Lincoln in the Bardo

About

George Saunders’s, Booker Prize–winning novel arrives at the Met in operatic form, with music by American composer Missy Mazzoli—hailed by The New Yorker as a “once-in-a-generation magician of the orchestra”—and libretto by Royce Vavrek. The supernatural story takes place in the “bardo,” a transitional plane between the end of this life and the beginning of the next, populated by those who resist all the powers of light and darkness and refuse to accept their fates. The action revolves around 11-year-old Willie, recently deceased son of Abraham Lincoln, whose grief-stricken visits to Willie’s tomb prevent his son’s spirit from moving on. Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts an ensemble cast led by baritone Peter Mattei as Lincoln, alongside a superlative group of singers as the kaleidoscopic residents of the bardo, who band together to help Willie escape being trapped there for eternity—including soprano Christine Goerke, mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, and countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo. Director Lileana Blain-Cruz has created an otherworldly setting for one of the great literary achievements of the 21st century.