About Alive & Kicking
CS Music has partnered with Jessica Fishenfeld to spotlight her creative efforts to make opera more accessible for a new generation of music lovers.
This light-hearted series gives you a short introduction to an exciting new American Opera each month, in under 5 minutes! The series highlights operas relevant to our modern times, and connects up-and-coming composers with the modern American public they’re writing for. As opera has entered into the fast-paced modern world, these American works are much more accessible and relatable, leaving behind airs of elitism from centuries’ past. Written in English and drawing on modern topics and ideas, American Opera is intended to be enjoyed and understood by people of all ages, colors, cultures, shapes, and sizes!
Alive & Kicking is here to show you that opera is a growing and changing art form, and its creators are telling your stories!
Episode 5: “A Song for Susan Smith”
For our fifth episode, we are proud to feature an opera based on a true – albeit tragic – story: A Song for Susan Smith, by composer Zach Redler and librettist Mark Campbell. Using their enormous creative powers, Redler and Campbell scrutinize the horrific actions of Susan Smith, the woman from Union, South Carolina who in 1994 lied on national TV about drowning her two sons.
You can also check out Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, and Episode 4!
