Set in the tech-boom decadence of San Francisco in the late 1990's, the opera concerns Dean Pearsall, a failing middle-aged writer who has escaped his dreary Los Angeles life - and former wife Victoria - to house-sit in an old friend's enormous mansion overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge. It is there he loses his mind.
While trying to finish the long-awaited follow-up to his successful first novel, Dean is haunted by distractions in the empty mansion (which happens to be stocked with an ample supply of Cognac). Apparitions of his former wife Victoria begin to fray his nerves; a twenties-something club kid named Niko appears, claiming to be a friend of the house's owner; and - most distracting of all - from his window, Dean observes with growing obsession the young and beautiful wife of the dot-com millionaire in the garden next door. She seems to embody the fresh, potent energy that engendered his first successful novel, written while he was but in his early twenties, that told the love story of their marriage that has now unravelled.
Transfixed by the youth of both - the clear-eyed, energetic Niko and the radiant Neighbor - Dean fails to get any writing done. As his life spins out of control amid vain attempts to host parties and explore San Francisco nightlife, the figure of Victoria grows in importance. By the work's end, she has reasserted herself into Dean's life - though in a very surprising way.
PRIMARY ROLES
DEAN PEARSALL (tenor): a failing middle-aged writer living in L.A., well overdue to publish a follow-up to his first successful novel
VICTORIA (dramatic soprano): his estranged wife, a professor of literature, who appears primarily in the form of an apparition to Dean
THE NEIGHBOR (soprano): young and radiant wife of a dot-come millionaire, living in San Francisco's wealthy Presidio next door to the
mansion Dean house-sits
NIKO (actor): a 20-something club kid who floats through the wealthy neighbourhoods of San Francisco, crashing on the couches of anyone he can charm
SECONDARY ROLES
Club Friends, DJ, Bookstore Clerk, Audience for Book Signing, etc.
Note: The opera features electronics in association with two youthful characters. The Neighbor sings her vocalises within ambient electronic landscapes. Niko speaks in rhythm over electronica beats, and he is always followed by a wake of light, shimmering techno. The electronic part requires only a Macintosh computer, an amplifier, and a set of stereo speakers.
SETTING
The action primarily occurs in a San Francisco mansion during the tech boom of the late 1990's.