*Lincoln in the Bardo,* Nov 11, 2026

Stephanie and I saw *Lincoln in the Bardo* at the Met on Nov 11, 2026.

That trailer was specially made for the live stream happening TONIGHT and available until Weds Nov 18. The nice thing about a live stream is you can "walk out" and be completely undetected by the performers and other audience members.

Lincoln in the Bardo a brand new opera with music by Missy Mazzoli on a libretto by her frequent collaborator Royce Vavrek, based on the novel by George Saunders. I see every new or newish opera at the Met, contemporary opera is totally my jam. They're not always a success but they almost always have something worth hearing. This was both! Not a success but still worth hearing (I guess).

*Lincoln in the Bardo* is about Abraham Lincoln visiting the grave of his recently deceased son Willie, who died at the age of 11 of typhoid fever. The bardo is a Tibetan-Buddhist concept, an in-between place - - it could be between being awake and being asleep, in this case it's a sort of purgatory where spirits dwell until they pass through to the other side (wherever that may be, depending on the person). Abe Lincoln is the only living human being onstage, the other characters (17 solo roles, a full chorus, and many dancers and puppeteers) are all spirits.

The opera got off to a fascinating start. The chandeliers at the Met always rise in unison and dim just before the house lights go down. In this performance we heard some spooky electronic music and the chandeliers started to slowly rise but instead of dimming to turn off they dimmed and then flashed. It was terribly effective and maybe the highlight of the performance!

We heard the musical highlight in the first minutes of the show, the female chorus singing Oo and Ah, a shimmering, rhapsodic sound, a beautifully crafted blend of harmony and instrumentation. It reminded me of a female chorus moment in John Adams's *Doctor Atomic.* A few other choral moments reminded me of *Nixon in China,* which made me wonder if Mazzoli is an Adams fan...

Here's the thing. About a third of the opera was very good - - either the music was particularly beautiful or the music and drama were totally working together to make something effective and compelling. The female chorus moment I just described is in the first category. The second category is represented by the scene for the Reverend at the start of the second act. He describes his experience of having died, being judged, realizing he was going to be damned, and then running away, ending up in the bardo. Everything about this five- to ten-minute scene was working together: the story, the text, the music, the staging, and the performance by Christine Goerke, in my view the strongest performance in the show.

The other two thirds just didn't work. The show dragged big time. The first act was 85 minutes long and could easily have 20 minutes trimmed from it, at a great profit to the whole experience. The music wasn't always effective. Stephanie felt that Mazzoli used a similar pattern over and over again - - something that builds and builds, leading to a big high note, and no harmonic resolution. This kind of repetition is lazy and dull.

Peter Mattei was extraordinary as Abe Lincoln, he had the right gravitas and heartbreak for the part. He often seemed to make something more of what was there, a valuable skill for a singer in a new opera. I was also impressed by Ryan McKinny in one of the larger supporting roles. His character often did ridiculous things (his first big scene had him sporting an enormous five-foot long erection) but somehow he did them with dignity. Anthony Roth Costanzo played a hysterical female ghost - - he really threw himself into the part but the character seemed to only be there to annoy me and Stephanie. I was looking forward to the end of her scene each time.

Willie Lincoln was played by a boy soprano named Everett Sobers. He was fantastic, it was a big part for a little boy. Mazzoli generally wrote for him in a considerate way, by thinning out the orchestration so he could be heard. She had a misstep in his big scene in the second act, the orchestra was too thick and it was almost impossible to hear him.

I'll mention one other singer: one of the singers in a tiny part was named Remy Martin!

The production was directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz, who had her Met debut with John Adams's *El Niño* in 2024. Both that show and this one were thoughtfully staged and beautiful to look at. I'd love to see her do a standard rep opera. We're overdue for a new production of *Tannhäuser*...

Stephanie had these sardonic musings:

"Why does Willie get to fly up into the air like The Assumption of the BVM? Willie helps all those other people get to 'the other side,' right? Why don't they get to fly up in the air? Didn't you think that bit had a Wizard of Oz flair to it? And I thought the explosions of the fireworks were a little too homemade bottle-rocket for my taste - I know they were trying to make those characters disappear, but I thought that was kind of cheesy. I agree with you completely, it had some wonderful moments but in the end, too much of not enough."