Radical Modernism, Operatic Failure, and Louis Riel’s Challenge to Reconciliation

Abstract

This article contextualizes the dissonant modernist musical language Harry Somers employed for Louis Riel in relation to the internationalist avant-garde of the mid-twentieth century, with its complex political ramifications, and considers the suitability of the opera’s resultant musical-aesthetic challenge to listeners as a reflection of the conflictual and dissident elements of its subject.