Seeing Through: A Chronicle of Sex, Drugs, and Opera

The true confessions of a working opera composer: an exhilarating story of ＂a life that comes out of chaos.＂

At eight years old, Ricky Ian Gordon pulled The Victor Book of Opera off his piano teacher’s bookshelf, and his world shifted on its axis. Though scandal, sadness, and confusion would shake that world over the next few decades, its polestar remained constant. Music has been the guiding force of Gordon’s life; through it, he has been able not only to survive great sorrow but also to capture the depths of his emotion in song. It is this strength, this technical and visceral genius, that has made him one of our generation’s greatest composers.

In Seeing Through, Gordon writes with humor, insight, and incredible candor about his life and work: a tumultuous youth on Long Island, his artistic collaborations and obsessions, the creation of his compositions (including The Grapes of Wrath, 27, Orpheus and Euridice, Intimate Apparel, Ellen West, and more), his addictions and the abuses he endured, and the loss of his partner to AIDS and the devastation of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. As Gordon writes of that period: ＂We were, thousands of us, Lazarus. We had to rise from the ashes. We didn’t have to rebuild our lives, we had to build new ones.＂

Gordon has succeeded in building a remarkable life, as well as a body of work that bears witness to all he survived in the process--one that will endure as a pivotal chapter in America’s songbook.

Ricky Ian Gordon was born in Oceanside, New York, and was raised on Long Island. After studying piano, composition, and acting at Carnegie Mellon University, he settled in New York City, where he quickly emerged as a leading writer of vocal music that spans art song, opera, and musical theater. His songs have been performed and recorded by Renée Fleming, Dawn Upshaw, Nathan Gunn, Judy Collins, Kelli O’Hara, Audra McDonald, Kristin Chenoweth, and many others. His works include Orpheus and Euridice, Morning Star, The Grapes of Wrath, 27, Green Sneakers for Baritone, String Quartet, Empty Chair and Piano, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, Ellen West, and Intimate Apparel.