For many readers, George Saunders’s Lincoln in the Bardo—a ghost story about Abraham Lincoln’s grief over his young son’s death—already felt like an opera: the mix of characters, the dramatic monologues. “The book started out as a play,” Saunders says of his 2017 novel. “You’re constantly hit with these voices. It naturally fit the stage.” So when composer and pianist Missy Mazzoli asked for the rights to adapt it, she didn’t need to persuade him. “It was basically me saying, ‘Oh yes, please,'” Saunders recalls.The Metropolitan Opera’s production—opening at Lincoln Center on October 19, with music by Mazzoli and a libretto by Royce Vavrek—features Peter Mattei as Lincoln and superstar countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo in a key role. It’s also the first world premiere in the Met’s modern history of an opera by a woman. Mazzoli says her work was shaped by a childhood spent watching MTV and listening to indie rock in the 1980s and ’90s. “The music videos then were so theatrical and over-the-top—they spoke to me as a young person about what I was feeling,” she says. “That’s always how I approach opera. People think of it as elitist and inaccessible, but it doesn’t have to be.””The future of opera depends on attracting new audiences,” says the Met’s general manager, Peter Gelb, “which is why we’ve been commissioning more new works than anyone else among the big companies.” During his time there, the Met also commissioned its first Black composer, Terence Blanchard, in 2021, and Gelb has looked for unconventional directors who might bring fresh perspectives. Opera, he explains, is “like Broadway on steroids.” Here, Tony Award–nominated theater director Lileana Blain-Cruz is directing. “My job was really to combine the density of George’s world with the musicality of Missy’s universe,” she says. For her, the heart of the piece is “that simultaneous deep loneliness, loss, being in a kind of purgatorial realm, and also this deep tendency toward light and love and humor.”Mazzoli, a certified death doula, says much of her work is about “empathy and being able to sit beside someone. I basically had to ‘doula’ all the characters, imagining what their preoccupations might be.” Her music is sweeping and emotionally intense, but also playful and often funny. (“Given that it was opera, I just wanted to make sure it would be comic,” Saunders notes.) Characters move through a set that suggests a luminous, otherworldly landscape in shades of purple, green, gold, rust, and blue—an eerily bright graveyard where strange things are bound to happen. Mazzoli says she wants viewers to think about their humanity and the state of the country when they see the show. “I hope people come out with more questions than answers, that it sparks discussion about the role of presidents and the role of strong leaders.”

Frequently Asked Questions
FAQs How the Met Opera Turned Lincoln in the Bardo into an Opera

1 What is Lincoln in the Bardo
Its a 2017 novel by George Saunders Its set in a graveyard in 1862 where the ghost of Abraham Lincolns young son Willie meets a group of spirits who are stuck between life and death

2 What is the Metropolitan Opera
The Met is one of the worlds leading opera companies based at Lincoln Center in New York City It commissions and premieres new operas as well as classic ones

3 Who composed the opera version
Missy Mazzoli wrote the music Shes a wellknown contemporary American composer

4 Who wrote the libretto
The libretto was written by Royce Vavrek who often collaborates with Mazzoli

5 When did the opera premiere
It premiered at the Met in the fall of 2025 with a run of performances at Lincoln Center

6 Why would anyone turn this novel into an opera
The novel is full of big emotionsgrief love and letting gowhich suit opera well It also has a choruslike cast of ghosts which is a natural fit for an opera company with a large ensemble

7 How do you turn a novel into an opera
You condense the story into a few hours of music and singing The librettist picks key scenes and characters cuts or combines others and writes lyrics that the composer sets to music

8 Whats the biggest challenge in adapting this book
The novel has dozens of voices and a collagelike structure with fragments of historical texts mixed in An opera needs a clear throughline so the creators had to focus on a few main characters especially Willie and Lincoln

9 How did they handle the novels unusual structure
They turned the chorus into the community of ghosts Instead of many narrators the ghosts sing together and in small groups which captures the books many voices through music

10 Did George Saunders work on the opera
Yes he was involved as a creative consultant though Mazzoli and Vavrek did the actual adapting

11 What does bardo mean
In Tibetan Buddhism the bardo is the state between death and