The Listeners delivers an eerie thriller that captivates from first note to last…Missy Mazzoli’s fourth opera definitively establishes her as one of the major composers of our time. - Kyle MacMillan, Chicago Sun-Times
From March 30 to April 11, Lyric Opera of Chicago presents The Listeners, a new dark comedy from the acclaimed composer-librettist duo Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek. Commissioned and produced by Opera Philadelphia, Norwegian National Opera, and Lyric Opera of Chicago, The Listeners had its world premiere in Oslo in September 2022, followed by an acclaimed and sold out run at Opera Philadelphia in 2024. In Chicago, Lileana Blain-Cruz's production again stars Nicole Heaston as Claire Devon, Kyle Ketelsen as Howard, Daniela Mack as Angela, and John Moore reprising his role as Dylan; conducted by Lyric's Music Director Enrique Mazzola.
Watch the interview with Missy Mazzoli and Nicole Heaston, where Mazzoli talks about her favorite part of creating an opera based on this contemporary story, and Heaston speaks about her character and her defining qualities.
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."
Currently on Lyric's website is a new iteration of their Creator Conversations series, currently featuring an interview with Mazzoli and Vavrek.
The Listeners tells a story of 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.
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