Talks & Events Archive: Lincoln in the Bardo

Thursday, September 24 | 6:30PM Doors, 7PM Event
A Life in the Director’s Chair: Celebrating Louisa Proske
Auditorium 
Join us for an intimate conversation with director Louisa Proske, who makes her Met debut on Opening Night of the 2026–27 season with the new production of Verdi’s Macbeth. Follow her operatic career, from being a young chorister in Berlin to the co-founder of the “categorically imaginative and radical” (The New Yorker) NYC company Heartbeat Opera, and her journey toward Europe to further her craft. Jacob Ashworth, artistic director of Heartbeat Opera, joins Proske to discuss her path as one of the most trailblazing directors of our time. Free; registration required.

Friday, September 25 (Rain Date Saturday, September 26) | 6PM 
Death of Classical Co-Presents a Lincoln in the Bardo Cemetery Preview
Green-Wood Cemetery
Enjoy an immersive preview of Lincoln in the Bardo, the major new opera based on the Booker Prize–winning novel by George Saunders. Travel deep into the heart of Green-Wood along a path brought to life by music, dance, spoken word, and theatrical encounters inspired by the novel’s haunting world of spirits. As night falls, the journey culminates in an intimate performance featuring stars of the production and a conversation with composer Missy Mazzoli and librettist Royce Vavrek, moderated by music journalist Amanda Petrusich. Tickets required.

Wednesday, September 30 | 6PM
WNYC’s Get Lit with All Of It Book Club
In Person and Livestreamed at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library
WNYC and the New York Public Library’s Get Lit with All Of It book club partners with the Met to celebrate George Saunders’s Booker Prize–winning novel Lincoln in the Bardo, which will have make its operatic debut when Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s new adaptation has its world premiere this fall. Free; registration required.

Monday, October 5 | 7PM 
Works & Process: Lincoln in the Bardo  
Peter B. Lewis Theater at the Guggenheim Museum
In advance of the world premiere of Lincoln in the Bardo, get an insider look into the creative process behind composer Missy Mazzoli and libretto by Royce Vavrek’s haunting new opera. Met General Manager Peter Gelb moderates a discussion with Mazzoli and Vavrek about adapting George Saunders’s celebrated novel and speaks to the members of the production’s creative team about bringing this supernatural story to the Met stage. Artists from the all-start cast will also perform highlights from the score, and all attendees are invited to continue the conversation at a reception in the rotunda following the presentation, and all attendees are invited to continue the conversation at a reception in the rotunda following the presentation. Tickets required.