Mazzoli Operas - 2023

Missy Mazzoli OPERAS Song from the Uproar (2012), Breaking the Waves (2016), Proving Up (2016), The Listeners (2021)

“...savage, heartbreaking, and thoroughly original.”

The Wall Street Journal

Breaking the Waves An opera in three acts (2016) Libretto by Royce Vavrek, based on the film by Lars von Trier (Zentropa Entertainments3) Duration: 2 hours Premiere: September 2016, Opera Philadelphia

“...there’s an irresistible power at work here...”

Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle

cast

BESS McNEILL: Lyric Soprano JAN NYMAN: Baritone DODO McNEILL: Mezzo-soprano TERRY: Bass-baritone DR. RICHARDSON: Tenor MOTHER: Dramatic Soprano SADISTIC SAILOR: Bass-baritone COUNCILMAN: Bass-baritone YOUNG SAILOR: Tenor Small Chorus (Tenors and Basses/Baritones only, 12-24 singers)

orchestra

2(II:pic).2.2(II:bcl).2(II:cbn)/4.2.2.1/2perc/pf.hp/str

synopsis

Set in the Scottish Highlands in the early 1970s.

Breaking the Waves tells the story of Bess McNeill, a religious young woman with a deep love for her husband Jan, a handsome oil rig worker. When Jan becomes paralyzed in an off-shore accident, Bess’s marital vows are put to the test as he encourages her to seek other lovers and return to his bedside to tell him of her sexual activities. He insists that the stories will feel like they are making love together and keep him alive. Bess’s increasing selflessness leads to a finale of divine grace, but at great cost.

press

“It is truly rare that after the performance of an opera by a contemporary composer one thinks: WOW, I would like to see/hear that again... But on the occasion of the music theatre season opening in St. Gallen, exactly this ‘miracle’ occurred.”

— Kaspar Sannemann, Oper Aktuell “Mazzoli has produced an opera as potent as its model...”

— George Loomis, Musical America

composer note

I have never had a story sing to me like Bess McNeill’s in Breaking the Waves. Immediately upon seeing this film I felt that Bess’s crushing vulnerability, steadfast faith and shocking bravery could manifest in a refreshing and provocative new character on the operatic stage.

I imagine music that illuminates the complexity von Trier brings to his characters — a chorus of men sing a hymn that is beautiful but chilling in its austerity, Jan sings to Bess of his desires in a way that is at once tender and calculating, Bess sings a delicate melody with a turbulent and distorted accompaniment that hints at her inner rages and longings.

In creating music for Bess McNeill and her world I see an opportunity to create a new kind of heroine, and a new kind of opera that presents complex characters in an intricate and unblinking light.

— Missy Mazzoli

librettist note

I have been haunted by the story of Bess McNeill since first seeing Lars von Trier’s film in 1997. A boy of only 14, I first sat arrested by the plight of Bess, in many ways, feeling a kinship with her. I did not know then how informative the film would be, but it has sunk into my marrow, become part of my body’s chemistry, and I carry it with me as the foremost example of the power of storytelling. In Jan, Bess finds a man with whom she joins into an unbreakable covenant with God, a marriage that breaks open the floodgates of one of the most passionate romances I’ve encountered in the cinema (or any other medium, for that matter). Bess’ journey is operatic: from her unbridled commitment to Jan, to his absences that lead to her desperation, to her unquestioning willingness to put herself in harm’s way believing that her sexual sacrifices will save his life. Her story sings, and with Missy I believe that we can translate her singular narrative into an important, intoxicating work of contemporary opera.

— Royce Vavrek

Proving Up A chamber opera (2016)

“Proving Up makes for compelling listeningl.”

Steven Winn, San Francisco Classical Voice

Libretto by Royce Vavrek, based on a story by Karen Russell Premiere: January 19, 2018, American Opera Initiative Festival, Washington, DC April 13, 2018, ONE Festival, Omaha, NE Duration: 1 hour 10 minutes

cast

MILES ZEGNER: Tenor Mr. JOHANNES “PA” ZEGNER: Baritone Mrs. JOHANNES “MA” ZEGNER: Soprano TWO ZEGNER SISTERS, LITTLER and TALLER: Soprano and Mezzo-soprano The SODBUSTER: Bass-baritone PETER ZEGNER: Non-singing role

orchestra

1(pic+hca).0.1(bcl+hca).1(cbn+hca)/perc/1.1(hca).0.0/hp.pf(hpd)/str (min 1.1.1.1.1) the percussion battery includes 7 suspended acoustic guitars

synopsis

Proving Up is an opera about the American Dream, told through the story of Nebraskan homesteaders in the 1870s. A family dreams of “proving up” and obtaining the deed to the land they’ve settled. They obsessively list the requirements of the Homestead Act: five years of harvest, a sod house dwelling, and perhaps the most elusive element — a glass window.

