“Sly and sweet, wistful and winsome and altogether lovable” – The New York Times
“Gelsey Bell’s wonderful, uncategorizable guide to what might unfold on Earth in the millions and billions of years after human history”– The New York Times
“Part scientific exposition, part imaginative flight of fancy”– The Wall Street Journal
“Frequently magical, with amazing concepts delivered with charm”– New York Classical Review
An experimental opera inhabits a world in which all humans have disappeared from Earth. An ensemble of five vocalist/multi-instrumentalists witness and guide the audience through the changes on Earth as forests grow back, new species evolve, and the human-made world erodes away. The piece is a fantastical and playful exploration into the dire political and ethical contradictions that structure current human relations with nature.
Commissioned and developed through the HERE Artist Residency Program. Premiered in the Prototype Festival in January 2023.
The commissioning of Gelsey for mɔɹnɪŋ [morning//mourning] received funding from OPERA America’s Opera Grants for Women Composers, supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation. Production design support provided by the Edith Lutyens and Norman Bel Geddes Design Enhancement Fund, a program of the Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York (A.R.T./New York). This production is made possible, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
The development of mɔɹnɪŋ received funding from OPERA America’s Opera Grants for Female Composers program: Discovery Grants program, supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.