This is a guest post from one of our friends Jason Zencka, co-creator of VOIR Dire: The True Crime Opera. Composed by Matthew Peterson, Voir Dire is a “true crime” chamber opera based on and adapted from librettist Jason Zencka’s real-life experiences as crime reporter for the Stevens Point Journal (Wisconsin):

Hello theater lovers! I wanted to let you know about an opera that premiered last spring in Fort Worth, Texas, last spring. I wrote and revised the libretto to Voir Dire over a period of years while I worked the "cops and courts" beat at a daily newspaper in Wisconsin, and then as a criminal defense investigator in Washington, D.C. The plot of this chamber opera channel surfs through the events of a single day in a small-town Wisconsin courtroom. The Wall Street Journal called it "startlingly immediate and journalistic, as gripping as a great feature story" and Texas Classical Music described it as "nothing short of brilliant...complete with vividly drawn characters and a hauntingly eclectic score." Right now, composer Matthew Peterson and I are hustling on Kickstarter to fund an album version of this opera.

Check out the trailer for the opera here (VOIR DIRE Trailer). Donations, which will go to pay for production costs and union-rate compensation for Minnesota instrumentalists, can be made at:

VOIR DIRE KickStarter.com Campaign

Matt and I are so proud of this opera, and we'd love the chance to make this portrait of our legal system visible to more people.