Mirror, Mirror

Mirror, Mirror is a mini-opera based on the Grimm fairy tale Snow White. This story uses the Snow White/Evil Stepmother template to look at how women and their relationships with one another are affected by external pressure to be forever young and beautiful. In the piece, the loving Mother Queen is transformed into the Evil Queen, triggered in part by her own obsession with her looks and how she is perceived, and in part by her daughter Snow White’s transformation from a child into a beautiful young woman. Snow White, meanwhile, in absorbing her mother’s messages about the paramount importance of beauty, is in turn destined to become an Evil Queen in her own right.

This 15-minute work was originally written for solo voice and electronics. It was created for and premièred by Janice Jackson in 2012. In 2016, Essential Opera programmed it for our “She’s The One” production, where Anna adapted it for two voices and was then recorded on October 28, 2020 by Essential Opera co-founders and co-Artistic Directors Erin Bardua and Maureen Batt.