World Premiere of THE COMET / POPPEA Comes to The Museum of Contemporary Art

The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) and The Industry will present the highly-anticipated world premiere of The Comet / Poppea, conceived by director Yuval Sharon, composed by George Lewis, with a libretto by poet Douglas Kearney. The cast features countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo and bass-baritone Davóne Tines.

The Comet / Poppea is realized through a landmark partnership among organizations across the United States, produced by Anthony Roth Costanzo and Cath Brittan, The Industry, AMOC* (American Modern Opera Company), and Curtis Institute of Music. The world premiere at WAREHOUSE at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA features eleven performances, June 14–23, 2024. 

Staged on a revolving turntable divided into two sides, The Comet / Poppea brings together seemingly disparate worlds that resonate across the centuries: The Comet, a science-fiction short story penned in 1924 by sociologist and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois; and L'incoronazione di Poppea (The Coronation of Poppea), an Italian opera by Claudio Monteverdi first performed in Venice in 1643. 

“On a constantly rotating stage, two worlds unfold simultaneously, spinning like a top that creates a visual and aural spiral, inviting associations, dissociations, collisions, and confluences,” says director Yuval Sharon. “The Comet / Poppea begins as a critique of the institution of opera and ends as a justification of the art form’s radical potential: in the unexpected harmony to be discovered in juxtaposition and its ability to invite a contemplation of both timely and timeless struggles.” 

Du Bois’s short story The Comet, which composer George Lewis describes as “a kind of proto-Afro-futurist text,” is set in New York City during the 1920s after a comet hits the earth and seemingly leaves a black man and white woman as the only survivors, while The Coronation of Poppea unfolds amid social divisions in ancient Rome. “Many parallels between these two cities have been considered over the centuries, so that pairing comes with a kind of doubling,” says Lewis. “The Comet / Poppea plays with that dynamic: the two stories start to unfold in parallel worlds of time and space. As the piece goes on, those two worlds start to leak into each other. Drawing on Du Bois’s own concept of double consciousness, the opera is structured around a number of these doublings” 

“The Comet / Poppea, MOCA’s second collaboration with The Industry, demonstrates the possibilities of live art, positioning opera as an accessible and progressive platform for social and political discourse,” says MOCA Associate Curator, Alex Sloane. 

Tickets for The Comet / Poppea go on sale Tuesday April 23, 2024 at 10am PST for MOCA, The Industry, and AMOC* members, and Thursday April 25, 2024 at 10am PST for the general public.

In addition to the performance presentations, a program of public talks featuring members of the cast and creative team will take place within the set throughout the run of the show, please see moca.org for more information. 

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