A01=Ricky Ian Gordon
addiction
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
AIDS crisis
Audra McDonald
Author_Ricky Ian Gordon
autobiography
automatic-update
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=AVGC9
Category=AVH
Category=AVLF
Category=AVN
Category=BGFA
Category=DNBF1
composer
COP=United States
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
drug use
eq_art-fashion-photography
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=0
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_music
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
funny
gay
Kell O'Hara
Kelli O'Hara
Kristin Chenoweth
Language_English
LGBTQ
Marcel Proust
memoir
Metropolitan Opera
music
musical theater
musician's memoir
New York City
opera
PA=Available
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Active
queer
queer memoir
Renee Fleming
softlaunch
songwriting
Product details
- ISBN 9780374605728
- Weight: 727g
- Dimensions: 165 x 242mm
- Publication Date: 19 Aug 2024
- Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux Inc
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
At eight years old, Ricky Ian Gordon pulled The Victor Book of Opera off his piano teacher’s bookshelf, and his world shifted on its axis. Though scandal, sadness, and confusion would shake that world over the next few decades, its polestar remained constant. Music has been the guiding force of Gordon’s life; through it, he has been able not only to survive great sorrow but also to capture the depths of his emotion in song. It is this strength, this technical and visceral genius, that has made him one of our generation’s greatest composers.
In Seeing Through, Gordon writes with humour, insight, and incredible candour about his life and work: a tumultuous youth on Long Island, his artistic collaborations and obsessions, the creation of his compositions (including The Grapes of Wrath, 27, Orpheus and Euridice, Intimate Apparel, Ellen West, and more), his addictions and the abuses he endured, and the loss of his partner to AIDS and the devastation of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. As Gordon writes of that period: “We were, thousands of us, Lazarus. We had to rise from the ashes. We didn’t have to rebuild our lives, we had to build new ones.”
Gordon has succeeded in building a remarkable life, as well as a body of work that bears witness to all he survived in the process - one that will endure as a pivotal chapter in America's songbook.
Ricky Ian Gordon was born in Oceanside, NY and raised on Long Island. After studying piano, composition, and acting, at Carnegie Mellon University, he settled in New York City, where he quickly emerged as a leading writer of vocal music that spans art song, opera, and musical theater. Gordon's songs have been performed and recorded by Renée Fleming, Dawn Upshaw, Nathan Gunn, Judy Collins, Kelli O'Hara, Audra MacDonald, Kristin Chenoweth, and many others. His works include Dream True, Orpheus and Euridice, Green Sneakers for Baritone, String Quartet, Empty Chair, and Piano, The Grapes of Wrath, and Intimate Apparel.
