Nico Muhly's TWO BOYS Makes North American Premiere at the Met Today

Nico Muhly's opera Two Boys has its North American premiere at the Met tiday, October 21, in a production conducted by David Robertson and directed by Bartlett Sher. The two-act opera, which features a libretto by award-winning playwright Craig Lucas, is loosely based on true events and follows a lonely detective whose investigation of a seemingly simple crime draws her into a complex web of online intrigue. Alice Coote sings the role of Detective Inspector Anne Strawson and Paul Appleby sings Brian, the 16-year-old boy at the center of her investigations. Sher's staging, a co-production with English National Opera, premiered in London in 2011.

Two Boys, set in an English industrial city in 2001, combines two story elements rarely seen on the operatic stage: a police procedural, in which a detective follows clues to unravel the truth behind an act of senseless violence, and a dramatization of the mysterious and lonely lives of those who inhabit the dark corners of the Internet.

"What was so exciting for me about this story, and what was so poignant is that we don't live in a place where there are masked balls, really, anymore," Muhly said of his inspiration for the opera. "So I thought the Internet-where you can really pretend to be another person-would actually be quite a traditional frame for an opera. I'd like to think Two Boys is both new and also very, very old."

Vermont-born Muhly, 32, is the youngest composer ever commissioned by the Met, and Two Boys is his first large-scale opera. English critics praised Two Boys as an "auspicious operatic debut" (London Independent) featuring an "exciting new musical language" (Wall Street Journal), including six distinct choruses that evoke the world of the Internet.

"The choral music in Two Boys references the ecstatic vocal music of Meredith Monk and Steve Reich-the sense of overlapping vocal patterns creating a larger architecture of meaning," Muhly said. "It's almost as if you're hearing the entire aggregate of all the things that people are saying on the Internet at once."

Sher's production uses a team of gifted theatrical collaborators to dramatize both the appealing and menacing sides of the anonymous world of the Internet. The opera has two contrasting settings: one in the concrete physical world of the police station where the detective conducts her interrogations, and one in the more abstract world of online interaction where much of the drama unfolds.

"It's a space of the imagination and of projection, and it's a private, weird corner of your existence," Sher says of the set, a system of moving towers that double as projection surfaces. "We've created a layered space in which many, many things are happening at once, in the same way you can open every window in a house, or on a computer, and simultaneously feel like we are in many places all at the same time."

Two Boys features the talents of scenic designer Michael Yeargan, costume designer Catherine Zuber, and lighting designer Donald Holder, all of whom are both veterans of previous Met productions and Tony Award winners for their work on Broadway. The 59 Productions team, well-known for projects ranging from the Met's The Enchanted Island and Satyagraha to the opening ceremonies of the 2012 London Olympics, will provide projections and animation designed to evoke the web of connections, missed and actual, that define our virtual lives. A new member of the creative team for Two Boys, added for the Met run, is the rising Israeli choreographer Hofesh Schechter in his company debut.

The new work originated in the Met/LCT New Works Program and was further developed through a series of workshops in New York and London, the most recent of which took place in fall 2012.

Muhly's chamber opera Dark Sisters, written during the same period as Two Boys, was commissioned by the Opera Company of Philadelphia, Music Theatre Group, and the Gotham Chamber Opera, and premiered in New York in the fall of 2012. He has composed a wide scope of work for ensembles, soloists, and organizations, including the American Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, countertenor Iestyn Davies, soprano Jessica Rivera, violinist Hilary Hahn, choreographer Benjamin Millepied, designer/illustrator Maira Kalman, Carnegie Hall, New York City Ballet, and Paris Opera Ballet. He is a graduate of Columbia University and The Juilliard School.

