Missy Mazzoli: The Listeners (Act I)

The Listeners is the world premiere recording of Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek's 2022 opera. It was commissioned jointly by Opera Philadelphia, the Norwegian National Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago, and based on an original idea by Jordan Tannahill. The story follows Claire, a suburban high school math teacher in the American Southwest whose life unravels when she begins hearing a persistent, high-frequency hum. She finds an ally in Kyle, one of her students, who hears it too. Their shared affliction draws her toward a charismatic former psychiatrist and a group of fellow sufferers, "The Listeners," whose search for belonging turns ritualistic and perilous.

Inspired by the real-world "global hum" phenomenon, the opera uses the hum as a metaphor for isolation, distrust and the human pull toward cults and conspiracy. Mazzoli's score alternates angular accents and long melodic lines, and sets extremes of orchestral register, from piercing violins to the lowest trombones and basses, against the unheard charge of the hum. Recorded live over four performances at Lyric Opera of Chicago under Music Director Enrique Mazzola, with Nicole Heaston as Claire and Kyle Ketelsen as the cult leader Howard, the two-disc set captures a staging that audiences found strikingly direct and contemporary.

Nicole Heaston, soprano (Claire Devon) Zachary Nelson, bass-baritone (Paul Devon) Jasmine Habersham, soprano (Ashley Devon) Jonas Hacker, tenor (Kyle Harris) Kyle Ketelsen, bass-baritone (Howard Bard) Daniela Mack, mezzo-soprano (Angela Rose) Joseph Lim, baritone (Thom) John Moore, baritone (Dillon) Emily Mwila, soprano (Sina) Marie Sokolova, mezzo-soprano (Emily) Corinne Wallace-Crane, contralto (Hortense) Kelsea Webb, soprano (Danica) Jared V. Esguerra, tenor (Vince) Christopher Filipowicz, bass-baritone (Bram) With Gemma Nha, Sophia Maekawa, Stephanie Sánchez, Adia Evans and Finn Sagal Lyric Opera of Chicago Orchestra and Chorus Enrique Mazzola, conductor Michael Black, chorus director