Abraham Lincoln I’ve never had much luck in theatres. But this month the number of major demonstrations featuring the sixteenth President in the city will skyrocket (“Oh, Mary!”,” currently running on Broadway, starring Bowen Yang) into two: an operatic adaptation of George Saunders’ 2017 novel, also titled “Lincoln in Bardo” It will premiere at the Metropolitan Opera on October 19.
“Lincoln in the Bardo,” with music by Missy Mazzoli, will be the first world premiere by a female composer at the Met since its founding in 1883. The story takes place over the course of an evening in a misty spiritual plane where grieving souls are trapped between life and the afterlife. Lincoln’s son, Willie, who died of typhoid when he was only eleven, is one of those who remain inactive. The set depicts the wooded Oak Hill Cemetery, where Willie was temporarily interred after his death and to which Mazzoli holds the honorary key, but the stage is divided into a layered arrangement, with sections surrounded by neon lights. “People move between a real landscape and empty space,” said director Lileana Blain-Cruz. “We wanted to keep the lines blurred.”
Illustration by Diego Mallo
As Willie wanders the cemetery, he encounters others who are similarly unable to move forward. Librettin Royce Vavrek said, “There are one hundred and sixty-six references in the novel.” “The other ghosts, I wish I could include them all.” But some still appear in the background, wearing costumes that reflect how they died; car tracks along the body, clothes burnt from the fire. Some spirits are trapped by Bardo’s “branches,” which are brought to life with a little help from puppet designer James Ortiz, who created the alien Rocky for “Project Hail Mary.” Those who are completely taken over by Bardo and have no hope of escape are trapped inside giant puppet suits.
Despite its low-key plot, the adaptation features some dazzling pyrotechnics; especially at the moment when Willie’s spirit passes away. This transformation, which Saunders calls the phenomenon of matter blooming with light, is described in the book as a “blinding flash of light” accompanied by the “sound of fire”. “We went through moments where we were like, ‘Is this a smoke thing? No, this is boring,'” Blain-Cruz said. “Is this a projection thing? No, we can see that. Is this a confetti thing? No, because then you leave the ruins behind. A soul leaves nothing behind.” The resulting display includes a thirty-foot firework. “We went through a lot of security interviews,” he said.