Missy Mazzoli: The Listeners

Lyric Opera of Chicago, under the leadership of General Director John Mangum and the baton of Music Director Enrique Mazzola, presents the world premiere recording of The Listeners, a striking new opera by Missy Mazzoli and librettist Royce Vavrek, based on an original story by Jordan Tannahill. Drawing on distinctly American preoccupations, the work unfolds within a community bound together by circumstance and belief, shaped by the unsettling presence of an unexplained 'hum' that blurs perception and reality. Through Mazzoli's richly textured orchestral writing and Vavrek's incisive dramaturgy, the opera becomes a powerful reflection on vulnerability, tenderness, rage and hope, all sung into existence with a haunting sense of optimism. At it's centre is Claire Devon, a high school math teacher portrayed with remarkable intensity by Nicole Heaston, whose collaboration with the composer shapes a character defined by curiosity, precision and uncompromising emotional depth. Her journey from isolation to reluctant authority exposes the human need for connection in a world where listening becomes both consolation and control, and where belief can quickly harden into collective illusion. Mazzoli's expansive score, driven by large orchestral forces and a distinctive electronic 'hum,' creates an immersive sonic landscape in which inner psychology and external reality continuously intersect, building towards a devastating reckoning in which voices reshape reality itself. Missy Mazzoli previously appeared on PENTATONE with Proving Up (2020); Lyric Opera of Chicago appeared with The Three Queens (2022) and Puccini: Heroines (2026), together with Enrique Mazzola.