At a time when the political situation in the United States can seem intractably hopeless, perhaps we could all use a bit of uplift. Or at any rate, we could use a reminder that although things have looked bleak before, some visionaries seized the moment to forge a popular resistance even in the face of daunting obstacles. And that at least one of those people still walks among us!

Dolores, a new opera by composer Nicolás Lell Benavides and librettist Marella Martin Koch that’s scheduled for its world premiere next month with West Edge Opera, promises something along these lines. It’s a musical and theatrical portrait of Dolores Huerta, the legendary labor leader and civil rights activist who co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, helped spearhead the Central Valley strikes of the 1960s and ’70s, and coined (or at least popularized) the slogan “¡Sí, se puede!”

Janis Hashe from East Bay Magazine interviews me and librettist Marella Martin Koch in preparation for the premiere of Dolores with West Edge Opera this year.

With operatic flourish, activist Dolores Huerta and younger cousin receive USC doctorates on same day

COMMENCEMENT: Hers is an honorary degree; his is a doctorate of musical arts. The conferral is a prelude to an operatic interpretation of Huerta’s remarkable life, which the composer calls “a microcosm of loss and perseverance.”

Librettist Marella Martin Koch and I were featured in an article in East Bay Magazine about our newest opera, “Dolores”, commissioned through West Edge Opera.

“West Edge Opera has commissioned composer Nicolas Lell Benavides and librettist Marella Martin Koch to write “Dolores,” an opera about the labor organizer and activist Dolores Huerta.

The piece is scheduled for a premiere in 2023…”

• Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle