Creating a New Opera | April 13

Composer Jocelyn Hagen joins us to discuss her commission with Ventura College Opera: "Blood Money: The Rise and Fall of Elizabeth Holmes" – a new opera exploring the story of Holmes, the Silicon Valley entrepreneur whose company Theranos claimed to revolutionize blood testing and whose fraud made her one of the most documented figures of recent years — the subject of the HBO documentary The Inventor, the Hulu series The Dropout, and multiple books and podcasts. Hagen is known for works including The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, (a multimedia symphony), Test Pilot, (a dance opera collaboration with choreographer Penelope Freeh), and her opera The Song Poet. In this program, she will talk about how an opera actually gets made: how a librettist and composer shape a story together, and build a musical language capable of carrying dramatic weight across an entire evening. The event will also include live performances of her music. Presented as part of The Laurel Project: Faculty & Guest Artist Concert Series