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09/20/2026
“Complications in Sue”
Errollyn Wallen, Missy Mazzoli, Andy Akiho, Nathalie Joachim, Dan Schlosberg, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Alastair Coleman, Kamala Sankaram, Rene Orth, Nico Muhly: Complications in Sue
Justin Vivian Bond (Sue), Kiera Duffy (Mrs. Claus, Co‑Ed 1, Algorithm 1, Child Self, Death), Imara Miles (Newscaster, Algorithm 2, Octogenarian, Death), Nicky Spence (Co‑Ed 2, Algorithm 3, Neighbor, Death), Nicholas Newton (Santa Claus, Roger, Octogenarian, Death), Julia Laird (Co‑Ed 1, Algorithm 1, Child, Self, Death), Nathaniel Bear (Co‑Ed 2, Algorithm 3, Neighbor, Death), Brandon Bell (Santa Claus, Roger, Octogenarian, Death), Opera Philadelphia Orchestra, Max Tan (concertmaster), Caren Levine (conductor)
Live recording: Academy of Music, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (February 5‑6, 2026) (World Premiere Recording) – 85’
BCM & D Records – Booklet in English
 
Countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo became General Director of Opera Philadelphia (OP) in 2024. Now heading into the Company’s 50th Anniversary season, he wanted to program an opera premiere that needed to be ready in mere months. Costanzo collaborated with cabaret star Justin Vivian Bond who suggested doing an opera set in each decade of a character’s life with different composers scoring each scene. Michael R. Jackson was brought on to write the libretto for the aptly titled, Complications in Sue. Jackson had recently won both the Tony Award © and the Pulitzer Prize © for his musical, A Strange Loop.
A concept of multiple artists or writers creating one piece of art without telling each other what their contribution would be, has been called an ‘exquisite corpse’, translated from the original French term, cadavre exquis. The premiere, undeniably ambitious, experimental and operatically brave, has with it all these unique elements coming together, risking collapse under its own weight.
The 52-piece OP Orchestra, led by Caren Levine, rides the opera’s prismatic score with evocative dramaturgy by Justin Vivian Bond and Michael R. Jackson about the life of an American transgender lead character presented by a premiere American opera company at a time when transgender citizens are being targeted and unjustly harassed by their government.
Complications in Sue ensues with 10 eight‑minute scenes depicting their life from birth to death: a musical diaspora that intersects with operatic vocabulary. A mosaic of the composers presents challenges without the visual elements of the production.
Without the visuals of the set and Jonathan Anderson’s off-the-runaway costumes, Jackson’s packed tragi‑comedic libretto or seeing the staging by co‑director Zack Winokur and Raja Feather Kelly, the audio recording makes some scenes harder to absorb. But, on balance, there is much to admire. Based on the audience response of this live recording, the premiere obviously proved an exciting night at the Academy of Music.
The opera opens with Errollyn Wallen’s haunting sound‑cloud “Sue’s Birth” with the song, A World That’s Full of Wonder. The scene is followed by the musical mayhem of composer Missy Mazzoli, depicting “Sue’s Childhood” and its Christmas Time with Santa and Mrs. Claus appearing for the 10‑year‑old Sue, letting her know that sorrows, along with joy, will be upcoming after the holidays. Nicholas Newton lets his panic loose as Papa Santa while singing the parental holiday angst Christmas Time, Somebody Kill Me.
Composer Andy Akiho’s musical portrait, Who is Sue? from “Sue at University” features orchestral jazz that massages the semi-comedic dialogue, giving away to a pattering mise en scène finish. The ensuing “She’s Got a Hold on Me” possesses clamoring symphonics as a character repeatedly sings the phrase, ‘I hate her’, up and down the scale.
Scene 4 (“Susan’s Imagination”) is scored by composer Nathalie Joachim where the protagonist becomes sociopolitical as “Brenda Blackwoman” who sings Good Evening, I’m Brenda Blackwoman in a biting satire on race relations. The subsequent In Other News is addressed in a rapid fire Singspiel about relationships and the thoughts of a prospective husband who ‘is really going to find out what I’m like’ while conflicting feelings surface in, ‘I never have to be honest about who I am’. Suddenly, there is a pause as Justin Vivian Bond breaks character with faux outrage demanding to know ‘WHO WROTE THIS?’
Dan Schlosberg’s music to “Sue’s Ex‑Husband/Roger” reveals Nicholas Newtown’s bass‑baritone command in a breakaway swing era horn vamp which melts back to a passionate aria about lover betrayals.
Behind the penultimate conversation, Cécile McLorin Salvant essays “Sue’s Algorithm” in a conclusion to disc 1. Initiating this scene is Click on It with its pattering of a teasing dialogue between lovers, while enveloped in cinematic scoring and bawdy lyrics. Soon to follow is an interlude (Own Text) where Bond breaks and owns the moment (big time) with a savagely heartfelt political statement about the current political crisis the United States is suffering from without pulling any punches and leaving the audience cheering.
Alistair Coleman entrées disc 2 with a score that’s equally dramatic with Nicky Spence spilling secrets to Sue during “Sue’s Neighbors”. After a symphonic lead‑in, his refrain converses ‘Nothing will soothe my soul’, an encapsulation of all his inner turmoil and voiced through his unleashed tenorial vérité.
Kiera Duffy turns this story into a more spiritually reflective visit inside the “The Ghost of Sue’s Childhood Past”, musing upon the mysteries of making peace with the inevitably of time. Composer Kamala Sankaram’s forest of strings and horns swirl around the dramatic text that ends in giggles. Bond weighs in with the ephemeral ironies of time with his tremulous belter, confounded by the question of where Sue’s time goes.
Rene Orth’s bittersweet ballade scores life’s impending codas in “Sue’s Age Old Home”, followed by Nico Muhly’s stirring symphonics to “Sue’s Death” with the opera singers emerging as apparitions singing of mystical truths.
Justin Vivian Bond’s theatrical command throughout all the tragedy and comedy of the Jackson libretto impresses throughout. The vocal range in various characterizations, vis‑à‑vis Duffy, Miles, Spence and Newton is one for the books. For the record, Complications in Sue is challenging to unpack and to totally absorb, but without a doubt, it’s undeniably and outrageously fascinating.
Lewis J. Whittington
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