Fat Pig
Tracy Cox, soprano. Photo by Caitlin Ruby Miller.
ON-DEMAND VIEWING OF THE FILM OF FAT PIG HAS NOW ENDED.
THANK YOU TO ALL WHO ATTENDED THE PERFORMANCES IN JANUARY 2022 OR WATCHED THE FILM!
Performance license inquiries for Fat Pig can be directed to Alex Fletcher at Fletcher Artist Management: alex@fletcherartists.com
Perusal scores available upon request from the composer Matt Boehler via his website’s CONTACT page, in addition to all rental materials.
Fat Pig
WORLD PREMIERE CHAMBER OPERA BY MATT BOEHLER, COMMISSIONED BY VHO
Based on the play by Neil LaBute
Libretto & direction by Miriam Gordon-Stewart
With chamber orchestra, conducted by Kathleen Kelly
Starring Tracy Cox (Helen), Troy Cook (Tom), Sarah Wolfson (Jeannie) and Will Ferguson (Carter)
When Tom begins dating Helen, a confident plus-sized woman, he faces the taunts and judgment of his peers. In Helen, we finally see an operatic character, written specifically for a fat performer, telling of an experience that is all too common.
Adapted from the award-winning 2004 play by iconic American playwright Neil LaBute, this black comedy reveals the operatic reserves of human truth that lie beneath the surface of a workplace rom-com.
Tracy Cox (Helen), fat-activist and co-star of the popular YouTube series Angry Fat People, speaks about Fat Pig:
“Yikes – what a title. Why would I, as a self- identified fat person and activist, want to sing in an opera with such a startling title?
Because this project endeavors to tell one of the stories of the fat experience — a subject that has never before been approached in opera. This piece tells the story of a fat woman who falls in love with a man in a normative body, and the tragedy that follows when the misogyny and fatmisia of the man’s friends and colleagues prove too much for them to overcome. This is a common experience for fat people — having intimate partners who won’t take the relationship public because they are unwilling or unable to deal with the realities of the deeply ingrained fatphobia in our society.
I was frankly blown away that both the playwright Neil LaBute and Victory Hall Opera had seen the value in telling such a story.”
The VHO World Premiere of Fat Pig is sponsored by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as the Virginia Commission for the Arts, The Amphion Foundation, the Alice. M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, and a UVA Arts Enhancement Grant from the Office of the Vice-Provost for the Arts.