Royce Vavrek — The Language of Opera (Coming soon.)
Episode coming soon. In this episode, Lizzie Bowman is joined by Pulitzer Prize-winning librettist Royce Vavrek (Angel’s Bone with composer Du Yun, Adoration with composer Mary Kouyoumdjian, Lincoln in the Bardo with composer Missy Mazzoli), who grew up on a farm in Alberta, Canada, and is exploding in the international opera scene.
We discuss how a childhood of country radio and the rural landscape of Northern Canada shaped his “serpentine” path through film school and eventually into the world of contemporary storytelling. Royce shares his vision for a more democratic opera—one that moves away from historical opulence and toward a fiercely theatrical connection with a contemporary public.
A Serendipitous Release
While this conversation was recorded in December 2025, some audio technical hurdles (now fixed!) kept it in the vault until now. As it turns out, the timing is perfect. In the interview, we discuss the complexities of making new work and the vital importance of resilience and trust in the arts, specifically regarding the project Indians on Vacation.
This week—on May 9, 2026—Against the Grain Theatre brings that resilience to the stage with “Stories Don’t Die” at the Terminal Theatre in Toronto. This intimate encounter interweaves excerpts from the opera with personal reflections on belonging and identity, featuring a newly commissioned sung land acknowledgement by Ian Cusson and Yvette Nolan.
In This Episode, We Discuss:
From Sexsmith to New York: How a farm-to-film-school journey led to the Pulitzer Prize and the Metropolitan Opera.
The “Energy Ping-Pong”: Why Royce loves an audience that “talks back”—from $11 tickets at Opera Philly to the electric, “imperfect” magic of live performance that AI can’t replicate.
Pure Canadiana: A deep dive into the “stamp of identity” in Canadian music and our shared love for Sarah Slean, Kathleen Edwards, and The Rankin Family.
Writing for Muses: The thrill of creating roles for specific spirits, including Anne Sophie von Otter, Lauren Warsham, and John Moore.
Event Spotlight: Stories Don’t Die
Date: May 9th, 2026 at 3:00 PM
Location: Terminal Theatre, Toronto (207 Queens Quay W)
Featured Artists: Marion Newman, Evan Korbut, Giles Tomkins, and more.
Tickets: Available now via Against the Grain Theatre.
"It’s a roadmap. We’ve created an incomplete document that needs the musicians in the pit and needs the singers and needs that director to wrangle everything and that conductor to be the captain of the ship. We write black and white things on pages, and we need so many other people to add the colors." — Royce Vavrek
Who is Royce Vavrek?
Royce Vavrek is a Canada-born, Brooklyn-based librettist and lyricist who has been called “the indie Hofmannsthal” (The New Yorker) a “Metastasio of the downtown opera scene” (The Washington Post), “an exemplary creator of operatic prose” (The New York Times), and “one of the most celebrated and sought after librettists in the world” (CBC Radio). His opera “Angel’s Bone” with composer Du Yun was awarded the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Music.
All episodes, after publication, are also available in video form on YouTube and Spotify Channels. All are hosted by Elizabeth (Lizzie) Bowman.
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