She Who Dared
COMPOSER: Jasmine Barnes
LIBRETTIST: Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton
WORLD PREMIERE - CHICAGO OPERA THEATER - JUNE 2025
Commissioned by American Lyric Theater
Available for Production
INSTRUMENTATION
Chamber Orchestra of 12 Musicians
1 Flute / Alto Flute
1 Clarinet/Bass Clarinet
1 Bassoon/Contrabassoon
2 Percussionists
1 Pianist/Keyboardist
Strings (1.1.1.2.1) - May be expanded for larger venues
CHORUS
Ensemble of all women or all non-featured women in the scene.
ROLES
7 SINGERS
Claudette Colvin -15 years old, dark-skinned Black female. Student and activist. (Lyric or Full Lyric Soprano)
Mary Louise Smith/ Classmate 2 - 18-year-old/15-year-old Black female (Lyric Soprano)
Rosa Parks/Ms. Nesbitt/ Prosecution Attorney (Claudette’s Teacher)- 42-year-old, light-skinned Black Female, Mother of the Civil Rights Movement (Full Lyric Soprano)
Susie “Mama Sue” MacDonald- 70-year-old, White passing Black Female, heir to the MacDonald farm. (Mezzo or Dramatic Soprano)
Aurelia Browder- 36-year-old, Mother of 21, seamstress, and activist. (Zwischen Mezzo Soprano)
Jo Ann Robinson/Fred Gray- 43-year-old, Black female. Activist and Educator (Dramatic Mezzo-Soprano)
Jeanetta Reese/ Classmate 1/Officer/ Judge- 20’s-30’s, Black female. Maid (Mezzo Soprano with lower extension)
DURATION
Full Length - 2hrs
Everyone has heard of Rosa Parks, but she wasn’t the first to refuse to move. She Who Dared recenters the spotlight on the courageous women who helped desegregate the Montgomery bus system. These Civil Rights pioneers pay homage to the quiet struggle for justice that has often gone unknown, further amplifying the effects of the historic case of Browder V. Gayle. While often riotous and sometimes hilarious, these women demonstrate how everyday people have the power to challenge the systems around them and affect tangible change - if only they dare.
Artists’ Statement
JASMINE ARIELLE BARNES & DEBORAH D.E.E.P. MOUTON
She Who Dared is a full-length opera that celebrates the seven Black women who changed history by desegregation of the Montgomery bus system. Rosa Parks gains all of the celebrity for her heroic refusal to exit the bus, but few people know the women who led her to that moment and turned her stance into an entire movement. From Jo Ann Robinson fighting with the Women's Political Council to organize the boycott to the women who sat on the bus before Rosa (Claudette Colvin, Susie McDonald, and Aurelia Browder), setting a shining example, She Who Dared shows that it takes an entire community to change the world.
Blending African American art forms such as Jazz, Gospel, Blues, and popular 50s styles of black music , into classical music allows this opera to hold space for many audiences to feel welcome. The style of storytelling we have embraced is one rooted in Black Storytelling. It’s a web of stories that play with time in a way that would lend well to the stage. (I.e. “Well what had happened was…” “Remember how I told you X? Well keep that in mind for Y” etc.) This unique style of storytelling makes sure the listener feels the experience of the story, and we knew this would work well in opera.
We decided on having an all-black woman cast for numerous reasons:
There are no operas with all black woman casts
Most roles for black women are written by people who are neither woman nor black.
We wanted to fulfill the challenge of not utilizing these women to be an inducer of trauma on stage.
We decided on our antagonist being outside forces that are displayed through the protagonists’ perspective and retelling. We knew this way the focus would remain on the women who led the bus boycott and the challenges they faced.
And most importantly, the story itself is worth telling. When we started researching for this piece, we couldn’t believe that neither of us learned any of this information in school. We’d both never heard of the Browder V. Gayle court case, even though it was one of the most important federal court cases of the civil rights movement. We learned of who led the Boycott, the Women’s Political Council, and found Jo Ann Robinson, who proposed the idea in the first place. We want to honor these women and give their names the spot they deserve in history.
Through She Who Dared, we are making space for Black women to embody new, rich and authentic, characters in opera. Our hope, in addition to writing a deeply entertaining new opera, is that by showing the multifaceted nature of the Civil Rights Movement, we have a more varied representation of what Blackness can and does look like in the real world. And this will open the doors for Black women in the field to find themselves fully on state for more compelling performances.
Media
VIDEO EXCERPT FROM ALT’S 2023 PIANO VOCAL WORKSHOP
FULL WORKSHOP VIDEO AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST
Materials available from ALT upon request
Interested in licensing this opera? Visit our Licensing and Materials page to start an inquiry!