With their eldest son incapacitated, Ma and Pa Zegner send their youngest living child Miles on a mission to share the valuable commodity with their distant neighbors who are expecting a visit from a government inspector. Miles mounts his gray mare with the window wrapped in burlap and gallops across the land. The elements, natural and otherwise, have other plans, and Miles comes face to face with a strange man who turns out to be the ghost of a neighboring farmer, driven mad by the requirements of “proving up.” The willowy figure knows all too well the cost of the American Dream, and the window soon becomes a broken mirror reflecting great tragedy.

press

“As powerful as it is bleak, it cannot leave audiences cold: You may hate it, or you may love it, but you will definitely have some reaction…

Mazzoli, certainly and happily, continues to show herself a natural opera composer: Her music responds keenly to the story’s time and place as well as to its characters’ respective journeys…”

— Anne Midgette, The Washington Post “Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s new work, the opening act of Washington National Opera’s ‘American Opera Initiative Festival’ and without a doubt the best thing it’s done all year, is a small marvel.”

— Harry Rose, Parterre Box

The Listeners An opera in two acts co-commissioned by Opera Philadelphia, Norwegian National Opera, and Lyric Opera of Chicago (2021) Libretto by Royce Vavrek, based on a story by Jordan Tannahill Premiere: September 24, 2022, Norwegian National Opera and Ballet Duration: 1 hour 55 minutes

“...a dark and psychologically charged atmosphere, where every little dramatic turn is expressed musically.”

Eystein Sandvik, NRK.no

cast

CLAIRE DEVON: Dramatic Soprano PAUL DEVON: Bass-baritone ASHLEY DEVON: Light Lyric Soprano KYLE HARRIS: Tenor HOWARD BARD: Bass-baritone ANGELA ROSE: Mezzo-soprano THOM: Baritone DILLON: Baritone COYOTE: Non-singing actor or dancer Chorus: Listeners, Claire’s students

orchestra

ensemble of Listeners (subset of Chorus): SINA: Soprano EMILY: Mezzo-soprano HORTENSE: Contralto DANICA: Soprano VINCE: Tenor BRAM: Bass-baritone Comprimario Roles: JESS: Soprano LEE ANN: Mezzo-soprano MRS. MORENO: Mezzo-soprano THERESA ALVAREZ: Soprano

2(II:pic).2.2(II:bcl).2(II:cbn)/4.2.2.1/2perc/pf.hp/str

synopsis

A middle-class mother living in a southwestern U.S. suburb notices a “hum,” a high-frequency environmental noise that only a select few people, the “Listeners,” can hear. A community organization quickly forms to solve the mystery of the hum, but when a de facto leader suggests a spiritual significance the meetings become increasingly cult-like, ritualized experiences. It becomes clear that this community of “Listeners” is on a collision course of destruction.

The Listeners examines the lengths to which we, as Americans, are willing to go in order to find a sense of place and purpose. When this collides with the realities and struggles of everyday life, dazzling and predatory leaders offering a “quick fix” can easily prey on the vulnerabilities of the lonely and lost.

Song from the Uproar The Lives and Deaths of Isabelle Eberhardt A chamber opera (2012)

Libretto by Royce Vavrek and the composer Premiere: February 2012, The Kitchen, Abigail Fischer, NOW Ensemble Duration: 1 hour 15 minutes

“It was both powerful and new.”

Heidi Waleson, The Wall Street Journal

cast

ISABELLE EBERHARDT: Mezzo-soprano SSATB Chorus

ensemble

fl(pic), cl(bcl), pf, egtr, db; electronics

introduction

Isabelle Eberhardt (1877-1904) was an explorer, nomad, journalist, novelist, passionate romantic, Sufi, and one of the most unique and unusual women of her era. At age twenty, after the death of her mother, brother and father, she left her life in Switzerland for a nomadic and unfettered existence in the deserts of North Africa. She traveled extensively through the desert on horseback, often dressed as a man, relentlessly documenting her travels through detailed journals. At age twenty-seven Isabelle drowned in a flash flood in the desert. Song from the Uproar uses texts inspired by her writing to immerse the audience in the surreal landscapes of Isabelle’s life; she describes the death of her family, the thrill of her arrival in Africa, her tentative joy at falling in love, the elation of self-discovery and the mystery of death.

press

“...in the electric surge of Ms. Mazzoli’s score you felt the joy, risk and limitless potential of free spirits unbound.”

— Steve Smith, The The New York Times

Photo by Marylene Mey

Missy Mazzoli has had her music performed by the New York Philharmonic, Atlanta Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the BBC Symphony, the Cincinnati Orchestra, the National Symphony, LA Opera, Scottish Opera, eighth blackbird, Kronos Quartet and many others. In 2018 she became one of the first two women, along with Jeanine Tesori, to receive a main stage commission from the Metropolitan Opera, and was nominated for a Grammy award in the category of Best Classical Composition. From 2018-2021 She was Composer-in-Residence at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and from 2012-2015 was Composer-in-Residence with Opera Philadelphia. Upcoming commissions include works for Opera Philadelphia, Chicago Lyric Opera, Norwegian National Opera and Third Coast Percussion. In 2016, along with composer Ellen Reid, she founded Luna Composition Lab, a mentorship program for young female, nonbinary and gender nonconforming composers. photos

Cover: Breaking the Waves at Opera Philadelphia, photo by Dominic M. Mercier Breaking the Waves at Opera Philadelphia, photo by Dominic M. Mercier Proving Up at Washington National Opera, photo by Scott Suchman The Listeners The Wave Trail, Kanab, UT, photo by Christopher Ruel

Song from the Uproar Beth Morrison Projects, photo by James Matthew Daniel

For more information contact Peggy Monastra peggy.monastra@schirmer.com, 212-254-2100

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