Muhly's other recent projects include the music for the current Broadway production of The Glass Menagerie and the score to the upcoming film Kill Your Darlings. His film credits include scores for Joshua (2007), Margaret (2009), and the Academy Award-nominatedThe Reader (2008), all of which have been recorded and released commercially. He has collaborated with a variety of artists, including Antony and the Johnsons, Björk, Bryce Dessner and Sufjan Stevens, Glen Hansard, Grizzly Bear, and Jónsi. Among Muhly's most frequent collaborators are his colleagues at Bedroom Community, an artist-run label headed by Icelandic musician Valgeir Sigurðsson; it launched in 2007 with the release of Muhly's first album, Speaks Volumes. In spring 2012, Bedroom Community released Muhly's three-part Drones & Music, in collaboration with pianist Bruce Brubaker, violinist Pekka Kuusisto, and violist Nadia Sirota.

Craig Lucas's plays include Prelude to a Kiss (nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award), Missing Persons, Reckless, Blue Window, God's Heart, The Dying Gaul, Stranger, This Thing of Darkness, Small Tragedy, Prayer for My Enemy, The Singing Forest, and The Lying Lesson. He also wrote the books for the musicals The Light in the Piazza (Tony nomination), Three Postcards, and the Stephen Sondheim revue Marry Me a Little. He won a New York Film Critics' Circle award for his screenplay The Secret Lives of Dentists, an adaptation of Jane Smiley's novella The Age of Grief. His other screenplay credits include the 1989 film Longtime Companion and the film adaptations of his plays The Dying Gaul and Prelude to a Kiss.

David Robertson, the Music Director of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, has championed works by contemporary composers throughout his career. He made his Met debut in 1996 conducting the company premiere of Janá?ek's The Makropulos Case. He has also led Met performances of Bizet's Carmen, Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro and Die Entführung aus dem Serail, and Britten's Billy Budd. Last year, he conducted the MET Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in a program of Mozart, Mendelssohn, and Schoenberg.

Two Boys is the fifth opera Bartlett Sher has directed at the Met, where he has staged Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann, the company premiere of Rossini's Le Comte Ory, and last season's opening night new production of Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore. He earned a Tony Award for directing South Pacific in 2008 and received Tony nominations for his Broadway productions ofGolden Boy, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Awake and Sing!, and The Light in the Piazza. Later this season, he will direct Jason Robert Brown's musical adaptation of The Bridges of Madison County on Broadway.

Mezzo-soprano Alice Coote sang Sesto in last season's new production premiere of Handel's Giulio Cesare. She made her Met debut in 2006 as Cherubino in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro. In 2007, she sang Hansel in the new production premiere of Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, a role she reprised at the Met last season. Later this fall, she will make her Met role debut as Octavian in Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier.

Tenor Paul Appleby, a graduate of the Met's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, sang the Chevalier de Force in last season's revival of Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites. He made his Met debut in 2011 as Brighella in Ariadne auf Naxos and also sang Demetrius in the world premiere of the Met's Baroque pastiche The Enchanted Island and Hylas in Les Troyens.

The cast of Two Boys also features Jennifer Zetlan as Rebecca, Caitlin Lynch as Cynthia, Sandra Piques Eddy as Fiona, Judith Forst as Anne's Mum, Christopher Bolduc in his Met debut as Jake, and Keith Miller as Peter. On November 14, English tenor Nicky Spence, who performed the role at ENO, will make his Met debut as Brian.

Michael Yeargan designed sets and costumes for the Met's current productions of Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos, Mozart's Così fan tutte,and Floyd's Susannah, and sets for Verdi's Otello, Harbison's The Great Gatsby, and Sher's productions of Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Le Comte Ory, and L'Elisir d'Amore. His 20 Broadway credits include two Tony Award-winning scenic designs, for South Pacific and The Light in the Piazza. Zuber, a five-time Tony Award winner for her work on Broadway, made her Met debut designing Il Barbiere di Siviglia and, in addition to Sher's productions of Les Contes d'Hoffmann , Le Comte Ory, and L'Elisir d'Amore, designed costumes for the Met premiere of Adams's Doctor Atomic. Donald Holder made his Met debut designing lights for Julie Taymor's production of Die Zauberflöte. His numerous Broadway credits include Tony-winning lighting design for South Pacific and The Lion King as well as designs for this season's Big Fish, The Bridges of Madison County, and Bullets Over Broadway. 59 Productions have created videos, projections, and animation for the Met productions of Satyagraha, Doctor Atomic, and The Enchanted Island, as well as the Broadway productions of Big Fishand War Horse. Israeli choreographer Hofesh Shechter's works include Uprising, The Art of Not Looking Back, Political Mother, and Sun,which will be performed this November as part of BAM's Next Wave Festival.

