I finally had a chance to experience Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s Lincoln in the Bardo at the Metropolitan Opera. An extraordinarily abundant work that mingles reflections on grief and loss with grotesque comedy and surreal spectacle. Underlying it all is a philosophical inquiry into attachment, the limits of individualism, and the possibility of enlightenment through letting go.
There’s far more I wanted to get into than space allowed for my Opera Now review, including Mazzoli’s wonderfully strange orchestral world, the role of the chorus, and and way the opera links slavery and racism to a broader awakening to the suffering of others.
Filed under: American opera, commissions, Metropolitan Opera, Missy Mazzoli, new opera, review
