SOLOperas at The Tank

~ Author: Shoshana Klein

Thursday March 20th, 2025 – This evening, I went to The Tank in Midtown (close to my office!) for a showing of solo operas in a small black box theater. Two operas were performed, both in impressive solo performances with varied skills and stories compellingly set forth forth. Other than that, they were very different experiences! 

This is not about Natalie ~ Jason Cady

The first opera followed an unsuccessful musician feeling bad about her ex-music partner who became successful and moved on from their band. The story was told by way of daily vlogs that included conversations with a puppet – performer Sarah Daniels (photo above by Reuben Radding) did a great job, singing varied types of music, sometimes accompanying herself on electric guitar, and interacting with the ventriloquist puppet (whose voice had been pre-recorded, along with some accompaniment music, which was mostly kind of synth-pop). I thought it was interesting and pretty fun that the texture of the music – including songs performed as if they were kind of indie pop or rock – were being sung operatically, which somehow on the whole worked pretty well. The piece was clever, though transparent, and well executed.

INcomplete Cosmicomics ~ Anna Heflin 

After intermission, we settled in for a piece twice the length of the first. This piece was different in most ways. Based off of/inspired by/in conversation with Calvino’s Cosmicomics (Which I came in knowing almost nothing about), the character Qwfwq spends the hour in verbal and musical conversation with the audience. There was no operatic style singing – just one performer with a cello, voice, and looper with some effects. The music often made use of the looper, with stories being told intermittently – stories that often felt like folk tales, but sometimes involved ruminations, and other times explanations. Qwfwq was in conversation with his author, and those who have written about him – Ursula K Le Guin, and some others I didn’t know – he responds in a very human way to the criticisms given to him.

Qwfwq spoke to us as the audience, directly, wearing an altered blue jumpsuit (photo above by  with patches and doodles sewn on, and wool socks. The character often had a kind of self-deprecating self awareness that was very engaging, as well as feeling friendly and approachable, though presented as fragments, or a set of thoughts.

The music used a lot of looping – including with singing and speaking voice, as well as the cello, sometimes in complicated counterpoint. The piece went through many creative sound worlds that I liked – including making use of a tray of beads with contact microphone, and lots of breathing sounds that molded from the voice to the cello almost seamlessly. 

I should have known this piece would have been great, since Anna wrote a somewhat similar solo piece for a friend of mine based on Alice and Wonderland – using voice and various effects to create something impressively textured and evocative. Prepared or not, I thoroughly enjoyed the performance, and Aaron Wolff (photo above by Reuben Radding) was an impressive interpreter – as an actor, cellist, and communicator. 

~ Shoshana Klein

(Performance photos by Reuben Radding)