Meet the Composer

John Glover

Our Basic Nature, a new opera by composer John Glover and librettist Kelley Rourke, dramatizes excerpts from the memoirs of Maurice Temerlin, who writes about the experience of raising a chimpanzee named Lucy as a "human" member of his family for the first 12 years of her life. In addition to proudly relating stories of his daughter’s accomplishments, Temerlin describes and analyzes her interactions with family members, other humans, a kitten, a herd of cattle in a series of vignettes that are by turns funny, touching, perplexing, and at times disturbing.

American Opera Projects will present a workshop performance at WNYC's Greene Space. The evening will also include a pre-concert talk with composer John Glover, librettist Kelley Rourke, singer Andrew Wilkowske and music director Jocelyn Dueck, moderated by Jad Abumrad from WNYC’s RadioLab (which aired a story about Lucy). The talk will focus on the creative process of bringing Temerlin’s story to the stage. Following the performance, audience members will be encouraged to ask questions and share their reactions to the piece in questionnaires and on-line blog.