Screenshot.
A chamber opera.

An opera of our time.

Born out of the post-pandemic digital landscape, Screenshot tackles a contemporary issue head-on: the rise of image-based sexual abuse, objectification through social media, and the path to recovery. Emily Pedersen — who writes both music and libretto — refuses, however, the twin pitfalls of voyeurism and despair. Screenshot is neither a tombeau nor a cry: it is an opera that deliberately chooses to tell a trajectory of transformation, growth and self-determination.

Operas are full of depictions of women being abused on stage, but what sets Screenshot apart is that it never blames the women themselves. Instead, it shows how the protagonist grows through her trauma to become an independent person. — Emily Pedersen

The work is grounded in extensive documentary research: survivor testimonies, dialogues with those willing to share their experience, readings of objectification theory by Frederickson and Roberts (1979) — a seminal text revealing how social media has become a means of self-objectification for young women. To these analytical sources, Pedersen adds a major poetic influence: the style of Mary Oliver, her way of grounding the sublime in the ordinary. Pedersen distils recurring themes, identifies with characters and situations, and progressively builds a libretto where authenticity prevails.

The result is a chamber opera that is tightly drawn, frontal, yet empathetic. The short form (40 min) and the reduced ensemble — a mezzo-soprano accompanied by five musicians — match the intimacy of the subject. Percussion is augmented with electronic effects, an underground presence of the digital within the score itself. The B♭ clarinet doubles on bass clarinet, deploying a wide expressive range between fragility and threat.

Pedersen sees in Screenshot the creation of a "safe, empathetic and educational space": not just to tell, but to allow the audience — including male audiences, whom she is careful to include in the conversation — to feel and to learn. The opera reflects an artistic engagement that transcends mere "women's issues", in order to confront the essence of the problem and give people the means to drive substantial change.