*The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay,* Oct 2 2025

Stephanie, Karen, and I saw The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay at the Met on Oct 2, 2025.

It's a new by Mason Bates with a libretto by Gene Scheer based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning 2001 novel by Michael Chabon. The opera had its premiere at Indiana University in 2024 but can we call that a workshop production aka out-of-town tryout...?

It's the story of two Jewish cousins in the late 30s, Joe Kavalier and Sam Clay. Sam lives in Brooklyn and Joe escapes Prague to the US. They create a comic book character called The Escapist, the embodiment of their hopes and anxieties. The story touches on Joe's concern over his family back home, Sam's hidden identity as a gay man, and their shared Jewish identity in the ramp-up to World War II (and later, the war itself).

It was a success - - judging from the audience reaction, I might event call it a hit! It's not a masterpiece but it's exceptionally well made, the music is engaging, the staging is first class, it has a lot going for it. Stephanie was impressed with the orchestration. I had read that Bates is known for electronic music and was expecting it to have a stronger electronic element. Only one scene had prominent use of electronics. I imagine the electronic component is invisibly woven into the orchestra, like John Adams does.

Bates and Scheer clearly wanted to create an opera in the old style, with arias, duets, ensembles, interludes, all that. I was pleased that the music was mostly continuous with very few (less than a handful) moments where the music stops and the audience is prompted to applaud.

I've seen many, many new or new-ish operas over the years, I'd guess somewhere around thirty? I've developed a litmus test for not just the success of a new opera but whether or not I think it should even be classified as an opera. That test: does the music further the story, is the music inherently dramatic? In this case, absolutely yes. It was engaging, colorful, exciting, sometimes tender and intimate, sometimes soaring and emotional, always pleasing to hear, always rooted in the dramatic moment.

The high point of the score (for me) was a sequence in the first act when the cousins were at Sam's office. The workers were onstage, the music conveyed the kinetic vibe of the office. Joe took a moment to think about his family and the disaster brewing in Europe - - the scrim at the back of the stage was lit to reveal the chorus standing on a train platform seemingly going to a concentration camp. They sang in Hebrew, the music was powerful, somber, full of impact. This lasted for a few minutes, then dissolved back to the office. The musical transitions were exquisitely calibrated. It was opera writing at its highest level.

The writing for the voices was generally well handled though sometimes he placed the women at a low point in the voice where the music didn't really "speak." This wasn't ever an issue with the men, I found that curious. One minor annoyance on the text and/or text setting: the rhythm of the vocal line was sometimes too even and monotonous. I'll call this Jesus Loves Me Syndrome.

Hear how the rhythm is a steady dose of quarter notes, unwavering, unchanging, uninteresting? There was more of that than I would like in K and C. Bates needs to watch out for that.

Stephanie had this to say: "Compared to other modern operas, Mason Bates seems to have a really fine melodic gift. While I wouldn't go so far as to say the arias where whistleable or hummable, they were really satisfying to hear and I didn't feel like I was being yanked all over the place vocally. The vocal lines were also often reinforced (in unison) by several instruments in different octaves and I really liked that."

I can't remember ever going to the Met and never having heard ANY of the lead singers before. I'll give a special shout-out to baritone Andrzej Filończyk as Joe, tenor Miles Mykkanen as Sam, and Lauren Snouffer as Joe's sister Sarah. Filończyk and Snouffer were making their Met debuts in this show and this appears to be Mykkanen's first leading role at the Met. I hope to see them all again.

The opera was greatly aided by the strength of the production. This is director Bartlett Sher's ninth opera at the Met and he really knows what he's doing. The use of video was particularly well done, it brought the comic book elements of the show to life in a (literally) big way.