When asked about the piece's connection to the movement in an interview with the San Francisco Classical Voice on November 17, 2018, she said "We would be writing and come up with ideas we thought would make the story more exciting.
[3][4] Prism was presented in a rolling premiere by the LA Opera's Off Grand initiative in November 2018 and at the Prototype Festival in January 2019.
Simon Williams, one of the critics who attended the premiere, described the piece as a "heady theatrical concoction that left the audience both exhilarated and confused".
Her vocal lines have inherent lyrical quality that transcends even the most horrendous emotional outbursts or the disco beat of the club.
It serves as a reminder that when women tell their own stories, when the complexity of a victim's internal experience is fully fleshed out, the result can be powerful.
The world premiere of Prism took place at REDCAT, Los Angeles, California, on 29 November 2018, commissioned by Beth Morrison Projects.
When a mysterious illness lurking outside their door leaves Bibi unable to walk, her youthful curiosity begins to simmer and a seductive external existence can no longer be ignored.
Prism, by Ellen Reid and Roxie Perkins, is a haunting, kaleidoscopic new work of opera-theatre that traverses the elasticity of memory after trauma.
Composer Ellen Reid's music erupts with color, using choral and orchestral manipulation to deliver an eerily distinct sonic world.
This soundscape, which Reid describes as “dreamy and impressionistic”, features lyrical duets between Bibi and Lumee, and the costumes (flowing white gowns), leave a haunting impression that things are too good to be true.
[9][6] The opera is scored for a 14-piece chamber orchestra, consisting of strings, harp, piano, flute, bass clarinet, horn, percussion (including vibraphone, flexatone and a SPD-SX Sampling Pad), and a chorus of 12.
[10] Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times praised Reid, saying "she evokes a world of its own through a chamber orchestra of strings, shimmering percussion, harp, piano, flute, bass clarinet and horn that becomes a maker of wonder, mystery, suspense, fear and glory ... melodies are endless and inventively transformed, the atmospheric pressure ever changing.
[11] Jim Farber in his review for San Francisco Classical Voice said "the opera treads a fine line between poetic abstraction and gut-wrenching reality ... it is Reid's exceptional score with its wide-range of musical vocabularies, and the dramatic power of Loeb and Schubert's performances that give prism its overwhelming power.
"[12] Farber also commended Reid for freely moving from "soaring melodies and rich choral harmonies to abrasive dissonance accentuated by the twittering of col legno strings and pre-recorded electronic effects".