Writer
“the narrative affect was more akin to oral storytelling than ‘traditional’ opera.” – Basil Considine, Twin Cities Arts Reader for Oshun
Jarrod Lee Librettist
Catalog of Stories
Two Corners

Composer: B.E. Boykin
Librettist: Jarrod Lee
Commissioned: Finger Lakes Opera
Premiere: 2024
Link: Opera America awards Finger Lakes Opera
Link: Two Corners in Workshop for the Public
Two Corners, composed by B.E. Boykin with libretto by Jarrod Lee, explores the evolving friendship of a Black woman, Florine, and a white woman, Sarah, during the unrest of the Civil Rights movement. Told through a series of flashbacks, Florine and Sarah reflect on their different perspectives of race, friendship, and the status quo. – Finger Lakes Opera
Split Second Life

Librettist: Jarrod Lee
Scenario: Jim Lieberthal
Commissioned: TBD
Premiere: TBD
Link: coming soon…
A deadly crisis triggers a series of events revealing truths within a triangle of love, each with different sexual orientations, exploding into a vortex of circumstances forcing consequences that transcend time and realities.
Delta King's Blues

Librettist: Jarrod Lee
Commissioned by IN Series
Premiere: 2025
Link:
Synopsis: Robert Johnson, the future Delta King of Blues, runs from embarrassment after a failed attempt to impress a woman at the local juke joint. With no response from his desperate plea for help from God, the Devil suddenly appears and offers his services instead. Robert is at a crossroad and must decide to leave the Devil and be a mediocre guitarist or accept the offer for lessons at the cost of his soul. To prove the club wrong, Robert accepts and returns as the best player of the steel stringed guitar but his success is short-lived thanks to the bargain he made at the crossroads.
American Opera Initiative

Librettist: Jarrod Lee
Commissioned by Washington National Opera (AOI)
Premiere: Jan. 2023
Link: American Opera Initiative 2022-2023 (AOI)
AOI production shots: Left to Right: Principal Conductor Evan Rogister and the Washington National Opera/KC Orchestra, Christian Simmons as Olodumare, Daniel J. Smith as Shango, Katerina Burton as Oshun and Anthony P. Ballard as Esu. Photo by Scott Suchman
Oshun is a journey of sacrifice, self-love and redemption displayed in the face of those who would deny it. From Oshun’s story we learn that, with help from those who love us well, we can believe and manifest our inner strength even in our darkest hour.

Spirit Moves
Spirit Moves

Librettist: Jarrod Lee
Commissioned by In Series, D.C.
Premiere: September 2022
Link: Spirit Moves (hosted on INvision)
Conceptual Illustration by Tommy Jackson, Graphic Design by Corinne Hayes
Spirit Moves is a community opera where partnerships can be made or strengthened through storytelling, dance, food access, call and response.
Note: to be performed in partnership with a community and local productive garden or farm. The premiere production partnered with Steamonward and provided 500 students with culturally specific seeds to plant, harvest and eat.
Synopsis: It is dinner time, and although Gladys has spent more days in the hospital than at home in the last couple of years, she is going to the community garden and pulling some potatoes to prepare a meal for her widowed son Jerry and her grandchild they affectionately call “Baby Child.” While filling her bag and sharing health updates with her neighbors and her son’s mourning of his wife Lisa, Gladys feels the spirit of her late husband Freddie. Freddie’s presence inspires Gladys to dance, and lead call and response with her community. Baby Child interrupts everything after being called bad names by other neighborhood kids, and Gladys takes this opportunity to instill her life lesson of liberating love through dancing with the Spirit as she once taught their father who has almost forgotten. Gladys must leave something (a groove) for Jerry to remember before joining Freddie and Lisa in the afterlife.
See Your Equal (will become one in an art song set)

Lyricist: Jarrod Lee
Placed 3rd in the George Shirley Competition (composition art song category)
Premiere: May 2022
Link: See Your Equal
Pianist: Dr. Kathryn Goodson
Mezzo: Mayah Paden
Text: I want to pour love into a Man unapologetically without hesitation. I want to be the clearest reflection of the work he’s put in, to being a beautiful Man, so that when he sees me he sees his
equal.
Voices of Zion

