(funky piano music) - So many companies in America now, in the last few years, with these conversations about how can we do better to make sure that we are creating more diversity in the field are looking with more intention about what kind of stories are we bringing to the stage?

How are we representing those stories?

And when we do traditional opera, how are we casting them?

Who is conducting them?

Who is directing them?

Looking at problematic narratives, which are a product of their time as all art is, art is a product of our time.

Some art is beyond its time and then it's hard for it to resonate with us because we haven't gotten there yet.

So for traditional opera, yes, there are many problematic narratives.

How do we continue to opt to honor the best of what it gave us, while addressing the problematic narratives and learning from them?

Instead of saying, we can never look at it again, how do we say, yes, let's look at it so that we can learn with the art we're trying to create now.

- I am convinced that if operatic performance is to grow and remain relevant in the decades and indeed centuries ahead, it has to reinvent itself to become a more relevant medium to a broader constituency.

And I believe this is certainly one of the paths to being able to do this.

It needs to be something that does not seem isolated to the haute couture, the high culture, that is automatically, by den of the medium, limited to the everyday man.

That is a stigma and it's a stigma that bears some validity because it has been confined to audiences that are more high brow and exclusive, than the populations of these people who are actually engaged in writing these operatic short works as part of this project.

- The beauty of opera is that it's wholly collaborative, so speaking as a librettist, I create a story, but that story comes to life in the hands of a composer.

So it's really a marriage, if you will.

It's the marriage of words and the marriage of music and the human voice to illuminate those two art forms and bring it to an audience.

And of course, every audience member will look at the story and experience the music through their own emotional and spiritual canvas, but the idea is that these many art forms come together to create the one art form, which is opera.

(upbeat frantic music) (clock ticking) ♪ If she had slapped me like that ♪ ♪ I would have ♪ - I do believe that now it's the right time for opera companies to be doing this kind of thing.

If it's going to do it.

'Cause who knows what the environment, what it will be in five years from now and now people are asking questions.

I think a lot of it has to do with the things over the past two years, the Black Lives Matter movement, I do think the pandemic itself, people have had moments to kind of, to sit with themselves and to ask questions about what is important.

I think also the kind of the coming to the forefront of community.

And so, I mean, especially even with the George Floyd murder, the idea of engaging the community in the solving of the problems of the community, as opposed to the problems being solved by somebody who's not a part of the community, who doesn't live there, who has no real knowledge of it, so the fact that these stories are coming from the community is telling you, these are the stories that the community wants to hear.

These are the stories that are important to this community.

And then it makes opera, in this case, it makes opera relevant to that community because then they go, well, let's see how this opera thing is going to deal with this, is gonna do something with this.

And then it also expands the notion that if it does a good job, then maybe there's a other opera that might be saying something that might be of interest or importance or relevance to me.

- To me when you have a broader range of people with different backgrounds and different musical interests and musical heritages, writing music, what you begin to expect musically is going to be a much, much more interesting.

And the sort of, I suppose, it's not even a predictable kind of conglomeration of different styles like pop influence and classical things.

And there's so much music out there and why shouldn't it all be part of opera, you know?

And I think it can be.

What is opera even, that's the other question, that opera can be, I don't know, anything, I guess you need to have some singing.

Definitely.

There needs to be a story told, but the way you tell that story, the type of music, the type of singing even and the combination of singing, speaking, rapping, I mean, Hamilton worked really well.

There's, anything goes and so it's exciting, yeah.

- It is wholly collaborative, as all opera is, librettists, composers work together.

It's like a marriage and they fall in love or they don't, but they are there to create something that will unify, that will unite us, that will provide transformation.

And that's what opera has the power to do, to unite us, to unify us, to allow for transformation and to, in some cases, invite us to our catharsis and say through the power of story, you're changed, from the moment that curtain goes up or from the moment we hear that first bar of music, we are one way.

But to me, the ideal is that when those 10 minutes are over, I feel different.

I've experienced something.

I'm a new person.

My mind has been expanded.

And that's the beauty of 96 Hour Opera Project, that gives the composers and librettists 10 minutes to make that transformation possible.

And I know they're gonna do it.

And I'm excited to experience that.

♪ Mystery ♪ - Today has been an adventure.

- We have music rehearsal today and the stadium rehearsal.

- No, I'm really tired so much, that's it?

My mind is a little blank right now.

- Well, you know, I'm not a coffee drinker, but I did have some coffee.

- Oh, there's a lot of information there and everybody's nervous and everybody wants to do it right and perfect.

And I think that's the more challenging of everything and there's a lot of information.

- The writers have been living in the story for a while, but now this is the process of inviting everybody else into this story.

In this case, inviting the singers and the pianist into the story and letting them inhabit it themselves.

- The first hour was the learning, the learning aspect.

But once they got it, I think everything just clicked.

It was honestly beyond my expectations, if anything, it exceeded my expectations, I think everything is sounding really good.

