In twelve essays, Contemporary Opera in Flux discusses a series of shifts that, taken together, have radically redefined the production and reception of opera. Focusing on productions involving late twentieth- and twenty-first century scores and libretti, the contributors draw on conversations with members of creative teams and studies of archival material, dipping into a historical record that remains in flux as composers, librettists, directors, and designers revisit existing work and create anew. The contributors to this volume push the boundaries of contemporary opera scholarship by examining works that disrupt operatic conventions; tackle sociopolitical issues such as drug trafficking, racial injustice, and cultural trauma; and advance underrepresented works by female, African-American, Asian, and avant-garde composers around the globe. 

Contemporary Opera in Flux bridges the gaps between expanding literature on opera, theater, new music, postmodern dramaturgy, and posthuman aesthetics, while also confronting larger questions of identity, representation, and narrative agency that are at the forefront of contemporary music scholarship. This collection of essays engages critically with the past out of a conviction that, amid general public perceptions of opera as anachronistic or elitist, contemporary opera has emerged as an artistic incubator for experimentation.

Yayoi U. Everett is a Professor of Music at CUNY Hunter College and the Graduate Center.

Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Foreword by Susan McClary
Introduction by Yayoi U. Everett and Nicholas D. Stevens
Chapter 1: Nicholas D. Stevens, “Fear of an Envoiced Planet: Speculative Arias of the (Post)operatic Hyperobject”
Chapter 2: Jelena Novak, “Opera in the Expanded Field: Singing Beyond Human”
Chapter 3: Ryan Ebright, “Steve Reich’s The Cave, Theater of Testimony, and the Documentary Turn in America Opera”
Chapter 4: Amy Bauer, “¡Unicamente La Verdad! (Only the Truth!): Camelia la Tejana’s Many Truths”
Chapter 5: Alexander K. Rothe, “Gesture and Dramaturgy of the Avatar in George Lewis’s Afterword”
Chapter 6: Joy H. Calico, “Modes of Engagement with Experimental Opera: Chaya Czernowin’s Infinite Now as Case Study”
Chapter 7: Nancy Yunhwa Rao, “Inter-Asia Sensibility—Tan Dun’s Tea: A Mirror of Soul”
Chapter 8: Colleen Renihan, “Of Sense and Sirens: Ana Sokolović’s Svadba and Six Voix Pour Sirènes”
Chapter 9: Jane I. Forner, “Sex, Sin, and Myth: Reclaiming the ‘Dark Feminine’ in Anthony Davis’s Lilith (2009)”
Chapter 10: Edward Venn, “Narratives of the Self in Thomas Hyde’s That Man Stephen Ward”
Chapter 11: Yayoi U. Everett, “Narrative Agencies in Annie Proulx and Charles Wuorinen’s Brokeback Mountain (2014)”
Chapter 12: Mauro Fosco Bertola, “From Subjectivity to Biopolitics: The Dream in Salvatore Sciarrino’s Music Theatre”
Bibliography
Author biography