Yesterday was a very challenging day. In the morning, I sang for the funeral of the father of a very good friend – and ten minutes after the end of the service, I learned that a dear friend from Holy Communion had died earlier that morning after a long, valiant fight with cancer (the second beloved member of Holy Communion to pass away this week.) But yesterday was also the day that I finally received from Carthage’s AV department the video recording of our J-Term Opera Workshop performance titled “Made in America: a Celebration of American Opera” . . . and after a week that seemed to serve up one loss after another, it was immensely gratifying to curl up on the couch last night (between loads of laundry) and watch this video and be reminded all over again of what a joyous experience this most recent opera workshop was, start to finish- and why I feel so lucky to do what I do.
I’m not sure there is any better feeling than to enter a given venture without knowing exactly what it is about to happen or where it’s all going to end …. and to finish up with a gratifying and exciting success far surpassing your hopes and expectations. As we began the term, Allison Hull and I knew that we had five very talented students – all of whom we had worked with in one way or another – but we had no idea how well they would work with each other. As it turned out, they were a mighty quintet who hit it off spectacularly well, worked incredibly hard, and had fun doing it. I’m not sure a teacher could ask for anything more than that. It was one of those learning/teaching ventures in which Allison and I received every bit as much as we gave, and that’s the sweetest feeling in the world. That had a lot to do with the fact that these students took everything we gave them and ran with it- which is not always the case. Sometimes you feel like you’re doing everything but doing handstands to get the students fully engaged, only to see them respond with what you know is far from their best effort. But these five were on fire right from the start- but it went beyond the hard work that each of them put in as individuals. It was also a matter of the five of them working so wonderfully with one another as colleagues and supporting each other in a way that allowed them to truly soar. What a joy!
We tried to put together a program that at least hinted at the enormous scope of American opera and all that it has offered the world over the years. We started out with a rollicking trio from a ballad-opera called The Indian Princess that had its first performance in Philadelphia in 1808. (Until I learned of the existence of this opera and perused its score, which was in the Carthage library, I never would have guessed that Americans this early in our history were experiencing American operas of any kind.) This particular opera was based on the first play written to tell the story of Pocahontas – and you can probably guess at how objectionable the work would be to enlightened modern audiences. But this particular trio was a bit of harmless fun as well as good challenge for Cory, Bennett and KD.
After that came another rarity- a beautiful aria from George Whitefield Chadwick’s Judith, which is based on a rather harsh Biblical story in which the title character, an Israelite widow, sneaks into the camp of the Assyrian leader, romantically entices him, and then kills him. (I’ll spare you the details, which are gruesome.) The aria that KD Daly sang was not about any of that- but is a heartfelt prayer towards the very beginning of the opera in which she prays for courage for what she is about to undertake. It is not an easy aria to sing, but it was wonderful to see KD rise to the challenge.
After that was a drastic change of pace, courtesy of the March King, John Phillip Sousa, and a delightful duet from his operetta El Capitan. In this duet, the viceroy of Peru – having had his rival known as El Capitan killed – decides that the only way that he himself can avoid retaliation from the rebels is to assume the identity of El Capitan himself. Unfortunately, in doing so he attracts the unwanted romantic interest of Estelda, the daughter of his predecessor. And whatever faults the man enumerates to cool her interest, it only makes her love him more. Bennett and Faith spun comic gold out of this duet.