And that was really, really exciting.

The whole thing just came to life.

It was so beautiful.

It was a very emotional thing.

Like just to see the words that she wrote and the work that we created collaboratively, come to life like that.

It was really, really cool.

- Cool.

- Yay.

- Human beings singing this, it's awesome!

- I know!

- It's been fantastic.

The director is a great guy and both the singer, they're enjoying it.

They're enjoying the work and I'm enjoying it too.

- [Director] Let's go from.

- It's been a really exciting day.

It's hard to believe that we actually heard the music for the first time earlier today.

But again, it's like, it's a day, but we've packed like a week into just 24 hours.

- [Alejandra Villarreal Martinez] We've had, I think maybe six, seven hours of rehearsing with our singers, which is really fast.

Really a lot.

- Kiya!

- You really don't have time to be self-conscious about anything.

You don't have time to second guess, but you just go, go, go, answer questions, be there for the artists.

So it's been a lot.

(vocalizing) - I didn't wanna interrupt you guys, I'm just kinda poking my head in the door to just see how it's going.

This is kind of a dream that, that new repertoire is being introduced and new ideas, et cetera, so to see it coming to fruition is really kind of cool.

I was just work with somebody virtually and they're not actually in the room.

Well, you know what, that's actually not a fair question, 'cause we usually work for composers and librettists that died hundreds of years ago.

So at least they're available.

So what's it like, 'cause everyone else's on site?

Is it more challenging or is it just fine?

You just doing the music?

- [Marla Clark] I'm fine.

- It was great to have that conversation with them in the beginning.

- [Morris Robinson] Yeah.

- Virtually.

They gave a lot of feedback and gave us a lot of artistic freedom.

- [Morris Robinson] Good.

Good.

- So that we can make it work for our voices.

So that was really good to have that conversation with them.

- [Morris Robinson] Good.

Don't you wish you could have that conversation with Mozart and Verdi?

But I mean, it's great to have that, even if they aren't physically here, we at least have access to them.

So we can ask, what you mean when you put this here?

What's this indentation, what's this about, you know?

Yeah.

Good.

All right.

Y'all sound like you're rock and rolling.

So we gotta talk.

(vocalizing) - We did our best to give the singers and the directors like a great, like jumping off point.

I think for me, it is now it's just about like being the best collaborator I can be, listen, it's like I've talked enough with the music.

It's like, so now I just want to listen, like, especially with vocalists, but it's like all musicians, like they know their instrument or their voice better than I will ever, ever, ever know.

So now I think my job is to just listen and know we're all on the same team, trying to make something great and be flexible.

- Today was the first day of rehearsal and we were like super excited to see everyone and get the music up on its feet.

And yeah, there were just like a couple of challenging issues that came up with the singers.

- The pianist is very good and we have great baritone, but the tenor, unfortunately, it was just a little bit, took a little bit of time, right.

And I know it's a big project because they only had a music a few days and so we just really had to recalibrate our expectations.

So just like, okay, we're gonna start from the beginning, right, start from ground zero, and then build up.

- You get different kinds of people with different levels of education when it comes to like music theory and are also like in different circumstances in their life.

We don't know what the person has been doing last couple days.

It sounds like his car broke down and he's in the process of moving, so it sounds like there's a lot of stuff going on in his life in general.

So, you know, I don't know what the backstory is, but all we can do is just keep moving forward and just being patient and just really helping him with whatever resources we can in terms of getting him through the material.

- [Royden Tse] And the most important thing is, like he is willing, right.

I think there might be other singers who might be like, I'm just gonna tap out now, I'm gonna give up and I'm just gonna deliver 50%.

But I feel like he's willing to deliver a hundred if he can.

- [Marcus Yi] Honestly, he's gonna learn it and then go to sleep and then absorb it or something like that.

So you keep stressing over it, it's gonna make it worse.

- [Royden Tse] We had a run through today in the hall and that run through actually went really smoothly.

We went from beginning to end.

That's all.

Like that, so I expect that on Monday we'll have a beginning and end as well and that's my expectations of it.

♪ They said what you cannot say ♪ - I think like in this situation, you just gotta go with whatever you got, right.

And you gotta just keep moving forward.

It's kind of funny 'cause the name of our piece is like (foreign terms) which is, it is what it is, accept what you cannot change and change what you can.

So it just feels kind of weird and appropriate for our piece.

(vocalizing) - Got it.

- Can you actually start there?

- Sure.

- Hello, how are you?

- Good, how are you?

- I'm just poking my head in the door.

I'm not a composer.

I'm not a librettist, but if there are any questions they have for me, I'm open to anything.

- I did not, I didn't want Morris in the room.

I'm not gonna lie.

I just wanted a little more time, right.

I just, I was like, just wait.

I just, don't listen for long, we're still ironing some things out.

You know, I think we all want people to hear the best parts of us.

And in this process, that's not really what people want.