Librettist Playwright: Jarrod Lee
Commissioned by Alliance for New Music-Theatre
Premiere: May 2022, prospective remount 2023 in D.C.
Photo: Sheri Jackson and Roz White. Photo taken by Alliance for New Music Theatre
Link to info: Voices of Zion
Black Flute (adaptation/reimagined of Magic Flute)

Librettist: Jarrod Lee
Playwright: Sybil Roberts
Commissioned by IN Series, D.C.
Premiere: 2022
Link: Black Flute
YouTube Link for Pamina’s Aria “Ah, I feel” aka “Ah ich fühl’s” sung by Melissa Wimbush
Photo by IN Series from left to right: William Powell the III, Melissa Wimbish, Elise Jenkins, Kristin Young, Carl DuPont and Edward Graves
Mozart’s magical and transformational MAGIC FLUTE comes to life filmed in Washington DC’s iconic neighborhoods. A luminous version by local playwright Sybil Williams and librettist Jarrod Lee* puts new words to unforgettable music crying out that black life matters and exploring what it is to be young, Black, and gifted in opera today. – IN Series
KenYatta Rogers directs a young national cast including artists in the Cardwell Dawson Fellowship:
Carl DuPont as Papageno
Edward Graves as Tamino
Elise Christina Jenkins as Papagena/Third lady
William Powell III as Sarastro
Melissa Wimbish as Pamina/Second Lady
and Kristin Renee Young as Queen of the Night/First Lady with Jabari Exum
Music Direction by Dr. Elizabeth Hill
Directed by KenYatta Rogers, assisted by Michelle Proctor Rogers
Safiya Muthaliff, Stage Manager
Zoe Tompkins, Lighting Coordinator
Videography by DMV Productions
Journey to You

Lyricist: Jarrod Lee
Commissioned by Alliance for New Music-Theatre
Premiere: Video in 2021, LIVE 2022
Youtube Link: Journey to You
Stories That Need Your Support
Goodnight Ruby
Synopsis: Charlotte, a caretaker in a hospice home, prepares Ruby for bed while participating in Ruby’s plot to remember her first kiss. Ruby’s tactic and only weapon is a melody from her childhood, played by a carnival band one summer night under the stars.
Characters:
Samantha: A mother who is going home to take care of her son.
Ruby: A lovely lady diagnosed with Alzheimer and doesn’t care much for Samantha.
Charlotte: Her grandmother died recently.
Kandake

Librettist: Jarrod Lee
Commissioned: TBD
Premiere: TBD
Link: coming soon…
We are excited to create this remarkable story of Amanirenas and other Queens that ruled the kingdom of Kush for hundreds of years. We expect that the story will move and inspire many others also. The story we would like to tell is of Amanirenas, the one-eyed Kandake (Queen) of Kush (modern-day Sudan). Specifically we’d like to focus on creating a 20 min opera on the events preceding and following her victorious battle against Caesar Augustus, the brother-in-law to Mark Anthony and the adoptive son of Julius Caesar. The battle took place in modern-day southern Egypt at around 27BC. Strabo describes a “fierce one-eyed queen [Kandake]” capturing a series of Roman forts in southern 25 BC Egypt. Her army returned with a bronze depiction of Augustus‘ head, taken from a statue of the Roman emperor. She then buried the head of Augustus beneath the steps of a temple dedicated to victory. The head, found in Meroë in 1912, now resides in the British Museum after a British archaeological team excavation.
Thank You!
Donors toward Videography
Alexandra Christoforakis
Amy G. Kozak
Andy Oshiro
Brian J. Shaw
Chris Snowden
Colleen Daly Eberhardt
Corinne M. Hayes
Dana Morgan
David Roberts
Jasmine Wiggington
Jim Williams
Kayla Hill
Lynn Bayer
Paula Newberry
Thea Tullman