Eat The Document
composed by John Glover
Libretto by Kelley Rourke
FOR YOUR
GRAMMY® CONSIDERATION
Best Opera Recording
Best Contemporary Classical Composition
"No opera is created in a vacuum, but the timing of this production and this week’s release of the recording certainly proves to be a thoughtful examination of current events as well as the ones depicted in the opera.”
— Cultural Attaché
ABOUT
LISTEN
Based on the novel by Dana Spiotta, Eat the Document is the story of two 1970s leftists, their most radical act, and the new identities their action forces them to assume. Danielle Buonaiuto and Tim Russell play the young activists alongside Amy Justman and Paul Pinto, who play the same characters’ 1990s incarnations, exploring the connections between the two eras’ activism, language, technology, and music. Recorded live at HERE during the 2025 PROTOTYPE Festival, the work is by John Glover and Kelley Rourke, developed in collaboration with Mila Henry and Kristin Marting.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
John Glover creates music for concert, opera, dance, and theater. He has received commissions from organizations and artists including Houston Grand Opera, On Site Opera, The New York Youth Symphony, Washington National Opera, Milwaukee Opera Theatre, American Conservatory Theater, Mirror Visions Ensemble, Adam Tendler, Sasha Cooke, Cherry Valley Artworks, and the Five Boroughs Music Festival. His work has been presented in venues ranging from Rockwood Music Hall to Carnegie Hall, The Invisible Dog to the Rothko Chapel. John has received awards, fellowships and grants for his music from organizations including New Music USA, Meet The Composer, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Cambodia Living Arts, Cherry Valley Artworks, and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. In addition to his work as a composer, John serves as the Director of Artistic Planning for Kaufman Music Center.
Kelley Rourke’s libretti include Eat the Document, Right Now, Lucy, and Stay (John Glover); The Beekeeper (Wang Lu); The Emissary (Kenji Oh); Jungle Book (Kamala Sankaram); Wilde Tales and And Still We Dream (Laura Karpman);Odyssey and Robin Hood (Ben Moore); A River Runs Through It (Matt Foss, Zach Redler) and O’Keeffe: Kiss the Sky (Christopher Tin). Kelley is the recipient of Opera America’s 2024 Campbell Opera Librettist Prize. Her English adaptations of canonic works have been hailed as “crackingly witty” (The Independent, London) and “remarkably well wedded to the music” (New York Times). Her work has been commissioned and performed by the Metropolitan Opera, English National Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Opera Australia, Welsh National Opera, Washington National Opera, PROTOTYPE Festival, The Glimmerglass Festival, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Opera Parallèle, Chicago Opera Theater, Minnesota Opera, Carnegie Hall, and Opera Montana, among many others.
