The Race: an Aesop's Fables Mashup, a chamber opera with libretto by Linda Bunney-Sarhad, tells the story of the Tortoise and the Hare as their race takes them across country and into the paths of four other Aesop’s fables. We see the characters in their anxieties, their hungers, their swollen egos: in short, in their dramas. As the braggy, wisecracking Hare and the steadfast, plodding Tortoise meet a hungry bear, some angry bees, groups of anxious hares and terrified frogs, a fox, a wolf, and some sheep, they also encounter those characters’ stories until all the dramas gradually become entangled. At the end, sadder and wiser, the characters assemble at the finish line of the race to cheer the Tortoise’s victory.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, The Race was made into a film that has won 80 international film festival awards, including:

The film and graphic novel are available to stream on demand and purchase from Opera Modesto with subtitles and translations in 17 languages: Albanian/English, American Sign language/English, Chinese/English, Danish/English, English/English, Farsi/English, Finnish/English, French/English, German/English, Greek/English, Hindi/English, Italian/English, Portuguese/English, Russian/English, Spanish/English, Swedish/English, Tagalog/English, Vietnamese/English.

Opera Modesto General Director Roy Stevens writes, “Award-winning composer, Deborah Kavasch, and lyricist, Linda Bunney-Sarhad, have created a musical delight, conducted by Liisa Davila. 24-year-old director Carolina Stevens makes a stunning debut, winning Best Director laurels, with filmmaker and editor Michael Everett of The Creation Lab winning laurels for his work. Hollywood costumer Keilani Gleave creates a tapestry of charming “animal” looks combined with text embedded in the fabric, so that the characters appear to have stepped right off the page. Younger children seem to be mesmerized by the movie and watch it over and over. Older children are startled to see teens performing “opera.” Adults are amazed to see young people performing “opera” so seriously and with such obvious enjoyment. All are surprised to find themselves humming the tunes.”