Staged workshop performance presented by Highways Performance Space on March 21 + 22, 2025

Creative Team
Creator and Composer: Elliot Menard
Director: Héctor Alvarez
Libretto: Elliot Menard (adapted from Ovid’s Metamorphoses)
Music Director: Daniel Newman-Lessler
Associate Director: Rory James Leech
Costume Designer: Ashley Kae Snyder
Lighting Designer: Claire Chrzan
Technical Director: Owen Reese
Dramaturg: Benny Pitt
Producers: Elliot Menard and Rory James Leech

Performers
Orpheus: Elliot Menard
Chorus: Nelle J. Anderson, Isabel Springer, Carmen Edano, Shannon Delijani, Karolina Kwasniak, Livia Reiner
Flute: Emma-rose Bauman
Cello: Marly Gonzalez

Press Quotes
“Umbra was something rare: an opera that felt both mythic and urgent, personal and otherworldly… 
[It] wasn’t just a promising work-in-progress. It was the birth of something electric. 
The music lingered like smoke. The staging cut deep. 
This is opera stripped of ornament, driven by instinct and imagination… 
Keep your eyes on Umbra—this piece is only just beginning its journey.” 
—Highways Performance Space

“as far as low-budget opera productions go, it’s hard to imagine it getting much better than this.” 
New Classic LA



Documentation
Photos: Angel Origgi
Video: Eli Klausner