Today in this-is-2018-WTF?! news, the Metropolitan Opera has announced several new ventures intended to draw in audiences, including commissioning women to write operas for the first time ever. Yep, that’s right: As The New York Times reports, composers Missy Mazzoli and Jeanine Tesori are “the first two women commissioned to write operas for the Met.” The performing arts organization has existed for over 130 years.
Mazzoli will create an opera based on George Saunders’ “Lincoln in the Bardo,” an experimental novel centering on Abraham Lincoln as he grieves for his deceased son, Willie. Tesori will adapt the George Brant play “Grounded” for the opera. The story sees a pregnant fighter pilot becoming involved in drone warfare.
According to the Times, the Met has only ever staged two operas from women composers, both of which were written for other companies: Kaija Saariaho’s “L’Amour de Loin” in 2016 and Ethel M. Smyth’s “Der Wald” in 1903.
Music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin and general manager Peter Gelb hope the inclusion of women’s voices, among other changes, will help grow attendance and rebuild the Met’s reputation. The org has taken a hit in the aftermath of the sexual misconduct allegations leveled against conductor James Levine, who was subsequently fired.
“This is a very strong message that I want to send,” Nézet-Séguin said of the Met’s new initiatives, “about how opera is actually for everyone. It’s an illusion to think that everyone will love it. But it’s not an illusion to try to make everyone feel welcome to it.”
Thankfully, Mazzoli and Tesori are not the only women working on projects for the Met. Next season the Met will stage “Akhnaten,” conducted by Karen Kamensek. Lear deBessonet is expected to direct an English-language production of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” featuring the Met Orchestra, at Central Park’s Delacorte Theater in summer 2020. Sarah Ruhl is adapting a libretto from one of her plays for the 2021-22 season’s “Eurydice.” The org is also developing a project with composer Jennifer Higdon.
