Opera Philadelphia presents the North American premiere of The Listeners by composer Missy Mazzoli and librettist Royce Vavrek, with three performances from September 25-29. The Listeners is a thriller that examines the lengths to which we are willing to go in order to find a sense of place and purpose, and the ways in which charismatic leaders can exploit these needs to their own ends. Based on an original story by Jordan Tannahill, the story is inspired by an actual phenomenon called “the global hum.”
Co-commissioned and co-produced by Opera Philadelphia, Norwegian National Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago, The Listeners had its world premiere in Oslo in September 2022. The production is directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz, in her Opera Philadelphia debut, and conducted by Corrado Rovaris. The cast features soprano Nicole Heaston as Claire Devon, bass-baritone Kevin Burdette as Howard, baritone Troy Cook as Paul Devon, and soprano Lindsey Reynolds as Ashley Devon. The Listeners is Mazzoli and Vavrek’s fourth opera together, having previously collaborated on Song from the Uproar, Breaking the Waves, and Proving Up.
Regarding the origins of the story, Mazzoli explains: "There has to be room for stories that need to sing on their first outing into the world, so Royce and I connected with a friend of ours, Jordan Tannahill, a Canadian playwright and novelist, and we challenged him to come up with a story that had to be sonic in its first version. Jordan wrote four short treatments and one of these became The Listeners. It was just three paragraphs long, but we were struck by the story. I had been interested in writing an opera about a cult for a long time so we asked him to expand it to a seven-page story and then Royce turned it into a libretto."
The opera follows a middle-class mother living in a southwestern U.S. suburb, who begins to notice a “hum,” a high-frequency environmental noise that only a select few people can hear. These select few are called the “Listeners.” 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 destructive path.
"We decided the hum is something that comes for you when there’s an aspect in your life that you’re ignoring," continues Mazzoli. "All of these people in what becomes the cult – The Listeners – have something in their lives that they’re repressing."
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