The Music Critics Association of North America (MCANA) announced that “10 Days in a Madhouse” by composer Rene Orth was named the Best New Opera for 2024. The work, co-commissioned by Opera Philadelphia and Toronto’s Tapestry Opera, features a libretto by Hannah Moscovitch based on the 1887 biographical book of the same name by American journalist Nellie Bly.
The opera premiered to great acclaim at Philadelphia’s Wilma Theater in September 2023. New York Times critic Josh Barone wrote, “Opera needs works like ‘10 Days,’ which treats the medium with affection and respect while also chafing at its tropes throughout history.” He added that although the work has imperfections, it “captures a tension that has long made opera unsettling, the way in which, say, a mad scene can be a thing of shattering beauty and breathtaking athleticism, but also one of undeniable misogyny.”
The MCANA Awards Committee is made up of critics from major media including The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Wall Street Journal. Past winners include Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek in 2017 for “Breaking the Waves” and Ellen Reid and Roxie Perkins in 2019 for “prism.”
I didn’t see this production, but I can’t imagine this particular excerpt would inspire anyone to want to learn and perform this role… despite this soprano’s considerable vocal gifts. Much less motivate audiences to go to the theater to see it.
“… a mad scene can be a thing of … undeniable misogyny.” Really? Is there some revelation in this particular aria that isn’t pretty well front & center in most mad scenes? Has anyone come away from, say, the Lucia mad scene thinking that Lucia was anything other than a victim of misogyny?