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Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery is about to become the setting for one very unusual night at the opera. On September 25, Death of Classical, Green-Wood and the Metropolitan Opera team up for an immersive preview of Lincoln in the Bardo, a new opera based on George Saunders’s Booker Prize–winning novel.
The evening begins at sunset with a journey through Green-Wood’s historic grounds, where musicians, dancers, actors and other performers will create a theatrical netherworld inspired by the novel’s restless spirits. After the procession through the cemetery, audiences will gather for an intimate performance featuring stars from the upcoming Metropolitan Opera production, followed by a conversation with composer Missy Mazzoli and librettist Royce Vavrek, moderated by music journalist Amanda Petrusich.
Saunders' book is set during the Civil War, after the death of Abraham Lincoln’s 11-year-old son, Willie. The president visits his son’s grave, while Willie’s spirit remains trapped in the bardo (a realm between life and death) along with a chorus of other dead souls.
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The opera marks another major collaboration between Mazzoli and Vavrek, who have previously worked together on acclaimed operatic projects. The Metropolitan Opera will give Lincoln in the Bardo its world premiere on October 19, making this Green-Wood performance a chance to hear the new work before it arrives on the Met stage.
There will also be complimentary spirit tastings, non-alcoholic drinks and light snacks for attendees 21 and older. Just dress for the terrain, since the event requires a roughly 20-minute walk over hilly, uneven ground, although trolley service is available for part of the journey.
There is one catch, and it is a very New York one: The event is already sold out. A waitlist is available, though, so if you want to spend a Friday night wandering through a cemetery before listening to a brand-new opera about ghosts, now would be the time to get on it. Or you could wander Green-Wood on your own time, listening to the cast album for Gian Carlo Menotti's The Medium for your own spooky benefit.
For more information and to join the waitlist, click here.