The Cowgirl Opera comes to life

As the lyrics find their way to parchment, the singers and actors start to line up and the musicians come together, the opera continues to evolve and grow. Although our website is new and unfinished, we'll be adding more at the project comes to fruition.

Not just a work in progress, but a birth unfolding...

Though it's conception was almost two decades ago, the project is finding maturation in a new burst of creativity from it originator and a new group of dedicated collaborators.

Why is this an opera and not a musical?

The great American composer Leonard Bernstein said:

"The plot of an opera is driven solely by the music and libretto without breaks for dancing and play acting as in a musical.

Singing style. This Opera is sung in ”non-classical” voice i.e. folk and rock voice as apposed to operatic voice, however, the recitative voice is used, in part, in this opera to move the plot forward as in a classic opera.

"Recitative" is a style of singing in an opera or oratorio that reflects natural speech or dialogue). The sections of a libretto (text) that are sung in recitative convey the action of the story to the audience and move the plot forward. The recitative voice is used to convey emotion in the telling of the story."