BLACK LODGE

David T. Little, ComposerAnne Waldman, Libretto

Part film screening. Part industrial rock opera concert. Part immersive theater experience.


What does it take to face ourselves? Enter the darkness in search of something beautiful, transcendent. But be very careful what you need to know…

Drawing on the complicated mythologies of the surrealist writer William S. Burroughs (Naked Lunch), Black Lodge uses dance, industrial rock, classical string quartet, and opera to take viewers through a Lynchian psychological escape room.

Set in a nightmarish Bardo, a place between death and rebirth, a tormented writer faces down demons of his own making. Forced to confront the darkest moment in his life, he mines fractured and repressed memories for a way out. A woman is at the center of all the writer’s afterlife encounters. She is the subject of his life’s greatest regret, and she materializes everywhere in this Otherworld. The writer cannot detach any thoughts of his life from her.

Opera commissioned by Beth Morrison Projects and the Allen R. and Judy Brick Freedman Venture Fund for Opera.

Film commissioned by Beth Morrison Projects, Opera Philadelphia, the Allen R. and Judy Brick Freedman Venture Fund for Opera, David & Kiki Gindler, Charlotte Isaacs, and Thomas H. Platz with additional support provided by the Howard Gilman Foundation.

Developed by Beth Morrison Projects, California Institute for the Arts, HERE Arts Center, and REDCAT.

Additional production support provided by David & Kiki Gindler, Charlotte Isaacs, and Thomas H. Platz.

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

This is opera ripping through the fabric of future vision psychosis where the integrity of classic form clasps the hands of radical possibilities, David T. Little takes no prisoners here, in confluence with poet angel head Anne Waldman’s libretto of nature, irreality, and spirit consciousness, divining deliverance from life’s spectacle of chaos and love. You’re about to have your mind scorched, my friends!
Thurston Moore from Sonic Youth
Black Lodge is a bold new operatic film. It seamlessly blends poetry and music into a powerful cinematic experience.
Composer Philip Glass
A Twin Peaks-inspired musical theater piece
LA Times
One of the most imaginative young composers on the music-theatre scene…not a post-classical composer but a classical composer with a surprisingly broad range.
The New Yorker on David T. Little
A knack for overturning musical conventions
The New York Times on David T. Little
A counter-cultural giant.
Publisher's Weekly on Anne Waldman

Creative Team

COMPOSER — DAVID T. LITTLE
LIBRETTO — ANNE WALDMAN
STORY, SCREENPLAY, AND FILM/STAGE DIRECTION — MICHAEL JOSEPH MCQUILKEN
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER — BETH MORRISON PROJECTS
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER — THURSTON MOORE
FEATURING
STARRING (FILM) — TIMUR & JENNIFER HARRISON NEWMAN (THE WOMAN)
BLACK LODGE PERFORMERS ON FILM: — TIMUR AND THE DIME MUSEUM (TIMUR, LEAD VOCALS; MATTHEW SETZER, GUITAR; ANDREW LESSMAN, DRUMS; DANIEL CORRAL, KEYBOARD; DAVID TRANCHINO, BASS GUITAR) | ISAURA STRING QUARTET (EMILY CALL, VIOLIN; MADS FALCONE, VIOLIN; RITA ANDRADE, VIOLA; NADIA SIROTA, VIOLA (AUDIO); BETSY RETTIG, CELLO.
BLACK LODGE PERFORMERS LIVE: — TIMUR AND THE DIME MUSEUM (TIMUR, LEAD VOCALS; MATTHEW SETZER, GUITAR; ANDREW LESSMAN, DRUMS; MILO TALWANI, KEYBOARD; HANNAH DEXTER, BASS GUITAR). ISAURA QUARTET (EMILY CALL, VIOLIN; MADS FALCONE, VIOLIN; LAILA ZAKZOOK, VIOLA; ; BETSY RETTIG, CELLO.