Support Jeff Olmsted's Folk-Opera about Jonathan Edwards

Jonathan Edwards preached the most famous (and notorious) sermon in American history, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" in 1742, in Northampton, Mass, where composer Jeff Olmsted grew up. Jeff’s long-standing fascination with American religiosity led him to these characters and this story, which is both local and national.

Bombyx Center for Arts and Equity (a sanctuary for music and big ideas housed in the historic Florence Congregational Church) has a grant to support a staged reading of THE SURPRIZING WORK OF GOD.

But we need your help! We want to pay artists! We hope you will make a tax-deductible contribution to Bombyx and help get this project to the next stage. https://www.paypal.com/US/fundraiser/charity/4545139

Make sure to add a note saying SWOG (Surprizing Work of God)

Performers are our main expense; also, staff, tech and publicity.

Any amount helps! We can offer some tokens of our appreciation!

For $100-Ticket and premiere seating

For $200-2 tickets, premiere seating, thanks in program

For $500-above plus thanks on social media

For $1000-above plus thanks from stage, a Jonathan Edwards t-shirt, and a place in heaven.

Here’s the trailer: https://youtu.be/b3XBVGXLvrI?si=WSeshp6CdAWctRU2

And you can get tickets, and see more about Bombyx here: https://bombyx.live

In a staged reading, the actors are at music stands, and staging is minimal.

Directed by Claire Trivax.

ABOUT THE OPERA

Jonathan Edwards’ preaching was a primary driver of the First Great Awakening, a wave of religious fervor that swept the Connecticut Valley in the 1730’s and 40’s. Composer/playwright Jeff Olmsted shows there was more to Edwards than fire and brimstone, using Edwards’ own words in dialogue with a skeptical present. Edwards’ relationships with his extraordinary wife, his congregation (especially the young people), and with slavery are the themes of songs which also draw on colonial music sources for contemporary song-writing.

Was he a theocrat? A democrat? The last Puritan? The first Evangelical? A revolutionary Enlightenment thinker? An early New England Transcendentalist? An annoying scold best-forgotten? Let’s talk about it! And hear beautiful music!

“There shall be no string out of tune to cause any discord.” -Edwards on heaven