Pepito, a lonely shelter dog, misses his old family and his old life. Camila and David, young married professionals, are searching for the perfect dog. As the cracks in Camila and David's marriage deepen, Camila and Pepito form an unshakeable bond.

Commissioned by the Washington National Opera at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and first produced at the Kennedy Center during the 2018/19 season.

Nicolas Lell Benavides’ music has been praised for finding “…a way to sketch complete characters in swift sure lines…” (Anne Midgette, Washington Post) and cooking up a “jaunty score [with] touches of cabaret, musical theater and Latin dance.” (Tim Smith, OPERA NEWS). He has worked with groups such as the Washington National Opera, The Glimmerglass Festival, Nashville Opera, New Opera West, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Friction Quartet, and Nomad Session.

He was a fellow at the Eighth Blackbird Creative Lab and the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music. Nick was the first ever Young Artist Composer in Residence at The Glimmerglass Festival.
www.nickbenavides.com

Marella Martin Koch is a librettist, playwright, and director from Los Angeles now based in New York City. She received her B.A. from University of California, Berkeley and her M.F.A. from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts.

Praised for creating “complete characters in swift sure lines” (The Washington Post) and her “cleverness in constructing humor for opera” (DC Theatre Scene), in 2018 Martin Koch was selected for Washington National Opera's American Opera Initiative commission. Her one-act opera Pepito, written with composer Nicolas Lell Benavides, premiered at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 2019 and has since been performed across the country, most recently at Nashville Opera. Her forthcoming full-length opera Gilberto, also written with Benavides, has received support from The Glimmerglass Festival, New Opera West, and West Edge Opera.

In addition to Gilberto with Benavides, she is penning the libretto for a new operatic adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense & Sensibility for composer Aferdian Stephens, with whom she previously collaborated on two song cycles, Marianne Dashwood and Elinor Dashwood, commissioned by mezzo-soprano Meagan Martin and performed at UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, Yale School of Music, the National Opera Center, and the SUNY Plattsburgh Jane Austen & The Arts Conference.

She is the Founder & Director of The Rally Cat.

www.marellamartinkoch.com