And I think people want to see the thick nitty gritty part of it where you're figuring it out.

And as artists, we don't want you to see behind the cloak, we want you to see the finished masterpiece and there is a little bit of letting go of control that has to happen there for us to be all in this process together and get the most out of it.

- I think that the creative process is just what it is and it's not always a golden road.

It's always, it's not always just easy, you know?

And that's what makes things happen.

The conflict and resolution, the presentation of ideas and the challenging of ideas, back and forth, it's called collaboration.

So I'm expecting that to be the case.

I'm expecting there to be some heat in these rooms.

I'm expecting there to be some heated discussions, but I'm also expecting some beautiful things.

It'd be nice to hear one beautiful idea go against the other one and see which one plays out.

Maybe there's a way to do them both.

Maybe that's a way you address both of them equally, so both people are happy.

That's where the magic happens.

So I'm looking forward to just hearing those processes out and leaning a ear and/or shoulder, and/or helping hand whenever I can.

- So you want, do you wanna another emphasis on people or?

- Johanny is a perfectionist and that's not a bad thing.

I think that she wants to make sure that whatever vision she has for the work gets actualized to the best of its ability.

And that doesn't mean that she's in like not willing to be flexible or not willing to change 'cause I don't think that those things are true, but you know, she has a standard and she wants it to hit the standard.

And I think where I succeed in being able to celebrate the small things that we get right, she's like, but did you hear all of the other things that didn't go right?

So we're a good balance, 'cause she can remind me of the things we need to accomplish, I can remind her of the things that we already have.

And so I'm seeing a little bit more of that come out as we're in this, the thick of it part of the process.

- She should trust my instinct in terms of music.

Yes, like this is the right tempo?

It's like, yeah, this is the right tempo, like we get it done.

And then we figure out, we listen and we have to change it, of course we have to change it if something like that comes like very difficult or it doesn't make sense, I'm available to change it.

In opera, there's a phrase, it is don't you trust me?

And then I just quote it, like, don't you trust me?

You wrote that, you don't trust me and we were laughing about it.

So that was nice.

(vocalizing) - You have to be ready to jump in and kind of cover all of the bases, not in a bossy way, but just making sure that we have a solid foundation so that we can get to where we want to go on Monday.

And so Saman has been patient and kind, and also JL has been, too because yeah, I don't sit in a corner, I don't sit in a corner quietly.

- Oh, she's the boss.

She's totally the boss, rightfully.

- Yeah, I told them right away that they needed to shut me up if they wanted me to be quiet 'cause otherwise I'd keep talking.

- Cool.

- Yay!

- Human beings singing this, it's awesome!

- I know!

(vocalizing) - It's wonderful to have the feeling that, as precious as writers think their words are, you have to get to the point where you understand that the piece has friends of its own.

So just go away, sit down and let the process take care of itself, unless there's something that you really have to fight for and then you have to fight for it.

Being able to have the flexibility to change that, to change something on a dime is a skill that I'm learning, that I'm acquiring.

- It's like, you know, it's literally a church on every corner.

- We kind of have, I guess the advantage of, like knowing each other and knowing each other's strengths.

So we kind of, instead of doing like, instead of being so rigid and like going from like the composer and librettists.

We find that works best for us, if we borrow the models from like musicals, where in musicals, there's a book writer, there is a lyricist and there's a composer and I kind of take the lyricist and the composer part.

And she can just focus on like her strength of like telling these amazing stories and funny perspectives and situations without having to be like, does this rhyme?

Is this the right number of syllables?

Is this, this and this and this, you know, that was our strategy going into it.

- [Adamma Ebo] Yeah.

- Where it's just like, hey, I'm gonna let you cook up on this story and think about how it all fits together, the way your beautiful brain works.

And so we kind of start separate, believe it or not.

And then sort of like put it all together.

- I think it works well because although our jobs are not the same.

We each come, like I have a musical background and Marcus like is a very great lyricist.

And oftentimes his songwriting is storytelling.

And so it works pretty seamlessly to be able to bounce back and forth between between the two.

- [Marcus Norris] And we are both similar in that, like for collaborators, we always look for is like, you don't have to be doing the same thing I'm doing or have the same ideas, but do you have good taste?

And we both have good taste and respect of each other's tastes.

♪ I should have slapped her like that ♪ ♪ I would have slapped her like that ♪ - What JL is talking about about.

- Honestly, man, I was just telling her downstairs, I was like, this is not gonna be, you're gonna be stuck with you for a while.

Like we're gonna work together again, like this was such a positive thing because the way we work together, even though I've known her since like last month.

We connected over Zoom and like yesterday and today.

Like nothing's taken personally, it's a very comfortable and collaborative process where if a change makes the piece better, there's no ego involved.

We change it.

If I mention something about the text, that word is clunky and awkward, she changes it.

Or if, no, no, no, that word is important, let's find a way for the music to work around it or vice versa.

We sometimes veto each other's changes and we sometimes wholeheartedly accept it.

