Composed by: Ricky Ian Gordon
Libretto by: Royce Vavrek
Christine Li (Gertrude Stein)
Madison Craig (Alice Toklas)
Zachary Rioux (Pablo Picasso)
Noah Grove (Ernest Hemingway)
Marcel Sokalski (Leo Stein/Man Ray)
27 is an opera that explores the relationship of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, and the salons that
they hosted at their residence at 27 rue de Fleurus in Paris. The piece uses Gertrude's own text centring
her love of art and her love for her partner Alice while also imagining her now genuine place as an
institution of art and a definer of 20th-century art and culture.
In this final scene of the opera, Gertrude contemplates life, art, and her love, Alice's presence in her life.
We end with an image of Picasso's famous painting of Gertrude, this time, with Alice added to it.