A dramatic work for mezzo-soprano and piano trio

Grounded in the lived experience of scientific practice, Meltdown combines music, theater, and video to explore the intertwined dynamics of grief over the climate crisis, sexual harassment and violence, and the exploitation of people and land.

Meltdown is a solo opera 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 Dr. Åsa K. 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. Video design by Camilla Tassi, incorporating video by filmmaker Iva Radejević and footage from NASA and NOAA.

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 opera can deliver. 

Meltdown’s theory of change is to honor our grief, speak the truth, and get to work.

World Premiere: February 8, 2025

7:30pm at National Sawdust in Brooklyn

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Co-Produced by Vital Opera

and Sparks & Wiry Cries