American Gothic is an original chamber opera written by four composers on the theme of the “American Gothic”. It is a piece woven together by stories that counter the mainstream narratives of American identity.

Brought to life by AMANDA + JAMES as part of our commitment to bring the highest quality work from rising young practitioners across various media, American Gothic had an initial run at Pioneer Works in Red Hook, Brooklyn in October of 2015.

Comprised of the work of four young American composers, American Gothic is performed by rising operatic bass-baritone Davone Tines, and accompanied by the Canité Quartet.

Our composers are:

• Doug Balliett, “Chemical Elysium”

• Elliot Cole, “Letter to My Grandnephew”

• John Glover, “Frame the Scene”

• Joseph N. Rubinstein, “Dust World”

Artist Rachel Libeskind, whose work deals frequently with themes of cultural mythology and Americana, has developed a multi-channel video installation used as the set.

The four scenes that make up the opera are based on texts that present the American Dream curtailed, overburdened and otherwise out of reach. These scenes depict the thoughts of a prisoner as he writes his grandnephew; a mentally unstable woman as she gets high; the darkly comic attempts at self-actualization of a man on a Sioux reservation, and, the ambivalence of a great artist and the quiet response of his subject posing one of the first examples of propaganda commissioned by the US Government.

Our aim is to provide a platform of discussion and insight into the range of narratives that exist under the banner of the Gothic. It is a timely subject covering issues of race, systemic injustice, and cultural amnesia among many others so embedded in our national history and so relevant to our present day.