CAN YOU HEAR YOUR MEMORIES?
This is the story of Lali and Beng, a journalist and aid worker held captive. No one knows where they’ve been taken or if they are alive. Or, maybe their story is being broadcast to the world?
The drama is divided between two actors and two vocalists to mine the duality of what it is to be physically held captive while emotionally escaping through music.
A story about intimacy, surrender, and the will to live.
Co-composed by Paola Prestini and Sxip Shirey with a libretto by Winter Miller adapted from her original play, No One Is Forgotten is a groundbreaking opera, fully designed to be delivered to its audience in the form of an immersive operatic radio play, an ‘invisible opera’, using cutting edge immersive audio technology.
Through the soundscape of foley arts, actors, electronics, cello, and classical vocalists, this a world where the audience can experience storytelling purely through sound and their imagination. By creating a work that is delivered directly to you in an intimate and portable format, our goal is to invite you, the audience, to close your eyes and open your imagination, and enter the world of Lali and Beng.
Inspired by true accounts of the plight of captured and detained journalists and aid workers, No One Is Forgotten originated as a play, described by Cynthia Nixon as “Completely riveting. Harrowing. And funny.” Samantha Bee “Unexpectedly hilarious”, and Gloria Steinam “A real tour de force.”
It has now been adapted into an operatic theatrical experience that promotes the message of strength, hope and love. You will hear a story that is surprisingly funny, moving, and relevant.
Creative and Executive Producer Eve Gigliotti, Director and AI Design by Elena Araoz, Music Director Michelle Rofrano, AI Producer and Editor Jonathan Estabrooks, starring Kathleen Chalfant and Eve Gigliotti as Beng, and Amelia Workman and Kearstin Piper Brown as Lali, featuring world renowned cellist Jeffrey Zeigler, with foley arts and underscoring by Sxip Shirey and orchestrations by Paola Prestini. Featuring world renowned cellist Jeffrey Zeigler, with foley arts and underscoring by Sxip Shirey and orchestrations by Paola Prestini.
This project is commissioned by The Dallas Opera and Emitha/Lexicon Classics with generous support from The Henagan Foundation and our community of supporters.
Cast
Kearstin Piper Brown
Lali (Sung)
Amelia Workman
Lali (Spoken)
Eve Gigliotti
Beng (Sung)
Kathleen Chalfant
Beng (Spoken)
Jeffrey Zeigler
CelloCreative Team
Eve Gigliotti
Executive And Creative Producer
Winter Miller
Book And Libretto
Paola Prestini
Co-composer & Orchestrations
Sxip Shirey
Co-composer & Sound Design/Foley
Michelle Rofrano
Music Director & Conductor
Elena Araoz
Director & Immersive Audio DesignSynopsis
Lali and Beng, a journalist and an aid worker, are being held captive in one room, struggling to keep themselves alive as a service to the other, and to maintain a sense of autonomy when the same person is right beside them, witnessing each other’s every move, every breath. No one knows where they have been taken or if they are alive. All they have is each other. Inspired by the plight of captured and detained journalists and aid workers, No One Is Forgotten is a story of hope and resilience with a mix of passion, humor, and the will to live.
The drama is divided between two actors and two vocalists to mine the duality of what it is to be physically held captive while emotionally escaping through music. Two composers transform the play’s theatrical form of silence and physical gesture into a rich, revealing soundscape.