The Atlanta Opera is presenting the world premiere of Water Memory (Jala Smriti), an upcoming performance to headline the New Opera Works (NOW) Festival on June 12th and 14th at Georgia Tech’s Ferst Center for the Arts. This performance explores the experience of memory through a creative lens—drawing on themes of family, connection, and the shifting nature of identity, as well as the emerging relationship between technology and dementia care. Vaibu Mohan, our librettist, constructed this story and its musical soundscape to center South Asian music, dance, and cultural storytelling.

This new opera is written by two visionary women who have each served as care partners for beloved family members living with dementia and Parkinson’s disease. Their personal journeys have been channeled into this contemporary operatic soundscape that focuses on (carefully and with intention) immersing audiences in the evolving dialogue between two siblings as they navigate decisions surrounding the care of their aging mother.