''Fat Pig'' is a chamber opera by composer Matt Boehler and

librettist A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major ...

Miriam Gordon-Stewart, based on the 2004 play by

Neil LaBute Neil N. LaBute (born March 19, 1963) is an American playwright, film director, and screenwriter. He is best known for a play that he wrote and later adapted for film, ''In the Company of Men'' (1997), which won awards from the Sundance Film Fest ...

. The opera was commissioned and developed by Victory Hall Opera in 2020, and had its world premiere in

Charlottesville, Virginia Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city (United States), independent city in Virginia, United States. It is the county seat, seat of government of Albemarle County, Virginia, Albemarle County, which surrounds the ...

, in January 2022. The premiere cast featured

baritone A baritone is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the bass (voice type), bass and the tenor voice type, voice-types. It is the most common male voice. The term originates from the ...

Troy Cook (Tom),

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hertz, Hz to A5 in Choir, choral ...

Tracy Cox (Helen),

tenor A tenor is a type of male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. Composers typically write music for this voice in the range from the second B below m ...

Will Ferguson (Carter) and soprano Sarah Wolfson (Jeannie), was directed by Miriam Gordon-Stewart and conducted by Kathleen Kelly, leading the 6-piece chamber orchestra. The plot of the 100-minute opera tells the story of a witty, confident fat woman (Helen) and a man in a normative body (Tom) who fall in love, only to have their relationship challenged and eventually ruined by Tom's insecurities, expressed in the taunts and judgment of his coworkers. Tracy Cox cites ''Fat Pig'' as being "the first opera about a fat woman in a romantic lead" to be written. Composer Matt Boehler has stated that "under all the discrimination and outright cruelty...the heart of ''Fat Pig'' is a human story and...a love story."

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* * * {{Authority control 2020 operas Operas based on plays Operas based on works by American writers English-language operas Operas