Spears
Sleepers Awake
World Premiere
An opera by Gregory Spears
Inspired by the writings of Robert Walser and others
Directed by Jenny Koons
Performed in English with English supertitles
In this opera, the chorus has the starring role. Composer Gregory Spears, whose music has been called “astonishingly beautiful” (The New York Times), “coolly entrancing” (The New Yorker), and “some of the most beautifully unsettling music to appear in recent memory” (The Boston Globe), creates a labyrinthine soundscape to accompany a dream-like rendering of the fairytale “Sleeping Beauty,” inspired by modernist writer Robert Walser. As the Opera Philadelphia Chorus sings itself in and out of slumber, the voices pull us into a liminal space where time is both fractured and cyclical. Conceived with and directed by the transformative Jenny Koons, this visually dazzling world premiere activates a collective voice to question the fragile line between waking and dreaming. Corrado Rovaris conducts.
Subscriptions are on sale now. Pick Your Price tickets go on sale to subscribers, donors $100+, and Opera Pass holders on May 1, and to the general public on May 15.
MapAcademy of Music
Dates are April 2026.
| Wed, Apr 22 | 7:00 p.m. |
| Fri, Apr 24 | 8:00 p.m. |
| Sun, Apr 26 | 2:00 p.m. |
Runtime is approximately 90 minutes with no intermission
Artwork: Everything Began There (Pina), 2024, courtesy of Arthur Poujois and General Assembly. Photo by Jack and Jess Hall.
Cast & Creative Team
- Elizabeth Braden Chorus Master
- *Opera Philadelphia debut
The Composer
Gregory Spears
Gregory Spears is a New York-based composer whose music has been called “astonishingly beautiful” (The New York Times), “coolly entrancing” (The New Yorker), and “some of the most beautifully unsettling music to appear in recent memory” (The Boston Globe). Spears’ most recent opera The Righteous premiered at the Santa Fe Opera in summer 2024. His Fellow Travelers, written in collaboration with Greg Pierce, premiered at Cincinnati Opera in 2016 and has received numerous productions, hailed as “one of the most accomplished new operas I have seen in recent years” (Chicago Tribune) and an opera that “seems assured of lasting appeal” (The New York Times).