiences clamored to s...

I suppose we all have those days, when no matter what your good intentions, a good day starts out ok and then slowly spirals into mayhem. For some reason, our best efforts melt by the wayside, tiredness kicks in, your smile melts into a frown, and you wonder if you will ever be able to balance the thousand self-inflicted projectiles that you are attempted to juggle.  I guess that is how I felt today, trying to balance online classes with my three-year-old, finishing up a video and getting ready for a music class tomorrow, trying to clean the house for visiting friends, and dressing for affiliation with Sigma Alpha Iota , the international music fraternity for women. And I guess that's when I realize that I am trying to fill the roles of several people - mom, wife, musician, teacher, friend, and I can't do it all, all of the time. Some days I will fail, like today when I found my head almost literally spinning in circles. All that was missing was the pea soup.  I ...