{"id":106217,"date":"2024-07-24T13:09:21","date_gmt":"2024-07-24T17:09:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=106217"},"modified":"2024-07-24T14:00:03","modified_gmt":"2024-07-24T18:00:03","slug":"scoop-canadian-librettist-hannah-moscovitch-american-composer-rene-orth-win-mcana-best-new-opera-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2024\/07\/24\/scoop-canadian-librettist-hannah-moscovitch-american-composer-rene-orth-win-mcana-best-new-opera-award\/","title":{"rendered":"THE SCOOP | Canadian Librettist Hannah Moscovitch & American Composer Rene Orth Win MCANA Best New Opera Award"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"L:
L: Composer Rene Orth (Photo: Andrew Bogard); R: Librettist Hannah Moscovitch (Photo: Alejandro Santiago)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An opera based on the life of Nellie Bly<\/a>, co-commissioned by Toronto\u2019s Tapestry Opera<\/strong>, has won the award for Best New Opera from the Music Critic\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cDrawing from reporter Nelly Bly\u2019s expos\u00e9 of conditions at the insane asylum on Blackwell\u2019s 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\u2019s 10th\u00a0day 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,\u00a010 Days in a Madhouse\u00a0works on multiple levels \u2014 theatrical, thematic, and human.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Lizzie
Lizzie (Raehann Bryce-Davis) shares her tragic story with Nellie (Kiera Duffy)
in a scene from\u00a010 Days in a Madhouse (Photo:\u00a0Joe Lamberti)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Real life journalism pioneer Nellie Bly faked her own insanity in 1887 in order to be admitted to Blackwell\u2019s 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 \u2018madness\u2019.<\/p>\n

The opera was commissioned by Opera Philadelphia<\/strong> 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\u00a0(by Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek) and\u00a0The Wake World\u00a0(by David Hertzberg).<\/p>\n