Foreman and Gordon’s opera 'What to Wear' begins New York run at BAM

The opera What to Wear, a collaboration between the late director Richard Foreman and composer Michael Gordon, makes its belated New York premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Thursday and runs through Sunday. Foreman wrote the Surrealism-drenched libretto and staged the original production at CalArts in 2006; Gordon said Foreman gave him wide freedom but insisted, famously, “There’s a duck.

I need the duck.” Gordon described the piece as “a piece with four Madeline Xs” and listed a gallery of ducks — “a giant duck, a great duck, an ugly duckling, a roasted duck” and more. Shortly before Covid, a weakened Foreman asked Paul Lazar and Annie‑B Parson of Big Dance Theater to remount the work in New York; the new iteration closely follows the first, with St.

Vincent as Guest Madeline X and involvement from original CalArts collaborators Sarah Frei, Michael Darling and costume designer E.B. Brooks, which Lazar called “our archaeological thread back to the original.” The 70‑minute production is produced by Beth Morrison Projects in collaboration with BAM, the Prototype festival and Bang on a Can.

The return of What to Wear offers audiences a chance to see Foreman’s off‑kilter aesthetic meet music, an aspect of his career that the article says has been overlooked.

Key Topics

Culture, Richard Foreman, Michael Gordon, Bam, St. Vincent, Big Dance Theater