Timaeus and The Teacher

An opera by Associate Professor of Art Tammy Nguyen that explores the fragile intersections of global maritime trade, migration, and freedom.

Directed and Libretto by Tammy Nguyen
Composed by Neely Bruce
Choreographed by Jamal Jackson
Commissioned by Wesleyan University’s Center for the Arts

Overview of Opera

Timaeus and The Teacher is an opera about freedom and nationhood. It follows the journey of The Teacher (performed by Brian Vu), a young Vietnamese man who is making a living teaching English to Chinese gold merchants when he attempts to flee Saigon by boat in 1977. Loosely based on Associate Professor of Art Tammy Nguyen’s father, The Teacher encounters a coterie of travelers on his journey, all of whom share his yearning for liberty. As they sail between nations, these voyagers find themselves trapped in the complexity of global maritime trade, where national identity becomes a mode of barter and trade designed to lubricate the circulation of goods while policing the migration of people. Adrift in the violence of this contradiction, The Teacher begins to question what it means to search for national belonging in a world that is steadily turning by the will of nature.

The opera is an evolution of Timaeus and the Nations, an exhibition by Nguyen originally created for the Sarasota Art Museum, which explores the “Flags of Convenience,” a common maritime practice system in which ship owners from one country can pay to fly the flag of another country, taking advantage of looser tax and labor regulations. Approximately 47 nations (the majority former colonies) have made their flags acquirable within this system. Using a mathematical contradiction borrowed from Plato’s Timaeus (a philosophy on the cosmic order), Nguyen began fractalizing the flags and anthems of these nations, combining these elements into new patterns and forms. Building on this system, John Spencer Camp Professor of Music Neely Bruce’s score for the opera features sequences that dismantle and recombine these songs of national identity, just as the borders between nations are blurred at sea. The Teacher and his companions drift through this unstable terrain, where freedom is both promised and deferred, and where the order of the cosmos collides with the messy politics of human borders.

Artist Profiles

Tammy Nguyen (Librettist and Designer, Director) creates lush paintings, drawings, artist books, prints, and ’zines that explore the intersections between geopolitics, ecology, and lesser-known histories. A story teller, Nguyen’s multidisciplinary practice takes two forms—her more traditional fine arts practice and her publishing practice, embodied through her imprint, Passenger Pigeon Press. Nguyen received a BFA from The Cooper Union in 2007, and an MFA from Yale in 2013. She was a Fulbright Fellow in 2007, and a Guggenheim Fellow in 2023. She has exhibited around the world including at the 2026 Venice Biennale In Minor Keys by Koyo Kouoh, the 2022 Berlin Biennale, and Greater New York 2021 at MOMA PS1. Her institutional solo exhibitions include the Blanton Museum of Art, ICA Boston, and the Sarasota Museum of Art. Her work is included in many institutions including Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. She serves as an Associate Professor of Art on the faculty at Wesleyan University.

Neely Bruce (Composer) is a prolific composer, pianist, conductor, and leading scholar of American music whose career spans more than five decades. His original operas include Americana, or A New Tale of the Genii (1985), Hansel and Gretel (1996), and the one-act opera Pyramus and Thisbe (1965). His most recent stage work is Flora: An Opera, an expanded version of a 1728 ballad opera. Bruce’s largest composition, Convergence (2000), was presented at Lincoln Center. As a conductor, he has led the 20th-century revival of George Bristow’s opera Rip Van Winkle and premiered several major works by Henry Brant. As a pianist, Bruce is renowned for his interpretations of American composers of the 19th and 20th centuries. He was one of the seven harpsichordists who premiered HPSCHD by John Cage and Lejaren Hiller in 1969. Bruce is the John Spencer Camp Professor of Music at Wesleyan University.

Jamal Jackson (Choreographer) is the founder of Jamal Jackson Dance Company. The company was founded with the purpose of fusing various traditional African dance styles with Modern techniques and diverse contemporary music styles to create a new, unique technique that is relevant to a multifarious community. The company's study and movement language are initiated by forming the connections between the artistic and communal practices of the Bambara, Malinke, Wasalu, and Khassonke peoples of Mali, West Africa and the traditions and histories of people in the United States. The movement and storylines of the Jamal Jackson Dance Company's work focus on redefining ideas of community and blurring divisive lines, while still celebrating the beauty of individual cultures. Their mission is to create space and empower people to actively engage in their narratives while presenting work in different communities.

Travis Fitch (Set Engineer / Architect) is a New York-based architect, artist, designer, and educator. His work explores the intersection of spatial design, traditional craft, computational geometry, and 3D printing technologies. He is a specialist in designing architectural skins. His designs have been exhibited at Cooper Hewitt, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, MFA Boston, and Mana Contemporary, and reside in the special collection of The University of Manchester. Collaborations with threeAsfour and Kaimin have appeared in New York Fashion Week and received press coverage in Vogue, Dezeen, and more. He has consulted on projects for Stratasys, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Lotus, Chanel, and Balenciaga.

Victor Khodadad (Vocal Director) is an Iranian-American tenor, and founder of New Camerata Opera, a multimedia new opera company. He has performed in regional houses such as Mississippi Opera, Connecticut Lyric Opera, Natchez Festival of Music, and Amarillo Opera. In concert, Khodadad has sung as a soloist with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, as a featured soloist at Avery Fisher Hall with National Chorale, and as the tenor soloist in “Elijah” at Hot Springs Music Festival. Khodadad recently sang in the world premiere of “Bum Phillips: All-American Opera” by Peter Stopschinski and Kirk Lynn at LaMama in New York City, the challenging role of Mr. Ford in the New York premiere of Salieri’s opera “Falstaff,” Alfredo in “La Traviata” with Taconic Opera, and Ferrando in “Così fan tutte” for Geneva Light Opera.

GRAMMY® Award-nominated tenor Brian Vu (Lead Vocalist, “The Teacher”) has been praised by The New York Times for his "focused, transparent voice, unstrained," and described as "gripping" by The Wall Street Journal. Vu is an exciting performer recognized for his vocal and dramatic abilities. Recent seasons saw Vu sing his first tenor solos in Handel’s Messiah with the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra, Alfredo in La traviata with Opera Omaha, a return to Opera in the Heights for Rodolfo in La bohème, Pvt. Danny Chen in An American Soldier at Perelman Performing Arts Center, and Jonas in Le Prophète at Bard SummerScape. Previous highlights included a return to Minnesota Opera as Bryce to mount the world premiere of Edward Tulane, a return to the Metropolitan Opera as Sergio in a new production of Fedora, and debuts with Sarasota Opera as Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Hawaii Opera Theater as Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi, and a return to the Glimmerglass Festival as the title role in Candide. Vu is a First Place Winner of the Lotte Lenya Competition, and graduate of Yale University's School of Music and UCLA.

For general inquiries or press information, contact the Center for the Arts.