Tanglewood Recital Series: Music for New Bodies
Matthew Aucoin
Tanglewood Recital Series: Music for New Bodies
Staged by Peter Sellars
Matthew AUCOIN Music for New Bodies
Libretto based on poetry by Jorie Graham, selected by Matthew Aucoin and Peter Sellars
Matthew Aucoin’s Music for New Bodies (2024) is an uncategorizable work of music-theater: part opera, part song cycle, part vocal symphony. Based on poetry by Jorie Graham, the piece is a portrait of our moment in history as seen through the eyes of a cancer patient undergoing a drastic medical procedure. As the patient experiences the transformation of her own body, she meditates on questions that range from the personal to the cosmic: in a time when life is more and more virtual, what does it mean to have a body? And above all, after our species has poisoned the planet with uncountable toxins, can we still listen to what the earth has to tell us?
Acknowledgements
The American Modern Opera Company’s appearance, including Music for New Bodies, is generously supported by Katie and Paul Buttenwieser.
