The Mile-Long Opera is a citywide public engagement project which brought together 1,000 singers from across New York for free performances on the High Line, October 3—8, 2018.
Co-created by architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang, with words and lyrics by acclaimed poets Anne Carson and Claudia Rankine, and conducted by Donald Nally.
Set in one of the most dynamic public spaces for observing New York City and its multitude of intersecting lives, The Mile-Long Opera invites audiences to move in and out of groups of singers as they walk along the High Line (NYC’s mile-long elevated linear park). The event challenges conventions of what opera is and whom it is for. Set in a public space, the opera invites all New Yorkers to join in and experience the performances at close range.
The stories sung in the opera have been gathered through first-hand interviews with residents throughout the city, asking what 7:00 pm means to them. While 7:00 pm almost universally represents a time of transition from day to night, when people shift from one activity to the next, these conversations reveal a vast spectrum of feelings and perspectives—and, by extension, represent the diverse character of the city’s inhabitants and their individual experiences. Read the full libretto here.
“For any faults it may have, it’s impossible to not be moved by “The Mile-Long Opera” … the opera has the feel of an elegy, one that people can easily relate to if they’ve lived in New York and experienced how rapidly, and sometimes cruelly, it can change.” – The New York Times