27 (opera)

27 (or Twenty-Seven) is an opera by composer Ricky Ian Gordon and librettist Royce Vavrek in a prologue and five acts that explores the relationship of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, and the salons that they hosted at their residence at 27 rue de Fleurus in Paris. Commissioned by Opera Theatre of Saint Louis for mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, the opera premiered on June 14, 2014, in a production directed by James Robinson at the Loretto-Hilton Center in St. Louis, Missouri.

Pittsburgh Opera staged the work in February 2016. The work was premiered in New York City in October 2016 at New York City Center with Stephanie Blythe, Heidi Stober (), Theo Lebow, Tobias Greenhalgh (), and Daniel Brevik. Ted Sperling conducted the Orchestra of St. Luke's and Gordon composed new material specially for the MasterVoices chorus.

The St. Louis American called the world premiere production of 27 a "flawless commissioned portrait of Gertrude Stein," while Ray Mark Rinaldi of The Denver Post said that the opera "tells a great American story, as well as American opera in the 21st century" suggesting that "it is every century's job to define the century before it, and 27 isn't afraid to do that with certainty and depth." In her review for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Sarah Bryan Miller called the work "serious fun" praising Gordon's creation of "hummable tunes and recurring themes, drama and sweetness, in a well-wrought score. Vavrek is Steinian without stealing Stein and keeps the story moving, for a clever, witty libretto," while Anne Midgette of The Washington Post wrote that "[Gordon] clearly found much to inspire him in this libretto and subject, to judge from a score that has an engaging vitality from the opening bars, and is delightfully studded with allusions (a touch of Lakmé, a hint of Vanessa) and adroit vocal ensembles." Heidi Waleson of The Wall Street Journal commented that "[t]he first thing that you notice about Ricky Ian Gordon's 27, an opera about Gertrude Stein that recently had its world premiere at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, is that it moves. Royce Vavrek, the librettist, taking his cue from Stein's own short phrases and cells of text, created a playful, quick-witted libretto that pushed Mr. Gordon beyond his trademark melodies into a brighter, friskier style." Critic Scott Cantrell of The Dallas Morning News wrote that "27 is an unabashedly populist treatment of a yeasty artistic period, in musical idioms that wouldn't have raised an eyebrow in 1920s Paris," and further described Gordon's score as "tuneful, Frenchified neoclassicism" likening it to the work of Lennox Berkeley and Aaron Copland.

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