Lyric Opera 2024-2025 Issue 8 - The Listeners

27 | Lyric Opera of Chicago Moulin de la Galette by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec to create seductive, mystifying scenes. One such instance is the chorus of the Listeners themselves — humming, on top of an “ahh” vowel, and the repetition of the phrase “the hum is cruel but kind” — which all combine to create a disturbing amalgam. Mazzoli creates instrumental textures within a shifting harmonic setting, occasional hypnotic repetition, and a layered sonic sphere in which electronics play a crucial role. The electronic “hum” operates as both an auditory apparition and an oppressive presence, an ambiguous force that demands interpretation, drawing individuals into a collective obsession where faith and paranoia become indistinguishable. The percussion snaps with electricity as distant warning signals. Mazzoli’s score is an animated, living force that shifts between menace and seduction, economic sparsity countered by disconcerting swells that turn disarmingly tender by measure. Her orchestration reveals a symphonist’s expertise. Associations with John Adams and even hints of Benjamin Britten have been suggested in the past. Yet there are also reverberations with Kaija Saariaho, Judith Weir, George Benjamin, Lori Laitman, Errollyn Wallen, Thomas Adès, and Peter Maxwell Davies. The score for The Listeners exhibits Mazzoli among the most preeminent at the craft of exploiting the very limits of the orchestra and what we presume it can achieve. The vocal writing is persuasive and elegant, displaying the bona fides of a singer’s opera composer. A staggering example is “Claire’s Confessional,” an aria dedicated to the originator of the role, Nicole Heaston. Her first words — “To be chosen… to be seen.” — are pregnant with all of the confusion of a wounded soul. As the aria builds, Claire realizes the power that has been dormant in her. As challenging as it is deftly sinuous, Mazzoli calls on the best instincts of her singers’ abilities in an achievement that permits both to celebrate. The Listeners underscores how the human need to find meaning — whether in myth, religion, politics, or sound itself — can give rise at once to transcendence and delusion. Here, it can even lead to gunfire. Our need for connection, belonging, and the assurance that someone really hears us may lead us on dizzying journeys of discovery, with ample risk of losing ourselves along that path. Could members of our society — our neighbors and family members — fall prey to misrepresentations and mischaracterizations? Could they lose their hold on reality? Disorientation is often incremental. Vavrek’s libretto is a study of psychological vulnerability with timeless relevance. And when someone hears us, sees us, and chooses us, even the strongest among us may accede to that pull. Calling to us, that voice — even that hum — might pierce the otherwise quiet stillness of our well-constructed world. Yet another twist in an endlessly manipulative series of patterns. The opera’s conclusion offers no concrete answers. There is only a new leader. And this one — Claire — is actually listening. She can hear. The coyote sits by Claire’s side as the new leader of the Listeners howls yet again. “Do you hear it?” Dr. Justin Vickers is Distinguished Professor of Music at Illinois State University. He is a Benjamin Britten and twentieth-century British music specialist. He is currently writing The Aldeburgh Festival: A History of the Britten and Pears Era, 1948–1986 (The Boydell Press). Fractures in the group eventually lead to trouble,even as their meetings become more and more ritualistic. Erik Berg/Norwegian National Opera & Ballet Erik Berg/Norwegian National Opera & Ballet