THE LISTENERS (Missy Mazzoli) Oslo 2022 Nicole Heaston, Simon Neal, Tone Kummervold, Eirik Grøtvedt
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Information on the Performance
- Work Title: The Listeners
- Composer: Mazzoli Missy
- Libretto: Royce Vavrek based on a story by Jordan Tannahill Libretto Text, Libretto Index
- Venue & Opera Company: Den Norske Opera & Ballett, Oslo, Norway
- Recorded: October 9, 2022
- Type: Staged Opera Live
- Singers: Nicole Heaston, Simon Neal, Tone Kummervold, Eirik Grøtvedt, Johannes Weisser, Frøy Hovland Holtbakk, Håvard Stensvold, Martin Hatlo, Line Tørmoen, Ingunn Kilen, Ørjan Bruskeland Hinna, Megan Gryga, Margaret Newcomb, Jeanette Goldstein, Mathea Kvalvåg-Andersen, Nora Windfeldt, Cecilie C. Ødegården, Mihai Florin Simboteanu, Anne-Marie Andersen
- Conductor: Ilan Volkov
- Orchestra: Norwegian National Opera Orchestra
- Chorus: Norwegian National Opera Chorus
- Choreographer: Raja Feather Kelly
Information about the Recording
- Published by: OperaVision
- Date Published: 2022
- Format: Streaming
- Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
- Subtitles: yessubs, ensubs, othersubs
- This Recording is NOT AVAILABLE from a proper commercial or public source
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
Program Note:
The Listeners is an opera about our desperate desire to belong, our search for community and meaning, and the power of charismatic leaders who exploit these desires.
A middle-class mother living in a southwestern U.S. suburb notices a “hum,” a high-frequency environmental noise that only a select few people, “the Listeners,” can hear. 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 collision course of destruction.
Premiering September, 2022, with the Norwegian National Opera in Oslo, NorwayThis opera examines the lengths to which we, as Americans, are willing to go in order to find a sense of place and purpose, and the way in which charismatic leaders can exploit these needs to their own ends. An enduring part of our American identity is a sense of deserved and inevitable success and happiness. When this imagined future collides with the realities and struggles of everyday life, dazzling and predatory leaders offering a “quick fix” can easily prey on the vulnerabilities of the lonely and lost.