"Ant Queen Aria"

"Ant Queen Aria" looks to the ant colony as a means to reflect on gendered roles and social hierarchy. With original lyrics by Emma Komlos-Hrobsky, the aria depicts the transformation of a woman into an ant queen laying eggs. As the sole reproducer for the ant colony, the ant queen has the formidable task of laying twenty thousand to two hundred thousand eggs. Meanwhile, a handful of males appear fleetingly, and a half million sterile female workers— sisters of the queen—find food and tend to the young. The ant colony's division of labor prompts a reflection on gendered divisions of labor in human society and the struggle many women face when balancing family and work. "Ant Queen Aria" is scored for soprano and digital instruments played on keyboard and was composed for virtuosic musicians Lucy Fitz Gibbon and Ryan MacEvoy McCullough. The digital instruments include custom Logic Pro EXS24 Sampler percussion and "prepared piano" timbres, along with distorted Synful Orchestra synthesized sul ponticello strings. "Ant Queen Aria" is from the concert-length art science performance, The Colony, a work of multimedia opera-theater exploring sisterhood and the evolution of communication in both ants and humans. www.thecolony.show

Fig 1a.

Soprano Lucy Fitz Gibbon performs "Ant Queen Aria" in 2019.

Fig 1b.

Through shadow performance and digital animation, she transforms from a woman into a chimerical ant queen about to lay eggs. Her abdominal segments stretch apart, and her abdomen swells to accommodate the next generation growing within her.