Opera Star: I'm Obsessed With Manti Te'o

Nico Muhly, the young composer behind the very buzzy opera , has a bit of an obsession with Manti Te'o. Two Boys, currently running at the Metropolitan Opera, has a Te'oish plot: It's about a teenage boy who assumed numerous online personalities in order to convince an older teenage boy to—this is, amazingly, based on a true story—murder him. The Te'o story is apparently right up Muhly's alley. He told :

People's ability to be fooled on the Internet has not gone away. I was so happy when that Manti Te'o stuff happened, because I was like, I know, right?

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Honestly, I feel like we still haven't heard enough about the Manti Te'o case. I really want to know. I feel like, there are all these missing dates. If you look at it—I made a little chart in my house—okay, he went to San Diego, who the fuck did he see? Who did he see?! Where did he go? And how much did his dad know? It's extra crazy to me, too, because they spoke on the phone. Those voicemails are my everything. If I can get the rights to those voicemails, I'm going to make a remix. When she's like, "How are you going to do me that way, who is that girl?" It's so great. [laughs] It was so good. Then you're like, whoa, I need to know everything there is to know about Samoans. [laughs]SYMONDS: [laughs] It's so easy to get into those K-holes.MUHLY: I went into a Samoan sexual politics K-hole for like three weeks. My boyfriend had to call the doctor. [laughs] He was like, "Are you in there reading about Samoans again?" I'm like, "Shhhhh!." [laughs] I was, like, booking tickets. I just need to know.

[ Interview]