A Star Next to the Moon

Stephen McNeff’s new commission, A Star Next to the Moon, is an opera based on Joan Rolfo’s novel Pedro Páramo.

Juan Preciado, as a deathbed promise to his mother, sets off to visit the town of Comala and to find his father, Pedro Páramo. Comala is not as he expected; it appears inhabited by ghosts. Not sure who is alive or dead, various characters tell Juan their stories, but their terrifying nature drives him into a feverish loss of sanity.

The story of how Pedro Páramo ruthlessly rose to power as a cruel and amoral landowner is told in parallel. Pedro’s one glimpse of humanity is Susana who, despite her long absence and his tyranny, he has loved since childhood. However, her madness and death drive Pedro to despair and his ultimate act of malice.

Sung in English with English surtitles