Night 1 - Silver Gilded Hand-mirror or Whispered Shell

Doors at 7:00pm

Tickets:

EARLYBIRD

$25 GA

PRESALE

$25 Student - use code STUDENT at checkout

(Valid Student ID will be requested at the door)

$25 IMSS Members Presale - use code IMSSMEMBER at checkout

(Valid IMSS Membership card will be requested at door)

$15 GA Presale

DOOR

$30 Student & IMSS Members (With valid ID & Membership Card) at Door

$35 GA at Door

“A Silver Gilded Hand-mirror or Whispered Shell” is a new opera by composer, co-directed by playwright .

Told through a series of surreal vignettes, the work takes shape as an exquisite corpse—where each fragment adds to a strange, dreamlike whole. At its core are two enigmatic figures: Dr. Giunetti (Justin D’Acci) and The Green Lady (Vim Grace Hile), joined by a shifting ensemble of characters who emerge and dissolve between them.

The libretto was crafted to accompany seven chamber pieces Asplund began at Mills College in 2020. Once composed for string quartet, this iteration reimagines the music for a motley orchestra of Chicago-based musicians, blending diverse traditions and instruments. Among them: a hand-built Rebec by Alex Yelamos, performed by Andrew Seller.

Join us for an evening where past and present, the familiar and the uncanny, converge in an operatic experiment unlike any other.

Writer and Director - Lula Asplund 

Lula Asplund is an experimental composer and Chicago-based sound artist. Her work invokes voice as object and atmosphere—dislocated, refracted, tactile. Using spectral play, vocal manipulation, and fragmented sound poetry, she enters the nonlinear logic of dream and memory. Asplund has a BFA from Mills College and has performed at Center for New Music and Audio Technologies, The Lab SF, CalArts, Elastic Arts, Bohemian National Cemetery, and Experimental Sound Studio. 

Co-director - Allegra Harvard

Allegra Harvard (b.1999) is a Chicago-based artist, playwright, director, and curator. Her recent curatorial project was Unda.m.93 with collaborator Parker Davis. Her artwork has been shown at EXPO Chicago, House of Earth, Printed Matter, Weatherproof, and the late SULK CHICAGO. Her recent productions include Credentis, which premiered in January 2025 at the First Presbyterian Church of Chicago—the manuscript published by Grunts Rare Books x Veilance August 2025—and Pani & Anu alongside Fort Knox at Schoolhouse Chicago 2025. Her upcoming co-direction will be in collaboration with Lula Asplund’s new opera, A Silver Gilded Hand-Mirror or Whispered Shell, to be premiered on October 23rd, 2025, at The International Museum of Surgical Science.

Costuming - Ben Zumbrun & Caroline Chipala

Production Manager - Lizaveta Cecilia Ivanova

Movement Advisor - Justin D’acci

Choir

Morgan Peterson

Riley McPherson

Hannah Bernhardt

Dora Hewitt

Havadine Stone

Orchestra

Amy Lang

Andrew Seller

Lee Johnson

Don Lyons

Gerrit Hatcher

Peyton Rhodes

Whitney Johnson

Esther Espino

Ensemble

Vim Grace

Justin D’acci

Dorothy Carlos

Justin D’acci

Parker Davis

Andrew or maybe levi

Jocelyn Gray

Mary Amelia

Levi Dayan

Christa Baclia-an

Vik Tomic

Sarah Cassidy

Movement Ensemble

Christa Baclia-an

Sarah Cassidy

Vik Tomic

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Host or Publisher International Museum of Surgical Science