Entertainment
Missy Mazzoli’s Mesmerizing New Opera, “The Listeners”

Claire Devon, the protagonist of Missy Mazzoli’s seductively nightmarish opera “The Listeners,” is living contentedly as a suburban schoolteacher somewhere in the Southwest when she is beset by an inexplicable, inescapable sound. It is described as a “dull hum,” an “aggressive drone,” which renders daily existence intolerable. As she searches for the source of the noise, her life unravels by degrees. She develops an ill-defined, ill-fated attachment to one of her students, who also hears the hum. Her husband and her daughter move out; the school fires her. She falls in with a psychiatrist, Howard Bard, who presides over a cultish association of Listeners—people attuned to the hum. When one of them, a conspiracy theorist, fires a gun at a cell tower, the police spring into action and violence ensues. The ending is as unexpected as it is unsettling. Instead of fleeing the cult, Claire takes control of it, the hum having awakened charismatic powers within her. “We all need a family that understands us,” she intones, as Listeners crowd around her.
“The Listeners,” which had its première at the Norwegian National Opera, in 2022, and travelled to Opera Philadelphia last month, tells a familiar story of virulent environmental anxiety, in the vein of Todd Haynes’s 1995 film, “Safe.” What gives the opera peculiar potency is the way Mazzoli embeds the hum in her score, letting it represent something bigger and more pervasive than a chat-room delusion. At first, we hear a series of high-pitched, metallically ringing chords, not entirely unpleasant in character. Then, as Claire looks into the eyes of a coyote and senses chaotic energies rising within her, the hum gravitates downward, with double-basses and piano slithering across the classically diabolical interval of the tritone. Mazzoli piles unstable harmonies on top of that fractured foundation; trombone glissandos add a demonic sneer. This mesmerizing sonic shadow suggests the way sounds can alter our being and bind us into groups, for good or for ill.
In the past decade, Mazzoli, a forty-three-year-old native of Lansdale, Pennsylvania, has moved to the forefront of American opera composers. Her first effort, “Song from the Uproar” (2012), is a dreamlike portrait of the Swiss adventurer Isabelle Eberhardt. There followed “Breaking the Waves” (2016), a reshaping of the film by Lars von Trier, and “Proving Up” (2018), a harrowing tale of Nebraska homesteaders. Mazzoli has also adapted George Saunders’s novel “Lincoln in the Bardo,” which the Metropolitan Opera plans to stage in 2026. She is now composing “The Galloping Cure,” an update of Kafka’s “Country Doctor” for the opioid-epidemic era. Her librettist for all these projects has been the Canadian-born writer Royce Vavrek, who fuses gritty realism with apocalyptic fantasy.
“The Listeners” is based on an original story by Vavrek’s fellow-Canadian Jordan Tannahill, who subsequently developed the material into a novel, also called “The Listeners,” published in 2021. News reports of people hearing a low hum—in Taos, New Mexico, among other places—inspired Tannahill to create a deft sendup of digital-age paranoia and perennial mystical longings. Vavrek’s libretto, likewise, has satirical touches: there are references to Facebook Live, the dark Web, dick pics, herbal tea. But the artifice of operatic singing prospers on more elemental, mythic terrain, which Vavrek artfully supplies. “I like the wild in you, / Brings out the wild in me,” Claire sings to the coyote. “We’re not so different.” Tannahill’s novel ends with the protagonist more or less restored to normalcy. Opera, naturally, wants it darker.
Mazzoli’s score is perhaps her most original work to date. While her previous operas contain periodic reminiscences of composers from Britten to John Adams, “The Listeners” is pretty much all Mazzoli: sinuously songful vocal lines; furtively expressive instrumental solos, especially for the woodwinds; a harmonic language that finds newness and strangeness in the interstices of traditional tonality; unerring narrative pacing. Above all, Mazzoli is a once-in-a-generation magician of the orchestra. Wagner commented that in opera the orchestra should act as a medium of premonition, indicating what is foreordained but not yet foreseen. Mazzoli does this instinctively, making our hackles rise.
The Opera Philadelphia Orchestra, under the baton of Corrado Rovaris, revelled in Mazzoli’s billowing sonorities. Lileana Blain-Cruz, who directed the show, and Adam Rigg, who designed the sets, expertly summoned the opera’s modern-day settings, from Claire’s drab suburban house to the sleek desert villa where Bard preaches to his flock. At times, I wanted an edgier, spookier take on the story; the scene featuring Bard’s Facebook Live broadcast, with crass comments projected on a screen, was played too much for giggles. Kevin Burdette, who played Bard, is a brilliant comedic singer, but he could have conveyed more of the character’s pompous menace. Nicole Heaston, as Claire, delivered a vocally pristine, emotionally scouring portrayal, showing how pain and loss can evolve into cold rage.
