Pascagoula: A Premiere Folk Opera

As a longtime lover and supporter of folk music, I wanted to compose a folk opera for some time now. I pitched the idea to our founder, Daniel Grambow, and soon learned of his own history touring the United States with a folk band and his love for the sound and history of folk music. Together, we decided to adapt the 1904 opera Madama Butterfly, the story of a Japanese geisha who marries an American naval officer and trusts him too deeply, following him to her demise. It has been adapted into other plays and the hit musical Miss Saigon, but we want to adapt it into a folk opera taking place in Pascagoula, Mississippi. There are many tall tales and legends along the Mississippi River, but while doing research I came across the legend of the Singing River. The legend goes that the Pascagoula tribe’s chieftain was in love with a Biloxi princess, who was betrothed to a Biloxi chieftain. The Biloxi and Pascagoula fought, and when it became clear that the Pascagoula tribe were going to lose, they were led by the women and children into the Pascagoula river, singing a death chant. As soon as I read this, I knew that I wanted to enrich the story of Madama Butterfly with the history of Mississippi’s indigenous people by making the heroine a native woman.

Research

I took two trips to Pascagoula: March 2017 and in July 2019. Each time I got to camp on the haunted river itself, rescued a dog, and meet with locals to hear the folklore from them personally.

WATCH THE SHOW

Below is a recording of our opening night of our development production!