Emily & Sue by Dana Kaufman

This a cappella pop opera focuses on the little-known romantic relationship between Emily Dickinson and her sister-in-law, Susan Huntington Gilbert Dickinson. Letters between Emily and Sue, as well as Emily’s poetry, document an intimate relationship that was not socially acceptable or legally recognized in 19th-century Massachusetts. The plot of Emily & Sue extrapolates from Emily and Sue’s correspondences and explores the themes of isolation, queerness, and forbidden love.

The opera premiered on June 2 and 3, 2022, at Amherst College, which owns Dickinson's home/The Emily Dickinson Museum and commissioned the work. The live version of the opera is composed for a fixed media a cappella pop trio (Iris Vocal Trio) backtrack and one live medium-high or high voice, who portrays Dickinson (a role created by Jasmine Muhammad). A film version of the opera directed by Ron Bashford, created in collaboration with Four/Ten Media and filmed in Dickinson’s actual room, will be released the same day as the album.