FULL PAPER TIGER (Yaz Lancaster) Short Digital Opera Movie Philadelphia PA 2023 Eliza Bagg, Miss Grit
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: Paper Tiger
- Composer: Lancaster Yaz
- Libretto:
- Venue & Opera Company: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Recorded:
- Type: Movie
- Singers: Eliza Bagg, Miss Grit
- Conductor:
- Orchestra: Mary Prescott, PIANO
- Choreographer: Toogie Barcelo
- Stage Director: Sean Pecknold
- Costume Designer:
Information about the Recording
- Published by: Opera Philadelphia
- Date Published: 2023
- Format: Streaming
- Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
- Subtitles: yessubs, ensubs
- Video Recording from: YouTube FULL VIDEO
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
PAPER TIGER is a 12.5-minute digital opera– the premiere recording is performed by vocalists Eliza Bagg and Miss Grit and pianist Mary Prescott, with media and electronics by Yaz, and a film directed by Sean Pecknold (Fleet Foxes, Netflix, Dreamworks, Google, The NYT, etc.) starring lead dancer Megan Doheny.
In PAPER TIGER, I reflect on nearly a decade of my identity as a queer person of color. In the opening song Visions, I recount feelings of being unseen and undesired in a time where marginalized genders had little mainstream representation, and Blackness was seen as less desirable. The titular song Paper Tiger explores the multitudes and complexities of gender expansiveness– the music throughout the work straddles several genre lines including hip/trip-hop, contemporary classical, and hyperpop. The final song Metalloid celebrates the joy to be had in “trans-ness” and gender nonconformity– in the ability to continually create oneself: “I can be anyone / I can be anything.”
Inspired by the theme of visibility in my composition, Sean made a film about the struggle for acceptance and wanting to be seen in a world crowded by conformity. Using a range of expressive dances, emotions and abstract sets, they chart a frustrating, repetitive, confusing, euphoric, twisting path towards finding the strength to be oneself during a day in the life of our lead character.
Quote by Yaz Lancaster