The Extinctionist (2024)

Produced by Heartbeat Opera
Composed by Daniel Schlosberg
Libretto by Amanda Quaid, based on her play
Originally Conceived with Louisa Proske

Directed by Shadi Ghaheri
Music Directed by Daniel Schlosberg
Starring Katherine Henley, Philip Stoddard, Claire Leyden, Eliam Ramos 

A young couple is trying to have a baby. Ice caps are melting. Forests are burning. In the face of environmental collapse, one woman wonders if the best way to protect a future child is not to have one at all. It all goes according to plan until she discovers she has little choice in the matter. In this dark comedy, a woman’s body becomes a battleground of political anguish, conflicting desire, and existential dread.

“In a tight 75 minutes, the opera deftly seesaws between extremes—Woman’s longing for motherhood and her terror about the future. […] With Woman left alone at the end and her decision made for her, her haunting contemplation of a future in which “the sidewalks will be rivers again” captured the opera’s  sorrowful ambivalence in the face of an impossible choice.” - Heidi Waleson, The Wall Street Journal

“An intimate, small-scale work—four singers, four instrumentalists, one act—that delivers a knockout punch to the audience. […] Quaid’s cinematically structured libretto, written in casual, conversational English, brings the reality of the Woman’s situation very close to home.” - Eric Myers, Opera News

“It is the tale of a woman who decides that the best way to protect the future of our endangered planet is to jettison her dream, as well as that of her husband, to have a child. It is also a tale of betrayal, which is depicted with an honesty that is as unflinching as it is unforgiving, and painful to witness. No one emerges unscathed or heroic at the end of this opera. This was a real story that hit home and transcended generational divides.” – Rick Perdian, Seen and Heard International

“[The Extinctionist] depicts a mind crumbling under the mounting catastrophes of the climate crisis; in that sense it is the inverse of sweeping dramas about apocalyptic systems […] Here, one woman (Katherine Henly, tireless in a role with equal demands on her voice and acting skills) is whisked from scene to scene, like a latter-day Wozzeck.“ - Joshua Berone, The New York Times

“Echoing the results of the climate change surrounding her, even as she questions whether it is right to bring a child into the world as it is, when the diagnosis arrives it comes with a flurry of questions of its own. These questions will linger long after the beauty of the performance is done.” – Sherri Rase, Gay City News

Katherine Henley and Eliam Ramos, by Russ Rowland