FULL Swimming in the Dark Excerpts ( Martin Hennessy) Bloomington IN 2024 Zachary Olmoz, Geneil Perkins, Veronica Siebert, Kathiana Dargenson

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: Swimming in the Dark  
• Composer: Hennessy Martin   
• Libretto: Stephen Kitsakos, based on the bestselling novel, Swimming in the Dark, by Tomasz Jedrowski    Libretto Text, Libretto Index
• Venue & Opera Company: Auer Hall, Jacobs School of Music, Bloomington IN, Indiana University  
• Recorded: January 21, 2024
• Type: Staged Opera Live
• Singers: Zachary Olmoz, Geneil Perkins, Veronica Siebert, Kathiana Dargenson, Colin Anderson, Will Upham, Jenna Kreider, David Drettwan, Theo Harrah, Madelyn Deininger
• Conductor: Tyler Readinger  
• Orchestra:
• Stage Director: Michael Shell  
• Costume Designer:   

Information about the Recording

• Published by: Martin Hennessy  
• Date Published: 2024  
• Format: Streaming
• Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
• Subtitles: yessubs, ensubs  
• Video Recording from: YouTube     FULL VIDEO
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

PROGRAM LEAFLET

Swimming in the Dark is an epic gay love story set behind the Iron Curtain of 1980’s Poland and chock full of political intrigue. It’s also replete with themes that speak to social justice issues. Namely LGBTQIA rights but also the muting of critical voices, disinformation, and the global slide towards autocracy. Our lead character is the unlikely rebel who secretly reads James Baldwin, escapes the police in a breathtaking act of defiance that amplifies a “Solidarity” protest in downtown Warsaw and eventually becomes entrapped in an undercover operation, that detains and registers him in a kind of “pink file” used to harass and intimidate gays during that era in Communist Poland.