Photo by Camilla Tassi
MELTDOWN
A co-production with Vital Opera and Sparks & Wiry Cries
World Premiere: February 8, 2025 @ National Sawdust, Brooklyn, NY
Grounded in the lived experience of scientific practice, Meltdown is a one-act dramatic work for mezzo-soprano and piano trio that explores the intertwined dynamics of grief over the climate crisis, sexual harassment and violence, and the exploitation of people and land.
Photo by Camilla Tassi
A Glaciologist (Hai-Ting Chinn) is giving a lecture on her study of ice sheet mass loss, and how climate change impacts it. We learn that her mentor, a renowned scientist, has recently gone missing during an expedition on Greenland’s ice sheet and is presumed dead. At the same time, we hear that a male scientist has recently been accused of sexual harassment by women colleagues. What’s the connection?
Meltdown is a one-act dramatic work that draws a line from the global slowness to address climate change and the harassment and abuse of women in science. Far from being separate issues, we see prejudice against women in the field springing from the same exploitative impulse that has so affected the environment. Social evolution is key to averting climate catastrophe.
Evocatively composed by Stefan Weisman for piano, cello and violin, and augmented by video captured on Greenland’s ice sheet during recent expeditions, Meltdown is rooted in science and lived experience. The project’s science advisor is Åsa Rennermalm, a leader of expeditions to Greenland. Through interviews with Rennermalm and research about structural sexism in science, co-librettists David Cote and Hai-Ting Chinn have devised a narrative that blends fact, fiction, and lyrical reflection. Performed by Chinn and piano trio, the 65-minute piece begins as a lecture that opens up into a psychological landscape, a symbolic ice sheet where the Glaciologist explains exactly what’s at stake.
Through stirring music and documentary video, we hope to create an aesthetic space that accommodates scientific data, humor, outrage, and a mingled sense of grief and hope that only chamber music can deliver.
Meltdown’s theory of change is to honor our grief, speak the truth, and get to work.
PERFORMERS & CREATIVE TEAM
PROGRAM NOTES & RELATED READING
PERFORMANCES
The Meltdown Team Thanks:
Dr. Åsa Rennermalm, Kaneza Schaal, Kiara Benn, Lenyn Hernandez Marcia, The Wooster Group and The Performing Garage, Iva Radivojević, Avaloch Farm Music Institute, Bard College, Marc Mancus, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Ashley Baer, Sam Black, Tyler Benware, Natasha Bruno, & donors to our crowdfunding campaign:
Sam Auinger, David Barbour, Tom and Jana Bergdall, Neil Blackadder, Jesse D Blumberg, Ashley Cruce, Amanda Cooper, Carin Thomas Bradley, Kevin Burke, Jeremy Carlisle, Daryl and Phyllis Chinn, Karin Coonrod, David Copenhafer, Conrad Cummings, Katharine Dain, EL Doolittle, James Donegan, Renée Favand-See, Theodore Feifer, Fazeela Ferouz, Meghan Finn, Jenna K Flannigan, George Fritz, Alec Galambos, Frank Gambino, Sarah Garvey, Michael Gardner, Jolle Greenleaf, Joshua B Groffman, Wendy G Hill, Yehuda Hyman, George Hrab, Steven Hrycelak, Danielle Jagelski, Cassondra Joseph, Stephanie Kadison, Yoon Kim, Catherine Kleszczewski, Jennifer Krasinski, Barbara Lawson, Chantal Lobue, Tláloc López-Watermann, Bill Magargal, Kristin Marting, Katherine Messer, Sean Mills, Pat Mills, Dennis Mogerman, Tamar Muskal, Denisa Musilova, Andrew Munn, Christia Mercer, David Nochimson, Tarik O'Regan, AC Petersen, David Keegan, Brian Parks, Ruth Petsel, Joe Pettigrew, Wende Persons, Ann Pedone, Julie Prather, Sandy Sawotka, Corin See, Naomi See, Jennifer Shaban, Jordan Shapiro, Roo Sindall, Elana Sinsabaugh, Gregory Spears, Peter Stewart, Bridget Stevens Lu, Peter McCabe, Robert Switzer, Deborah Taverna, Margaret Tan, Bethene Trexel, Steven Jude Tietjen, Tim Sullivan, Mark W Uhlemann, Libby Van Cleve, Eric Weisman, Ron Weissbard, Wilson and Carol Shum, & Lidiya Yankovskaya.
