Jake Heggie's Intelligence: Media Round-Up

I haven't seen this opera, though I can say that when I read about it a few weeks ago I was surprised and dismayed to see that two white men were telling the story of two women, one Black and one white, in a story set during the American Civil War. (Shades of Richard Danielpour and Toni Morrison's Margaret Garner, which is based on the same historical incident as Morrison's novel Beloved.)  I am not the only person who had this reaction.

• Joshua Kosman, SF Chronicle. This review also contains some comments on Heggie's first opera, Dead Man Walking, which I liked less than anyone I know.
• Ilana Walder-Biesanz, SFCV.
• Kendra Preston Leonard, Ph.D. (musicology), her blog.
• Molly Glentzer, Houston Chronicle (paywalled).
• Steven Brown, Texas Classical Review.
• Scott Cantrell, Dallas News.

How Far Can You Get If You're a White Guy?

Pretty far, it turns out.

Over on Twitter, there's a lot of justifiable outrage over an interview by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, who were the showrunners - basically, the guys in charge - of HBO's adaptation of Game of Thrones for TV. The outrage is because Benioff and Weiss knew, and admit that they knew, nothing when they talked HBO into giving them an enormous budget to make GoT. I mean, they use phrasing like "the first year was an expensive course in TV" and "we didn't know anything about costuming."

That's right: they were given tens of millions of dollars because they made a good pitch and they were white guys. They had potential. And it's pretty typical for white guys to be hired for something on the basis of potential rather than existing, verifiable accomplishment.

If you don't believe me, please cite similarly-scaled TV shows where black men or black women or white women or Asian men or Asian women who had little or no experience got to be the showrunners.

It's worth noting that one of the most successful opera composers of the 21st century got his first commission on the basis of potential. That would be Jake Heggie, composer of Dead Man Walking, Moby-Dick, It's a Wonderful Life, and other operas.

When he got the commission for DMW, he was working at San Francisco Opera in the communications department. He'd written a bunch of good songs; he had the support of some well-known singers; he had musical training (of course); I'm pretty sure he was and is a good pianist. All of this is beyond what Benioff and Weiss had.

But first opera commissions typically go to composers who have experience with writing large-scale orchestral works, which I believe was not case with Heggie. He got that commission from a big-budget opera company because, on the basis of his songs, he was seen as having potential.

A Fit of Pique

This is the kind of thing that should not happen: depending on when you log in to the SF Opera web site to buy tickets to either If I Were You or the Merola Finale, you could wind up paying quite different prices.

When I logged in after selecting a seat, I would have been charged a total of $37 ($25 seat, $12 "Merola fee"). Click the screen shot to enlarge it to something readable.

When I logged in before selecting a seat, I would have been charged a total of $25 ($25 seat):

I have two problems with this:

• The order in which you select a seat and log in should not result in a price change. I believe that SFO is aware of this, from a brief conversation with the box office.
• What the fuck is a "Merola fee" and why is anyone being charged this? No ticket price should be increased by 50% (or 25% if you're buying a $50 seat) over some extra fee. 

And it's why I'm not attending either If I Were You or the Finale. This just pisses me off too much.

Jake Heggie Commission at Merola Opera

The Merola Opera program commissioned a new work from Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer, and it will be premiered in just a couple of weeks. Here are the details, from the press release:


WHAT:    If I Were You, by distinguished American composer Jake Heggie and noted librettist Gene Scheer, will be the first-ever commissioned work in the Merola Opera Program’s 62-year history. Loosely based on the novel Si j’étais vous by the French-American writer Julien Green, If I Were You is a contemporary story of identity with echoes of classical literature, from Faust to Jekyll and Hyde. The lead character is Fabian Hart, an aspiring writer who yearns for adventure and a way out of his stifling existence. Brittomara, a shape-shifting devil, appears to him in many guises, finally offering Fabian a supernatural power that will allow the writer to transfer his soul into other people’s bodies, taking up the day-to-day existence of each host, while their displaced souls languish in a shadowy netherworld. Thus begins the journey of If I Were You as Fabian moves his increasingly lost soul from person to person in search of a better identity, leaving a trail of human wreckage and hollow shells. It will be conducted by Nicole Paiement, Founder and Artistic Director of Opera Parallèle, and directed by Keturah Stickann, known for bringing to stage new productions of Orphée, Rigoletto, andLa rondine, among many others. If I Were You will be presented August 1-6 (times below) at the Herbst Theatre with two alternating casts.

WHERE:          Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Ave, San Francisco

SHOWS:          7:30pm, Thursday, August 1* – Herbst Theatre

2:00pm, Saturday, August 3** – Herbst Theatre

2:00pm, Sunday, August 4* – Herbst Theatre

7:30pm, Tuesday, August 6** – Herbst Theatre

*Pearl cast

                        **Emerald cast

                       

TICKETS:          $35-$80 

Ticket discounts are available for groups of 10 or more. $15 student tickets available in limited quantity in advance at San Francisco Opera Box Office.

