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THE SCOOP | Canadian Librettist Hannah Moscovitch & American Composer Rene Orth Win MCANA Best New Opera Award

By Anya Wassenberg on July 24, 2024

L: Composer Rene Orth (Photo: Andrew Bogard); R: Librettist Hannah Moscovitch (Photo: Alejandro Santiago)
L: Composer Rene Orth (Photo: Andrew Bogard); R: Librettist Hannah Moscovitch (Photo: Alejandro Santiago)

An opera based on the life of Nellie Bly, co-commissioned by Toronto’s Tapestry Opera, has won the award for Best New Opera from the Music Critic’s Association of North America (MCANA). The award for the opera Ten Days in a Madhouse will be given to American composer Rene Orth, and University of Toronto graduate librettist Hannah Moscovitch on July 26 at the annual MCANA meeting.

The Awards Committee, made up for co-chairs Heidi Waleson and George Loomis, along with LvT writer Arthur Kaptainis, John Rockwell, and Alex Ross, issued a statement about the win.

“Drawing from reporter Nelly Bly’s exposé of conditions at the insane asylum on Blackwell’s Island (now Roosevelt Island), this searing chamber opera explores how insanity has been used as an operatic trope and as a way to control non-compliant women. The ingenious libretto structures the narrative in reverse: it opens with Bly’s 10th day in the asylum, where she went undercover, and over 90 intense minutes reassembles the disordered elements of her institution-induced breakdown into a recognizable story. Text fragments, choral hazes, and electronics are among the techniques used to unmoor the narrative from rationality; yet the characters remain strong and musically distinctive throughout. Taut, original, and affecting, 10 Days in a Madhouse works on multiple levels — theatrical, thematic, and human.”

Lizzie (Raehann Bryce-Davis) shares her tragic story with Nellie (Kiera Duffy)in a scene from the opera 10 Days in a Madhouse (Photo: Joe Lamberti)
Lizzie (Raehann Bryce-Davis) shares her tragic story with Nellie (Kiera Duffy)
in a scene from 10 Days in a Madhouse (Photo: Joe Lamberti)

Real life journalism pioneer Nellie Bly faked her own insanity in 1887 in order to be admitted to Blackwell’s Asylum for the Insane for an investigative report. Her work exposed the various ways that insanity has been weaponized as a way to control women, and the ways in which society contributes to that ‘madness’.

The opera was commissioned by Opera Philadelphia and Tapestry Opera, and had its world premiere in September 2023 at Opera Philadelphia as part of Festival 023 at the Wilma Theatre. Philadelphia Opera commissions have won two Best New Opera Awards in previous years: Breaking the Waves (by Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek) and The Wake World (by David Hertzberg).

Composer Rene Orth is known largely for her choral and operatic works, which have been performed by the New World Symphony, Festival d’Aix en Provence, Fort Worth Opera, and Washington National Opera, among others.

Dora Award-winning librettist Hannah Moscovitch is a native of Ottawa and studied at the National Theatre School along with the University of Toronto. Her plays have been performed across Canada.

Congratulations to everyone involved, and we’re looking forward to a Toronto premiere.

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