The Metropolitan Opera and the English National Opera (ENO) will co-produce a world premiere production of composer Nico Muhly's first opera. With a libretto by Craig Lucas, the opera is a fictionalized story based on a true incident in which a teenager attempts to arrange his own murder via the internet. The new production, directed by Bartlett Sher, will debut at the ENO's London Coliseum in June 2011 and be presented at the Met during its 2013-14 season. The creative team includes Sher's longtime collaborators set designer Michael Yeargan and costume designer Catherine Zuber; lighting designer Donald Holder; and the acclaimed London-based video designers Fifty Nine Productions.
The opera is the first piece to be produced from the Metropolitan Opera/Lincoln Center Theater Opera/Theater Commissions program, a collaboration to foster the creation of new works. Following an ENO orchestral reading of selected scenes in London last summer and a successful workshop of the entire work in New York last fall, the Met commissioned Muhly's opera for a full production on its stage.
This co-production continues the ongoing relationship between the Met and ENO, which began in 2005 with Anthony Minghella's acclaimed staging of Puccini's Madama Butterfly, followed by a mesmerizing production of Philip Glass's Satyagraha, and the powerful Doctor Atomic by John Adams. Fifty Nine Productions created the video and projections for both Doctor Atomic and Satyagraha and also worked on the ENO's After Dido at the Young Vic theatre.
"Creating successful new operas is a daunting challenge," said Met General Manager Peter Gelb, "but hopefully we have stacked the odds in our favor with this brilliant team of composer, librettist, and director. We are looking forward to its presentation in London, and also to its debut on the Met stage."
John Berry, Artistic Director of ENO, said, "Creating a new opera with a major young composer is an exciting prospect and I am delighted that our longstanding artistic partnership with the Metropolitan Opera continues to flourish. At ENO we have a growing audience for contemporary opera and the gripping, real-life story which has inspired Nico Muhly's first opera, combined with the composer's wide range of musical influences, shows how relevant and popular opera is today."
"It's a huge thrill to be asked to write a full-sized opera for two of the most exciting houses in the world and I've been especially lucky to have been paired with Craig Lucas and Bart Sher," said composer Nico Muhly. "It's a dark and dramatic work, and Craig's libretto offers glimpses into a complex and radiantly beautiful world online: a hugely fertile source for the music."
Librettist Craig Lucas said, "To be able to share the stage with anything as numinous and magical as Nico's music is a true gift of the journey. Nico himself is a joy; he brought the story to me, so it's absolutely his baby."
"I know of no other task more difficult in any creative field than to come up with a new opera that can push the field ahead and enter the repertoire in a way that makes opera relevant and meaningful today--that's what Nico and Craig are trying to do," said director Bartlett Sher. "We are aiming high, and I couldn't be more honored to help Nico and Craig make this piece."
The Met/LCT Opera/Theater Commissions program, funded by a generous gift to the Met from the Francis Goelet Charitable Trusts, workshops new operatic and music theater works.
Nico Muhly received a Master of Music from The Juilliard School and has worked extensively with Philip Glass as editor, keyboardist, and conductor for many of his projects. His work includes orchestral pieces, premiered by the American Symphony, Chicago Symphony, and the Juilliard and Boston University Tanglewood Institute Orchestras, and the film scores for Choking Man and The Reader. In 2005, the Clare College Choir broadcast Muhly's evensong canticles live on BBC Radio 3, and New York's Saint Thomas Church commissioned and performed his Bright Mass with Canons. He has also lent his skills as performer, arranger, and conductor to other musicians, including Bjork and Antony of Antony and The Johnsons. Both of his albums, Speaks Volumes
(2007) and Mothertongue (2008), have received high acclaim.
