Actors know about "falling up": a split-second ignition from the wings, propelling entrance as a new character, an unwilled ascent to a different mode of being, an in-body experience that overlays preparation, opportunity, choice, or chance. Falling Up, the first and only full-length Floyd study, is a metaphor for humanity s uncanny ability to rise from seeming disaster into rebirth. Floyd s consistent succession of soars, stumbles, slides, or wrenches sings of triumph over odds.

A modern Renaissance man, Floyd is our greatest living opera composer and librettist, a trained concert...