Gregory Spears and the Resurgence of Neo-Romanticism

Gregory Spears’ newest opera, Sleepers Awake, attempts a synthesis of Romantic syntax and contemporary dramatic architecture at Opera Philadelphia. The turn away from the exhausted tropes of mid-century modernism is a necessary correction, yet the project’s merit rests on technical rigor rather than nostalgic appeal. Spears’ mastery of traditional harmonic progression must do more than decorate the narrative; it must justify its existence as a living language. The danger is not the return to the past, but the lapse into pastiche that fails to address the complexities of the present.