And I think I will definitely wanna work with her again.

It's one of those good collaboratives.

Yeah.

- [Pianist] Question.

- The team that we have is very collegial, knowledgeable and respectful of our different components and our responsibilities in the process of putting this together.

And so I've been able to just sit back and trust the composer, trust the composition, trust the pianist.

And most importantly, trust the director.

Trust his expertise at delivering a wonderful product.

- Always interested in physical manifestation of inner life, like just physical work.

- Well, I'm concerned about time and yes, I think that, like everything, it needs to mature a bit, right?

The singers will get one more chance and the pianists will get one more chance to go over it and to start to digest the music.

And I think that's what one wants, right?

That one wants then to not be at war with, I wanna get the right note or I wanna get the right rhythm, but to be internalized, yes.

To have it in, to have the music done so that communication can come through because that's what music is about, right.

It's about communication, not about getting the exact note.

It has to do with getting the right note, but it has to do more with communication.

- I think all of us would always want more time.

You know, I don't know that there's the most ideal moment of time where we're like, if we had this, this would be perfect.

I think you gotta kind of roll with what you got.

We signed up for the 96-Hour Project and so we knew what we were kind of getting into.

♪ Mystery ♪ - There are some very good composers out there who write extremely interesting music, but it may not be well suited for opera.

And I think there's a certain sense of drama and a kind of an understanding of tracking the sort of emotional contour of a story that certain composers can do extremely well.

And then of course, there's the issue of writing for the voice, like how, I think one of the things we go to opera to hear is great singing and can these composers give material to singers who are trained to do certain things, so that it allows them to do what they do well, you know, which is something you learn over time.

It's certainly something I've learned over time as a composer.

- Generations, oh but there's.

- Jorge has written for him almost like a ranchera, like this really wonderful sweeping phrase that goes up, that anybody who has Latino heritage, especially Mexican heritage, is gonna listen to that and know exactly what's happening, exactly what he's quoting.

(vocalizing) - And Jose does that, so naturally, 'cause he knows that.

He knows the sound is in his ears.

As a Mexican American myself, this music, this sound quality has been part of my musical life since my childhood.

And I imagine that it's very similar for him as well.

- We lost our tenor for the final part of the rehearsal, because he had another commitment.

And that's fine, happens all the time, but that means that we didn't really get to try it out, on stage as much as we wanted, that has set us back.

So now we need to make up that time somehow tomorrow.

- You know, although it is a challenge, Jose's gonna come back tomorrow, he's gonna find a whole team that's ready to meet him and kinda like a boxer, like in a ring, you know, he gotta get him amped up, say here's what you gotta do, and go on out there and do it.

- Well, we found out around 11?

11 o'clock this morning that we have lost a tenor.

- So we're well into the competition at this point.

It is Sunday, little after noon.

So we're 60 hours into the competition.

It's a very exciting place to be.

And of course there are logistical challenges that we've faced.

We've had a singer that is not well and has had to drop out of the competition.

So we've spent our morning finding an excellent replacement for our team, who will be here momentarily, to work with the team and get ready for tomorrow's finals.

- You know, it does throw a wrench into the whole process.

And it does, I think, puts us in a disadvantage.

This takes 96 hours, but we've been working for months on this.

Right now it's about 3:00 PM, I believe, in the afternoon?

So the tenor, we hear, is in the building, we haven't actually met him, but I'll have sort of the afternoon today, a little bit into the evening and maybe a little bit of time tomorrow and then it's show time.

- What's going on.

And oh, hi.

- I do feel somewhat of a responsibility towards Guillermo and towards Natalia, because it was very important for her that we portray Guillermo's Mexican ethnicity with respect and with care.

And so we were entrusted with that, but in a crisis, you have to go, you have to find a solution and a way forward.

So it's not ideal, but things are not always ideal and this is precisely why it is important to create spaces for singers of multiple culture.

It's a holistic problem.

And it needs to be addressed from multiple avenues.

- Absolutely.

Because if there were more roles for people who were of Latin American descent, on the whole, probably there would be more Latin American opera singers and it wouldn't have been so hard to find somebody.

- I think Austin will do a great job.

I think we can still work with him.

All of us.

We have a group entirely of migrant, so we can talk to him and try to convey to the best of our abilities, what the experience is like, so that he can portray it as truthfully as possible.

So I think that is done with respect, with as much respect as we can under the circumstances.

- We troubleshoot as we go, we find new ways for people to be involved and we don't let the challenges limit us.

It's a great memento from our general director, Tomer Zvulun, to see challenges as opportunities.

So every time a challenge comes up, you face it head on, find a way to solve it and move forward.

- I feel pretty good actually.

Luckily Royden did a lot of work with the singer last night, lots of remedial work.

And he is so much better, so much more confident about the material.

We're actually starting to be able to put in more of the acting and the staging and stuff like that.

So I feel like the pieces actually starting to come together.

