News

David Lang’s newest work, the whisper opera, receives its world premiere on May 30 at the MCA in Chicago by the International Contemporary Ensemble with Tony Arnold as solo soprano.

This one-of-a-kind work is performed with the musicians, singer, and audience enclosed in an intimate, onstage set. Composed for flute, clarinet, percussion, cello, and solo soprano, the music and the environment work together to convey themes of secrets, and the tension between what we hide and what we choose to reveal. the whisper opera is inspired in part by Lang’s visits to rural Italy, where he was surprised to experience the powerful intimacy of small opera houses. Lang has turned to Jim Findlay to direct the work and create the particular stage design needed for the intimate setting of the whisper opera; Findlay is an influential and delightfully provocative force as a designer and director in New York’s experimental theater world.