https:\/\/operaphila.org\/whats-on\/2526-season\/complications-in-sue\/<\/a>.<\/p>\nPart of the excitement is each composer was given their scene without much background on any of the others.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was adding to the madness,\u201d Schlosberg said. \u201cWe only saw the libretto for our scene and no one else\u2019s. So we were basically flying blind, which is part of the point, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some of the other composers for different parts of the opera include Lansdale native Missy Mazzoli (\u201cBreaking the Waves,\u201d \u201cThe Listeners\u201d), Rene Orth (\u201c10 Days in a Madhouse\u201d), Nico Muhly (\u201cDark Sisters\u201d), and Nathalie Joachim (2025-2026 Composer in Residence), alongside Andy Akiho, Alistair Coleman, C\u00e9cile McLorin Salvant, Kamala Sankaram, Dan Schlosberg and Errollyn Wallen.<\/p>\n
For Jackson, this story was a next step for the author who\u2019s \u201cA Strange Loop\u201d won the 2020\u202fPulitzer Prize for Drama and premiered on Broadway in 2022.\u202fThe show won\u202fBest Musical\u202fand\u202fBest Book of a Musical\u202fat the\u202f75th Tony Awards.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I have been trying to innovate in musical theater for several years now, and with \u2018Complications in Sue\u2019 I am challenging myself by stretching into this new form that I have long admired as an audience member,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cThe scope and scale of opera really speak to me, so when Anthony invited me to dip my toe in the waters of the form, I saw it as an exciting opportunity to leave my comfort zone. Examining a woman\u2019s life from birth to death began as a very collaborative storytelling idea that I am now running with, and I look forward to embracing the next stage of collaboration with this group of amazing composers, who will bring a new scale of sound to the drama.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schlosberg knew this would work when he read the text.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me ended up being kind of liberating in a way,\u201d said Schlosberg. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to get in your head about what someone else might be writing or the arc of the story. You can just really focus on Michael\u2019s beautiful text. I kind of let my imagination run wild in a way.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was quite unusual, of course. I\u2019ve never really worked that way before and probably most of my colleagues haven\u2019t either. It was, \u2018How do I send this text in the most dramatically effective, honest and committed way possible.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
Growing up in Lower Merion, Schlosberg would travel to the Academy of Music frequently to see the opera or the Philadelphia Orchestra. It started his love of classical music. Now living in Brooklyn, Schlosberg has made a name for himself around the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t had any piece of mine on the main stage,\u201d Schlosberg said. \u201cSo, it\u2019s a real full circle moment. I was walking around and just having been to the Academy of Music and seeing the rehearsal, the orchestra in the pit there, it really was a moment. I went there multiple times a month to see the Philly orchestra and Opera Philadelphia when I was young. It\u2019s quite overwhelming actually. It\u2019s such a beautiful hall and it sounds amazing in there. It\u2019s just really good to kind of come home that way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Opera Philadelphia is about to bring to stage one of the more ambitious undertakings anybody has ever seen.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[183,185,184,186,1213,1483,289,10356],"class_list":["post-101402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lower-merion","tag-lower-merion","tag-lower-merion-headlines","tag-lower-merion-news","tag-lower-merion-township","tag-music-and-concerts","tag-theater","tag-things-to-do","tag-top-stories-trt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}