We're all freaking out less in the room right now, which is really nice.

- Yeah.

So after our interview, it was like another hour and we worked till 10 and it was good.

It was very good.

He was very committed.

And so that's the main thing that he was open to just like working on the bits again and again and again and again.

So a lot of repetition, a lot of diction.

And then today, we spent a bit of an hour in the morning before the mentorship to just kind of, again, run through things.

And so all that extra work I think has paid off and it made the show much better.

We feel more comfortable with it for sure.

(vocalizing) - There are things in my teeth?

- What's that?

They're good.

Yeah.

- My mom will be like, what were you thinking?

(both laughing) - This is going to be on state-wide television and on line?

(both laughing) - Oh man.

We're like on the pre-show day anxiety level.

It's amazing.

We're just like.

- Yeah.

- I think at this point, they're ready.

I mean, it's, nothing's perfect, ever gonna be perfect.

Especially when they have to learn the music in 48 hours basically, but I think they're pretty on top of it.

- We have to allow them the freedom to express themselves.

- Yeah.

- In the piece and yeah.

Remind me actually, I have to make sure to tell them to just have fun.

- Yeah, yeah, exactly.

- And enjoy it because.

- Are they not gonna have fun?

Are they like thinking I should not have fun?

And then you're like, no, no, no.

- But wait.

But yesterday after the long day, because it was 11 hours that we were here, kind of all told, and the singers and pianist kind of stuck around.

- [Saman Shahi] Yeah.

To hang out.

- You know, sometimes at the end of a long day, it's just get your bag and go and they kind of stuck around.

And I was like to Saman, it's good.

That means good energy.

That means it's good energy.

And that they like the piece.

- Well, I'm very happy with how the rehearsals went today.

I think the group is a fantastic group, but I kind of say that I'm really tired.

I'm still really tired, right.

I'm going to direct.

So that's also a physical exertion of some of some kind.

- Yeah.

He's conducting, he's conducting.

So he's responsible for, if things go wrong, musically.

- I wasn't prepared to come to direct it.

I wasn't thinking about that.

But once we started the rehearsals, it felt like the most natural way to put it all together, right.

- And you know, sometimes it's better to, it's easier to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission.

Oh, well, I didn't know I couldn't do that, but look how good it is.

So he just took it upon himself and it's working.

- [Adamma Ebo] Feeling better, I think, on the mend.

- Not a hundred percent, but getting better, day by day.

- Today's the best day for me.

But it's mostly like the fatigue.

- Yeah.

- Today.

I'm a gigantic proponent for napping.

And so I think, especially having COVID and being so tired, I was, when I needed to lay down, I went and laid down, oh, I rather just rest for a specific amount of time or for as long as I can while still respecting deadlines and hit the ground running again when I have more energy, because otherwise I'm gonna be unhappy and the work is gonna suffer.

- Duke Ellington wrote like over 3000 pieces in his life.

And like towards the end, I'm paraphrasing all of this, but he's like towards the end, an interviewer asking him, it's like, you're so prolific, you wrote so much music, just what inspired you to write all this music and he's expecting this poetic answer.

And Duke Ellington look at him with just like, deadlines.

(both laughing) - Hearing those singers for me has elicited, in my opinion, the best reaction, which is like the reaction I get when I'm in church, there are just moments where you can't help, but like.

As Black folks, like you audibly, like respond to hearing.

And I had to make sure we were on mute because I was like, I'm gonna mess them up if they hear me respond like this.

We got, I think, really lucky and blessed with our collaborators and they really involved us in the process and like were texting us, like, can we do this?

Can we do that?

And asking us, what does this feel like?

Is this what you want?

It's just been really seamless, I think.

- They're killing it.

Like we just came from Zoom, watching.

- The rehearsal.

- The run through and basically my notes were just like, the other note was like, hey, I just wanna give y'all more freedom and more trust.

- [Adamma Ebo] Yeah.

- [Marcus Norris] Like, with this project, because you all are amazing at what you do.

And I want to give you more space to do that.

- I'm not precious with my work.

I actually think once it's with the actors, they're supposed to be transforming it in another way than even I imagined it.

And so I want them to do that.

So I'm not, it's not hard for me to let go, especially when it's being handled so well.

♪ All it takes is one ♪ - Things I get creative because I listen to them.

It's like, I have so many ideas, but I will not do that to them because there's a short amount of time to learn the music and to put it together.

So I keep creating and changing stuff.

It's like, it's too much.

- I think at this point, I'm like the brake.

She's the gas pedal.

I'm the brake pedal.

- Yeah.

- That's been the working relationship here.

- Yeah, I think Johanny's really gotten much better at telling me no, you know, like last night I was like, I have this great idea.

She's like, that's not gonna happen.

- Like, she's just like, mm.

And I see that look and I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, don't you dare.

- And I wasn't gonna change it.

I wasn't gonna change it.

But there was like, she was very clear that I shouldn't even entertain that thought.

