The operatic adaptation of Lincoln in the Bardo has an unexpected element.
“When that overture starts, you think, ‘I have no idea where this is going’ — and then boom, kazoos,” said Chautauqua Opera Company General and Artistic Director Steven Osgood.
Friday afternoon in Norton Hall, Chautauqua Opera Company presented excerpts from Lincoln in the Bardo, the operatic adaptation of author George Saunders’ Booker Prize-winning of the same name. The workshop presentation was followed by a discussion panel led by Osgood, which included Saunders, composer Missy Mazzoli, librettist Royce Vavrek and soprano Christine Goerke.
Chautauqua Opera Company workshopped Lincoln in the Bardo for two weeks, collaborating with the Chautauqua Opera Conservatory and the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra. The workshop was in partnership with the Metropolitan Opera, which commissioned the work and will premiere the opera in its 2026–27 season.
Mazzoli and Vavrek introduced the story before the performance began and alternated introducing each scene throughout.
“We’re going to dive right into the overture,” Mazzoli said.
The presentation included the opening overture; a double aria with characters Bevins and Vollman; Miss Traynor’s story; Lincoln’s entrance; Mrs. Hodge longing for revenge; the Reverend’s story; and Willie’s exit.
After the excerpts, Osgood started the discussion by talking about his mindset going into this endeavor. As he prepared for the workshop, he said, he knew that it would take a lot to make it all happen.
“On both counts, this has succeeded my wildest imaginations,” he said.
The operatic adaptation was “the biggest thing … that I could ever imagine creating,” Mazzoli said.
There was an 18-month period of time between the orchestral workshop at Chautauqua Institution and the piano and vocal workshop at the Cincinnati Opera and Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music in 2023, according to Osgood.
“I was thinking, I’m never going to finish this,” Mazzoli said. “I’m in the bardo — in purgatory.”
Osgood discussed how, in the score, there is “so much detail and precision on every single page and on every line.”
He asked Mazzoli about the orchestra’s relatively small size.
“Writing opera, you spend a lot of time … trying to guide the audience’s focus,” she said.
One of the concerns she has with composing opera, in particular, is whether the orchestra is overpowering the singers.
“I don’t want it to feel overwhelming,” she said.
Another concern was composing the work so that opera companies could perform it without needing a full orchestra.
“I want this work to go everywhere — unapologetically,” Mazzoli said.
Osgood then asked Mazzoli whether the workshop setting lets her take more creative risks.
“I definitely take more risks,” Mazzoli said, but she is “more cautious when writing symphonic and orchestral work.”
When it comes to composing operas, Mazzoli likes “adding spice — like with the kazoos,” she said. “There’s an organ, there’s a celesta.”
Shifting his attention to the adaption of the novel into the libretto, Osgood playfully highlighted that in the past, Saunders called Lincoln in the Bardo “unadaptable.”
Vavrek said the Met’s dramaturg Paul Cremo was instrumental in that process.
One of the trickier parts of the script was discerning which characters from the book to keep in the opera.
“Fundamentally, it was just trusting George,” Vavrek said.
He noted that the novel includes 166 different ghosts. That many singers is a lot to ask of an operatic production, Osgood pointed out. Additionally, Saunders’ novel is between 60,000 and 70,000 words, and the libretto is 9,000 words.
Originally, there were two ghosts they planned to include, Vavrek said, though he did not specify which ones.
“Other characters were included,” Vavrek said, “… but timing was the concern.”
The characters were ultimately cut in order to keep the production under two hours.
Osgood then asked Saunders for his thoughts on the adaptation, reminding the author that, even though he had thought Lincoln in the Bardo to be “unadaptable,” Saunders had also once remarked it could be a potential opera.
“I think I was right,” Saunders joked.
He then addressed the crowd.
“First of all, what an audience,” Saunders said. “Chautauqua, I praise you.”
Saunders recounted the first time he read Vavrek’s libretto for the adaptation.
“First I thought, ‘He didn’t leave anything out!’ ” Saunders said. Then he thought, “What didn’t I need?”
As he and Osgood discussed how the story poses challenges for the operatic stage, Saunders shared how he approached it when he wrote the novel.
“I spent a lot of time calibrating, ‘How smart is my audience?’ ” Saunders said.
He described how wanting to keep readers interested is “like leaving clues and then rushing on.” Saunders likened it to helping the reader “catch up” to him on a trail.
Shifting his attention to Goerke, Osgood recalled how years ago, attending a performance of hers, there were “so many moments” in which Mazzoli and Vavrek discussed how they wanted to work with Goerke.
“This is one of the greatest joys of our careers, and we’re never letting you go,” Vavrek said to Goerke.
“We just fell in love with you from the beginning,” Mazzoli said. “… We thought of you and only you for this role.”
Goerke, who had the role of the Reverend written specifically for her, said how moved she was when she saw one of Mazzoli and Vavrek’s operas years ago.
“It finished, and I couldn’t breathe for five minutes — then I couldn’t stop crying for 20,” she said. “… You two are magic because you create an experience.”
In her three-decade career, Goerke said, she has never been a part of a new opera or had a role written for her. She spent three hours completing a vocal questionnaire sent in preparation for the role. Later, she received the first version of the vocal score.
“I sat at my piano giggling, and I was like, ‘I don’t have to do any work for this,’ ” Goerke said. “… It’s really important to have a range of volumes, a range of colors, and you two make it easy.”
Wrapping up the discussion, Osgood noted how this is an exciting time in opera.
“We’re now in a golden age of opera, for maybe 20 years now,” he said. “… It is infectious to be in the room and experience new work being created.”
After Chautauqua Opera Company shifted its operating model in 2023 to focus more on incubating new works — coupled with a significant budget cut — support from the community poured in. In particular, the Chautauqua Opera Guild undertook a $3 million endowment campaign that year, which if met, will guarantee that Chautauqua Opera can produce a fully staged opera in the Amphitheater once a season.
In addition to thanking the Guild for that support, Osgood thanked Cremo, who is also director of the Met’s opera commissioning program, who was instrumental for the partnership.
He thanked the Opera Conservatory students for their collaboration, as well as Artistic Advisor Denyce Graves-Montgomery and Director Jonathan Beyer’s leadership. He thanked the panelists, Goerke, Saunders, Vavrek and Mazzoli. He then thanked the Chautauqua community.
“This is my happiest of places,” Osgood said.
