Heggie: Great Scott

Opera no 168

Heggie: Great Scott

Soloists

Dallas Opera

Patrick Summers

Jake Heggie is a name that I have seen a lot recently as a prolific composer whose works have been widely recorded. But as far as I know I haven’t heard any of his music.

I put the recording on before doing any research on the piece and was more than a little surprised to find an introduction based on a Rossinian crescendo. It turns out that this opera is about the background to a revival of a (invented) 19th century opera put on by a struggling American opera company as a vehicle for its start singer. So we move between the world of the pastiche opera and the modern world. The libretto is very witty and the way that the composer gently parodies Rossini , Bellini and Donizetti is done with great charm and no little skill. There is also near the end an ensemble which is an affectionate nod to the final trio in Der Rosenkavalier. When he is writing in his own voice Heggie’s sound world reminds me of the Bernstein of Candide and there are some hints of Britten. Nothing too challenging and a real contrast with the other late 20th/early 21st century operas I have been listening to in this part of the project.  

So this was great fun and full of good in jokes for the opera enthusiast. I don’t know what Heggie’s might be like when he is not in a light-hearted mood. There are several operas to try out and I think that I will see if I can cover one of them next year. 

Rorem: Miss Julie

Opera no 129

Rorem: Miss Julie

Ned Rorem’s 2nd symphony didn’t make much of an impression on me when I included it in last year’s project https://andrew365newpieces.blogspot.com/search/label/Rorem and I am afraid to say that I felt the same about this opera. There was nothing I disliked - but the whole thing did seem rather inconsequential. It is written in a broadly tonal idiom but with some echoes of Berg and perhaps a few touches of Britten. Rorem was predominantly a song writer and that was clear the the more lyrical parts of the opera where there was some attractive passages, not least the end, which I found rather haunting. Burt overall this was not a peice that I would want to go back to again.

This is the end of this little series of American operas. Perhaps ironically the one I enjoyed most was Four Saints in Three Acts which is so far out on a limb from any of the other traditions of American operas I have explored here. These half a dozen or so works to I think show how composers of the 20th century struggled to create something which was at the same time distinctly American and yet at the same time was worthy of a place in the European operatic tradition. It has been interesting hearing the different approaches that they took.

For the next part of the project I am returning to a group of works which are in a genre which is much more familiar to me - 19th and early 20th century French opera.

Gershwin: Porgy and Bess

Opera 128

Gershwin: Porgy and Bess

Soloists

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Simon Rattle

Gershwin is, I am afraid, something of a blind spot for me. I’ve played most of the familiar works including the suite from this opera but I haven’t found a way get on his wavelength. So many composers have expressed their admiration for his music that I feel that I must be missing something. I had never, perhaps to my shame, listened to tho whole of Porgy and Bess, so this project was an idea time to put that omission to rest.

Unfortunately I can’t say that it it changed my opinion of the composer very much. The famous show tunes are fabulous of course, and it is great to them given the full operatic treatment in this famous recording, but much of the rest just passed me by. It all too often seemed glutinous and over written and the jazz inflections seemed heavy handed. It is also very long - three full CDs - indeed it is one of the longest operas that I have heard in this project to date.

Perhaps one day the scales will fall from my eyes - but for the moment I have to say that Gershwin is not for me - my loss I am sure!

Thomson: Four Saints in Three Acts

Opera 127

Thomson: Four Saints in Three Acts

Soloists

Boston Modern Orchestra Project

Gil Rose

This is a very strange but highly entertaining opera. The text is by Gertrude Stein and Thomson sets the whole thing to music, including the stage directions! The musical style is simple, almost hymn like in places, but I find it very attractive. I actually had the LP reissue of the original abridged performance on 78s when I was still at school and it was a record I played a lot. I don’t suppose that I have heard any of the music for about 40 years but as soon as I heard it the score seemed familiar - there are several very catchy ear worms here. I find the text oddly compelling - I’ve no idea what it all means but Stein’s use of language, particularly the use of repeated words certainly creates some delightful effects. There is a time a surrealism about the whole thing which is almost Pythonesque. The score is deliberately artless but Thomson does have a knack of writing in a way which sticks with you - as evidenced by the fact that the music was instantly familiar after a 40-year gap. I’ve no idea how you would go about staging this strange piece, but it would be worth seeing if anybody did try to revive it.

