Set in a nightmarish Bardo, a place between death and rebirth, a tormented writer (Timur) faces down demons of his own making. Forced to confront the darkest moment in his life, he mines fractured and repressed memories for a way out. A woman (Jennifer Harrison Newman) is at the center of all the writer’s afterlife encounters. She is the subject of his life’s greatest regret, and she materializes everywhere in this Otherworld. The writer cannot detach any thoughts of his life from her.  

Part film screening and part industrial rock opera concert, this world premiere event features glam opera band Timur & the Dime Museum alongside musicians from the Opera Philadelphia Orchestra at the Philadelphia Film Center. Black Lodge will then make its streaming debut on Friday, Oct. 21, the Opera Philadelphia Channel. 

“Growing up, I always felt like I saw the world differently; that I saw the dark side of things more readily than others,” said composer David T. Little. “The process of creating Black Lodge was one of accepting that part of myself: of exploring that darkness, travelling through it in hopes that there would be something beautiful, even transcendent on the other side.” 

Black Lodge “highlights the sense of existential dilemma for the artist in a world of contradiction, and personal upheaval,” said librettist Anne Waldman and “explores our darkest deeds and aspirations with insight and magnetizing power. The Black Lodge is a metaphor for our hidden desires, nightmares, our love, and loss. It is a voyage through the spiritual and unpredictable ‘bardo’ between life and death.”  

The project is attracting attention throughout the music industry. Renowned musician Thurston Moore, known as a member of Sonic Youth, serves as executive producer of Black Lodge. "This is opera ripping through the fabric of future vision psychosis where the integrity of classic form clasps the hands of radical possibilities," said Moore. "David T. Little takes no prisoners here, in confluence with poet angel head Anne Waldman’s libretto of nature, irreality, and spirit consciousness, divining deliverance from life’s spectacle of chaos and love. You’re about to have your mind scorched, my friends!"

Composer Philip Glass (Akhnaten, Einstein on the Beach) is also a fan.  “Black Lodge is a bold new operatic film,” said Glass. “It seamlessly blends poetry and music into a powerful cinematic experience.” 

Black Lodge is a continued collaboration with the groundbreaking Beth Morrison Projects, the producing entity that developed and produced Black Lodge over the past ten years. Founded by “contemporary opera mastermind” (LA Times) Beth Morrison, who was honored as one of Musical America’s Artists of the Year/Agents of Change in 2020, BMP has grown into “a driving force behind America’s thriving opera scene” (Financial Times), with Opera News declaring that the company, “more than any other… has helped propel the art form into the twenty-first century.” 

Known as “one of the most imaginative young composers on the music-theatre scene” (New Yorker), Little is a graduate of Opera Philadelphia’s Composer in Residence program. His operas Dog Days, JFK, Vinkensport, and Soldier Songs have been widely acclaimed, with the 2021 Opera Philadelphia Channel film of Soldier Songs nominated for a GRAMMY award for Best Opera Recording. An active member of the Outrider experimental poetry movement, Waldman has published over forty books of poetry and has received numerous awards and honors for her poetry, including the American Book Awards' Lifetime Achievement Award. Internationally acclaimed stage director/writer/filmmaker McQuilken works fluidly in theater, opera, film, and music, and "has redefined collaborative art” (Philly Voice). 

Described as a “punk-operatic spectacle” (LA Times), the dark glam opera band Timur and the Dime Museum was born to fuse sounds with fierceness and theatricality. Timur, “the extravagantly transgressive tenor” (LA Times), has made solo appearances with LA Philharmonic, Bang on a Can All-Stars, and Spoleto Festival, among many others.

Black Lodge
Music by David T. Little; libretto by Anne Waldman 
Story, screenplay and direction by Michael Joseph McQuilken 
Produced by Beth Morrison Projects 
Oct 1 & 2, 2022 
Mainstage at the Philadelphia Film Center 
Performed in English with English supertitles