TATI

“Brenn’s music bristled with keenly composed sound effects and atmospherics all borne atop a current of endearing melodicism — strings that rock like waves, a tense pulse of piano, sudden sonic contractions […] And the three singers handled his quizzical melodies with confident naturalism”

– Michael Andor Brodeur, The Washington Post

music by kyle brenn • libretto by lex brown

Maysoon, Connie, and Osvaldo are stranded inside a massive, dying, bio-engineered whale named Tati. A project of Connie's disbanded environmental fund, Tati the whale has become an unlikely home. Maysoon is nine months pregnant and due to give birth any minute. When Osvaldo finally spots a boat through Tati’s blowhole, it's a chance to escape. But is it better for Maysoon to give birth in the confinement of Connie’s “miracle whale,” or to risk the outside world, full of both danger and possibility?

chamber opera • 20”

S,S,Bass, 1+picc.1.1+bcl.1–1.1.0.0–pno.perc–1.1.1.1.1

Commissioned by Washington National Opera for the American Opera Initiative.

Premiered at The Kennedy Center, January 18, 2025.

New York premiere at Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center, January 23, 2025.