Menotti: Amahl and the Night Visitors

Opera 126

Menotti: Amahl and the Night Visitors

Soloists

Nashville Symphony Orchestra

Alistair Willis

This is one of the first operas written for Television and became a staple of the Christmas schedules in America in the 1950s and 1960s. I has assumed that a performance was recorded on film and repeated every year but in fact it was performed live each year with more or less the same cast.

I know of it and while I am sure that I have never seen or heard a performance there were moments which seemed familiar - perhaps I did hear some extracts years ago which have stayed in the memory. It is a largely unpretentious work with a limited scale, but on its own terms I thought that it worked well and I certainly enjoyed it. Perhaps some of the music for the mother was a little over-written and melodramatic but overall I thought that Menotti got the pacing and tone just right. Altogether a charming diversion from the more serious operas that have formed the backbone of this project.

Glass: Satyagraha

Opera no 125

Glass: Satyagraha

Soloists

New York City Opera

Christopher Keene

You couldn’t have a much greater contrast between this and the previous operas in this part of the project. This is an example of minimalism - although the composer seems to have resisted using that term. What it means is that the score is made up of small ever-repeating fragments based on simply melodic patterns. Some of the patterns last for minutes on end without any contrast. I think that the effect is supposed to be hypnotic but in fact boredom is the better adjective. There were times that I wanted to throw something at the CD player and I am sure that had I not be listening to it for this project I would have abandoned the effort.

Of course there is a musical imagination here at play - Glass was a pupil of Nadia Boulanger and had a thorough musical training. There are moments where Glass introduces rhythmic sudden displacement to great effect and some of the longer melodic phrases were quite distinctive. But the idiom is so foreign to me that I can’t really find a way into the score. And I pity the musicians who have to play this score - it must be mind numbing.

Floyd: Susannah

Opera 124

Floyd: Susannah

Lyon Opera

Kent Nagano

This was unknown territory for me. I had heard of the opera but I had no idea of what to expect.  It wasn’t planned as such but the opera in fact fits very well in the middle of extremes of the two previous operas. There are strong American folk elements but also some much more impassioned moments. It is a difficult mixture to bring off but I think that Floyd managed it well. The folk elements set the scene well and set up the scheme for the dramatic confrontations and the near hysteria of the preacher’s sermon, which forms the central core of the opera. I can’t quite imagine how it would play to a British audience - the frame of reference of the American South is so remote from our experience that it might be difficult to take entirely seriously But in purely music terms this was a strong score. 

Copland: The Tender Land

 Opera no 123

Copland: The Tender Land

Soloists

Plymouth Music Series

Philip Brunelle

It is hard to imagine a greater contrast between the first two works in this American section of the project. Barber’s Vanessa looked to European models and seemed to eschew any American connections. The Tender Land by contrast could never have been written by a non-American. 

This is quite a light uncomplicated piece which is ideally suited for youth or community groups - it started off as an opera for TV but plans changed before it was finished. It has all of the elements that one expects from the Copland of Appalachian Spring or Rodeo. Melodies which seem simple and folk-lie but with unexpected rhythmic ‘kicks’ which keeps them fresh. I found the whole thing delightful. It seemed to belong to the same world as Britten’s Paul Bunyan with some tinges of Bernstein. How well it would play to a non-American audience I am not quite sure - perhaps some of the folksy elements would come across as a bit corny - but in the right context it could work well.

It will be interesting to see how the other American operas in this series fit within the two very different approaches taken by Barber and Copland. 

Barber: Vanessa

Opera no 122

Barber: Vanessa 

Soloists

National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine

Gill Rose

This marks a change of direction in this project. I’ve crossed the Atlantic to explore some American operas. This is a repertoire which I know nothing about other than the works of Leonard Bernstein and most , marvellous as they are, can’t easily be categorised as operas.

I start with Samuel Barber. I don’t know much of his music and his first symphony didn’t make much of an impression on me when I listened to if for last year’s project. I think that I would have to say the same about this opera. It is very much in a late-romantic European trading with very little, at least to my ears, to mark it out as American. I suspect that Barber was deliberately setting out to write a piece that could enter the mainstream without any special pleading. Much of it seemed to me to be rather bland, particularly the more dramatic moments, which did at times seem like film music. Nothing wrong with film music, of course, but I didn’t feel that Barber had a distinctive enough voice. The quieter more lyrical music came off better, with some really rather touching moments, but overall this was not an opera that convinced me that it should be part of the international repertoire.