Abstract
This interview canvassed Mazzoli’s recent works and her passion for setting narratives focusing on women in her operatic works, which include her first opera, Song from the Uproar (2012); Breaking the Waves (2016); Proving Up (2018); The Listeners (2021), and work-in-progress Lincoln in the Bardo. Underpinning her work in this genre are issues pertaining to the lives of women – real and fictional – of agency, “caught in impossible situations,” within the wider world and within the domestic sphere, stereotyping – within and beyond the operatic tradition, and including the role of charismatic leaders and their impact upon American society. The discussion also broaches the subject of the paucity in rates of commissioning contemporary women composers to write for the operatic medium, where Mazzoli shares her own approach to rectifying this situation, which includes a mentorship program, Luna Composition Lab, for female-identifying, non-binary and gender-nonconforming composers from thirteen to nineteen years old, to assist their music development during these formative years. Mazzoli offers a nuanced perspective on addressing gender inequity generally in the composition world, and notes her dealings with the reactions to her socio-politically provocative stances that underlie her work, commenting that, “if it’s worth doing, it should be hard.”
In interview with Natalie Williams, 4 June 2020 (New York / Melbourne (via Skype))
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Notes
- 1.
Pew Centre Arts, “The Listeners, grantees” accessed 2 June 2020, https://www.pewcenterarts.org/grant/listeners.
- 2.
Mazzoli’s operas include Song from the Uproar: The Lives and Deaths of Isabelle Eberhardt (2012) for the Beth Morrison Projects (New York), Breaking the Waves (2016) for Opera Philadelphia, Proving Up (2018) for the Washington National Opera, Opera Omaha and Miller Theatre.
- 3.
Mazzoli’s Breaking the Waves is based upon a 1996 film directed by Lars Von Trier; Breaking the Waves, directed by Lars Von Trier (October Films, 1996).
References
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Mazzoli, Missy. Missy Mazzoli. Accessed 2 June, 2020. http://www.missymazzoli.com/.
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Pew Center Arts. The Listeners, grantees. Accessed 6 June, 2020. https://www.pewcenterarts.org/grant/listeners.
Salazar, David. “Missy Mazzoli & Jeanine Tesori Among Women Whose Operas are Coming to The Met Opera,” Opera Wire, 23 September 2018. https://operawire.com/missy-mazzoli-jeanine-tesori-among-women-whose-operas-are-coming-to-the-met-opera/.
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Von Trier, Lars, director. Breaking The Waves. October Films, 1996. 2 hours, 39 minutes.
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Mazzoli, M. (2024). Walking the Line: Emancipating the Complex Female Voice in Recent Operas by Missy Mazzoli. In: Kouvaras, L., Williams, N., Grenfell, M. (eds) The Composer, Herself. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-23922-9_5
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