Julian Wachner, The Choir of Trinity Wall Street & NOVUS NY - Ellen Reid: p r i s m (2019) [Hi-Res]

Winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Music, p r i s m tells the story of an ill girl, Bibi, and her doting mother, Lumee, who live in a pristine sanctuary. Locked away from the world, Bibi and Lumee try to protect each other from the dangerous illness that lurks outside their door and has already infected Bibi’s legs- leaving her unable to walk. Every day Lumee attempts to feed Bibi medicine to heal her, yet each time Bibi is about to swallow her dose the Outside erupts into a fury- scaring Bibi from taking her medicine. One night, desperate to please her strict mother, Bibi attempts to swallow all of her missed doses, when she is interrupted by an intoxicating Blue light that pierces the sanctuary through the crack under their door. Seduced by the Outside’s kaleidoscopic beckoning, Bibi begins to rebel against her mother’s orders- fracturing their relationship and fragile life inside the sanctuary. Blinded by colors and memories new and familiar, Bibi must choose between abandoning her mother to discover the truth of her illness Outside, or accept her mother’s stories in order to hold on to the only life she’s ever known. p r i s m explores the elasticity of memory after trauma, and the lengths to which one will go to “feel better”- no matter the price.

“Stunning... with Ellen Reid's incandescent ‘p r i s m,’an opera composer is born.” (LA Times, Mark Swed)

“a fine line between poetic abstraction and gut-wrenching reality.” (San Francisco Classical Voice, Jim Farber)

Anna Schubert, soprano
Rebecca Jo Loeb, mezzo soprano
Members of the Choir of Trinity Wall Street
Julian Wachner, conductor