After three years, a writer and a composer’s collaboration will debut in Sacramento

A princess falls from the sky into an unknown land. She has escaped her abusive father, but cannot remember who she is or what she seeks. Her quest for knowledge of herself and her struggle against new challenges comprise the story of “Bones of Girls,” a new opera by Ryan Suleiman and Cristina Fríes that has its world premiere this weekend in Sacramento.

“This piece has been on quite the journey,” said composer Suleiman. “It began in 2017 as a collaboration at UC Davis between the graduate music composition program and the graduate creative writing program.”

While participating in the joint venture, Suleiman encountered the written work of Fríes. Thus began a give-and-take collaboration that blossomed into “Bones of Girls.”

Ryan Suleiman grew up in Sacramento and pursued his music education at Sacramento State and UC Davis, where he is about to complete a doctorate program. He is inspired by classical avant-garde composers like Takemitsu and Messiaen and focused initially on instrumental and orchestral music rather than vocal. His response to California’s wildfire disasters, “Burning,” was performed last year by Rancho Cordorva’s Symphony d’Oro.

“I never dreamed of writing an opera,” said Suleiman. “The opportunity basically found me and I have been running with it. I’ve been learning a ton, and I’m sure my instrumental writing is benefiting as a result.”

Fríes is a 2019 graduate of UC Davis’s masters program in creative writing. Although she does not play an instrument and cannot read sheet music, she seized the opportunity to expand her boundaries.

“I wanted to learn from the experience of collaborating with another artist, and to challenge myself to write in a new way,” she said. “As a fiction writer, I’d never had the opportunity to collaborate with other artists, nor had my writing ever been performed, and it had always been a quiet dream of mine to share my work, somehow, off the page.”

“Bones of Girls” has very personal origins for Fríes. In 2016 she was a volunteer working on family farms in the vicinity of Mendoza, Argentina, where she became the object of a host’s unwanted attentions, impelling her to relocate.

“Women who find themselves in abusive situations in which they lack power are forced to run away,” said Fríes. “How many women in all of history have been left with no other choice but to run away from an abuser?”

She melded her memories of Argentina with some elements of fairy-tale writer Charles Perrault’s “Donkey Skin,” in which a princess flees her cruel father. “‘Bones of Girls’ is set not in a royal kingdom,” noted Fríes, “but in a landscape inspired by the farms that, to me, were characterized by the street dogs, dead-looking fields, and the machista [male chauvinist] men who’d hosted me in their homes.”

This world-premiere production of “Bones of Girls” is under the direction of Omari Tau of the Rogue Music Project Opera Collective, who will also give voice to one of the feral dogs who threaten the princess on her way. Kevin Doherty sings the role of The Moon. Soprano Carrie Hennessey portrays the princess, who, bereft of her memory, is called Idiot Girl. Jennifer Reason will provide musical accompaniment on keyboard. In addition, children from Musical Mayhem Productions in Elk Grove will use puppets to illustrate the action.

Both composer and librettist expect their collaboration to bear further fruit, whether they work together or with others. Suleiman sees the small-scale opera as viable in today’s straitened ecosystem for the arts.

“I think small chamber operas of around one hour and under are becoming very popular and very successful,” he said, “especially in the contemporary music world.”

While Fríes is currently concentrating on a novel in progress, she expects music to continue to be part of her literary oeuvre.

“I do intend to write more operatic pieces, plays, or films in the future,” she said. “In fact, I hope to adapt this opera into a film after its physical performance. We have such an incredible team, and I want to try my hand at telling this story through a new medium that can be readily shared with the public.”

IF YOU GO

What: “Bones of Girls” World Premiere

When: 7:30 p.m., Friday, January 24; 2:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Saturday, January 25

Where: E. Claire Raley Studios for Performing Arts, 2420 N Street, Sacramento

Price: $20

Info: www.roguemusicproject.com

This story was originally published January 21, 2020 at 2:36 PM.