Lyric Opera 2024-2025 Issue 8 - The Listeners

Lyric Opera of Chicago | 26 The group of Listeners initially gathers and finds solace. be an embodiment of her subconscious, capable of illuminating truth, or representative of latent desire. It offers a sort of ritual dance, a dance that Claire will repeat at the opera’s dénouement. Tethered to Claire, the coyote just as likely represents chaos being introduced into Claire’s existence — and, perhaps, our own. At the school where she teaches, Claire finds an unexpected connection with her student Kyle, who describes a “hard buzz” he has been hearing. Shocked, Claire — who thought she was entirely alone — finds connection, triggering the opera’s cascade of events. Kyle and Claire find their way to the charismatic Howard, his “number 2” Angela, and the Listeners. The characters are enveloped by Mazzoli’s translucent score, shimmering with her timbrel creativity and a rhythmically pulsing orchestration that is as exciting as it is cinematic. It is neither ugly nor harsh, and never quite as disturbing as a primordial humming might be. Perhaps that is part of its genius. Because so much of the opera exists in the interiority of the human psyche — in which the audience genuinely has no idea what the Listeners may or may not be hearing — it was vital that Mazzoli have a clear sense of how to portray the hum. She specifies: “I wanted the audience to know, as soon as the electronics entered, that they were hearing the hum. It has to be something different from any other sound coming out of the orchestra.” Therefore, Mazzoli recounts: “The hum is actually always depicted through electronics.” At three distinct moments in the opera, we hear electronic cues, and a soundmass that leaves nothing to the imagination. At other times, though, the orchestra creates the psychosomatic effects of the hum on the characters in the opera. This occurs as alternating rhythmic pulses in the piano and in the strings, and especially through fabulously detailed demands on the woodwinds and brass. It is evident in any number of incredible expectations of the percussionists. The suggestion is never always there. It is never even almost there. It is in a veneer of “oh” and “ah” vowels set atop the repetition of text. And maybe it is in its absence that we — as an audience of listeners — begin looking for it, begin listening for it, wondering when it will return. And in this curious not-quite-frightening waiting, our anticipation building, Mazzoli has us in her grip. At the end of the first act, the score indicates that Claire breaks the fourth wall and looks directly at the audience, inviting us onto her plane: “You hear it too?” Mazzoli’s masterful creation of the sound environment in The Listeners’ meetings is a marvel of layering. Indeed, this layering technique is evident visually, as well, through a series of pre-recorded and live-streaming video confessionals from members of the group. For the audience, this results in a three- dimensional view of the cast and set-pieces, with the layered effect of the one-dimensional broadcasting of the confessionals. Vavrek’s texts are supple and concise, providing Mazzoli everything she needs Erik Berg/Norwegian National Opera & Ballet