Music by Emma O’Halloran, Alberto Ginastera, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, and Franz Schubert.

EPSG:4326

Santa Monica Music Festival: Program 4

First Presbyterian Church of Santa Monica

A work-in-progress showing of award-winning Irish composer Emma O’Halloran and librettist Naomi Louisa O’Connell’s “A Mass for Women in Bathrooms.” This opera-theater work for three singers, an actress and electronic sound design by Alex Dowling reframes the structure of the Catholic Mass to tell an intimate family story of three sisters and their mother.

A Mass for women in bathrooms

Universal Preservation Hall

Departmental Recitals showcase performance departments through its students. Featuring various students and repertoire, and curated by the faculty, performances in this recital highlight SFCM programs and the wide range of study.

Percussion Ensemble Recital

San Francisco Conservatory of Music

Mary Motorhead
Mary Motorhead has been locked in a prison cell after stabbing her husband in the head with a 12-inch carving knife. While he lies in intensive care, Mary reflects on the events that have brought this turbulent rural marriage to such a crisis.

Trade
In a guesthouse in Dublin’s north inner city, a vulnerable and confused young rent boy sits with a middle-aged client. The older man has blood on his shirt. A lot has happened since the two last met. 

Trade / Mary Motorhead

Cork Opera House

Watergate Theatre

Pavilion Theatre

Glór

Solstice Arts Centre

Siamsa Tire

**Event Description:**

**Title:** Magdalene - A Chamber Opera in Thirteen Movements

**Presented by:** Beth Morrison Projects, Danielle Birrittella, Zoe Aja Moore, and Marie Howe at REDCAT

**Dates:** June 4-5, 7-8

**Time:** 8 PM (TUE-WED, FRI-SAT)

**Duration:** Approx. 75 minutes, no intermission

**Location:** REDCAT, USA

**Ticket Price:** $50

**Genres:** Music, Theater

**Season:** Winter/Spring 2024

**About the Event:**

"Magdalene" is a transformative chamber opera that invites audiences into the profound interior world of Mary Magdalene, exploring themes of desire, transformation, and the sacred versus the sexual. This unique opera, set to Marie Howe’s evocative "Magdalene" poems, is a collaborative masterpiece scored by fourteen women composers: Leila Adu, Ruby Kato Attwood, Danielle Birrittella, Sheena Birrittella, Christina Courtin, Gabrielle Herbst, Molly Joyce, Emma O’Halloran, Tanner Porter, Ellen Reid, Kamala Sankaram, Bergrún Snæbjörnsdóttir, Annika Socolofsky, and Gyða Valtýsdóttir. Through a series of vivid scenes—from wandering through a hotel to lighting birthday candles and making love in the ocean—Magdalene seeks transcendence in the mundane, striving to become the subject of her own story.

This West Coast Premiere is a wild meditation on transformation and desire, enlarging the figure of Mary Magdalene to cross time and space, appearing as a woman alive now, who navigates the unyielding split between the sacred and the sexual.

**Special Features:**

- **Post-Show Talks:** Engage with the cast and creative team on June 5, 7, and 8, offering deeper insights into the production.
- **Content Advisory:** Please note that "Magdalene" contains nudity and mature content, catering to an adult audience.

**About the Artists:**

"Magdalene" is produced and co-presented by Beth Morrison Projects, a leading force in the creation and production of new opera-theatre and music theatre. The opera is commissioned and produced by PROTOTYPE Festival, a partnership between Beth Morrison Projects and HERE, and premiered at the PROTOTYPE Festival 2020. The production has received funding from OPERA America’s Opera Fund and support from the New York State Council on the Arts.

**Join Us:**

Don't miss this breathtaking opera that merges the contemporary with the timeless, offering a powerful narrative through the collective voice of an all-female composer team. Buy your tickets now for an unforgettable experience of "Magdalene" at REDCAT this Winter/Spring 2024 season.

Beth Morrison Projects, Danielle Birrittella, Zoe Aja Moore, and Marie Howe

Walt Disney Concert Hall

Boston Conservatory at Berklee's contemporary music ensemble contraBAND presents a student-led power concert of works about light and darkness. Nyctophobia, the irrational fear of darkness or the absence of light, offers profound insights into the human psyche and our evolution. Join our contemporary classical music performance students and their colleagues in exploring this hauntingly beautiful realm of through-composed and open-form works.

Emma O’Halloran

Events

Past events

Jul 20, 2025

Santa Monica Music Festival: Program 4 · Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra

22 - 27 Jun, 2025

A Mass for women in bathrooms · Opera Saratoga

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