Met Opera's 'Lincoln in the Bardo' turns grief fantastical : NPR
The Metropolitan Opera is debuting an adaptation of George Saunders' novel 'Lincoln in the Bardo,' featuring a surreal, supernatural setting. Composer Missy Mazzoli uses unconventional elements, such as kazoos, to signal the transition between the living and the afterlife.
Why it matters
This production highlights the evolution of modern opera by incorporating fantastical literary themes and experimental musical techniques.
A new opera based on George Saunders' Booker Prize-winning novel, Lincoln in the Bardo , opens Monday evening at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. With its supernatural setting — a realm between life and the afterlife — adapting this book would appear to be a major challenge. Yet it's one the show's creators have jumped into enthusiastically.
Even before Lincoln in the Bardo starts, the audience can sense there's something spooky going on. The chandeliers and lights in the Met's vast auditorium flicker, as if possessed. The curtain rises and the audience sees a graveyard at night, with a child walking through it. Suddenly, dozens of people rise from the graves. These are ghosts, who immediately make their unearthly presence known — by playing kazoos.
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