OPERA
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 28, 2018
8:00 PM

Miller Theater at Columbia University
2960 Broadway, Morningside Heights, Manhattan

$40-$75

Missy Mazzoli's last opera (like this one with Royce Vavrek, master librettist of the new opera), Breaking the Waves, was stunning:  a real portent of the future of opera (and proof, if anybody needed it, of the form's continuing viability).  A lot of new opera -- the kind I personally like most, to be honest -- is so attenuated in its connection to the operatic tradition that it can seem like a whole new genre.  Breaking the Waves, however, continued a line from Janáček and Britten.  Missy Mazzoli had already established herself as one of the leading composers of her generation -- but who could have predicted she'd have such a masterly feel for music as a dramatic force?  Breaking the Waves made her seem like that rare animal, the born opera composer.  So to say that expectations are high for this, her new opera, is if anything an understatement.  That it's based on a short story by Karen Russell, many people's favorite young oddball fictionalist, addressing the toxic effects of the American desperation for individual self-advancement -- a pertinent topic if ever there was one -- is only icing on the cake.

MAKE A NIGHT OF IT:  I'll be honest:  I haven't been to Columbia Greek (the cuisine, not the frat culture) mainstay Symposium since I was attending student journalism conferences up there in high school.  At the time, I thought it was fantastic.  A lot water under the bridge since then -- but you don't stay in business since the late '60s by being bad.