Queen Victoria, A Steampunk Opera

Queen Victoria’s Floating Garden of Secrets and Natural Wonders, 
and
Prometheus Petrobust, a Play within a Play

Libretto and Music by Mary Lin & Ben Sargent 
an Inventing Earth Collaboration


Preview scheduled for Sept 2010 - Annual Steampunk Convention

Fitchburg, Massachusetts just outside Boston:

see http://www.thegreatnewenglandsteampunkexhibition.com/index.html for more details.

Inventing Earth has been invited to present a scene or arias from the operetta for this international steampunk convention. We will also present a workshop on the topic.

Set on the HMS Annelid, a discovery ship in the spirit of Charles Darwin’s HMS Beagle intermarried with Jules Verne’s Nautilus, this operetta surfs 19th-century science, history, and geography in a spirited and a times salacious romp on the high seas worthy of Gilbert and Sullivan, with touches of Terry Gilliom and Euripides adding high colour. 

In this alternate future, the Thirteen Colonies have seen the error their ways and reunited with their fair queen. All of creation is “subject” to inquiry. The opera takes place during a Inspection by the Queene on the Annelid’s return from a Homeric and triumphant exploration of far-flung corners of the map, loaded down with newly discovered, exotic specimens. Pirate lasses mutiny, womenfolk can’t keep their petticoats down, contraptions impressively malfunction, and frank discussions of anatomy are all in a day’s work while in service to Her Majesty the Queen. 

The opera is currently being developed and will be produced as a workshop production of Inventing Earth. More info available at inventingearth.org.