What Is an Apartment House of Sound? John Cage’s America as Overlapping Rooms What does it mean to hear a nation not as a single story, but as an architecture of coexistence? By Austin T. Richey, Ph. D. Digital Media Manager and Storyteller, Detroit Opera John Cage in his apartment, photo by Roberto Masotti (1979)...
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John Cage’s Detroit: Sounds of Silence By Austin T. Richey, Ph. D. Digital Media Manager and Storyteller, Detroit Opera The 1950s saw Cage toying with the very foundational ideas of composition. After receiving a copy of the I-Ching—a classic Chinese divination tool—from a pupil, Cage began employing the text to elicit chance procedures in his...
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John Cage’s Detroit: Early Years By Austin T. Richey, Ph. D. Digital Media Manager and Storyteller, Detroit Opera John Cage during his 1966 concert at the opening of the National Arts Foundation in Washington, D.C. Image: Rowland Scherman / Getty Images. “The first question I ask myself when something doesn’t seem to be beautiful is...
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In Conversation with Poul Ruders: On Composing The Handmaid’s Tale What does it mean to translate a dystopian novel into sound? Ahead of Detroit Opera’s production of The Handmaid’s Tale, composer Poul Ruders shares insights into the musical language of the opera, his approach to building the world of Gilead, and the ways the work...
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When Dystopia Stops Feeling Like Fiction: Opera as a Mirror of the Present Opera has never shied away from tyrants. By Austin T. Richey, Ph. D. Digital Media Manager and Storyteller, Detroit Opera The Central Park Five at Detroit Opera, 2025. Austin T. Richey / Detroit Opera. Across centuries of repertoire, power appears...
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Opera, Pop Culture, and Why The Handmaid’s Tale Already Has a Fandom By Austin T. Richey, Ph. D. Digital Media Manager and Storyteller, Detroit Opera Women dressed in red gowns protest outside the Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity Summit in Manhattan, New York, July 31, 2018. Shannon Stapleton / Reuters. Long before a single note of The Handmaid’s Tale is...
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Join us for an intimate 75-minute conversation with award-winning author Margaret Atwood. In advance of our The Handmaid’s Tale opera production by Poul Ruders and Paul Bentley in March, the author will read a short selection from her novel as well as talk about her storied career as detailed in her memoir, Book of Lives. This conversation will be moderated by Sam...
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This holiday season, Detroit Opera invites you to join our Gleaners Community Food Drive. Bring three canned food items to the Detroit Opera House Box Office and receive a complimentary ticket to the Thursday, December 11th performance of Highways & Valleys. Detroit Opera will be accepting donations during regular box office hours and during each performance of Highways & Valleys. Your simple donation helps nourish our community and...
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Enjoy the performance program from the convenience of your phone! All the information contained in the program book is at your fingertips. Click below for the full experience.
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