PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — “Complications in Sue” follows one woman’s journey through life.<\/p>\n
“It’s about a woman named Sue,” says Michael R. Jackson, Librettist of “Complications in Sue.”<\/p>\n
Director Raja Feather Kelly says she “goes from the age of 10 to 100” and the opera circles around “her existence.” The story also gets into her relationships.<\/p>\n
“There are complications that we all can relate to,” says Zack Winokur, Director of “Complications in Sue.”<\/p>\n
Cabaret icon Justin Vivian Bond stars as Sue in the opera’s world premiere at the Academy of Music.<\/p>\n
“You meet various people in her mind, and outside of her mind, who are singing to and about her,” says Jackson.<\/p>\n
Winokur says these people in Sue’s life “sort of shape shift to create the world around her.”<\/p>\n
“At one point, you meet an ex-husband. You meet a newscaster. You meet the character ‘Death,'” says Jackson.<\/p>\n
Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning playwright Michael R. Jackson wrote the story of Sue’s life over ten scenes. This libretto marks his operatic debut.<\/p>\n
“Michael wrote this incredibly beautiful, poignant, brilliant text,” says Winokur. “Each scene is one decade of Sue’s life, and we assigned each scene to one composer.”<\/p>\n
“There’s a lot of melodic content in it. There’s a lot of rhythmic variety in it. Each composer has their own style,” says Caren Levine, Conductor of “Complications in Sue.”<\/p>\n
“It’s a kaleidoscopic perspective on one person’s life,” says Winokur.<\/p>\n
Kelly adds that it “represents that sort of abstract nature of what it means to kind of live a full life” and at one point you see what Sue’s life “could be versus what it is.”<\/p>\n
Opera Philadelphia wants the show to be accessible with tickets priced at $11.<\/p>\n
“I hope people take away that opera can be really interesting,” says Jackson. “Emotional and funny.”<\/p>\n
Winokur adds that it’s “highly entertaining and totally profound.”<\/p>\n
“People will come and leave differently,” says Kelly.<\/p>\n
Opera Philadelphia presents “Complications in Sue” February 4, 5, 6 and 8 at the Academy of Music.<\/p>\n
For more information:<\/strong><\/p>\n Opera Philadelphia – “Complications in Sue” <\/a> Academy of Music Copyright \u00a9 2026 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — “Complications in Sue” follows one woman’s journey through life. “It’s about a woman named Sue,”…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":561054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[245002,5229,1448,2830,1311,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-561053","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-245002","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-pa","11":"tag-pennsylvania","12":"tag-philadelphia","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116001421650450666","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Link to Tickets at Academy of Music<\/a><\/p>\n
240 S. Broad Street
Philadelphia, PA 19102<\/p>\n