After that, we served up a couple of examples of American opera that feature the potent influence of jazz: “Lonely House” from Kurt Weill’s Street Scene and “Summertime” from Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess, followed by a succession of excerpts from works like Floyd’s Susannah, Meachem’s Tartuffe, Barber’s Vanessa, Menotti’s Amahl & the Night Visitors and Adamo’s Little Women. This was the stretch of the program that worried me the most because it depended so heavily on the singers stepping up and delivering the goods – and in most cases, trying to bring these excerpts to life without benefit of proper sets or costumes. As I watched this long-awaited video for the first time, I was blown away by the strong, convincing performances that each and every singer delivered, one after another, a dramatic step up from the cautious performances in the early going. It was nothing less than thrilling to see this growth.
below: I really loved how Katrina Seabright handled the intricate difficulties of “Fair Robin I Love” from Meahem’s Tartuffe while also so strongly projecting the saucy personality of the character.
below: Cory Pollard sang “Lonely House” from Street Scene as if Kurt Weill had composed it for him.
below: Katrina in “The Trees on the Mountain” from Susannah, which was the last piece to be added to the program – although you would never guess it from Katrina’s lovely performance of it.
Below: Faith actually did not know the song “Summertime” from Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess until we introduced her to it. It’s always a special joy when a teacher gets to do this.
Below: Faith and Cory in “Kennst du das Land” from Adamo’s operatic setting of Little Women. I was busy playing for this performance and had no idea of how beautifully these two acted this duet until I finally got to watch the video.
Below: KD Daly sings “Must the Winter Come so Soon” from Samuel Barber’s Vanessa. KD and her scene partner, Katrina, really managed to evoke the aching melancholy of these scene.
below: KD Daly and Katrina Seabright very tenderly sang the final duet from Menotti’s Amahl & the Night Visitors.
I wanted to make specific mention of an intriguing moment from this set, when the audience heard “Laurie’s Song” from Copland’s The Tender Land -an opera very near and dear to my heart. The aria is sung by Laurie, a 17-year-old girl who is about to graduate from high school … the first person in her humble farm family ever to do so. The role of Laurie is sung by a high soprano- but something possessed me to assign this aria to one of our tenors, Bennett Shebesta. I’m not particular inclined to these kind of quirky casting choices, but in this case I thought it would be a way to highlight the emotional heart of the aria by underscoring the fact that a 17-year-old boy is apt to experience pretty much the same emotions that a 17-year-old girl would when on the brink of a new and largely unknown adventure. In fact, you don’t even have to be 17 years old to have those feelings when on the brink of something new. Anyway, Bennett did a beautiful job with the aria and I am really glad that we did what we did.
I also want to mention the sequence with which we started the second half – three excerpts from Leonard Bernstein’s Candide. Katrina and Bennett kicked things off with a scintillating performance of “O Happy We,” in which the title character and the lovely Cunegonde rhapsodize on their wedding day about the unending happiness that they believe they will experience. (They couldn’t be more wrong about that.)
We followed that with “I am so easily assimilated,” which is sung by a comical character known as The Old Lady, who is one of the people who accompanies Candide and Cunegonde on a series of adventures (and mostly misadventures.) Among other things, The Old Lady greatly over-estimates her ability to assimilate herself into new situations- and especially over-estimates her ability to quickly learn new languages and new dance steps. She mangles both in the course of this song, and I couldn’t be happier with the spirited performance that Faith, Cory and Bennett delivered in this entertaining treat.
For as crazily absurd as much of Candide is, the work ends with a radiant and moving finale in which all of the main characters, by this point rather battered and humbled from all that they have endured, profess a new understanding of how the deepest meaning of life is to be found in such simple pursuits as tending one’s garden. I had to arrange the piece to make it doable for our five singers, and it ended up working beautifully.
I would certainly be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the indispensable role that my colleague Allison Hull played in putting all of this together. In addition to being a fine voice teacher, Allison has a real gift for stage direction as well as a very nice knack for making students feeling comfortable and confident onstage- even students whose experience on stage is limited or even nil. It was great fun to be in the room watching Allison work with singers and finding ways to bring the best out of them. And when it comes to the actual work of staging …. whether it’s something heartbreaking or something hilarious …. she does a masterful job. I will always appreciate the marvelous job she did with this wide-ranging program. (And that program included the world premiere of a brand new work- but that’s a story for next time.)
Next time: The world premiere of Birds of a Feather: a Magic Flute Sequel.