JACKIE O by Michael Daugherty
About This Event
Michael Kevin Daugherty is an American composer and pianist whose work draws on popular culture, Romanticism and postmodernism. This presentation at LPR (Le Poisson Rouge) features his 1997 work Jackie O, one title among pieces such as Metropolis Symphony, Dead Elvis and Tales of Hemingway. The program highlights Daugherty's recurring interest in American icons and cross-genre references.
About Jackie O(opera)
Michael Daugherty’s *Jackie O* is a two-act chamber opera that filters the public life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis through the sounds and media glare of late-1960s America. Written with librettist Wayne Koestenbaum, it treats celebrity as a kind of modern mythology, scored with pop and rock inflections. At LPR (Le Poisson Rouge), the work lands naturally in New York’s long conversation between downtown music and political iconography. Its sharpest insight is how it makes spectacle audible without excusing it.
About the Artist
Michael Daugherty
Michael Kevin Daugherty is an American composer, pianist, and teacher. He is influenced by popular culture, Romanticism, and postmodernism. Daugherty's notable works include his Superman comic book-inspired Metropolis Symphony for orchestra (1988–93), Dead Elvis for solo bassoon and chamber ensemble (1993), Jackie O (1997), Niagara Falls for symphonic band (1997), UFO for solo percussion and orchestra (1999) and for symphonic band (2000), Bells for Stokowski from Philadelphia Stories for orchestra (2001) and for symphonic band (2002), Fire and Blood for solo violin and orchestra (2003) inspired by Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, Time Machine for three conductors and orchestra (2003), Ghost Ranch for orchestra (2005), Deus ex Machina for piano and orchestra (2007), Labyrinth of Love for soprano and chamber winds (2012), American Gothic for orchestra (2013), and Tales of Hemingway for cello and orchestra (2015).