Two Boys

Nico Muhly’s gripping new opera, loosely inspired by real events, explores the shadowy world of the Internet as a detective investigates the stabbing of one teenage boy by another—and discovers a tangled web of online intrigue. Rising tenor Paul Appleby stars as Brian, the young man at the center of the story, opposite Alice Coote as Anne Strawson, the women charged with solving the crime. David Robertson conducts Muhly’s haunting score, which interweaves masterful orchestration, lyrical vocal writing, and shimmering choruses that musically capture the mysterious realm of the web.