Stephanie Fleischmann is a playwright and librettist whose texts serve as blueprints for intricate three-dimensional sonic and visual worlds. Her opera libretti include: The Long Walk, music by Jeremy Howard Beck, commissioned by American Lyric Theater (premiere: Opera Saratoga, July 2015; Utah Opera, March 2017; Pittsburgh Opera, January 2018); After the Storm, music by David Hanlon, commissioned by Houston Grand Opera’s HGOco (premiere: May 2016); In a Grove, with composer Christopher Cerrone, Mahogany Opera Group, ICA London, Mass MoCA; The Property, music by Wlad Marhulets, commissioned by Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Lyric Unlimited (premiere: February 2015); Boundless, a video opera serial with composer Avner Dorman for HGOco, Poppaea, with composer Michael Hersch for Wien Modern (2020), The Pigeon Keeper, with composer David Hanlon for Santa Fe Opera’s Opera for All Voices, Arkhipov, with composer Peter Knell (Jacaranda), Dido, with composer Melinda Wagner, for Dawn Upshaw and the Brentano String Quartet, Barrel of Laughs, Vale of Tears, with composer Julia Adolphe (National Sawdust) and A Space of Sky, for HGOco with Jeremy Howard Beck. Fleischmann’s texts and songs have been set by composers Olga Neuwirth (Aldeburgh, Basel, Berlin, Vienna), Brendan Connelly, Sxip Shirey, Theo Popov, Jeff Smith, and Elspeth Brooke.
Music-theater works include Niagara, with composer Bobby Previte and director Daniel Fish; Red Fly/Blue Bottle (Latitude 14: Here Arts Center, NYC; EMPAC, Troy, NY; Noorderzon Festival, the NL; developed in collaboration with Mallory Catlett), The Secret Lives of Coats (Red Eye Theater, Minneapolis; Whitman College, WA; the Playwrights Center/Playlabs), music for both by Christina Campanella; The Sweetest Life, music by Saskia Lane, developed in collaboration with Melissa Kievman and Julian Crouch (New Victory LabWorks; Vineyard Theatre; BRIC lab); The Hotel Carter, music by Jenny Giering. Plays include: Sound House, Eloise & Ray, Tally Ho, The Street of Useful Things, What the Moon Saw, The World Speed Carnival, and more. Her work has also been developed or presented at venues including Exit Festival (France), Roundhouse Studio (London), Synchronicity (Atlanta), Son of Semele (LA), Roadworks (Chicago), the Hollywood Bowl, the Ojai Festival, Empty Space, Act II, Asolo Rep; and in New York at New Georges, Soho Rep, Mabou Mines/Suite, Theater for One, the Knitting Factory, Prelude, and the Public.