Two Boys Related Events and Exhibition:

A series of events will take place at the Met and around New York City, in conjunction with this Met premiere.

On Monday, October 14 at 7:30 p.m., the Guggenheim Museum's Works and Process series will host "Creating Nico Muhly's Two Boys," a preview of the opera featuring a discussion with Nico Muhly, Bartlett Sher, and David Robertson moderated by Met General Manager Peter Gelb. Three stars of Two Boys, Paul Appleby, Alice Coote, and Sandra Piques Eddy, joined by pianist Liora Maurer, will perform excerpts from the opera. The event is sold out but may be livestreamed at www.guggenheim.org/live. For more information, visit www.worksandprocess.org.

On Wednesday, October 16 at 6 pm, MetTalks, the Met's series of panel discussions related to new productions, will feature a discussion of Two Boys. Peter Gelb will moderate the conversation between Nico Muhly, David Robertson, Bartlett Sher, and Paul Appleby about bringing this new work to the Met stage. Note that this program will take place in the Bruno Walter Auditorium at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Tickets are available through the Met Guild at $20 for the general public, $15 for Met Subscribers, and $10 for Guild Members and Young Associates. MetTalks are free to all Met Patrons. To purchase tickets, call 212-769-7028 or visit www.metguild.org/lectures. Patrons may call 212-870-4502 to reserve tickets to MetTalks.

On Thursday, October 17 at 7:30 and 10 p.m., Muhly and other Met artists will perform The Met @ Le Poisson Rouge: An Evening of Britten and Muhly. The evening will explore connections between Benjamin Britten and those who came before and after, ranging from early English songs to the music of Muhly, a Britten devotee. Muhly hosts the program and will accompany countertenor Iestyn Davies in music by Britten as well as his own Four Traditional Songs. Soprano Kathleen Kim and tenor Joseph Kaiser, both of whom star opposite Davies in A Midsummer Night's Dream this fall at the Met, will perform music by Britten as well as several Purcell songs realized by Britten. Soprano Patricia Racette will sing Britten's Cabaret Songs, his colorful collaboration with W.H. Auden. For tickets or more information, visit www.lepoissonrouge.com.

Before the Friday, October 25 performance, Muhly and New Yorker staff writer Adam Gopnik will discussion the creation of Two Boysat an exclusive pre-curtain event. The discussion, which will include musical illustrations by Muhly on piano, is free for ticketholders, but reservations are strongly suggested. Email marketing@metopera.org to RSVP.

On Tuesday, October 29 at 7 p.m., The New York Public Library's LIVE from the NYPL series will present "Nico Muhly in Conversation with Ira Glass." The host of "This American Life" will join Muhly for a wide-ranging conversation about Two Boys and more. The evening will feature musical illustrations by Muhly on piano. For more information, visit www.nypl.org/live.

Through January 15, 2014, the Arnold & Marie Schwartz Gallery Met, located in the south lobby of the opera house, will feature Laurie Simmons's new exhibition Two Boys. The collection of four original photographs inspired by the opera is open to the public Mondays through Fridays from 6 p.m. to the end of the last intermission and Saturdays from noon to the end of the evening performance's last intermission. Admission is free and no appointments are required. Gallery Met is closed on Sundays. For more information on the Met's visual arts initiatives, visit www.metopera.org/gallerymet.

Two Boys Radio Broadcasts:

The October 21 opening performance will be broadcast live on Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS XM Channel 74, as will the performances on November 6 and 14. The October 21 performance will also be streamed live on the Met's website at www.metopera.org.

For more information on this season's performances of Two Boys, visit the Met's website at www.metopera.org.

Photo Credit: Matthew Murphy