Missy Mazzoli’s ‘The Listeners’ portraying life in a cult gets U.S. premiere at Opera Philadelphia
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PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Missy Mazzoli received an Opera Philadelphia composing commission around the time Donald Trump first was running for president, inspiring her to settle on a sect with faithful followers as a starting point with her librettist, Royce Vavrek.
“The role of a charismatic leader in our society, the need to feel like you’re part of a tribe, part of community,” she said. “And just the idea of turning an opera chorus into a cult seemed really juicy.”
Mazzoli and Vavrek created “The Listeners,” a two-hour expose of psychological manipulation given its U.S. premiere on Wednesday night at the Academy of Music, two years after its first performances at the Norwegian National Opera. Their work portrays a school teacher who hears an unknown low-pitched hum, is alienated from her husband and daughter and finds a group of similar people that become enthralled with a leader named Paul Devon (baritone Paul Cook).
Content retrieved from: https://apnews.com/article/listeners-philadelphia-opera-mazzoli-vavrek-409853e7b65d56f0093622147e9225c4.
