From its beginning, opera has been an impossible art and composer Matthew Aucoin, a rising star of the opera world, posits that it is this impossibility that gives opera its exceptional power and serves as its lifeblood. The virtuosity required of its performers, the bizarre and often spectacular nature of its stage productions, the creation of a whole world whose basic fabric is music — opera assumes its true form when it pursues impossible goals.
In “The Impossible Art: Adventures in Opera,” Aucoin writes a passionate defense of what is best about opera, a love letter to the form, written in the midst of a global pandemic during which operatic performance was (literally) impossible. He also tells the story of his new opera, “Eurydice,” from its inception to its current production on the Metropolitan Opera’s iconic stage.
About the speakers:
Matthew Aucoin is an American composer, conductor, writer, and pianist, and a MacArthur Fellow. He has worked as a composer and conductor with the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, American Repertory Theater, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Music Academy of the West. He was the Los Angeles Opera’s Artist in Residence from 2016 to 2020, and is a co-founder of the American Modern Opera Company.
Peter Sellars is one of the leading theater, opera, and television directors in the world today, and has directed more than 100 productions across America and abroad. He is graduate of Harvard University and studied in Japan, China, and India before becoming artistic director of the Boston Shakespeare Company. His contemporary visions of Mozart’s operas were hailed in Boston and in Europe and televised by National Public Television. At 26, he was made director of the American National Theater at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. He is currently a professor of world arts and cultures at UCLA and specializes in 20th century opera.
Davóne Tines, Musical America’s 2022 Vocalist of the Year, is a pathbreaking artist whose work not only encompasses a diverse repertoire, from early music to new commissions by leading composers, but also explores today’s pressing social issues through work that blends opera, art song, contemporary classical, spirituals, gospel, and songs of protest, as a means to tell a deeply personal story of perseverance that connects to all of humanity. Tines is the recipient of the 2020 Sphinx Medal of Excellence in recognition of extraordinary classical musicians of color and one of Lincoln Center’s 2018 Emerging Artists.
This program, presented in partnership with Boheme Opera NJ and Princeton Friends of Opera, is made possible with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this programming do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
This event was recorded on Decembe 19, 2021.