Orpheus Orchestra Opus Onus
Orpheus Orchestra Opus Onus (2025)
monodrama, text and music by Kate Soper with additional text and music by various authors/composers
Instrumentation: For amplified soprano/actor and orchestra
Duration: ca. 35 minutes
Premiere date/venue: May 22-27 2025; David Geffen Hall, NYC
Premiere performers: The New York Philharmonic with Gustavo Dudamel, conductor, and Kate Soper, soloist
Commission info: Commissioned by the New York Philharmonic
Gustavo Dudamel conducted the New York Philharmonic and soprano soloist Kate Soper in the World Premiere of Soper's “Orpheus Orchestra Opus Onus,” a New York Philharmonic commission, in May 2025.
Program Note
“Why do we ask so much of music? We want it to save us, to love us, to resurrect our dead. It doesn’t save. It doesn’t love. It’s not for anything, except…to be in the presence of something sublime, that has nothing to do with our trivial lives.”
- From the libretto to Orpheus Orchestra Opus Onus (text by Kate Soper)
Orpheus welcomes the audience to a rousing evening with the orchestra! But as he recounts the development of this venerated institution, uneasy questions begin to emerge, about the relationship of art to power, craft to nature, and the music of the spheres to life here on earth. Weaving original text and music with Orphean poetry and excerpts from a dozen Orphean operas, Orpheus Orchestra Opus Onus uses a familiar myth to investigate our beautifully tangled coexistence with music in all its forms.
“...a sensationally witty and profound monodrama about the meaning of music.”
The Los Angeles Times, 5/29/25 (full review)
“...a love letter to the orchestra’s range, from burly power to graceful delicacy…”
The New York Times, 5/23/25 (full review)
Stage/Monodrama • Vocal [ Voice plus one • Voice(s) and Ensemble ] • Large Ensemble • Small Ensemble • Multimedia • Misc
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