Peter Hilliard & Matt Boresi are the creators of new opera and opera-adjacent work, regularly praised for their "subtlety, humor, charm, and sorrow." Their most recent opera “The Last American Hammer”, (World Premiere, UrbanArias, Washington DC 2018), featuring renowned soprano Elizabeth Futral, was praised by critics as a “beautifully prepared, dramatically taut” production, ”which makes us challenge our cultural, political, racial and regional assumptions head on”, with “a difficult - but needed - conclusion for these times.” Hilliard and Boresi’s blues-infused opera, "Blue Viola" (UrbanArias, Opera Memphis Lyric Opera Of the North) was called as "as good a rejoinder as any the notion that opera is dead". Matt and Peter have created award-winning crossover work from Off-Broadway’s “Don Imbroglio” and “Going Down Swingin’” to the puppet opera “Eat Your Greens: Verdi by Vegetables.” They both holds Master of Fine Arts degrees from the Musical Theatre Writing Program at New York University. Peter lives in Philadelphia. Matt lives in Chicago.   

The Last American Hammer

Starring Elizabeth Futral

Urban Arias, Washington D.C.

September 22, 23, 28,29

The Filthy Habit

Lyric Opera of the North, Duluth Minnesota October 28, 29, 30

Opera America New Works Forum

​Last American Hammer Excerpts

January 2019

The Harmony Jar
Vox Musica Sacramento
Beatnik Studios 
February 23 and 24

Deadmall Ballads
In Recital with John Miles and Sheryl Cohen
at Congregation Kol Ami in Elkins Park, PA
(with the composer at the piano)
April 27

So, We're Alone from The Filthy Habit
San Luis Obispo Symphony
July 4

About Hilliard and Boresi

The Last American Hammer
Pittsburgh Opera
February 22, 25, 28
March 1, 2020

Hilliard and Boresi

2018-2019 Season

2018-2019 Season