Before It All Goes Dark • Music of Remembrance
“Librettist Gene Scheer turns Reich’s stories into a poetic journey of self-discovery for Mac that demonstrates the transformative power of art. In Scheer’s retelling, we first see Mac at his apartment in Lyons, Illinois, packing for his trip to Prague to see his great-great uncle’s art collection. In Prague, he is confronted by not only his past and his family’s secrets but also Czech bureaucracy. He returns to the US, not with his inheritance, but with a connection to his newly discovered Jewish heritage and a growing appreciation for art. A one-act chamber opera, Before It All Goes Dark may be small in scale, but it packed an emotional punch in a taut 45 minutes.”