- [Isabella Dawis] We can't change anything now.

- [Saman Shahi] No, no.

- [Isabella Dawis] 'Cause it's less than, at this point, we can't change anything 24 hours before the show.

- We went to lunch with one of the other competitors and.

- [Johanny Navarro] They told us it was a trap.

- No, they did say they were gonna poison us.

No, I'm just playing.

I think that we are, we grow and we're bonding even with our other competitors, all of us know we're all working really hard.

All of us were hungry and it was kind of like, we need to eat and let's do it.

I think we're all rooting for each other to be the strongest second place person that they can be, you know, like right behind us.

(both laughing) - Am I competitive?

Sometimes?

Yes.

But for some reason, not in this situation, I feel like the competition is really about yourself and your growth as an artist at this point.

So it's really more about how can you improve from your past work, how can you level up?

And I feel like, because I put in the work and the time for this piece, I feel like I have leveled up.

So I feel like the goal has already been achieved.

- Now, I'm confident in having just like seen our work and seeing it being staged.

I feel like we have a good chance, because it's really coming together.

But, I'm sure that everyone else has also done really good work, too.

- I think that our contribution, as, I guess we have to call ourselves elders.

(both laughing) - Our contribution, it is important because when the times that we're living in where everything is so youth oriented, we have a tendency to want to disregard institutional knowledge or legacy.

And that's so utterly foolish.

We do have certain knowledge that we bring.

I mean, some might call it baggage.

(both laughing) - But knowledge that we bring with us, we've been around this art form for one, for a long time.

And we've seen a lot of things that would endures and what may be hot for a moment, but is forgotten in a year or two years, or so I think that our point of view is valuable as well.

- And I know we are elders, but I feel really young.

And I'm learning a lot.

I'm still learning a lot.

And I'm just an experienced young guy.

- The guidebook says.

- [Saman Shahi] I mean, we're, I think we're well prepared.

It's just like, you don't know what's gonna go wrong in the moment when the adrenaline kicks in and the lights are on you and people are sitting and the judges are watching you, like, you know, analyzing things.

- When we were walking out for lunch break today, I was just saying to someone I'm happy with what we did.

- Yeah.

- I'm happy.

- Yay.

High five, high five, there you go.

There you go.

- You know.

You keep saying we're gonna win, we're gonna win.

But in the end, just people coming up to us afterwards and saying, hey, I wanna hear what you're up to, is always a step.

- [Saman Shahi] Absolutely.

- Yeah.

- I think that we have something, not only like interesting things to say, but I think a really unconventional way to say them.

And I think it's something that opera needs in order to not only remain relevant, but also to become more accessible.

And I think that's how art survives.

The more accessible opera is, the longer it'll live and the more relevant it will be to society.

And that's what I think that Marcus and I could bring.

- The narratives are so different.

Some of them are like individual people.

Some of them are actual like events, casting differences, directing differences, all of that come into play.

So a lot of times, the best piece isn't necessarily something that you really have control of as the writer, all you can do is like write the best piece that you can write.

- Yeah.

And it's also so subjective, too, from the judge's point of view, they're all looking for maybe different things and they're gonna be so many different biases, personal biases towards what they want, so yeah.

Could be, it's just random.

I feel like there's a lot of chance as well into this.

- Maybe it's because I'm not there, but like, we keep forgetting it's a competition until you say it's a competition.

It doesn't, I say that to say there is no, it doesn't, I'm not sensing any like competitive spirit in a bad way or anything.

We met with the judges and just felt like love, you know what I mean?

Like they just seemed like, hey, I'm here, I want to be resources for you.

Or they wanted to know about like us and how we're thinking about art.

And it was just good, good energy.

- I'm really looking forward to sharing with the composers and librettists.

Some of my own experience as a librettist, as a writer, which is that your voice counts.

So there there's no real winning or losing.

It really is about the expression of what you wanna say.

And that's the win, that's the celebration, is that you have something to say, we are here to listen, to guide, to learn from each other, to make this dialogue wholly collaborative.

And that's the real prize.

And that's where, that's our north star, this idea that, we are here as a creative community and we're here to share, to enjoy, to rejoice and that's really where the prize is.

- How can we respond to this, or we wanna cultivate?

So coming in and getting to know them, we have mentorship sessions with the teams today, and then we get to see run throughs, rehearsals, and then the final performances tomorrow.

It's gonna give me a chance, as an audience member, to sit back and how does it hit me authentically in the moment?

We will be talking to them beforehand and answering their questions but I love that we're all going to come in and ask ourselves, how does it resonating with me?

And what kind of stories are they telling and how authentically are those stories coming out?

And of course, that's going to come through the perspective of the composer and the librettist and their own points of view, their life experience, which is the beauty of art, that everything is interpreted through our own experience.

And no two people's experience will ever be the same or alike.

So even how we translate that art form and how it hits us, comes through the lens of our own experience as well.

