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FESTIVALFOCUS | YOUR WEEKLY CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE
MONDAY, JULY 29, 2019
Supplement to The Aspen Times
Mazzoli’s chamber opera Proving Up examines American Dream JESSICA CABE Festival Focus Writer
Like many artists, composer Missy Mazzoli has always sought a way to explore the American Dream through her
The opera centers around a family caught up in the idea
sense of our lives,
that they can pull themselves up by their bootstraps, but
and that’s the role of
then fate intervenes. The work is a clear fit for the AMFS’s
opera; that’s the role
season theme, “Being American.”
of art.”
work. It’s a concept that has captured audiences of vari-
“What Missy is able to capture are the trials and tribula-
ous artforms for centuries, and Aspen Music Festival and
tions of an American family settling that part of the country,
present at the per-
School (AMFS) audiences will have the chance to explore
Mazzoli
will
be
in Nebraska,” says Asadour Santourian, AMFS vice presi-
formance, featuring
the idea of the American Dream at 7:30
dent for artistic administration
singers of the Aspen
pm on Tuesday, July 30, in Harris Concert
and artistic advisor. “Some-
Opera Center, both
times even when they settled,
to answer the musi-
they didn’t necessarily survive
cians’
the elements. What is stunning
and to put a face
about this work is her ability
to the music for
to narrow on this experience
audiences—a rare treat when so many classical programs
of the family collectively and
are dominated by composers who are no longer alive.
Hall, during a performance of Mazzoli’s new chamber opera, Proving Up. Proving Up is a 2017 work co-commissioned by Washington National Opera, Opera Omaha, and Miller Theatre at Columbia University, and it is based on the
“We want to make sense of our lives, and that’s the role of opera; that’s the role of art.”
short story of the same name by Karen Russell. The work tells the tale of the 1860s
Missy Mazzoli Composer
individually and to capture the ethos and the pathos of
frontier, where families struggle in pursuit
their situation individually and
of the American Dream. The story is full of
collectively.”
passion, hope, and heartbreak, with themes of fate, destiny, good, and evil. “I had for a long time wanted to write an opera about the
questions
Students of the Aspen Opera Center will present American composer Missy Mazzoli’s (pictured) chamber opera Proving Up on July 30.
“I like to show up,” she says. “I think it’s important for living composers to show up in front of audiences.” In addition to overseeing final rehearsals of Proving Up and being present for the performance, Mazzoli will also
Mazzoli says we are in the
speak to students in the AMFS’s Susan and Ford Schumann
midst of a golden age for opera, and much of the great
Center for Composition Studies. She says it’s important to
works by living composers are coming from America.
continue fostering great composers, especially now.
origins of the American Dream, but I didn’t know how to do
“Opera was dominated for centuries by the western
“We’re in a real golden age for composing opera,” she
that in a way that wasn’t heavy handed and preaching,” says
European tradition, and I love that tradition, but Americans
says. “It’s one of the most exciting artforms happening right
Mazzoli, “until I read Proving Up.”
have our own stories to tell,” she says. “We want to make
now.”
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