Guerilla Opera Presents BOVINUS REX, Now thru 5/27

Guerilla Opera closes their season with a new dark comedy, Bovinus Rex, music & libretto by Rudolf Rojahn, directed by Copeland Woodruff, scenic design by Julia Noulin-Mérat, featuring the debuts of Kimberly Soby (soprano), Amy Advocat (bass-clarinet) and Ethan Wood (violin), and returning artists Aliana de la Guardia (soprano), Patrick Massey (tenor), Brian Church (baritone), Kent O'Doherty (saxophone) and Mike Williams (percussion).
 
Bovinus Rex is approximately 40 minutes in duration, sung in English and runs Thursday–Saturday, May 24–26 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, May 27 at 2 p.m. in The Zack Box at The Boston Conservatory, 8 The Fenway, Boston, MA. Tickets for all performances are $15 general admission, $10 seniors and free for students with valid IDs; tickets can be purchased from The Boston Conservatory box office at 617-912-9222 or online at http://bostonconservatory.ticketforce.com.
 
Rojahn and Woodruff are the powerhouse duo that brought the much acclaimed 2010 production of Heart of a Dog to Boston and Memphis audiences. They team up again to present Bovinus Rex,an outrageous black comedy exploring the nature of identity and the calculus of quantifiable suffering.
 
In this contemporary spin on the ancient Oedipus story, an animal farmer in rural Ohio invents a machine to slaughter his entire herd in order to pay off his crippling debt. When his fanatic animal rights activist-daughter decides to infiltrate her father's farm, things tragically spin out of control.
 

“There is no way to live in our society with completely clean hands because the use of animals as commodities is inextricably interwoven with our societies and historical success as a species. That creates a paradigm in which everyone must decide for themselves what an acceptable amount of suffering is, a decision dictated not only by ethics but by social and financial factors as well. A large impetus for writing this story was to investigate both the beauty and danger of fanatical belief and the moral righteousness of youth; a study of how our identities are defined by the issues and beliefs we hold dear.” – Rudolf Rojahn, composer

 

The world premiere of Bovinus Rex is made possible through the generosity of Premiere Production Sponsors Timothy & Jane Gillette and The Boston Conservatory, where Guerilla Opera is an Ensemble-in-Residence.