Operas Composed by Mary D. Watkins

Emmett Till: The Opera (Coming in 2021)

Emmett Till

  • The story of Emmett Till, a 14 year-old African-American boy whose brutal lynching in Mississippi in 1955 sparked the civil rights movement.
  • Composed by Mary Watkins based on a play and libretto by Clare Coss.
  • Scheduled for a New York premiere at John Jay College Gerald W Lynch Theater in 2021.

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Dark River: The Fannie Lou Hamer Story  (2009)

Fannie Lou Hamer

  • About Fannie Lou Hamer, a daughter of share-croppers who became a leader in the Civil Rights movement during the turbulent 1960s.
  • Score and Libretto by Mary D. Watkins.
  • Produced by Oakland Opera Theater in Oakland, CA (November 2009 – conducted by Deirdre McClure); Mount Holyoke Symphony Orchestra in South Hadley, MA in April 2014 and in Washington, DC in 2015 (both conducted by Tian Hui Ng), and Agnes Scott College and Community Orchestra in Atlanta, GA in April 2016 (conducted by Qiao Chen Solomon).

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Queen Clara (2005)

Clara Barton

  • About the roller-coaster life of Clara Barton, a radical feminist with a passionate personal life who founded the American Red Cross.
  • Composed by Mary D. Watkins with libretto by Lance Belville.
  • The opera has been workshopped by Goat Hall Opera Company and Z Space Studio in San Francisco, and by the Oakland Opera Company in Oakland, CA, and the Berkeley Arts Center in Berkeley, CA.

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