Although Krainik died in 1997, Lyric Opera of Chicago now rests on a solid financial foundation thanks to her inspired discipline. When I asked her how she felt about her accomplishment, she told me that it took several years of keeping her head down and placing one foot in front of the other as she plowed a path to financial stability. "Then one day, you look up and turn around and discover that you've walked 100 miles!"
Having spent my early opera-going years attending performances by the Metropolitan Opera and New York City Opera at their homes in Lincoln Center, by the time I moved to the West Coast in 1972, I had built strong mental associations between opera companies and the buildings they inhabited. I soon discovered that the San Francisco Opera's activities were hardly limited to performances on the stage of the War Memorial Opera House. Under the leadership of Kurt Herbert Adler, the company's big attraction was its celebrated fall season, which included the opening weekend’s free Opera in the Park concert and, to my surprise and delight, a chance to hear Joan Sutherland sing outdoors in Union Square.
Later that year, I attended performances at the Palace of Fine Arts by Western Opera Theatre (the company’s educational touring arm which, since 1967, had brought opera to remote audiences from Florida to Alaska). The following April I started enjoying performances by Spring Opera Theatre at the Curran Theatre. Over the next 20 years, as regional opera expanded in the United States (partially due to the beneficence of oil companies) professional programs for young opera singers continued to blossom and thrive in locations like Santa Fe, Central City, St. Louis, Des Moines, Chicago, and Houston.
For opera fans, the gift that has consistently kept giving is the Merola Opera Program, which was founded in 1957 and named in honor of Gaetano Merola (San Francisco Opera’s first general director). A stalwart champion of young American opera singers, Beverly Sills often stressed that "Until the Merola program got going, there was no place in this country where you could learn your craft in terms of performing."
A financially independent organization governed by its own Board of Directors, the program’s mission statement has evolved over the past half century to read as follows:
“To define the future of opera. The Merola Opera Program aims to serve as an internationally respected model for building solid careers in opera, with a proven balance of training, performance and individualized support.”In 1982, Adler’s successor, Terence A. McEwen, created the San Francisco Opera Center (which brought together the Merola Opera Program, Adler Fellowship Program, Brown Bag Opera, Schwabacher Recital Series, Western Opera Theatre, and the San Francisco Opera's educational outreach programs under a large umbrella which, in addition to sharing resources and managing each program’s growth, allowed singers to meet and interact with great artists from prior generations, sit in on rehearsals, and attend the company’s mainstage productions. With the advent of Supertitles, Spring Opera Theatre (whose main selling point had been opera performances sung in English) was discontinued.
Since then, financial downturns in the economy have occasionally led to reduced financial support for the arts, causing the San Francisco Opera to trim its sails. In March 2003, Western Opera Theater ceased touring. More than a half century since the Merola program was launched, the roster of singers, coaches, rehearsal pianists, and stage directors who are proud alumni (including Jess Thomas, Deborah Voigt, Lucas Meachem, Joyce DiDonato, Thomas Hampson, Susan Graham, Kurt Streit, and Anna Netrebko) reads like a "Who’s Who" of singers that have performed in the world’s great opera houses. As their careers have grown and matured, some former “Merolini” have conducted master classes and become mentors to younger generations of opera singers.
- After participating in the Merola Opera program as an apprentice coach in 1986 and 1987, conductor Patrick Summers served as music director for Western Opera Theater until 1989. During that time, he led WOT on its 1987 tour to China (performing for audiences that had never experienced Western opera) and, in 1988, conducted the first performances of Puccini's Tosca in modern-day China. In 1989, Summers became music director of the San Francisco Opera Center and, in 2011, was named artistic and music director of the Houston Grand Opera, where he has conducted more than 60 productions (including eight operatic world premieres).
- In 2006, mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick established an annual summer Institute for Young Dramatic Voices at the University of Nevada, Reno.
- That same year, soprano Carol Vaness began teaching in the famous voice department at Indiana University.
- Opera Theatre of St. Louis recently announced that soprano Patricia Racette has been chosen to become the new head of their Young Artists program.
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| The San Francisco War Memorial's Herbst Theatre following its 2015 retrofit (Photo by: Yeol Eum Son) |
This means that in addition to touring productions and non-operatic fare that might be interested in renting the city-owned facility, the Herbst can now be used for baroque and contemporary chamber operas such Joruri (by Minoru Miki), Blue (by Jeanine Tesori), Where's Dick? (by Michael Korie and Stewart Wallace), Vanessa (by Samuel Barber), The End of the Affair (by Jake Heggie), Powder Her Face (by Thomas Adès), Gloriana (by Benjamin Britten), The Lighthouse (by Peter Maxwell Davies), Béatrice and Bénédict (by Hector Berlioz), and The Postman Always Rings Twice (by Stephen Paulus).
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Because part of its goal is to help young opera singers hone their skills and stretch their voices, the Merola Opera Program has never been shy about tackling new challenges. In years past, when opportunities arose to showcase the Merolini, Merola’s board eagerly proved its devotion to the organization. Their recent and most impressive achievement has been commissioning and producing the world premiere of a new opera by one of America's leading contemporary composers. As Heggie recalls:“The invitation came in 2014. I started composing in December 2017 and finished the piano and vocal score in October 2018 after two extensive workshops at the University of Colorado Boulder. In January 2019 we had a workshop at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, after which I completed the orchestration in April. We had long before decided on voice types for the roles. However, unlike previous projects, we didn’t know who we were composing for because Merola couldn’t cast the opera until Fall 2018. So I created a fantasy cast of professional singers I could imagine in the roles.”
