In 2019, Rosśa Crean and I had the premiere of our unaccompanied opera The Harbingers in the Horatio N. May Chapel in Rosehill Cemetery. In 2024, The Harbingers was performed in an all-new production at the same venue.
Composed for 10 vocalists, The Harbingers brings together mythical gods of death to debate the ultimate fate of a doctor who has recently died. The Celtic Donn sings the afterworld into existence, where the doctor’s Soul finds herself surrounded by soft light and a gentle breeze, and in the company of the psychopomp and angel of death Azrael. But this calm moment ends abruptly as gods of the afterlife arrive to take the soul to their realms. The Soul is claimed first by Hel of Norse legend, and then the Morrigan of the Celtic world. The Turkic and Mongolian god Erlik, too, lays claim to the Soul, and the arguing gods call upon the Greek Fates–Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos–to judge their claims. This process is interrupted by the appearance of Sekhmet, a god of Egyptian myth, who tries to woo the Soul, promising her great things. As the Fates examine the Soul’s life, the complexities of that life repel some gods and attract others, and the Soul must decide whether to accept the invitations of a death god, be reborn, or leave the destiny of her afterlife up to chance in the river that leads to the afterworlds.
Libretto by Kendra Preston Leonard
Music by Rosśa Crean
Directed by Ross Matsuda
Cast:
Atropos – Katherine Dalin
Azrael – Jessie Lyons
Clotho – James M. Brown
Donn – Keaton Payne
Erlik – Kevin Wheatle
Hel – Joelle Kross
Lachesis – Charles Anderson
The Morrigan – Mary Lutz Govertsen
Sekhmet – Jordan Harris
The Soul – Sarah Thompson Johansen
Azrael Cover – Anna Caldwell
