The Party: A New Stop-Motion Opera Film

The Philadelphia Orchestra presents The Party: A New Stop-Motion Opera Film at Marian Anderson Hall, The Kimmel Center, on February 25, 2027. The whole evening runs about two hours and ten minutes, including intermission, and is supported by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.

The program is built around the idea of how we experience time, and it pulls from three very different eras. There's Joseph Haydn's 18th-century London symphony, The Clock, and Arthur Honegger's Pacific 231, written by a lifelong train fanatic to mimic a locomotive turning into a hurtling comet. Beside them is the new multimedia work that gives the night its name: Concert Suite from The Party, a Philadelphia Orchestra commission by composer Austin Fisher and conceptual artist Alex Da Corte.

That new piece is where the stop-motion comes in. It brings together surreal animation, operatic singers, and the live orchestra to satirize social rituals and consumer culture. It's a world premiere, and it's the part of the program that actually puts the opera and the film together in one room. The whole thing is led by Principal Guest Conductor Marin Alsop, whom The New York Times called a formidable musician and a powerful communicator, a conductor with a vision of what an American orchestra could be in the 21st century.

So you've got a 200-year-old symphony, a 20th-century train, and a brand-new stop-motion opera all on one bill. It's a long night—two hours and ten minutes with the intermission—and it's happening at the Kimmel Center, 300 S Broad St, in the heart of the city. If you're into the intersection of classical music and visual art, this is one that fits the bill.