Roulette Intermedium in Brooklyn is set to present the U.S. premiere of composer Elliott Sharp’s “Die Grösste Fuge” on June 13, 2024.

The showcase will feature bass-baritone Nicholas Isherwood taking on the role of Beethoven alongside the DGF String Quartet and pre-recorded electronic tracks.

The work was written by Sharp who reimagined the composer’s notes and letters as well as works by Goethe and Schiller. Using AI translation software, Sharp translated those excerpts from German to English and back several times.

As far as the music, “Melodic materials would be extracted and turned into seeds that could then be expanded and layered to form vocal melodies and contrapuntal accompaniment. Rhythmic motifs would be looped and reversed, recombined and transformed. However, first and foremost, the settings of the songs are designed to flow from the words themselves so that the meaning, while layered, is always in bas-relief.”

The opera premiered as part of the Beethoven@250 in Bonn.