EMERGENC/y

A contemporary opera composed by Felicity Wilcox with a libretto by Alana Valentine.

EMERGENC/y follows Renata, a mid-career composer confronting sexism and self-doubt. Through a transformative crisis, she embraces the voices of change, emerging in solidarity with the marginalized.

Blending operatic arias, choral innovation, and improvisation, this bold work reimagines power, community, and resilience.

Image by Diamond Tat, UTS Medialab, workshops November 2023

Images by Diamond Tat, UTS Medialab: workshops November 2023 & February 2025.

Synopsis

The work is built around Renata, a composer and pianist, successful until we find her at the start of EMERGENC/y hitting new headwinds mid-career, reluctant to name or shame her oppressors. But, when Renata overhears her colleagues whispering a spiteful and sexist exchange about her, she experiences a very dark night of the soul and undergoes a tortuous and deeply moving transformation during which she enters into a different consciousness about listening to the voices of the zeitgeist – the chorus of young change makers, the strains of past woes, and the choir of future possibilities.

The work unfolds as both the classic individual journey of dramatic opera featuring a powerful heroine, but also as a circular, collective journey where a Chorus and song cycles depict contemporary communities in change. As the work ends, Renata (meaning ‘reborn’) is in solidarity with her community of allies, drawing genuine power from listening to the quieter voices of the marginalised and her own consciousness.

Felicity Wilcox is well known for the creativity and flexibility of her musical forms; this work presents a complex weaving of expansive, modern operatic arias with early music-inflected choral movements, instrumental innovation, and guided improvisations. Alana Valentine draws inspiration from Dr Wilcox’s research on the experiences of women and gender diverse music creators, metabolising these authentic voices through her delicate yet punchy word-play to bring both the story and the opera’s characters to life.

Emergenc/y Trailer (2024)