Starting a Family

Now before you start rumors that I'm pregnant, I'm only letting you know that we've started rehearsals in earnest for Last Acts. I’ve been slow to write about the first few days, as we all find our pace for the initial rehearsals. We’ve had the customary music read-throughs, which are leaps and bounds ahead of normal premieres thanks to the cast singing the workshop in December. We’ve sketched out the staging for Act I and have a clear idea of how to build this family and how they’ll interact with each other.

But remember that HGO is also hosting Concert of Arias this week, with which our conductor Patrick Summers is heavily involved and that Jake and Flicka are hosting and judging tomorrow. And, oh yeah – Magic Flute has had performances every other day since last Friday, in which Kristin (a third of our cast, mind you) is singing First Lady.

Plus it’s a “world premiere,” loosely defined in several ways:

• The first public performance of a musical piece or play
• That’s what it sounds like with piano?
• No, you should have Version E with the two added pages, minus the cut we made yesterday, and your line should now read, “These shoes rule.”
• You want the pianos where?

Now, I’m 90% joking, of course, but when you’re creating something from scratch, it has a whole host of challenges that your typical Mozart opera doesn’t have. Yet, these are exactly what make it rewarding. The atmosphere of good will and collaboration in the room is palpable and with it comes a refreshing level of patience, flexibility and curiosity. Thankfully so, as there are many logistics to solve (where DO those pianos go?) and even more family issues to sort through in Act II.


Cocktail Party Tip #2
I’m sure Kristin would love to tell you about the socks she’s wearing in this picture. They were a gift from Flicka and Jake and reference the duet Kristin sings with Keith in Act II. I wonder if Keith got his own pair….

First Impressions and Last Acts

Learning Last Acts: The Music

I can remember clearly the first time I ever heard the name Jake Heggie. It was the August before I entered graduate school at the University of Michigan to study with esteemed pianist Martin Katz, and Martin invited me to a recital he was playing with Frederica von Stade at Ravinia, the summer home of the Chicago Symphony. On the program, they premiered Jake’s song cycle Songs to the Moon and acknowledged Jake (who was seated a row away) after performing it. Me? I was thrilled.

Since then I’ve met Jake several times, but this is my first real opportunity to work with him. Patrick Summers, on the other hand, has known him quite a while, and if you haven’t read his article on Last Acts in HGO’s Opera Cues, start here.

Patrick writes of Jake:

For all of his surface humor, he is, more than almost anyone I’ve ever encountered, a deeply spiritual and just person. He is unnervingly empathetic. He views life not as a complex series of causes and effects, but as a simple matrix of shared emotions, and he loves tender, humanizing similarities.

This is exactly what comes through in Jake’s music. As I wrapped my fingers around Last Acts for the first time, what struck me immediately was that this is music that serves the drama. Funny, conversational, angry, pensive – whatever the mood, Jake’s musical language is one of empathy and color with rare directness. When it's a beautiful sentiment, his music is gorgeous – really, really gorgeous. When the characters are confrontational, his music becomes dense and more challenging.

As concerned as he is for the drama, first and foremost he is a singer’s composer. He loves the voice (most of his compositions are vocal), and it’s clear he KNOWS the voice. It’s beyond writing pretty melodies, which he clearly does well, but knowing where the drama lies in each singer’s range and how and when to capitalize on it. And singers love him for it. You can even hear me in my studio wailing like a banshee through sections of Last Acts because it’s just so….sing-able.

An added bonus in Last Acts is Jake letting his musical theater hair down. Part of the story is Maddy making her Broadway singing debut, so of course, there HAS to be a big musical theater number written specifically for Frederica von Stade. The Cullen will be a-rockin’, that’s for sure, and you can bet that I'll be just as thrilled as I was ten years ago.