"A new staging of The Blind, based on Maeterlinck’s symbolist play of the same name, has its premiere on Tuesday [July 9, in Lincoln Center] and continues through July 14 at the Kaplan Penthouse; audience members will be blindfolded throughout its one-hour duration ..."
Lera Auerbach has had six world premieres in one month, she is working on opera commissions through 2018; chances are she will be set for the rest of the young century. She is an amazing jack of all trades, but personally, I value her chamber music above all.
"He sees! He sees! But what can he see?" sings one of the sightless men in The Blind, an a cappella opera by the Russian-American composer Lera Auerbach opening this week at the Lincoln Center Festival.
"It’s not the characters who are blind," she said during an interview at a Manhattan cafe. "The message is that we are the blind. With all our means of communication we see each other less and connect to each other less. We have less understanding and compassion for other people. We have this screen between us."
...
The Blind is one of the earliest works in the substantial catalog of Ms. Auerbach, who at 39 is increasingly in demand as a composer and balances her deadlines with a career as a concert pianist.
Poster for The Blind's Moscow performance
After ordering a bowl of matzo ball soup, she discussed her packed schedule and perennial jet lag. On this occasion she had just returned from Greece, where she performed her own music for viola and piano with the violist Kim Kashkashian.
Ms. Auerbach’s catalog of some 95 pieces features two operas, eight concertos and 28 chamber pieces, including a sonata for cello and piano commissioned by the pianist Wu Han and the cellist David Finckel, who described her as "in a very elite league of talent." Her richly constructed and often lyrical works explore contrasts of sound, from solitary whispers to rambunctious frenzy. Major recent commissions have included a multifaith Requiem to commemorate the destruction of Dresden; a piece for the Rascher Saxophone Quartet and women’s choir; and Gogol, a three-act opera set to her own libretto.
I cannot speak on behalf of The Blind or its staging, but to open eyes and ears check out a few of her other works:
Auerbach's personal website has lots of audio and video, but requires (free) registration. I am still waiting for response to my request a week ago; she must be on the road, without a laptop.
