Muhly

Comparing his two operas, Mr. Muhly calls "Dark Sisters" more meditative, while "Two Boys" feels at times "like someone staying up too late flipping through pages on the Internet."

All in a Day's Work, Polygamy Included Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim 2011

As Mr. Muhly made clear back in June and again in a recent phone interview, it's a label he's impatient to put behind him.

All in a Day's Work, Polygamy Included Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim 2011

Unusually, the opera was cast before Mr. Muhly started to compose.

All in a Day's Work, Polygamy Included Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim 2011

It's reassuring, then, to hear that certain things make Mr. Muhly feel old: MySpace, for instance; John Zorn's experimental music club, "The Stone"; and CNN.

All in a Day's Work, Polygamy Included Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim 2011

Shaking it, says Mr. Muhly, produces a sound "like something being dragged over the desert floor."

All in a Day's Work, Polygamy Included Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim 2011

While the police raid was sparked by allegations of child abuse, Mr. Muhly says, "in the FLDS community it's perceived as a raid on the practice of polygamy: Polygamy is illegal, but adultery is not—that's very complicated."

All in a Day's Work, Polygamy Included Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim 2011

"That's just a boring ages argument," retorts Mr. Muhly.

All in a Day's Work, Polygamy Included Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim 2011

The day after the premiere of his opera "Two Boys" at English National Opera in June, Nico Muhly sat in a kidney-shaped dressing room muffled with velvet somewhere inside the bowels of the London Coliseum.

All in a Day's Work, Polygamy Included Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim 2011

"The only time I watch TV news now is when I'm staying in a hotel and I feel so old," says Mr. Muhly.

All in a Day's Work, Polygamy Included Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim 2011

Mr. Muhly says he and his librettist, Stephen Karam, wanted to make sure "that it not feel like a judgmental opera or a freak show."

All in a Day's Work, Polygamy Included Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim 2011