Excerpt from an interview with Deon Nielsen Price about her new opera, Ammon and the King: Immigrant Speaks Truth to Power, November 2018

By Jeannie Gayle Pool, Ph.D., musicologist, composer, and music producer, residing in Southern California.

JGP: You have written plenty of vocal music over the last fifty years, including art songs, choral works, an oratorio, and now, an opera!

DNP:  Adding the 31songs in this new opera to the ASCAP list of my vocal and instrumental works will bring the total to more than 300 titles.

JGP: Why is this story so relevant to the contemporary situation?

DNP: Today’s immigrants and refugees—all around the globe—are being vilified, persecuted, and killed. In this story, the Villagers capture the foreigner, Ammon, and debate whether they should deport him, put him in prison, or slay him. They take him to the King to decide. The King lets him stay and Ammon becomes a hero when he saves the king’s flocks and his servants. The lesson we can learn from the story is that immigrants help build the strength of our nation with their talents, perspectives, contributions, innovations, and energy. In the opera, Ammon’s strong message of peace and hope changes the hearts of many of the people—but not all of them! 

JGP: Who will be performing the premiere?

DNP: The auditions have brought us a diverse array of glorious voices, from the Bay Area, from Southern California and from the Rocky Mountains and the East Coast. Besides singers, the opera features a ballerino from the Smuin Contemporary Ballet, who choreographed and will dance the Battle Scene. The musicians in our excellent chamber ensemble are rising young San Franciscan artists.

JGP: The premiere will be Sunday, March 17, 2019, at 4 pm, at the Interfaith Center at the Presidio of San Francisco. I understand it will be a concert performance and that you will record the opera during the following week. 

DNP: Yes, admission to the performance is free but RESERVATIONS are required:Funded by donations to the Interfaith Center at the Presidio, this performance of “Ammon and the King” is a service to the community and is the first in a series of four operatic works that represent the views of Christian, Jewish, Quaker, and Hindu traditions.