From CBS News · · 2m
Punk rock shaped the opera composer breaking the Met's glass ceiling
Missy Mazzoli becomes the first woman to premiere an opera at the Metropolitan Opera in its 143-year history, drawing on influences from MTV and punk bands.
In brief
Missy Mazzoli becomes the first woman to premiere an opera at the Metropolitan Opera in its 143-year history, drawing on influences from MTV and punk bands. Missy Mazzoli, forty-five, becomes the first woman to have an opera premiered by the Metropolitan Opera in its one hundred forty-three year history with Lincoln…
Punk rock meets classical music
Forty-five-year-old composer Missy Mazzoli was spotted at a Mannequin Pussy concert in Brooklyn. She loves punk for being extreme, wearing its emotions on its sleeve, and expressing raw human feeling.
“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.”
First woman to premiere at the Met
Mazzoli is debuting Lincoln in the Bardo at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. She becomes the first woman to have an opera premiered by the Met in its one hundred forty-three year history.
MTV shaped her musical vision
Mazzoli's parents bought her a piano at a flea market when she was seven. She watched MTV for hours daily and played in punk bands, influences that shaped her interest in opera.
“MTV was there for me, when no one else was.”
Lincoln's grief in wartime America
Lincoln in the Bardo is based on George Saunders' novel. It tells of President Lincoln consumed with grief after his eleven-year-old son Willie died unexpectedly, visiting his body in the graveyard.
A story for divided times
Mazzoli says the opera asks big questions relevant today. The story takes place at the height of the Civil War when America is most divided, making a work set in divided America extremely relevant.
Opera explores what words cannot
Mazzoli spent time in actual cemeteries to prepare.She says opera is the way to explore difficult topics like life and death.
“For me, opera is the way to explore things that are difficult to talk about.”
Unequal expectations for women composers
Mazzoli says the industry had unequal expectations. Male creators were judged on potential, but women were asked what they had already written. Ten years ago she co-founded Luna Lab to mentor teen composers.
“With male creators, they're looking for potential. But when it come to hiring a woman, they're like, 'Oh, but she hasn't written an opera yet.'”
From the back row to the stage
Mazzoli first came to the Met at eighteen, sitting in the last row of the highest section because it was all she could afford.That seat changed her life and led to her debut premiere there.
“And it was this seat, right here, and I sat here, and it changed my life!”
The short version
Missy Mazzoli, forty-five, becomes the first woman to have an opera premiered by the Metropolitan Opera in its one hundred forty-three year history with Lincoln in the Bardo.
