Upcoming Workshop Nov. 18-19

Set in contemporary Afghanistan, A Thousand Splendid Suns is an intimate and inspiring story about women living behind the veil.  It tells how the power of love enables two women to transcend and survive the horrific brutality and repression in which they live.  From different walks of life and twenty years apart, each is forced into marriage with the same troubled and cruel man. Cold to one another at first, they grow to find consolation and courage in each other as the damaged nation around them mirrors the violence and confusion of their own household.  Striving for a better life for themselves and their children, their acts of sacrifice and heroism reveal the indestructible bond of love that binds them together, like mother and daughter.

Music by Sheila Silver
Libretto by Stephen Kitsakos
based on the international best-selling novel by Khaled Hosseini

Together, The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns have sold more than 10 million copies in the United States and more than 38 million copies worldwide in over 70 countries.

Composer’s Statement: 

I wanted to write an opera about these women because I fell in love with them – their courage, their heroism, and the depth of their humanity.   As Americans awaken to the complexities of non-Western cultures, both their beauty as well as their undersides, this opera will give Western audiences an opportunity to have a deeper understanding of a country and culture that is much in the news, but which many know little about.  Audiences will discover that the human spirit can survive and transcend the most challenging of circumstances.