“The musical language revealed itself rather quickly, as well as motifs that weave throughout the opera. With these motifs, I was able to write organically from the beginning of the opera and allow the characters to sing and surprise me in the moment. It was a specific goal to create music that would allow singers to fully explore the capabilities of their instruments while pushing them into new territory dramatically, emotionally, and vocally. Every character gets his or her ‘moment’ (though not gratuitously). All of it is essential to the storytelling.”
While some claim that If I Were You -- which is based on Si j’étais vous (a 1947 novel by French-American author Julien Green) -- is inspired by such classic tales about selling one’s soul to the Devil as Faust and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, it’s worth noting that Green was born in 1900 into a deeply religious family with a strong interest in the arts, was gay (Gertrude Stein was a family friend), and led a conflicted life. In some respects, plot elements from The Makropoulos Affair, La Ronde, and popular myths about the “undead” may have found their way into Gene Scheer’s libretto.
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| Cara Collins (Brittomara) and Esther Tomea (Diana) in a scene from If I Were You (Photo by: Kristen Loken) |
Contrary to most Satanic literature, in If I Were You the devil figure is a female shape-shifter who doesn't see herself as evil by necessity but, perhaps, more as the granter of last wishes rather than last rites. The following three video clips allow the creative team to describe how they approached the story and explain some of the challenges it presented.
Directed by Keturah Stickann (with scenic design by Liliana Duque Pineiro, costumes by Alina Bokovikov, and lighting by Lucas Krech), this world premiere has strong production values that are enhanced by Peter Torpey's projections, Teddy Hulsker's sound design, and the Herbst's newfound ability to fly scenic elements in and out of a basic set.
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| Esther Tonea (Diana) and Michael Day (Fabian) in a scene from If I Were You (Photo by: Kristen Loken) |
With a 32-piece orchestra conducted by Nicole Paiment, Heggie's score leaves a first-time listener eager to become more familiar with the music for If I Were You. As Fabian's soul is transferred from one body to another, it can often leave the audience wishing they could hear more of Fabian's actual voice. In other moments, the composer's lush soundscapes conceal the sinister fate awaiting Brittomara's victims.
In a world filled with carefully engineered sound, it's difficult to explain the thrill of hearing powerful, unamplified young voices that possess the clarion kind of strength that can rise to any challenge. Because the opera's three main roles were double cast for the world premiere, on opening night Michael Day revealed a stunning, healthy tenor as Fabian with Esther Tonea steadfastly holding her own as Diana (a role that simmers and builds like a 21st-century Brunnhilde). Cara Collins put her powerful mezzo soprano and acting chops to excellent use as the evil shape shifter as well as some of Brittomara's amusing disguises (such as a ditsy hairdresser with a thick New York accent).
Supporting roles were handsomely sung by Rafael Porto as Fabian's bullying employer, Patricia Westley as Diana's best friend, Timothy Murray as a conceited pickup artist, and Brandon Scott Russell as a traveling photographer. Smaller roles were taken by Edward Laurensen as a policeman and Edith Grossman as a drunk blonde who succumbs to a bullet.
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| Esther Tomea (Diana) and Cara Collins (Brittomara) in a scene from If I Were You (Photo by: Kristen Loken) |
In Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick's 1963 musical, She Loves Me, Amalia Balash tries to sell a woman a music box by claiming that "It combines the three elements of good taste: attractive to the eye, attractive to the ear, and functional." Heggie's opera is all that and so much more. As the composer has demonstrated numerous times in the past, he possesses an uncanny ability to write for the human voice in a refreshing lyrical style that begs an audience to pay attention to his music and Scheer's lyrics.
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| Michael Day (Fabian) and Rafael Porto (Putnam) in a scene from If I Were You (Photo by: Kristen Loken) |
After a long career as the General Director of both the Houston Grand Opera and San Francisco Opera, David Gockley has a unique perspective on the importance of creating a new work:
“In the world of opera, nothing is noticed and lauded like commissioning a new opera. I know. I made a career of it. Most new works are more challenging musically than the average standard repertory piece, so one’s musical skills are sharpened. Role creators get noticed. It provides a golden opportunity to make a good impression.”
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| Michael Day as Fabian in If I Were You (Photo by Kristen Loken) |
“Working on a world premiere is especially valuable for the singer because a singer is faced with creating his or her vocal and dramatic portrayal from scratch! Working with the conductor, director, and staff, the artist must call upon all of his or her skills without having any precedent. There are no recordings, no videos, no live performances to witness. There is no choice but to rely on one’s own resources, so there is a high likelihood the experience will yield a more imaginative, broadly skilled artist who will go on to bring his or her talents to bear on the full range of repertoire.”
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| Cara Collins as Brittomara in If I Were You (Photo by: Kristen Loken) |
Heggie is especially talented at crafting duets and trios and supporting them with lush orchestrations that never drown out his singers (at one point I found myself wondering if he will eventually compose a trio to rival the finale from Act III of Der Rosenkavalier). The majestic sweep of some of his music (as well as his orchestrations) often makes me wonder if his tonal sensitivity might lead to composing some great film scores in the future. I certainly hope so. Here's the trailer:
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