Another City

Another City (2023) was commissioned by Houston Grand Opera as part of their Song of Houston series. Composed by Jeremy Howard Beck with a libretto by Stephanie Fleischmann, Another City takes, as its starting point, the “other” inhabitants of the city: the numerous and often overlooked or deliberately ignored unhoused population of Houston, Texas. The libretto was crafted after weeks of research, including over sixty hours of interviews and conversations with people experiencing homelessness in Houston, and the score reflects sounds frequently heard by many of Houston’s unhoused population. Using Another City as a case study, this chapter introduces and analyzes broad issues surrounding criticism and aesthetics of New Genre Public Opera and illustrates how, for creators of New Genre Public Opera, participation can become a method of embodying social and political ideals.