Premier of the New Opera Wolfy

When we think of opera, we usually think of a performance of beautiful Italian singing that lasts hours at a time, and, while beautiful, requires much patience. One of the lesser known facts is that in the last couple decades many wonderful operas were written in America in English, and they use subjects that are close to us as people of the twenty first century, and in a language that we understand well. I see the future of contemporary opera as a show that wide audiences of people will appreciate and enjoy.

Last month, the Harrower Summer Opera Workshop of Georgia State University School of Music premiered the Finale from my new opera Wolfy. I was very pleased to find out that the piece was chosen and also somewhat nervous, because W. Dwight Coleman, artistic director/stage director of Harrower Workshop chose the most difficult part of the opera, the quintet. Five different melodic lines are sung at the same time in this section. Also, while most of the opera is uplifting and happy, in the Finale, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart has passed away, and is mourned in the scene by his widow, Constanze, his mother-in-law, his first love, Aloysia Weber and his dead mother. The four women describe how Wolfy influenced their lives, while the memory of the close relationship between Wolfy and his sister Nannerl is marked by a brief appearance of the two as children.

The scene therefore possesses two main challenges for singers and the director: the complexity of music, multiple entrances and polyphonic nature of writing, and a slow moving requiem-like pace. Christy Lee, musical director/coach from the University of Tennessee and Knoxville Opera did most of musical work, and played for rehearsals very beautifully. Her approach to music seemed to be very spiritual, and she helped the singers by keeping perfect timing. The actual performance was played by Dr. Kyung-Mi Kim, and the change between pianists was almost unnoticeable.

The directing was done by David Grabarkewitz of New York City Opera and New Jersey Opera Theater, and he made a variety of very creative decisions about the scene. The singers moved about stage in a trance-like state, and while there was seemingly some interaction between characters, there was no direct dramatic communication from one to another. David incorporated hundreds of pages of music in Mozart's handwriting that the characters look over, remember how their lives were touched by the composer. As the scene develops, the two characters from the first act make an appearance; Mozart as child and his sister Nannerl as a child. They happily gallop around the stage, somewhat similarly with the Finale from Berg's Wozzeck, tossing sheets of music into the air and playing together. And at the very end, child Mozart walks through the middle arch of the stage, signifying that the entire production is dedicated to his memory and his music.

I thought that the performance went very well, and it was met with a warm and enthusiastic response. This production is one of our first attempts to make opera more accessible and more popular to a larger audience. I believe that contemporary American opera has a bright future, especially if it is written in English and in a musical language that is appreciated by audience. I hope you enjoy watching this clip!