Future productions of “The Listeners” should reveal deeper layers. In many ways, it’s an opera about music itself: Bard, molding an ensemble of hummers, resembles an imperious maestro. As the chorus takes refuge in syrupy concords, I suspected Mazzoli of satirizing contemporary choral music of the blissed-out, post-Arvo Pärt variety. She herself generates gorgeous textures, yet she does so in the knowledge that no sounds are innocent—that music can be as lethal a weapon as any in the human arsenal. “The hum is cruel but kind,” Claire sings. “We are just notes in the bigger chord.” The last thing we hear is a towering dissonance, bordering on noise.
Jeanine Tesori’s “Grounded,” which had its première at Washington National Opera last year and is now playing at the Met, aspires to the same sort of cultural currency that Mazzoli and Vavrek attain with ease. The libretto, which George Brant adapted from his play of the same name, tells of Jess, an ace F-16 pilot who is reassigned to ground duty guiding a Reaper drone. She suffers a breakdown, haunted by aerial footage of people being blown to bits. Her flannel-wearing rancher husband, Eric, consoles her with homespun wisdom. The production, by Michael Mayer, reaches for tableaux of all-American realness: a Wyoming bar with a Coors sign, a Las Vegas mall with a Cinnabon. People say “fuck” a lot.
But it all rings false. The opening scenes resemble a misbegotten “Top Gun” musical, with choristers in fighter-pilot suits swaying from side to side and holding their arms in wing formation. “You’ll never have a sweeter ride / Forever wear that suit with pride,” they sing. Jess is saddled with lines such as “My mind should be on Mosul / Not Eric” and “I’ve never been good at goodbyes.” The pacing is fitful: only toward the end of the first act does the central conflict emerge. Above all, Tesori’s facelessly eclectic approach is inadequate to the subject. In 2012, the Belgian composer Stefan Prins wrote a piece titled “Generation Kill,” which used video-game technology to dramatize the harnessing of high-tech pop culture to military brutality. No such resourcefulness is evident in Tesori’s score, which wavers between mid-century film-music heroics and sentimental lamentations, with tame avant-garde gestures popping up here and there. The mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo was tremendous in the lead role, yet the notes evaporated from the mind as soon as she sang them.
New opera is generally thriving. On the East Coast, the last week of September brought not only “Grounded” and “The Listeners” but also Meredith Monk’s “Indra’s Net,” at the Armory; Paola Prestini’s “Silent Light,” at National Sawdust; Michael Hersch’s “and we, each,” at Baltimore Theatre Project; and David T. Little’s “What Belongs to You,” at the University of Richmond. Amid the surfeit, duds are inevitable. The sad thing was to see the nation’s biggest company lagging so far in the rear. Not for the first time, the Met was outclassed by Opera Philadelphia, which operates on about one-thirtieth the budget. The hum is cruel but kind. ♦
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Chantal Andere unearths to us the main points of his persona in ‘Velvet, the brand new empire’
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Chantal Andere is greater than excited with the premiere of Velvet, the brand new empirethe difference of Telemundo From this authentic tale of Ramón Camposwhich used to be broadcast a decade in the past in Spain. With a present plot positioned in New York and a skilled forged additionally made up of Yon González, Samantha Siqueiros, Carolina Miranda, Danilo Carrera and Humberto Zurita; The sequence that may premiere on Might 19 guarantees to develop into the brand new favourite.
In an interview with HELLO! AmericasChantal Andere tells us the main points of Mrs. Blanca Moraleshis persona, and the right way to give existence to this lady stuffed with nuances is a smart problem in her occupation, as a result of it’s not the villain of historical past. As well as, he unearths how he decreed to take part on this adaptation, since he’s very fan of the unique sequence and lately that dream will come true.
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Juanes launches ‘One night time with you’, the primary unmarried from his new album
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Proprietor of a a hit profession that has deserved a large number of Grammy and Latin Grammy awards, Juanes It’s an simple reference of Latin track. His songs have turn out to be hymns of affection that remaining through the years. After razing with Day-to-day existence ExcursionExcursion that took him thru dozens of towns world wide between 2023 and 2024, the Colombian singer has introduced the improvement of his new and anticipated album: the one One night time with youa vintage love serenade with influences of various genres and cultures.
Whilst along with your album Day-to-day existence (2023), Juanes gained the popularity of complaint for his precious introspective paintings, with One night time with you The singer immerses himself in a brand new ingenious cycle wherein he presentations the evolution of his sounds whilst reaffirming thru his letters to like as the principle axis of his compositions.
The singer published that at the back of this unmarried, which he performed are living for the primary time within the emblematic Nationwide Auditorium of Mexico Town on April 5, has the musical influences of some of the biggest Soul and R&B singers on this planet, in addition to probably the most mythical rock bands and an entire technology of iconic Mexican balladists.
