Photo by Daniel Welch
Upcoming/In Development:
The Selfish Giant with Clarice Assad for Opera Saratoga
Splintered, a Nutcracker fantasia with Justine Chen and Jorge Sosa for American Lyric Theater
American Apollo with Damien Geter for Washington National Opera
Opera Murder Club, an opera film with Tamar-Kali Brown for LA Opera
This be her verse, a song cycle commissioned by soprano Golda Schultz with Kathleen Tagg
Selected Previous Commissions:
These Wondering Stones (2019) with Clare Elton for Barbican Center
In Her Own Valley (2019) with Grace Evangeline Mason for the Liverpool Philharmonic and children’s choruses
Dead Equal (2019) with Rose Miranda Hall and the women of the British Army
Scraww (2018) with Max Pappenheim for Trebah Gardens (immersive outdoor live electronic children’s opera)
Most Likely to Say:
“Does the soprano have to die?”
ON THE JOB:
“I love that I get in at the beginning: I make the skeleton. But you never know what will happen after that, or what will end up on the bones!”
PRESS:
“Profound, poetic, and dripping with pathos”
—Broadway Baby
“True feminism”
—Diva Magazine
“Turns anguish into art”
—The Times, London
Lila Palmer is a librettist and producer who specializes in concealed or historically overlooked narratives, with an active secondary practice in creating activation events for museum interpretation. Current works include the children’s opera The Selfish Giant with Clarice Assad, commissioned by American Lyric Theater, which will premiere this season at Opera Saratoga; American Apollo with Damien Geter for Washington National Opera’s American Opera Initiative, Opera Murder Club; an installation digital opera with Tamar-Kali Brown for LA Opera, and the song cycle This Be Her Verse, commissioned by soprano Gold Schultz with Kathleen Tagg. Other highlights include a sold-out promenade electronic opera These Wondering Stones for Barbican Center Sound Unbound Festival; In Her Own Valley, a children’s cantata on themes of child labour and personal responsibilty with Grace Evangeline Mason for the Liverpool Philharmonic and her notable collaboration with serving women of the British Army exploring the intersectional experiences of female soldiers, Dead Equal (2019) called’ ‘profound, poetic, and dripping with pathos’ (Broadway Baby) and ‘True feminism’ (Diva Magazine). Previous commissions include The Reckoning (2018) Bloodlines ( 2018); an outdoor electronic children’s opera for private garden, Scraww (2018); The Jewel Merchants (2017); Sunshine Girl (2017); Changing Stations (2017); Heard (2017). Her first opera libretto, Harbour (2016) about the internal displacement of Scottish Highlanders by English overlords was called ‘a work of strange Celtic Beauty that turns anguish into art’ (The Times, London). Lila is a graduate of Cambridge University, New England Conservatory, Guildhall School of Music & Drama and a grateful alumnus of American Lyric Theater’s Composer Librettist Development Program. A mezzo-soprano, she trained at English National Opera and began a professional performing career before committing to making opera in 2014 in order to expand the perspective of stories on opera stages.