On a recent Sunday night in Brooklyn, at a concert by the punk rock band Mannequin Pussy, we found the perhaps unlikely new face of the rarefied world of opera: 45-year-old classical composer Missy Mazzoli.Asked what she loves about punk music, Mazzoli replied, "I love that it's extreme, that it wears its thoughts and emotions and politics on its sleeve, and that it is just this raw expression of human emotion."Which sounds exactly like opera! Mazzoli is taking on one of the biggest stages in the world, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, which is debuting her latest work, "Lincoln in the Bardo." With it, she becomes the first woman to have an opera premiered by the Met in its 143-year history.Mazzoli's parents bought a piano at a flea market when she was seven.
A few years later, she was writing her own music.But it wasn't just classical; she also played in punk bands – and inspiration came from everywhere.
"MTV was there for me, when no one else was," she laughed."And I would watch MTV for hours and hours every day.
And so, I can look back to that and say like, 'Oh, my interest in opera makes a lot of sense, because I was watching Guns N' Roses or Sonic Youth, these videos that let you enter a whole different world.'""Lincon in the Bardo" is based on the novel by George Saunders, and tells the story of President Lincoln at a pivotal moment."His 11-year-old son, Willie, died very unexpectedly," Mazzoli said, "and Lincoln was just consumed with grief, and would actually go to the graveyard and visit with his son's body in the days and weeks after his death."I have no power here.And now I must accept it.My boy is gone!My boy is gone!Peaceful, resplendent, in a new form of being.Willie is dead.My dear little chap, good-bye. – From "Lincoln in the Bardo" Mazzoli says the opera asks big questions that speak to our time, too.
"This is a story that takes place at the height of the Civil War when America is at its most divided," she s...