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NEW YORK, NY (JUNE 23, 2025) – On the heels of the premiere of his newest opera, This House, at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, renowned composer Ricky Ian Gordon's candid and compelling memoir "Seeing Through: A Chronicle of Sex, Drugs, and Opera" will be released in paperback from Picador on July 22, 2025. The memoir has garnered widespread critical praise since its hardcover publication by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in July 2024. The New York Times described it as "mesmerizing” and as “unfiltered as a Pall Mall.”
"Seeing Through" is a wrenching, uproarious, and unflinchingly honest memoir that chronicles the life of one of today's most celebrated opera composers. Gordon writes with remarkable candor about his tumultuous journey from a chaotic childhood on Long Island through his rise as a leading voice in contemporary American opera and musical theater.
The memoir captures Gordon's early experiences with drugs, unsettling sexual encounters, his irrevocable love affair with music, and his struggles with addiction and abuse. Most poignantly, it offers a stark meditation on living through the devastation of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in New York, including the heartbreaking loss of his beloved partner Jeffrey.
Gordon draws back the curtain on his artistic collaborations and creative process, detailing the creation of his celebrated compositions, including The Grapes of Wrath, Intimate Apparel, Orpheus and Euridice, among many others. The book stands as a testament to artmaking as a form of survival and an exhilarating celebration of opera itself—radical, expectation-defying, and pulsing with emotion and possibility.
Booklist wrote: "This is a big book, both literally and figuratively, full of big emotions and bigger tragedies, shameful secrets and bodily obsessions as well as the thrill of creativity, the sadness of ordinary life, and all the other moments in-between.” While OperaWire said: "Gordon's book isn't just a memoir; it's a guide. It offers insights and encouragement to anyone involved in creative work, showing that the struggles behind the scenes are often as significant as the final product, whether that product is a human (Gordon) or made for the opera stage. Gordon wrote a powerful book full of intricate details about his life, with stories that will break your heart and lift your spirits."
Gordon's latest opera, This House, with a libretto by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage—with whom he collaborated on his opera Intimate Apparel—and her daughter Ruby Aiyo Gerber, premiered earlier this summer and has also garnered critical acclaim. The opera follows the Walker family in their multi-generational Harlem brownstone, which the family has lived in since the 1920s, and explores the ghostly voices, painful memories, and hidden truths the house holds. Gordon’s music reflects the evolving time periods of the Walkers, with the style shifting to mirror the characters and eras. Blending classical, musical theater, jazz, and ragtime, the Associated Press noted: "Ricky Ian Gordon's lush score brings to vivid life a libretto by Lynn Nottage and her daughter Ruby Aiyo Gerber, weaving impacts of the Civil War, Great Migration, Black Power movement, AIDS crisis, and gentrification."
“This House is a triumph at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. The company’s 45th world premiere is a masterpiece. It has a dazzling score by Ricky Ian Gordon and a spellbinding libretto by Lynn Nottage and Ruby Aiyo Gerber, Nottage’s daughter,” wrote the Higher Education Channel. The St. Louis Post Dispatch also praised Gordon's work, writing: "Wrapping the Walkers' legacy in music is composer Ricky Ian Gordon… his exceptional score adds gravitas to the tragic circumstances unfolding under the roof of a Harlem brownstone." This House runs through Sunday, June 29, at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.
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