“In 1962, Otis Redding introduced a track referred to as Those hands of mine. I wasn’t even born, however Sebastián Krys He put the recording and impressed me instantly. Then got here a composition consultation with Edgar Barrera and the version of letters with Julio Reyestill we in any case input the find out about to supply it with Nico Cotton“Juanes mentioned concerning the inspiration at the back of her new subject matter.” The result’s One night time with youan absolutely new sound for me, which seems like a really perfect stability. It’s one thing contemporary for my track, but it surely inspires the ones antique and romantic vibes that I really like such a lot, one thing that I’ve at all times present in José José, Juan Gabriel and The Beatles, and that has impressed me deeply”, The singer shared.
The interesting paintings within the ‘one night time with you’ video clip
Juanes no longer best labored with the manufacturer Nico Cotton for One night time with youbut additionally joined Stillz To create the interesting video that accompanies the endearing lyrics of your track. The phenomenal photographer and director of Colombiastado, winner of Cannes Lion, has labored with artists comparable to Rosalia and Unhealthy Bunny.
“I relied on 100% in Stillz’s imaginative and prescient and standards, and naturally in Apple’s era. I had observed different video clips or even some quick movies created with the iPhone, and inspired me. I believe it is without doubt one of the benefits of present era, and I’m thrilled with the end result, ”mentioned Juanes about your paintings with the director and the assets they resorted to reach that memorable dream panorama wherein the video of the video is advanced One night time with you.
After all, the singer put a large number of himself within the advent of the video clip, or even took the characters in him to design and create the quilt of the one. “One thing cool of this challenge is that I’m additionally operating at the graphic section,” mentioned the singer -songwriter on his Instagram, detailing that he has taken benefit of the lengthy flight hours to try this activity. As of April 24, the album may also be heard in Spatial Audio era thru Apple Track.
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Elyfer Torres tells us about ‘It’s not that i am Mendoza’, his new collection with Vadhir Derbez
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With simply 27 years, Elyfer Torres It already has a a hit tv profession, wherein romantic comedy sticks out Betty in NY (Telemundo). And the tasks don’t finish for this proficient Mexican actress, because it lately premiered I am not Mendozaa a laugh Netflix collection wherein he labored along with his excellent good friend Vadhir Derbez. In an interview for HELLO! Americas, The younger interpreter advised us in regards to the demanding situations and finding out left via this manufacturing, in addition to her courting along with her liked spouse.
I feel that to create a personality, the very first thing to do isn’t pass judgement on it, as a result of when you pass judgement on anyone you’re developing, you already misplaced the entire race.
This collection was once recorded in Colombia and premiered on April 16, follows within the footsteps of Julián García (Vadhir), a debt collector whose lifestyles is a flip when he’s abducted and compelled to suppose the identification of Esteban Mendozaa millionaire with a dismal previous, and likewise marry a compelled wedding ceremony, regardless of having a courting past the farce.
Elyfer performs Cindy, Julian’s spouse, a girl with a character that barely is going left out. “Cindy is an overly intense girl, she is a girl who lives large. I feel she is a girl who does now not suppose, however does now not imply she is dumb, does now not take into accounts the sense that she acts, “Elyfer stocks.” In historical past, she is sort of like a villain, however she does now not come from a spot of evil, she is clinging to one thing this is now not for her and goes to do the entirety in her palms to be and get what she desires, “he provides.
The actress shared that, to a point, she felt recognized with Cindy confessed that, with this, as with different characters, she removed any form of judgment so that you could interpret it. “¿How will I be capable of empathize with anyone who am I judging? So, for me it’s to grasp the place Cindy’s movements come from, as a result of as human beings, the entirety comes from a spot, not anything is loose, ”he mirrored.
Cindy does not take into accounts it. Cindy does what his middle feels. It performs dangerous previous that occasionally. However having the ability to are living in the sort of large and loose personality gave me a superb present.
Elyfer stated that on this challenge he reaffirmed the cast friendship of years he has with Vadhir, with whom he additionally joins a specific humorousness. This closeness and complicity was once mirrored within the collection or even ended in that each may just improvise in some scenes that they recorded in combination, additionally making the most of the inventive freedom given via the director. “He’s naturally very a laugh and since we also are making comedy, we each allow us to pass and unexpectedly the director was once like: ‘Reduce, listen, some other scene of his improvisations was once made.”
“My worth isn’t in my profession … If I don’t have any challenge, not anything occurs, It’s not that i am from my profession. However that doesn’t imply that I lose like to act. I will be able to proceed appearing, even though it’s in theater, so it’s on my own in my space, even though in a gathering with buddies …”
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