INFO:               For information or to order tickets visit http://merola.org or call the San Francisco Opera Box Office at 415-864-3330. The box office is open Monday, 10:00am-5:00pm, and Tuesday through Friday, 10:00am-6:00pm.

Me, I'm trying to figure out how to see this and get to Cabrillo for one of their programs that weekend.

It's a Wonderful Life, San Francisco Opera

Act I of It's a Wonderful Life

Golda Schultz as Clara and William Burden as George Bailey (center) 

Sarah Cambidge, Amitai Pati, Ashley Dixon and Christian Pursell as Angels First Class.

Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

San Francisco Opera was one of the co-commissioners of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer's adaptation of Frank Capra's 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life, which premiered in Texas in December, 2016. The opera is now 2/3 of the way through a nine-performance run at SFO. I saw the performance of Sunday, November 25.

Full disclosure: I just can't stand the film. I came to this stance comparatively recently; when I first saw it, as a teen, and through the years, I found it charming and heart-warming. Last time around, as a more sophisticated and observant adult, well, I concluded that the main message of the film is that you should carry on, give up your dreams, and keep your nose to the grindstone. Also, the wicked won't be punished. All this is wrapped in the maudlin tale of an incompetent angel - I mean, how could there be such a thing, theologically speaking?? -- who has failed, repeatedly, to earn his wings. Once again, what the fuck does this mean, theologically??

I'm happy to say that this opera is a big, big improvement on the movie. It's not that Heggie's music turns the story into an expressionist masterpiece - boy, wouldn't that have been a surprise - but his brand of pretty, complicated-enough, beautifully-orchestrated music has just enough edge, just enough ability to provide ambiguity, to cut through the sweetness and present something that is more realistic than the film. Scheer's libretto helps a good deal with this, because there is more, and more explicit, emphasis on what George Bailey, the hero of the story, has given up to be the good guy proprietor of the family building and loan association in a very small town.

William Burden as George Bailey in Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer's "It's a Wonderful Life."

Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

On top of that, instead of the aw-shucks baritone voice of Jimmy Stewart, the opera has the plangent tenor of William Burden. The sound of his voice makes a huge difference in putting over the part!

Let me say something that I think I've said before: Burden one of the greatest tenors singing today. If he doesn't have the fame and fan club of Jonas Kaufmann, well, okay, nobody is quite that darkly handsome, but beyond that, you won't usually find Burden singing top-10 tenor roles. He's been most visible to me in new operas and in the less-performed areas of the repertory. I've seen him as a terrifying Peter Quint in The Turn of the Screw and an impassioned Laca in Jenufa, as St. Peter in The Gospel of Mary Magdalene, Captain Vere in Billy Budd, and more.

He was at his absolute best in It's a Wonderful Life. He sounded fantastic, in top vocal form, and, really, the part fit him like a glove. Okay, it should, since it was written with him in mind. Still! Voices change, singers have off nights, etc. Dramatically, he was also everything you'd want, whether as a young man heading, he thinks, for college, or as an adult standing up to evil Mr. Potter, or as a scared fellow worried that his business is about to collapse.

Golda Schultz as Clara in Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer's "It's a Wonderful Life."

Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

Heggie and Scheer were also extremely canny in how they handled Clarence the incompetent angel: he is transmuted into Clara, who has been trying to get promoted for 200 years, and who seems well-meaning, rueful, and kind. There's no explanation that I caught as to why she hasn't got her wings yet, and I think that is just as well. The role seems to have been written to be played by a Black soprano, given that Talise Trevigne created the role, the South African soprano Golda Schultz is singing it here, and one of the performances was taken by Kearsten Piper Brown.

Schultz, making her SFO debut, was perfectly charming and lovely as Clara, singing with a light, sweet, well-projected soprano. She's a good actor as well, and has lots of presence. I hope she'll be back!

Andriana Chuchman as Mary Hatch and William Burden as George Bailey in Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer's "It's a Wonderful Life."

Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

Heggie and Scheer's Mary Hatch tracks pretty closely with the Mrs. Bailey of the movie, falling for George at a very young age and loving him to the end. The pair have a couple of lovely scenes together. I loved Andriana Chuchman, also making her SFO debut, who sang gorgeously and came off a lot like Donna Reed without actually imitating her - ideal match of singer to role, and what a beautiful voice!

Rod Gilfrey, not heard at SF Opera for a while, was an excellent, evil Potter. (I liked him a whole lot as the Music Master in this past summer's Ariadne auf Naxos at the other SFO.) My big regret about the libretto is that it doesn't tie up the matter of the $8,000 that Potter blithely steals from Uncle Billy. No photos of Gilfrey in character at the SFO web site, so no photos of him for now.

