Online stream produced by Boston Lyric Opera and Opera Philadelphia, premiere January 28, 2022 on operabox.tv Composer and librettist: Ana Sokolović Milica: Chabrelle D. Williams (vocal), Victoria L. Awkward (dancer) Lena: Brianna J. Robinson (vocal), Jackie Davis (actor) Danica: Maggie Finnegan (vocal), Jay Breen (dancer) Zora: Mack Wolz (vocal), Sarah Pacheco (dancer) Nada: Vera Savage (vocal), Emily Jerant-Hendrickson (dancer) Ljubica: Hannah Ludwig (vocal), Sasha Peterson (dancer) The Betrothed: Olivia Moon Director: Shura Baryshnikov Conductor: Daniela Candillari Screenwriter: Hannah Shepard Director of photography: Kathrine Castro Production designer: Ana Novačić Costume designer: Albulena Borovci Digital opera creation has been increasing steadily over the past few decades, but the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic witnessed a considerable acceleration in the production of online-only new compositions and adaptations. In 2014, Marcia J. Citron observed that “opera in medial form is a product of the general societal trend toward media convergence”:1 the now rapidly growing quantity of operas designed for digital streaming demonstrates that her predictions are bearing fruit. Recent outputs range from “digital shorts” of around five to ten minutes to episodic series and longer works. Though many predate the pandemic (and opera’s relationship with film media of course extends far longer), the makeshift online music-making that became commonplace in the past two years has yielded a wealth of novel digital operatic experiences.2 While many companies around the world focused on offering free streams of live performances from their archives of “Live in HD”-style broadcasts, North American organizations especially have been at the forefront of offering new online commissions, notably Opera Philadelphia, Boston Lyric Opera, and Los Angeles Opera. Such opera-style “shorts” include, among many others, Caroline Shaw’s We Need to Talk (2021, OP), Raehann Bryce-Davis’s Brown Sounds (2021, LA), Angelica Negrón’s The Island We Made (2021, OP), and Ellen Reid’s desert in (2021, BLO), an eight-part series. This film of Ana Sokolović’s popular opera Svadba (2011), co-produced by Boston Lyric Opera and Opera Philadelphia, offers a further twist in creating a filmed version of a contemporary work that both builds on and strikes out in different directions from existing models of opera- films and uses of multimedia in live opera.3