A cellist plays in the foreground while a woman stands singing at a music stand under stage lights, with a saxophonist visible in the background; sheer curtains hang around the stage.

Prep School: the whisper opera

the whisper opera is performed for less than 50 people, at extremely low volume. The show’s libretto was composed with the help of Google auto-complete. You will find yourself listening closely, and unable to hear everything that’s being said.

Use this study guide to learn more about the show, plus start getting into the larger questions of intimacy, technology, and listening that the whisper opera evokes.

RELATED EVENTS
  • Fri Feb 2 – Sun Feb 4, 2018

David Lang/ICE: the whisper opera

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DAVID LANG ON THE WHISPER OPERA

My piece – the whisper opera – is a mysterious little alternative world. It has its own rules and its own peculiar way of proceeding, it has its own architecture, it builds its world by giving the viewer only a few bare hints of text and music, it is full of secrets. Here are a few of my favorite books that feel to me like they must have had something to do with how I made this piece.

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A person in glasses plays an electronic instrument on stage under purple and pink lighting, with a music stand and curtains in the background.

TRAILER

GET THEE TO THE LIBRARY
  • Read a review of a past production of the show in the New York Times, and a story about David Lang’s creative process

EXTRA CREDIT
  • Interested in thinking about the voice? Read “Che Bella Voce!“, the introduction to Mladen Dolar’s influential A Voice and Nothing More
  • Want to think more about liveness and listening in theatrical spaces? Read Jean Graham-Jones’ “Editorial Comment: Hearing Theatre,” an introduction to a collection of essays on listening
  • NYU is conducting a study based on noise pollution, called SONYC: read about it in the New York Times 
  • Take a walk and hear Washington Square Park differently with the Holladay Brothers‘ site-specific composition, commissioned by NYU Skirball and available on your smartphone