In The Storyteller, the protagonist has just received news about their pregnancy that causes them to have to make a very difficult decision. In a dissociative state, the singer pulls themself out of time, and imagines themself a writer penning the story of their little one’s life. In a lullaby to all that they could have been, they sing their little one to sleep as their heartbeat comes to a conclusion.

Written for Paradox Opera's Autonomy installation as a reaction to the overturn of Roe v. Wade, and later incorporated into Open Heart Surgery.
 
Composer's Note
 
I am so incredibly honored to have had this piece commissioned by Paradox Opera, as part of Autonomy, a reactive opera and art gallery experience in defiance of the Supreme Court overturning of Roe v. Wade. 
The day of the overturn, I was in residence as a composer with Nightingale Opera Theatre. I’ll never forget the way the weight of the news descended on the entire cast, no one knowing quite how to reach out to one another, how to acknowledge the horror of what had just happened and seek comfort from virtual strangers, only a few days into a new residency. Then, starting with just one conversation, one person being brave enough to say it aloud, people started to connect. To embrace, to cry and yell and share our terror and anger. To hold our grief together, instead of alone. That experience, that beauty of connection in the midst of a horrible day, was what moved me to reach out to Alissa Roca that night, looking for people like me who were desperate to do something, anything, about this, and wanted to respond to what happened through art.
 
The piece that resulted from this commission, The Storyteller, is without a doubt the proudest I’ve been of a creation to date. Jude O'Dell’s beautiful libretto made me weep the moment I read it, and I am so very grateful we get the chance to share this story with such a broad audience through Paradox Opera’s programming in March 2023. I get chills imagining the premiere, outside the North Carolina Legislative Building, and then to have the piece performed alongside visual artists’ responses in the art galleries...I got into new opera to tell stories that need to be told and to make an impact through art and collaboration, so getting to be a part of this benefit concert is a dream come true in so many ways. 
 
It is my hope that this project creates for its audiences an amplification of what I felt on June 24th: In the midst of a horrible situation, the feeling of standing together in solidarity, shared grief, and shared hope, for a future where all people have the human right to autonomy.