Blizzard Voices

In 2007, I was commissioned by Opera Omaha to work in collaboration with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Paul Moravec and U.S. Poet Laureate author Ted Kooser on an original operetta entitled ‘Blizzard Voices.’ Based upon the tragic event known as ‘the children’s blizzard’ which took place in Ord, Nebraska nearly a hundred years previously, I created a series of evocative drawings of Omaha residents, in addition to the images the poems and music brought to my mind. These images were then sequenced and projected onstage to frame the singers and bring the storm to the audience. – Watie White