Praise for A Thousand Splendid Suns

John Moore (Rasheed) and Karin Mushegain (Mariam) in A Thousand Splendid Suns. © Sunny Martini

“Haunting and beautiful, the story and music merge as one in this formidable show.” –Broadway World

Advance looks at A Thousand Splendid Suns

Read what the press has to say about Seattle Opera’s upcoming adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s acclaimed novel, which opens Saturday, February 25, 2023 at McCaw Hall. Learn more at seattleopera.org/suns.

A Thousand Splendid Suns Synopsis

Photo by Philip Newton

Music by Sheila Silver
Libretto by Stephen Kitsakos
Adapted from the novel by Khaled Hosseini

Fifteen-year-old Mariam, the cast-off bastard child of a rich father, is forced to leave her rural home after her mother’s suicide and marry a middle-aged shoemaker from Kabul named Rasheed. Alone, scared and forced to wear the burqa, something unfamiliar to her, she tries her best to be a dutiful wife but is unable to conceive a child. Consequently, she lives a loveless existence with a husband who abuses her regularly for her failure to give him a son.

A Conversation with Sheila Silver

The Composer of A Thousand Splendid Suns

Sheila Silver is an important voice in American music today. An award-winning composer, she has written for solo instruments, large orchestra, opera, and feature film. Audiences and critics praise her music as powerful, emotionally charged, accessible, and masterfully conceived. “Only few composers in any generation enliven the art form with their musical language and herald new directions in music. Sheila Silver is such a visionary.” (Wetterauer Zeitung, Germany)

 

Sheila spoke with Seattle Opera over Zoom for a chat that covered her inspirations for composing A Thousand Splendid Suns, her deep dive into Hindustani music, growing up in Seattle, and more.