White Snake Projects Presents
I AM A DREAMER
WHO NO LONGER
DREAMS
An Immigrant Story
September 20-22, 2019, Emerson Paramount Center, Robert J. Orchard Stage
I AM A DREAMER WHO NO LONGER DREAMS
Jorge Sosa, composer | Cerise Lim Jacobs, librettist
Commissioned by White Snake Projects
2019, Premiere by White Snake Projects, Boston, MA
2022, Resonance Works, Pittsburgh, PA
2023, Tri-Cities Opera, Binghamton, NY
2023, Syracuse Opera, Syracuse, NY
2025, Escenia Ensemble, Mexico City, Mexico
Publisher: Jorge Sosa Music
Run Time: Approx. 90 minutes without intermission
Performed in English with subtitles
Performing Forces
Rosa, Mezzo-soprano
Singa, Soprano
Prosecutor/Mother/Gangster, Soprano
Young Rosa, Child Alto or Soubrette
Young Singa
Child Soprano or Soubrette
Optional Children’s Chorus (S,A)
Reduced Orchestra:
Violin I, Violin II, cello, bass, piano, percussion.
Expanded Orchestration:
Violin I, Violin II, Viola, Cello, Bass, Piano, Percussion, Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, Trumpet, Trombone. Expanded orchestration commissioned by Resonance Works.
SYNOPSIS
Rosa, an immigration activist, is arrested in a protest and charged with felony murder when arson erupted and a firefighter died. Singa, Rosa’s court appointed attorney is the opposite of Rosa. Part of the “model minority,” she is dominated by her father and always conforms to societal expectations.
Rosa is trapped. If she rats on her fellow activists, the State will release her and deport her. If she refuses, she’ll remained locked up. As deportation becomes a reality, she agonizes over whether she would take her daughter back to Mexico or leave her in America in hopes of a better life. But who would look after her?
Highlights
Press
"Sosa’s composition is well-balanced to the story’s narrative, and his vocal writing aroused strong emotional peaks and valleys, magnified by the characters’ impassioned performances."
Kevin Baldwin, I Care if You Listen
"Sosa’s music, conducted by Maria Sensi Sellner, flowed naturally with the rhythms of speech; in one gorgeous duet early in the opera, the two main characters reminisce on the divergent lessons their mothers gave them about how to behave in their new country."
AZ Madonna, The Boston Globe
"timely, poignant, and artistically satisfying"
The Boston Musical Intelligencer
The Inspiration
I am a new American, an immigrant of ethnic Chinese origin, from Singapore.
I grew up when my country was still a British colony. My ancestors, originally from China, came to South East Asia as part of the great Chinese diaspora, in search of a better life. Then it was my family’s turn to leave to find a better life, a life without racial turmoil, or race riots and fear of Chinese communism as the British got rid of all their colonial possessions. They settled in Australia, but I continued on – to Oxford, England, then to Canada and America, sponsored by a Polish Solidarity member who had jumped ship in New York and who knew what it was like to be without a country. Immigration is in my DNA, it seeps through every pore in my body. On September 5, 2017, President Trump, with one stroke of his pen, revoked Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), upending the lives of DACA recipients—Dreamers—in the country that had become their home.
-Opera Maker CERISE LIM JACOBS
CAST
CREATIVES
Robbie Jacobs
Boston Children’s Chorus Director
Nathan Leigh
Sound Designer
Joseph Levendusky
Production Manager
Kate Johnson
Assistant Stage Manager
Julia Carey
Rehearsal Pianist
SUPPORT
This program is supported in part by a grant from the Boston Cultural Council and administered by the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture.
I Am a Dreamer Who No Longer Dreams is made possible in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
