The New Museum premieres an opera by Jeanine Oleson in conjunction with her exhibition “Hear, Here” (April 23–July 6). Beginning in a cave and ending on a mountain, the opera is presented in two acts that move paradoxically between absurd impossibility and a new terrain on which to voice agency.

During a five-month-long residency, Jeanine Oleson will develop a group of interrelated new works, constituting an exhibition titled “Hear, Here” public programs, workshops, a publication, and an experimental opera. The set and objects for the experimental opera (to be staged in the New Museum’s Theater this June) will be present during the run of the exhibition, forming an impromptu stage set or catalyst for a series of informal programs, mediated by invited guests in the gallery space, leading up to the final performance. An exploration of different kinds of voices—from the musical voice of opera to political acts of speech—Oleson’s project both investigates language and points beyond it. Looking for alternative models, “Hear, Here” asks questions such as: How can we attune ourselves to each other? Where is the agency in language? What does it really mean to listen?

“Jeanine Oleson: Hear, Here” is on view at the New Museum from April 22 to July 6, 2014, and is curated by Johanna Burton, Keith Haring Director and Curator of Education and Public Engagement.

“Hear, Here: An experimental opera” at the New Museum
Writer/Director: Jeanine Oleson
Composers: Rainy Orteca and Kelly Pratt (aurihorn solos)
Performers: Beth Griffith, David Gould, Lisa Reynolds, Sister, Diwa Tamrong, Tony Torn, and nyx zierhut
Musicians: Rainy Orteca, Kelly Pratt, and John Michael Swartz
Costumes: Kim Charles Kay
Lighting Design: Derek Wright