About

“She was a fighter.  She was a politician.  She was a daughter, a wife, a mother.  She was a prime minister. She was a traditionalist.  She was an innovator.  She was a bridge builder.  She was a ceiling breaker.  She was a force of nature.  She was the first woman to lead a modern Muslim state. She was, by the definition of her name, “without comparison.”

Born into a political dynasty, Benazir Bhutto never sought a life in politics. But as the eldest child of charismatic Pakistani leader Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, she became his political heir following a military coup and his subsequent judicial assassination in 1979 by his Army Chief of Staff. “This is not the life I chose; it chose me,” she wrote.

Bhutto traces Benazir’s political awakening at her father’s side and her coming into her own as both a politician and as a woman. We witness Benazir’s ascent to power, her tragic downfall and her lasting legacy. The opera tells the story of father and daughter, of East and West, of the conflict between political responsibility and maternal love, of dictatorship and democracy, of terrorism and tolerance.”

Support

Commissioned by Beth Morrison Projects, Pittsburgh Opera, Judy & Allen Freedman, Jane A. Gross, Linda & Stuart Nelson, and the Howard & Sarah D Solomon Foundation. Supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts – ArtWorks. Being developed by Beth Morrison Projects, Pittsburgh Opera, and Lyric Theatre @ Illinois.