Operas for Female Casts from Moon Diva Publishing

Looking for original one-act operas with all-female casts?

How Clear She Shines! (2002)
Music by Linda Lister
Libretto by Linda Lister based on the writings of Anne, Emily and Charlotte Brontë.

Narrated by Charlotte Brontë, How Clear She Shines! is a chamber opera celebrating the accomplishments of her sisters' writings and recounting the tragedies of their early deaths. Charlotte pays tribute to Anne and Emily and also reveals her own strength of character and sisterly devotion.

Your True Calling: Composing in the Shadow of Schumann, Mendelssohn and Mahler (2005)
Music by Alma Mahler Werfel, Clara Wieck Schumann, and Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel
Libretto by Linda Lister

This theatrical evening of Lieder/multimedia one act explores the compositions and love lives of Clara Schumann, Fanny Mendelssohn and Alma Mahler, all three talented and passionate female composers who were forced to subjugate their talents so that the talents of their husband or brother could prevail. Women were still not supposed to be composers in the nineteenth century. In the words of Fanny's father:

"Music will perhaps become your brother Felix’s profession, while for you it can and must only be an ornament, never the root of your being and doing. Remain true to these sentiments and to this line of conduct-they are feminine, and only what is truly feminine is an ornament to your success. You must prepare more earnestly and eagerly for your true calling, the only calling of a young woman-I mean the state of a housewife.”

Available through Moon Diva Publishing. Contact me at llister@shorter.edu.