Mazzoli's Lincoln in the Bardo Previews Among the Graves

Missy Mazzoli's new opera Lincoln in the Bardo will premiere at the Metropolitan Opera on October 19. Before it reaches the Met stage, a voice-and-piano preview took place in the catacombs of Green-Wood Cemetery in New York—apparently the first review of the work anywhere.

The opera is based on George Saunders's Booker Prize-winning novel of the same name. According to critic Susan Hall, who attended the sneak-peek performance, the piece centers on the texture of language—and unusual language at that. The central figure, Abraham Lincoln, does not speak. Instead, the ghosts of the Bardo inhabit his body and articulate his thoughts.

Countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo sang the ghost of Elise Traynor, who died at 14 before she could experience romance, marriage, and motherhood. Clinging to unfulfilled earthly desires, she remains permanently pinned to the Bardo's boundary fence by twisting tendrils. Her speech deteriorates into vulgarities as she morphs into macabre objects—a transformation underscored by sharp, disruptive vocal lines.

The music for an enslaved man strikes a different register: smooth, poignant and querulous. Tenor Joshua Blue sang Thomas Havens, enslaved to a "nice" master, who longs for two hours a week to do as he pleases. In this cemetery purgatory, Thomas carries a quiet yearning to prove the capabilities of Black people and express a subtle grief. Throughout the piece, sonic textures directly reflect the characters' internal states.

As President Lincoln leaves the cemetery mourning his son Willie, Thomas jumps into the president's consciousness. Inside Lincoln's mind, Thomas resolves to share his own lifelong sorrow and the historical injustices faced by Black Americans, hoping to touch the president's heart and broaden his vision of freedom.

Baritone Andrew Manea gave a fine performance as Abraham Lincoln—a role Peter Mattei will sing at the Met—with Ksenia Leletkina providing expert piano accompaniment.

One question hangs over the premiere. Saunders's novel, written effectively as a play, gives 166 characters speech. How this vast cast will translate to the Met stage remains to be seen, but Hall notes that Mazzoli is a master of orchestration, and her score will surely unify these disparate voices.

The setting added its own resonance. Among the graves of historical figures like Leonard Bernstein, piano builder Henry Steinway and Samuel Morse—whose code, Hall suggests, may well echo beneath the ghostly vocals—the performance gained remarkable depth.

Spending an evening with an opera set in purgatory might not sound like traditional fun, but the characters are deeply engaging. They linger past their time simply to remain connected to the living world. The work is at once humorous and deeply moving.

Producer Andrew Ousley's Death of Classical, which presented the preview, remains dedicated to the future of the classical music form and frequently stages performances in places where the departed reside. In these surroundings, Hall writes, this opera feels vibrantly alive.

Whether the ghosts of the Bardo can hold the Met's vast stage as tightly as they held a crypt remains the test for October 19.