EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP) — Missy Mazzoli’s desire to compose an opera about the opioids epidemic was sparked by the deaths of two cousins.“One was in 2002 and the other passed away in 2009 and they were both 25,” she said. “One overdosed on OxyContin and the other one overdosed heroin after becoming addicted to heroin via OxyContin.”Using a carnival merry-go-round as an allegory, “The Galloping Cure” opened Sunday at the Edinburgh International Festival, a haunting portrayal of the drug’s destructive power that is among the most impactful of contemporary operas.Mazzoli and librettist Royce Vavrek created a charismatic charlatan, Lucky Man (baritone Justin Austin), who arrives at the faded community Yourtown in a white double-breasted suit and matching cowboy hat, easing residents’ chronic pain by offering free rides on six fiberglass horses to get people hooked.
He starts charging money during the town’s yearlong descent — “dynamic pricing,” he calls it — then rents hobbyhorses until people go broke. He demands noses, hair, kneecaps and tongues as payments, body parts he will use to build more carousel horses. By the final notes, wasted bodies resemble a skid row.“When he offers you the cure, he never tells you the price,” sings Dr. Theresa Hart (mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack), whose endorsement of Lucky Man leads to the death of her daughter Noy (soprano Gabrielle Turgeon).
