Secret Diaries of Pennsylvania Avenue
A digital opera-pastiche with music by W. A. Mozart
Art by Zak Eidsvoog
View
The Secret Diaries of Pennsylvania Avenue is not a typical opera. We are inviting you not just to watch, but to explore the world we have created: peruse the case files, read the documents, listen to the audio files, and view the video footage compiled for our investigation. Discover for yourself what the Tito Administration does behind closed doors. Enjoy!
About
Our digital opera-pastiche, The Secret Diaries of Pennsylvania Avenue, offers a peek into the private moments of the lives of the characters from our adaptation of W. A. Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito, titled Tito (postponed to August 2022 due to COVID-19).
In The Secret Diaries of Pennsylvania Avenue, the cast members of La clemenza di Tito re-contextualize Mozart’s arias, art songs, and concert works, and pair them with stories from their characters’ lives in the form of “diary entries.” These characters are White House staffers and politicians, and their diary entries take the form of emails and text messages, iPhone notes and sticky notes, to-do lists and letters.
President Flavia Tito and her administration are under investigation. The devised scenes of our digital opera-pastiche are presented as a collection of evidence for the case files, revealing the origin stories of the relationships and tensions between our characters, offering new interpretations of Mozart’s music, and paying homage to Mozart’s own letters, through the epistolary lens of the project.
The world of Renegade Opera’s The Secret Diaries of Pennsylvania Avenue is based on Leo Balkovetz’s original adaptation of W. A. Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito, titled Justice or Mercy.
Exploration Time: ~90 minutes (experiences vary)
Creative Team
Director / Joellen Sweeney
Music Director & Sound Designer / Danielle Jagelski
Producers / Madeline Ross + Elliot Menard + Danielle Jagelski
Video Director & Editor / Alexandra Epstein
Audio Engineer / Amelia Brey
Website Designer / Flora Carey
Cast
Flavia Tito (President) / Erin Walker & Madeline Ross
Sara Wilkes (Campaign Manager) / Sadie Gregg
Victoria Booth (Secretary of State) / Lindsey Johnson & Marianne Sadée
Anna Liebermann (Press Secretary) / Elliot Menard
Sylvia Wilkes (Senator) / Bailey Snelgrove & Joannah Ball
Petra Thompson (Secret Service Agent) / Allison Knotts & Leslie Hassberg
Orchestra
Piano / Colin Shepard and Sequoia
Clarinet / Dylan Aguayo
Special Thanks
Ophir El-Boher
Zak Eidsvoog
Maria Bodwell
David Elderton
