p r i s m cover
Released

Ellen Reid achieves a number of rare feats in this 2019 Pulitzer-Prize-winning chamber opera. First among them is the creation of a powerful and original sonic portrait of sexual-violence trauma. The libretto, by Roxie Perkins, is dedicated in particular to the fragmented, layered character of survivors’ suffering, and Reid’s score manages to be both disorienting and chillingly direct. Aiding the score’s power is Reid’s command of different musical idioms: psychological-thriller film score; taut, percussive modernism; eerie and shimmeringly beautiful choral writing. At the piece’s strongest moments, like in Act I’s “Lost in the Blue” or in the finale, Reid weaves these styles together in a balancing act that would fall apart in less-capable hands.

Sean Wood

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