Opera students in West Chester University’s (WCU) Wells School of Music (WSOM) are working overtime to bring a new opera to life.

Composed by WCU Alumna and Emerging Composer Melissa Dunphy ’09, Alice Tierney will make its regional premiere at West Chester University on Nov. 15 and 16 in the Emilie K. Asplundh Concert Hall, Philips Memorial Building (700 S. High Street, West Chester). Tickets are only $5 and are available online. Students, faculty, staff, and children under 11 enjoy free tickets (with proper I.D.).

Alice Tierney is set in Philadelphia and is based on historical events. It was originally commissioned by the Oberlin Conservatory and received a subsequent production by Opera Columbus in 2023.

Dunphy stated, “While researching the history of my new home in Philadelphia, I uncovered newspaper reports of a 45-year-old ‘dissipated woman’ named Alice Tierney who was found strangled and strung up on a fence on my property on a cold January night in 1880. Shockingly, Tierney’s death was written up by police and the press as an accident. I pledged to find a way to tell Alice’s story, which resonates in the 21st century when our culture is actively grappling with the ways in which women’s stories of trauma are silenced or minimized, especially those of vulnerable and poor women.”

Dunphy added, “What little we know about Alice is dimmed by the passage of 140 years and hampered by a lack of written records about those who lived on the fringes of society. Librettist Jacqueline Goldfinger and I opted to tell Alice’s story from the perspectives of four modern-day archeology graduate students who piece together Alice Tierney’s life while excavating the place where she lived and died. Their different perspectives show that the telling of history says just as much about the narrator as the narrative.”

Brought to life by a cast of 7, the characters in Alice Tierney include the four students and the three interpretations of Tierney as the students imagine her to be. A solo piano supplies the accompaniment.

Director of Opera Nicholas Provenzale said, “Alice Tierney is the perfect selection for our fall opera. It is accessible at only one hour in length. The music is written in English and is contemporary with influences of both rock and pop. And the characters are present-day students and very relatable. Everything about it feels fresh.”

Provenzale stated, “Also; because Melissa is local and a WCU alumna, she was available to come to campus to work with the cast. These kinds of experiences are extraordinarily helpful to student opera singers, but don’t often happen in the opera world.”

About Melissa Dunphy

Dunphy is an award-winning and acclaimed composer specializing in vocal, political, and theatrical music. She first came to national attention when her large-scale work the Gonzales Cantata, presented by the Philly Fringe in 2009, was featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, National Review, and on Fox News and “The Rachel Maddow Show,” where host Rachel Maddow described it as “the coolest thing you’ve ever seen on this show.”

Other notable works include the song cycle “Tesla’s Pigeon,” which won first place in the NATS Art Song Composition Award, and the choral work, “What do you think I fought for at Omaha Beach?” which won the Simon Carrington Chamber Singers Competition and has been performed nationally by ensembles including Chanticleer and Cantus.

In 2024, Dunphy was awarded an Independence Foundation Fellowship in the Arts. She was the recipient of a 2020 Opera America Discovery Grant for Alice Tierney, an opera commissioned by Oberlin Conservatory that premiered in 2023 at Oberlin and Opera Columbus. She has been composer-in-residence for the Immaculata Symphony Orchestra, Volti, and the Saint Louis Chamber Chorus, and her commissions include works for the BBC Proms, the BBC Singers, VOCES8, Cantus, the Mendelssohn Chorus, ACDA Eastern, the American Guild of Organists, and the Kennett Symphony. Dunphy is also a Barrymore Award-nominated theater composer and served from 2014-2023 as Director of Music Composition for the O’Neill National Puppetry Conference.

Dunphy has a Ph.D. in composition from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.M. from West Chester University and is on the Faculty at Rutgers University. She is President of the Board of Directors for Wildflower Composers and serves on the board of Lyric Fest. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband. The Dunphys are currently the Owners and Developers of the Hannah Callowhill Stage, a new performance venue in Old City Philadelphia which they hope to open in 2026, and Co-Hosts of the popular podcast The Boghouse about their adventures in Philadelphia colonial archaeology.

Alice Tierney Cast List

David Arlen (John – Wayne), James Baker (John – Doylestown), Lily Gonglik (Lyra), Anastasia Groden (Alice – Horsham), Niamh Kelly (Alice 3 – Chester Springs), Mary Kate McKenzie (Zandra – Abington), HaYoung Nam (Alice 1), Julia Webster (Quinn), Jordan Lynch (Pianist).

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