So that's why everything resonates differently with us, right?

Because what you love, I may not like, what I love, it's going to be subjective.

So stories that resonate to me, talk to so many aspects of a story, beauty, joy, social justice, escapism, life experience, cultural perspective, comedy, drama, tragedy, horror, opera is such a fantastic art form because it encompasses all of those things.

And now we're looking to amplify them in new ways.

And I think that's why this kind of work, which different companies are doing in their own ways is so valuable right now, because it's going to make us look more carefully.

What are we going to bring into the new canon of today that people will still be performing, hopefully 200 years from now.

- Apologies.

- We got to meet some of the judges, which did humanize them.

And they were very enthusiastic about us and our work.

- We talked to one of them who said, oh yeah, people, representatives from the Met are gonna be here and this, that, and the other.

And we were kind of like, ugh, oh, oh, no pressure.

- I've not been, I'm trying to actually, I've trying, been trying not to think about it.

- [Saman Shahi] Yeah.

- [Isabella Dawis] But then Morris kind of laid it all out.

- [Saman Shahi] Oh yeah.

- [Isabella Dawis] Like all the judges have connections to so many companies.

- I was just like crying on the inside, crying, like both from happiness and anxiety.

- And I told, and I told him, don't tell the singers.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

The Met?

- Don't tell the singers.

- Really lovely to sort of meet judges one on one.

It was really more about learning about their specific roles, what they bring to the table and also like questions that we had in terms of our development and how we might be able to like, grow within like the opera industry in the future.

- I actually really enjoyed the talks around craft and business and work-life balance.

Like those things that don't necessarily just tie to this piece of the project, but are gonna be mentorship things that I consider going forward in my career.

Those things for me were equally as important as like, what do you look for in the winning piece?

- Those two.

- Like they're all three, very different judges.

And so it was great to just get the perspective and see how they're working and also see like, what are they looking for in a good opera, in a successful production.

So to us, that was very informative.

- It was inspiring to see all of them are looking forward in some way, it's all different ways, but like all of these people are thinking about the future of opera in a way that's exciting to me.

- So we got a lot of information in terms of the building, like your career and I felt like there was like a pushing, like you're here, you're okay, it's gonna get better.

This is a very important presentation and opportunity, but you are already here.

So that's very important.

- Second scene, gives you a little freedom to at least emote and not feel like you have to cradle your.

(audience applauding) - It's just a really fantastic endeavor that Atlanta Opera and that Tomer is embarking on.

I mean, not only for what it's doing for the community, but the possibility that you've found a team that will be working together for the next 40 years and do something really great.

It's great for opera and it's great for the exposure.

Even if the team doesn't win, any sort of experience like this gives you more confidence as a composer.

And it's just really important.

- We are the Atlanta Opera and Atlanta is such a rich and diverse city.

It blows my mind to look at history and see what happened here over the past couple of centuries, the cradle of the Civil Rights Movement.

So many towering figures that have their own stories.

And these are just the people that we know, how many other stories are we not aware of?

So there is something that is kind of a perfect synthesis for me bringing those people, those talented artists, those talented voices in Atlanta, in this city that is so rich in terms of its ethnicity and cultural and racial makeup and having the platform to tell those stories.

I think it's very unique.

- We're here at the last day.

It's exciting, but I have to admit that I, emotionally, I don't feel as put together as I felt yesterday.

I think I'm a little nervous.

I don't know, I had some coffee so that may be, give me a little jolt, hopefully, but I forgot some things and you know, my preparations and nothing's catastrophic or anything like that, but just, I feel a little ragged around the edges, a little frayed around the edges.

- It's okay.

- This morning, we, all the finalists, arrived at around 10 o'clock and we all had a slot at the performance hall to just run things through.

Everyone had a half an hour slot.

And so we ran it in concert order.

And on my end, at least, I heard things were pretty good.

We had some minor fixes with the singer today, but nothing really major.

So it is out of our hands and we're just trusting our performers to do their best today.

- It's been stressful for sure.

But, I think that we work together really well as a team.

Everyone is really interested in seeing the piece succeed.

And that includes Austin, who is joining us, who joined us yesterday at 3:00 PM.

It's something that we're really grateful for.

It's really gratifying.

(vocalizing) - I think I learned that, even in circumstances like this, even if the initial idea isn't totally "inspired", I think eventually you'll get to that place.

So I was struggling for a few days, but I'm like, you know what, this Olympic hymn thing, let's just do something with this.

And then from there it's like a little, it's like a string.

You start the first one and then the second one comes and the second and then you do a little bit of this here, and then you start spreading the seed and eventually it blooms into something and you're like, oh, that's exciting.

So knowing that I struggled a little bit at the beginning, I have now more confidence in my craft, like now you can make it happen eventually.

- We thought the time wasn't enough.

And it wasn't, right.

And I wanna say that Jessinia hopes that there would be more time, right?

