The Comet / Poppea: Pre-Performance Panel

In advance of Yale Schwarzman Center's presentation of the experimental opera The Comet / Poppea, hear a conversation with the Composer George Lewis, the Director Yuval Sharon, and a distinguished panel of Yale faculty members—moderated by Professor Gundula Kreuzer. 

Moderator: 
Gundula Kreuzer - Professor and Chair of the Department of Music at Yale University

Panelists: 

Kee-Yoon Nahm - Visiting Associate Professor of Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University 

Tavia Nyong'o - William Lampson Professor of American Studies; Black Studies; Performance Studies; and Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies at Yale University 

Gary Tomlinson - Sterling Professor of Music & the Humanities in the Department of Music at Yale University

The Comet / Poppea is an experimental opera that brings together seemingly disparate worlds connected by stories of cultural transformation, juxtaposing Claudio Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea, an Italian opera from 1643 unfolding among the social divisions of ancient Rome; and The Comet, based on the 1924 science-fiction short story by sociologist and civil rights activist W. E. B. Du Bois. 

Set in 1920s New York City, the piece depicts a Black man and white woman as the only survivors after a comet hits Earth. Presented on a turntable divided in two halves, these worlds unfold simultaneously, with the stage’s rotation creating a visual and sonic spiral for audiences —inviting associations, dissociations, collisions, and confluences. 

The musical score, The Comet, was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, composed by George Lewis ’74. The work is directed by Yuval Sharon, and co-produced by Anthony Roth Costanzo, Cath Brittan, The Industry, AMOC*, Curtis Institute of Music, Michigan Central Art, and Yale Schwarzman Center. (March 23–24 | Commons)