Photo: Jay Mather
Last October, Kevin Ng published a fascinating profile of author Garth Greenwell here on Parterre Box. In that article, Greenwell discussed the new opera based on his novel What Belongs to You by composer David T Little. Ever since reading about this work, I’ve been eager to experience it. Happily, a recording by the label Bright Shiny Things is being released on June 26. It has surpassed my very high expectations.
The opera originated with Alan Pierson, the Artistic Director of the contemporary music ensemble Alarm Will Sound and one of the novel’s dedicatees. He sent the novel to Little, a frequent collaborator who immediately saw the vocal potential of the work and envisioned something akin to Winterreise. Little devised his own libretto; it greatly abridges the text without compromising the emotional flow and experiences that are key to the book. The opera premiered in September of 2024 at the University of Richmond in a production directed by Mark Morris with tenor Karim Sulayman as the vocalist. The world premiere performance was taped for this recording. The opera was recognized as the best new opera by the Music Critics Association in 2025.
Greenwell’s novel is narrated by a nameless gay American ex-pat who works as a teacher in Sofia, Bulgaria. He meets a hustler named Mitko in a well-known cruising spot in the National Palace of Culture. The novel follows the arc of their troubled relationship. It unfolds in beautiful, aching paragraphs that dissect the narrator’s conflicted emotions with intense precision, tying the dysfunctionalities in his relationship with Mitko back to his broken relationship with his deeply homophobic father.
Given the brutality of some of his other works Little might seem an unusual choice for this project. However, one of Little’s skills as a composer is his ability to create a bespoke musical language for each piece. His idiom here has echoes of the operas of Britten and Monteverdi without sounding derivative. The music is tender, lyric, and full of heartbreak without being maudlin. When called for, Little finds the ferocity and rage called for by the material; there is a beautiful spectrum of color and intensity in the score. The word setting is exemplary. I did not have to refer to the libretto at all, yet I understand all the text.
The excellent vocal writing would not come to life without the extraordinary singing of Karim Sulayman. He conveys the full range of emotions required by the work; it’s as if he has lived with the work for a long time rather than giving its world premiere. Even though it’s such a text-driven work, he manages to do the thing that often eludes many singers: clearly articulating the text without enunciating consonants to the point of parody or sounding forced. He gets through this work with incredible stamina. There is no sign of strain at the end of 90 intense, grueling minutes.
This is a rare recording that gives a nearly complete impression of the experience of a work. Nonetheless, I do hope I get a chance to see this somewhere soon. Do give it a listen and let us know if you saw the premiere.
