New Opera as Art and Social Discourse
A Conversation with the Creators of A Marvelous Order

“Under the seeming disorder of the old city, wherever the old city is working successfully, is a marvelous order for maintaining the safety of the streets and the freedom of the city. It is a complex order ... composed of movement and change, and although it is life, not art, we may fancifully call it the art form of the city and liken it to the dance—not to a simple-minded precision dance with everyone kicking up at the same time, twirling in unison and bowing off en masse, but to an intricate ballet in which the individual dancers and ensembles all have distinctive parts which miraculously reinforce each other and compose an orderly whole. The ballet of the good city sidewalk never repeats itself from place to place, and in any one place is always replete with new improvisations.”

— Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities

Joshua Frankel and Judd Greenstein will discuss their multimedia opera, A Marvelous Order, which explores the epic struggle between Robert Moses, master builder, and Jane Jacobs, self-taught oracle of urban insight, over the fate of New York City in the mid-twentieth century. 

The conversation will include a video featuring highlights of their work in progress. Their discussion will center on the genesis and development of the opera, which features a libretto by former U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith. 

Frankel, the opera’s animator and director, and Greenstein, the composer, will also discuss the work’s themes, including the intersection between urban design and social justice, and how control over our built environment can be reclaimed by communities from oppressive leaders who abuse their authority. 

A Marvelous Order humanizes the struggle between power and protest movements in a way that only opera can.

The Center for the Performing Arts has supported the development of A Marvelous Order, both in person and remotely. In September 2019, members of the creative team spent most of a week at Penn State working on the development of the project and interacting with students at Eisenhower Auditorium and in classrooms. 

The world premiere performance of the opera is tentatively scheduled for November 2021 at Eisenhower Auditorium. The performance will be part of a residency at Penn State.

In conjunction with A Marvelous Order, Woskob Family Gallery at the Penn State Downtown Theatre is hosting an exhibit featuring selections of Frankel’s animation for the opera. The projected animation can viewed 6 p.m.–1 a.m. daily through the front windows of the theatre at 146 S. Allen St., State College. The exhibit runs until mid-March.