Works & Process: The Metropolitan Opera: Lincoln in the Bardo by Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek
About This Event
At the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Works & Process presents The Metropolitan Opera's Lincoln in the Bardo, a collaboration by composer Missy Mazzoli and librettist Royce Vavrek. The presentation pairs Mazzoli—whose music has been performed by ensembles such as the Kronos Quartet and LA Opera—with Vavrek, whose librettos favor psychological detail and clear narrative architecture, and involves collaborators including Miami City Ballet and Patricia Delgado.
About Lincoln in the Bardo(opera)
At the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Works & Process hosts The Metropolitan Opera’s *Lincoln in the Bardo*, a dance-centered staging shaped by composer Missy Mazzoli and librettist Royce Vavrek. The piece draws on George Saunders’s recent American novel, setting grief, public duty, and the afterlife beside the private loss of Abraham Lincoln. Featured performers include Miami City Ballet and Patricia Delgado alongside Met artists. In New York, its museum setting matters: the work reads less like repertory opera and more like contemporary ritual, built for close listening and movement.
About the Artists
Miami City Ballet
Miami City Ballet, under the visionary leadership of artistic director Gonzalo Garcia, brings the vibrant spirit of dance from Miami Beach to the heart of New York City. Renowned for their dynamic performances and innovative choreography, the company is a highlight at the Solomon R.
The Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is a New York City opera institution, based at Lincoln Center and led by general manager Peter Gelb, with Yannick Nézet-Séguin as music director since 2018. While best known for large-scale opera productions, the company also appears in curated performance contexts across the city, including Works & Process at the Solomon R.
Missy Mazzoli
Recently deemed “one of the more consistently inventive, surprising composers now working in New York” (NY Times) and “Brooklyn’s post-millennial Mozart” (Time Out NY), Missy Mazzoli has had her music performed by the Kronos Quartet, LA Opera, eighth blackbird, the BBC Symphony, Scottish Opera and many others.
Royce Vavrek
Royce Vavrek is a Canadian-born writer based in Brooklyn whose work moves between opera, music theater, and dance storytelling. He writes librettos and scenarios in close collaboration with composers including Missy Mazzoli, David T.