The Precipice
A chamber-rock opera’s tale of ‘becoming’
SUMMARY
Weaving together text and music from journal entries, poems, voice memos, and previous works by KARL (Karl Ronneburg) and Grey Rose Grant, The Precipice is a 100-minute abstract chamber-rock opera that explores the formation of self and our relationship with moments of transition. The show asks: how do the metaphors and myths by which we construct our identity hold us back, and how do we leave behind relationships, places, and visions of self without losing the part of them that made us who we are?
MORE ABOUT THE OPERA
THE PRECIPICE is a 100-minute abstract chamber-rock opera that tells two parallel stories of becoming and self-mythologizing, from both trans/queer and cis/straight perspectives. With music and libretto by Fifth Wall Performing Arts’ co-artistic directors KARL (Karl Ronneburg) & Grey Rose Grant and direction by Corey Smith, the opera creates a singular yet kaleidoscopic journey of self-mythology through the use of journal entries and poems by KARL & Grant and distinctive movement language developed at their residency at Avaloch Farms in 2022.
"Grey sent me a number of their old pieces and fragments of musical material related to the story,” KARL says, “and I also dug through five-or-six years of my own compositions and voice memos to find musical memories to incorporate. Then, just like the text, I stitched it all together (writing a significant amount of new music along the way) to make the final score.”
The end product features KARL and Grey as vocalists in a rock/folk idiom, supported by operatic "voice doubles" – represented by vocalists Morgan Mastrangelo and Wayne Arthur – who act as the duo's narrators, conscience, and inner monologue alongside an accompanying seven-person band comprised of clarinet, piano, violin, cello, electric guitar, electric bass, and percussion. Though The Precipice is described by its creator as a "chamber-rock opera," it is truly a genre-fluid soundscape inspired by minimalism, improvisation, post-modernism, theatrical operatic gestures, prog-rock, and much more.
The “precipice” itself represents irreversible change–growing up, leaving home, and moving from past places, relationships, and visions of self. The show asks: is making ourselves a tragic act–a leap from the precipice–a great wrenching? How do the metaphors and myths by which we construct our identity hold us back? How do you leave behind a relationship, place, or self-perception without losing the part of it that made you who you are? And, finally, do we do this alone–is the formation of self an individual or collective act?
Like The Precipice, Fifth Wall Performing Arts was founded on telling intimate stories in an experimental and contemporary format. KARL states, “… if breaking the fourth wall is when a performer acknowledges the existence of the audience and the stage, then breaking the ‘fifth wall,’ as we define it, occurs when a performer stops playing a character and appears as their honest self, devoid of performative action or inflection... the future of live performance relies on just this: breaking that fifth wall, acknowledging the existence of the performers themselves as human beings… vulnerable and in need of connection as we all are.”
In Short
Created by KARL (Karl Ronneburg)
Music & Text by KARL & Grey Rose Grant
Direction, Set Design, & Costume Design by Corey Smith
Lighting by McKenna Ebert
Sound by Charles Mueller
Duration: 100 min
Instrumentation: two folk/rock vocalists, two operatic vocalists, and 7-piece chamber-rock ensemble
(cl, pno, egtr, ebass, perc, vn, vc)
Performance history:
Initially workshopped as part of Fifth Wall Performing Arts’ Avaloch Farms residency in summer 2022 and premiered on April 29-30, 2023 at the Riverside Arts Center (Ypsilanti, MI).
The full opera production was performed by Contemporaneous on June 27-28, 2024 in The Space at Irondale (Brooklyn, NY).
Booking: For booking inquiries or more information on the project, please contact us below:
Artists
KARL (Karl Ronneburg), Composer/Performer
Grey Rose Grant, Composer/Performer
