The Listeners

A thriller about the seductive power of cults and charismatic leaders from acclaimed collaborators Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek.

The Listeners is a new opera that examines the lengths to which we, as Americans, are willing to go to find a sense of place and purpose, and the way confident, charming leaders can exploit these needs to their own ends.

A middle-class mother (soprano Nicole Heaston) living in a southwestern U.S. suburb notices a “hum,” a high-frequency environmental noise that only a select few people, the "Listeners,” can hear. A community organization quickly forms to solve the mystery of the hum, but when the de facto leader (Kevin Burdette) suggests a spiritual significance, the meetings become increasingly cult-like. Is this community of “Listeners” on a collision course with destruction?

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