Missy Mazzoli Breaking the Waves

Music by Missy Mazzoli. Libretto by Royce Vavrek
Based on the film by Lars von Trier

Lauren Snouffer (Bess McNeill), Ryan McKinny (Jan Nyman), Maire Therese Carmack (Dodo McNeill), David Portillo (Dr Richardson), Michelle Bradley (Bess's Mother);

Houston Grand Opera Orchestra
Houston Grand Opera Chorus
conductor Patrick Summers
Patrick Summers, Conductor

Houston Grand Opera: HGO0003


There is a particular danger in reviewing an opera you have only heard and never seen, and Missy Mazzoli's Breaking the Waves is a case in point. This is a work built on physical extremity and visual shock, adapted as it is from Lars von Trier's 1996 film of the same name, and no recording, however accomplished, can fully substitute for watching Bess McNeill's story unfold on stage. That said, Houston Grand Opera's new release, taken live from the Wortham Theater Center's Brown Theatre during the company's 2025 regional premiere, comes about as close as a CD can to conveying the opera's tension, and stands as an excellent portrayal in its own right.

The opera, with a libretto by Royce Vavrek, is set in a remote, strictly Calvinist community on Scotland's west coast in the 1970s. Bess McNeill, devout and emotionally fragile, marries Jan Nyman, an outsider who works the North Sea oil rigs. Their marriage awakens her sexually and emotionally, until Jan is left paralysed by a rig accident. Convinced that his recovery is somehow bound up with her own obedience and faith, Bess is drawn into a spiral of increasingly self-destructive acts that end in a devastating act of sacrifice. It is a work built on emotional extremes held in uneasy balance, and Mazzoli's score is written to sustain both at once, often within a single bar.

Baritone Ryan McKinny is excellent as Jan, his control and his ability to bring the narrative to life are quite delectable, not least in Act Two Scene 3, "Love Will Keep Me Alive", where you feel entirely with him. Lauren Snouffer's soprano is imposing, superbly conveying the trials and tribulations of Bess. There are haunting moments too, not least at the end of Act One Scene 6, in the phone booth, where Snouffer's control and range are commanding, especially at the top of the voice, where she truly soars. Phrasing throughout the cast is superb.

The spoken chanting and rhythmic word-setting come across with real effect: the chorus's contribution in "The Accident", and again in Act Two Scene 3's "I Am Tired of Waiting", both show every performer deploying these techniques to strong dramatic purpose. Soprano Michelle Bradley as the Mother, mezzo-soprano Maire Therese Carmack as Dodo, and baritone Michael Mayes as the Councilman all bring the same emotional intensity to their smaller roles.

Mazzoli's score is nothing short of genius. The music paints pictures with real creativity and power, and her use of instrumentation to depict particular scenes is marvellous, not least the deployment of melodica, piano, synthesiser and electric guitar alongside the more conventional orchestral palette. Her harmonic language carries us persuasively from scene to scene and character to character. Act Two Scene 2, "Love of My Life", is sonically captivating, especially in its closing bars for piano, before the tempo shifts into the Jan interlude; this is a passage that would benefit enormously from being seen staged. Throughout, the orchestra tells the story every bit as vividly as the two lead singers and the surrounding voices of the chorus. Patrick Summers draws rich emotional textures and finely judged dynamics from a relatively modest-sized orchestra, moody one moment, lyrical the next, and the orchestral turmoil at the heart of the piece is deftly communicated.

The denouement is where Mazzoli brings Vavrek's libretto most powerfully to life, especially in "You Deserve Your Place in Hell" and the epilogue, "I've Stolen You Back", where the writing grows almost unbearably tense as Jan chants "wait for me, Bess" before her body is carried away. Right to the close, Mazzoli conjures an effective and unsettling sound world, the tolling of a bell in the final minutes providing a suitably desolate full stop.

This is HGO's third release on its own label, a partnership with the London Symphony Orchestra's LSO Live, following the 2026 Grammy-winning recording of Intelligence. On this evidence, the label's ambitions for bringing bold American opera to a wider audience are well founded. It is a tour de force of a recording — and if a staged production ever comes within reach, do not hesitate.