White Snake Projects News
December 5, 2024
"Ever heard of an activist opera company? White Snake Projects tells new stories through old traditions"
The Berkeley Beacon features White Snake Projects’ Let’s Celebrate! holiday programming.
“Our mission is to tell new American stories of our diverse communities,” Jacobs said. “As an activist opera company, we pay special attention to composers and writers of color who may otherwise never have the opportunity to be heard.”
October 3, 2024
"Suspended Disbelief: The tech advancements shaping new operatic productions"
White Snake Projects’ cutting edge work in opera and technology is featured in the current issue of Opera America Magazine. Photo from COSMIC COWBOY.
“My audience is much younger and doesn’t have a fixed idea what opera should be,” says Cerise Jacobs, founder and artistic director of White Snake Projects, a small activist opera company in Boston that regularly weaves tech into its productions. “They’ve been raised on Netflix and video games. We need to use technology as a way to more totally engage them. This is the future.”
September 17, 2024
"Dorchester opera asks, ‘Is This America?'"
September 13, 2024
"CityLine: What does voting mean to you?"
WCVB-TV ABC CITYLINE show aired an episode featuring exclusive interview with White Snake Projects about its community outreach.
White Snake Projects’ founder, Cerise Lim Jacobs and Community Director, Andrés Ballesteros talk about Sing Out Strong: Emancipated Voices, our community song series that asks the question “what does voting mean to you?”
March 3, 2024
Boston Public Radio Live from the Boston Public Library
WGBH Radio airs live performance of White Snake Projects’ annual Let’s Celebrate! holiday series also featuring an interview White Snake Projects founder Cerise Lim Jacobs and Music Director Tianhui Ng.
November 3, 2023
"For Mary D. Watkins, activist Fannie Lou Hamer's story is operatic"
The Boston Globe previews White Snake Projects’ Is This America?
“Asked what message she hoped audiences would take home with them from the opera: ‘Vote,’
Watkins said simply. ‘We don’t like the way things are, so let’s make sure we vote.'”
September 26, 2023
"A modern take on an ancient Chinese folk tale"
PRI Radio’s THE WORLD spotlights White Snake Projects’ MONKEY: A Kung Fu Puppet Parable.
“We’re trying to embody the whole multiculturalism of American society in this piece,” she said. “As a Chinese story, it would have been easy to commission a Chinese composer to write the music because, of course, every Chinese composer knows the story of ‘Monkey.’ But we chose instead to commission Jorge Sosa, who is a Mexican American composer.”
July 5, 2023
"Artist Profile: Cerise L. Jacobs on Her Journey from Law School to Activist Opera"
The Crimson profile piece on White Snake Projects founder, Cerise Lim Jacobs.
“And that is the ultimate goal — to desegregate the performing arts in Boston — and it’s a huge lofty goal, and we have to take it one step at a time, and maybe it’s only achieved in my lifetime, but I’m sure as heck gonna try,” she said.
October 27, 2020
"Animation makes White Snake Projects’ live digital opera, Alice in the Pandemic, zing!"
Seen and Heard International’s review of Alice in the Pandemic
“And it was the visuals that elevated Alice in the Pandemic to a place where opera has never gone before, especially the animation which conveyed emotion as deftly as the music and those who performed it.”
August 12, 2024
"Leading Activist Arts Company, White Snake Projects, Premieres Is This America? Opera, September 20-22, 2024"
BOSTON, MA (8/12/24) — Celebrated for creating diverse, timely and relevant
opera, activist performing arts company White Snake Projects (WSP) and its founder Cerise
Lim Jacobs today announced the upcoming world premiere of Is This America? at Dorchester’s
The Strand Theatre from Friday, September 20, to Sunday, September 22.
May 13, 2024
"White Snake Projects Announces Opera Performances and Community Events, Sep-Dec 2024"
BOSTON, MA (5/13/24) — Celebrated for creating diverse, timely and relevant
opera, activist performing arts company White Snake Projects (WSP) and its founder Cerise
Lim Jacobs today announce the organization’s final events of 2024.
April 2, 2024
"World Premiere of White Snake Project’s Domme & Giovanni, a Modern Twist on Mozart’s Classic Opera, May 5-6"
BOSTON, MA (4/2/24) — Celebrated for creating diverse, timely and relevant
opera, activist performing arts company White Snake Projects (WSP) and its founder Cerise
Lim Jacobs today announced the group’s season-ending production of Domme & Giovanni, a
contemporary retelling of Mozart’s famous opera Don Giovanni (1787).
July 19, 2023
"Activist Opera Company, White Snake Projects, Presents World Premiere of MONKEY: A Kung Fu Puppet Parable Sep 22-24, 2023"
BOSTON, MA (7/19/23) — Celebrated for creating diverse, timely and relevant
opera, activist opera company White Snake Projects (WSP) and its founder Cerise Lim Jacobs
today announced the upcoming world premiere of MONKEY: A Kung Fu Puppet Parable on the
Robert J. Orchard Stage at Boston’s Emerson Paramount Center.
June 5, 2023
"America’s Leading Activist Opera Company, White Snake Projects, Announces 2023-24 Season"
BOSTON, MA (6/5/23) — Celebrated for creating diverse, timely and relevant
opera, activist opera company White Snake Projects (WSP) and its founder Cerise Lim Jacobs today announced its 2023-24 season comprising all original operatic works including two fully-staged operas, a quartet of holiday operas as part of its annual Let’s Celebrate! series, and two WSP’s community engagement showcases: Sing Out Strong and Show Out Boston!.