Libretto, music, and stage direction by David Lang
Adapted from the novel by Thomas Bernhard
Translated from German by Jack Dawson
The 2016 Richard B. Fisher Next Wave Award honors David Lang and the production of the loser.
He appears to float in the nothingness. Confined to a tall tower 20 feet above the seats, he is alone, broken, and has a story to tell.
In this daringly staged one-act opera from Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang—featuring mezzanine-only seating and based on the novel by Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard—a failed piano student (baritone Rod Gilfry, Anna Nicole, 2013 Next Wave) recounts a life lived in the shadows of his famous friend Glenn Gould. As virtuoso pianist Conrad Tao and a chamber ensemble conducted by Karina Cannelakis accompany from far in the distance, the cavernous space engulfs the singer, as he sings of the distance that separates beauty from perfection.
Conducted by Karina Canellakis
Lighting design by Jennifer Tipton
Set design by Jim Findlay
Sound design by Jody Elff
Costume design by Suzanne Bocanegra
Commissioned by BAM
Produced by Bang on a Can
Aashish & Dinyar Devitre
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
BAM members at Level 3 ($300) and above are invited with a guest to the working dress rehearsal of the loser.
Norwegian art collective Verdensteatret manipulates a micro-landscape of railcars and other kinetic objects along 195 feet of train track to transform the Fishman Space into a dreamlike environment.
Acrobat Yoann Bourgeois and his dazzling collaborators capture the body’s ineffable moment of weightlessness while in motion in this series of vaudevillian vignettes.
French physical theater maverick Aurélien Bory takes Japanese dancer Kaori Ito, entangled in a dense field of 5,000 black nylon wires, as both muse and instrument.
Composer Donnacha Dennehy’s opera about the Great Famine of 1845-52 brings together new music and old Irish songs, featuring Alarm Will Sound, folk singer Iarla Ó Lionáird, and soprano Katherine Manley.