Not because I couldn't make it work, but you know, I think that if the more that a story is baked into you and the more you wear it, like clothing, right, like in like skin, the more that you have the freedom of really being able to embellish.

So where we are is an amazing space to be in, especially for 96 hours.

It's like gardening and you see that first sprout pop up from the soil, right and you know something's growing and it's beautiful, right?

That for me is like where we are in this process.

- Are you ready?

(audience cheering and applauding) - Exhausted, absolutely exhausted.

I mean, it's been like a 12-hour work day, maybe more.

Right?

And yes.

And I haven't slept well either because I'm away from home and the food is not the same, and that thing, those kind of things happen.

And well, I'm really, really exhausted, but I'm keeping my same attitude, right?

And I'll go through the day.

- [Producer] Of course.

- I survive.

(audience applauding) - This has been a very long month packed in 96 hours, I guess is the way to put it.

So a lot of emotions, just a very intense schedule and then a lot has happened in the development of the piece.

And I think we're ready, I think the piece is ready.

It's as good as it's gonna get, at least this time around.

And so we're excited to just be on stage and hear it and see where it lands.

(vocalizing) - With performers is I always say like, I want, anytime you perform or sing a Marcus Norris piece, you get to be a rockstar for that little bit of time.

So I wanted to make them look as good as I possibly can.

Yeah, and we're getting a monster performance out of them.

Like I told them, I like jokingly told them today, like I've had performances that were worse than that first rehearsal, you know what I mean?

We're getting a monster performance out of this.

They're gonna stream it for us, so we'll be able to like tune into it.

All of the people participating in this game are gonna be doing art and music and opera for all time, so it's like, I try to keep that long term perspective in mind.

It's like, we're probably all gonna be friends for, you know what I mean, it's like it does suck that we can't go out to dinner this week, but I'm sure like we all, the industry is kind of small.

You know what I mean?

It's I think we'll all be friends, if not this weekend, then sometime soon.

- More than anything, what I'm hoping for tonight is for that spark that I love to see when I'm in the audience where I know the performer's in it.

And I know that they're bringing their whole self, not just their brains, but their whole spirit to the piece.

That's irresistible about live performance.

And yeah, that's why I love what I do.

- This our last day.

So now they're nervous are getting in.

So now I'm getting a little bit anxious for tonight, but I get a chance for the first time to hear the piece completely without the score and just like follow the music and follow the story given to me by the singers.

And I was like, wow, this is great.

The singers are doing a great, great job.

So I was like, in a few spots, like I was in an awe, you know, like I was amazed like, oh my God, it's a beautiful moment.

But after that, I was like, oh man, now I'm nervous.

You know, because in a few hours it's gonna be, they will be premiere and everyone will be there and be listening and watching, so let's see how that goes.

- It's certainly a challenging time to be in leadership.

But to be coming into my position at a time when I feel very free to be my authentic self and to be honest about where, what I know and what I don't know and what I bring and don't bring, and to be free of the burdens of having to be the most knowledgeable, most expert person in the world is a tremendous privilege.

I think for all the challenges right now, that our businesses are facing, we should pause and be grateful that there's something different about this moment.

And opportunities like this really shine a light on that for me.

And I say yes to them because it's important to prioritize them lest we take them for granted.

(all applauding) - I think there are two important points for this program for people watching at home.

Number one, to hear stories, to hear unusual, diverse stories about this beloved city of ours, about Atlanta.

And point number two is being aware of the incredible talent that exists out there in the world in terms of storytellers, artist-musicians, that are able to take a story and tell it in a unique way.

And so I hope people at home will enjoy that, especially when it's done in this really fun wrap of a competition, of a 96-Hour Project.

- Very good, cannot wait for the performance.

- I think it's so important right now that we are looking to art to reconnect us after pandemic, because we have to learn how to relate to each other, again.

So many of us came out of pandemic and our social skills were not what they used to be, myself included.

So what better way to start relating to each other again, than the power of the human voice?

- As two premier cultural institutions in Atlanta, to be able to partner on a project like this, I think it speaks a lot to not only alignment with our goals and our mission, but I think it speaks to the fact that although we have two different disciplines, we have two different, we do two different kinds of work.

We need each other in this kind of ecosystem to be able to engage these underrepresented communities in a way that is really genuine.

And to honestly help redefine what the future of cultural institutions can be in Atlanta and it can look diverse.

It can look like me.

It can look like a number of communities that may not have existed within these spaces before.

- That's gonna be the fun of judging.

We've got six groups, 10 minutes each over four days, it's going to be again, the beauty of economy, the beauty of a journey, and so much can happen in a short amount of time.

You know, they say that when you fall in love, you sometimes do it instantly.

And I think that I'm going to fall in love with so much that these emerging composers and librettists have to share with us.

The win is that you're here, now.

You're expressing yourselves and you've got something to say and we are here to listen to it.

And that's the north star.

(intense music) - [Announcer] Made in Georgia.