Joshua Hopkins, also making his local debut, sang a manly Harry Bailey. Tenor Keith Jameson was Uncle Billy, and he could have been more bumbling. Catherine Cook stole one scene as Mother Bailey.

The production is nice enough and very efficient, a unit set with squares all over it that turn out to have various functions, including hiding props and as trap doors (I think). Leonard Foglia's direction was also efficient. Patrick Summers is in tune with the music and conducted with his customary flair.

The opera is overall pretty shamelessly tear-jerking, especially the end, but I guess that is about what you would expect from an adaptation of It's a Wonderful Life.

It's a Wonderful Life Comes to San Francisco

Back in October, 2014, when David Gockley announced his retirement, the press release included the following:

In the near future, San Francisco Opera will see three additional new operas planned by Gockley including Marco Tutino and Fabio Ceresa’s La Ciociara (Two Women) in June 2015, Bright Sheng and David Henry Hwang’s Dream of the Red Chamber for Fall 2016, and a soon-to-be-announced commission from Jake Heggie for Fall 2017.

But, in fact, the new opera for fall, 2017, is John [Coolidge] Adams' new opera, Girls of the Golden West.

Today came the press release for the Heggie opera, It's a Wonderful Life. It will be performed in the fall of 2018. It should not be a surprise that we got the information now, as the opera is about to open at Houston Grand Opera, one of the other co-commissioners. (The third commissioning organization is the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.) The opera is based on the famous Frank Capra film and on Philip Van Doren Stern's short story "The Greatest Gift."

Patrick Summers will conduct, with the cast to be announced at a later date. The production team is the same as for Moby-Dick, a previous Heggie opera, which has been quite a success:  director 
Leonard Foglia, set designer Robert Brill, costume designer David C. Woolard, lighting designer Brian Nason and projection/video designer Elaine J. McCarthy. The Houston cast is excellent and personally I hope that it comes here unchanged. 

Root, Root, Root for the Home Team!

Updated, May 9, 2016: David Gregson's review of the San Diego performances.

Jake Heggie's new opera, Great Scott, with libretto by Terrence McNally, opened this past week in Dallas. Now, I always cringe when I see McNally's name on the marquee, because I still have not forgiven him the gross distortions of Master Class. Yes, I know that art isn't biography, but Callas was a smart, professional, and insightful teacher, not an abusive, self-centered monster - the audio of the classes has circulate for years, so you can hear for yourself.

The reviews are in, or most of them, and whaddaya know, the Dallas critics are a lot happier than the out-of-towners.

• Olin Chism, Star-Telegram. He describes Heggie's style as "lyrical and atmospheric while respectful of tradition." Note that this reviewer has not cottoned on to the fact that Joyce DiDonato is a mezzo-soprano...and he says little about the quality of the singing and staging.
• Scott Cantrell, Dallas Morning News. Describes Heggie's music as "thoroughly tonal and often tuneful."
• Heidi Walseon, WSJ. Her one-sentence summary: "A clumsy, overstuffed cross between a backstage comedy and a show-off exercise in compositional appropriation, wrapped in Mr. Heggie’s trademark singer-friendly but treacly tunes, Great Scott seems designed to make audiences feel smug about being insiders."
• Joshua Kosman, SF Chron. Says about what Waleson says, only a lot funnier.  On Heggie, "There are stretches of elegantly alluring music, and others where Heggie’s writing turns derivative or mundane."
• David Gregson, Opera West. Note the presence of local favorite Philip Skinner in two roles. Gregson liked it, and the performances, but: "It often seems like a collection of clever scenes, many of them far too cute, all strung together without a really strong thread."

I've got a tweet out to certain persons in NYC asking which of them has a ticket to Dallas. After reading these reviews, I suspect that I'd be in the Waleson/Kosman camp, with the tone of my review depending on the mood of the day. 

The opera sounds like it's at least partly lightweight, meaningless fun. There's room for a good comedy in modern opera, or ought to be (I keep touting Lysistrata, which has a serious side, and hoping it will get performed hereabouts), but this sounds as if it's got a lot of problems. 

Ideally, if it gets performed elsewhere, Heggie and McNally will tighten it up. Everybody complains about the length, which isn't so much about the actual length as about an overly busy plot where some plot strands have no justification. This was also an issue in The Gospel of Mary Magdalene, speaking of Mark Adamo, and, to a much lesser extent, Two Women. 

Among the new operas I've seen in the last 20 years, the best libretto was that of Tobias Picker's Dolores Claiborne, in which J.D. McClatchy turned a 300-page monolog of a novel into a taut and dramatic libretto. Going back further, to see how it's done, ahem, Tosca or Rigoletto for the swift gallop, or La Boheme, for a more discursive and episodic libretto where you still can't reasonably cut anything.

There's a reason I'm pointing to those older libretti: Puccini and Verdi knew what would work and hammered their librettists mercilessly to get what they wanted. Current composers might consider doing exactly the same thing.