“Judy Haberl's sculptural sound piece, Baby Opera, consists of bronzed baby shoes arranged in the shape of a classical chorus with larger shoes (from older children) at the top. Arranged in this way, the openings of the shoes resemble open singing mouths. The sound emanating from these "mouths" range from the piercing cries of newborns to a choir of small voices. Touching, endearing, annoying, and alarming all at once, the voices and cries in Baby Opera represent the complex and conflicted relationship that people have with children.

Haberl's work also engages with themes of memory, nostalgia, and loss. A bronzed baby shoe evokes a childhood that is has most definitely passed and that is being preserved as a memory. As the artist points out, "Bronzing baby shoes has historically been a way to attempt to capture the fleeting memories of childhood by their parents. Each small bronzed shoe worn by an anonymous baby or child was electroplated with a coating of copper and sometimes other metals .... The shoes in Baby Opera span decades in age, some are from the 1800s and some are contemporary sporting shoes. They were often proudly displayed by parents on mantelpieces and cabinets like tiny time - capsules."

—Francine Weiss, “Forever Young: Representations of Childhood and Adolescence”, exhibited at the Newport Art Museum, 2020