Coda | BLO | Spring 2016

THE MAGAZINE OF BOSTON LYRIC OPERA | SPRING 2016

INSIDE THIS ISSUE!

AS FAST AS DREAMS: THE VISUALS OF WERTHER OPERETTA’S LEADING LADY: THE ROLE OF THE MERRY WIDOW WRITING THE WORDS: TITLES AND THE OPERATIC EXPERIENCE

ESTHER NELSON, STANFORD CALDERWOOD GENERAL & ARTISTIC DIRECTOR | DAVID ANGUS, MUSIC DIRECTOR | JOHN CONKLIN, ARTISTIC ADVISOR

EXPLORE THE PASSION & POWER OF OPERA CELEBRATE WERTHER OPENING NIGHT! MAR 11 | 5:30PM The Four Seasons, Boston Tickets available for Opening Night dinner and post-performance cast reception. BLO.org | 617.542.4912 x227

“Musik I” by Gustav Klimt

DESIGN PRESENTATION: WERTHER FEB 17 | 6:00 – 7:30PM Join the creative team for an intimate conversation about the inspiration and motivation behind Werther. A benefit for Orfeo patrons at the Adagio Level or above. BLO.org SIGNATURE SERIES | PARIS, THE SURREAL CITY: DREAMS, MANIFESTOS & MUSIC FEB 21 | 2:00 - 3:00PM In partnership with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MFA Boston | Remis Auditorium $16 members | $20 non-members Reception with BLO presenters: $50 Take a journey to the Paris of Picasso, where a civilization still recovering from the Great War sought freedom and release in the uncharted depths of the unconscious imagination. MFA.org OPERA NIGHT AT BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY THE BITTERSWEET ROMANCE OF WERTHER: AN EVENING WITH DAVID ANGUS FEB 25 | 6:00 – 7:00PM BPL Central Branch, Copley Square | Abbey Room BLO Music Director and Conductor David Angus explores the lush and lyrical Werther, an opera beloved for its emotionally rich music.

Free and open to the public.

A TASTE OF WERTHER: OPERA, BEER, PRETZELS & CHEESE MAR 7 | 6:00 - 7:30PM Boston Center for Adult Education $35 per person A lively armchair tour through recorded selections from Werther, punctuated with delicious German beers and cheeses inspired by the opera’s twists and turns. bcae.org

OPERA NIGHT AT THE BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY A PARTY AT THE END OF THE WORLD: THE MERRY WIDOW MAR 31 | 6:00 – 7:00PM BPL Central Branch, Copley Square | Abbey Room Explore the historical context of pre-WWI Europe and the poignant, joyous romance of The Merry Widow, brought to life with selections performed by BLO artists. Free and open to the public.

SIGNATURE SERIES | RECREATING MAXIM’S: A WALTZ THROUGH THE MERRY WIDOW APR 20 | 6:30 - 8:00PM In partnership with the Boston Athenæum $20 BLO subscribers/Athenæum members | $30 general public The legendary nightclub Maxim’s comes alive as you explore the intersection of dance and operetta in The Merry Widow. Reception with wine and light bites included. bostonathenaeum.org DESIGN PRESENTATION: THE MERRY WIDOW APR 26 | 6:00 – 7:30PM Join the creative team for an intimate conversation about the inspiration and motivation behind The Merry Widow. A benefit for Orfeo patrons at the Adagio Level or above. BLO.org CELEBRATE THE MERRY WIDOW OPENING NIGHT! APR 29 | 5:30PM The Four Seasons, Boston Tickets available for Opening Night dinner and post-performance cast reception. BLO.org | 617.542.4912 x227 SIGNATURE SERIES | SOUNDS OF THE CITY MAY 4 | 1:00 - 2:30PM In partnership with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MFA Boston | Remis Auditorium Part of the course, “The City: 10 Forces that Shaped History” Individual sessions: $28 members | $35 non-members Investigate how cities have been central characters in operatic repertoire and the impact that opera and music halls had in the development of major cities. MFA.org

KEEP UP TO DATE WITH EVERYTHING HAPPENING AT BLO ON OUR NEW WEBSITE: BLO.ORG!

WELCOME CODA SPRING 2016!

EDITORIAL STAFF Cathy Emmons Carrie Phillips Lacey Upton Eileen Williston CONTRIBUTORS John Conklin Carol Davis Richard Dyer Greg Emetaz Deborah Newhall Harlow Robinson MISSION The mission of Boston Lyric Opera is to build curiosity, enthusiasm, and support for opera by creating musically and theatrically compelling productions, events, and educational resources for our community and beyond. We produce opera in all forms, large to small, popular to lesser known, from early music to newly-commissioned works.

ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE Boston Lyric Opera 11 Avenue de Lafayette Boston, MA 02111-1736 P: 617.542.4912 | F: 617.542.4913 AUDIENCE SERVICES 617.542.6772 | boxoffice@blo.org EXTERNAL RELATIONS Riley Cameron 617.542.4912 x 290 | rcameron@blo.org COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT Lacey Upton 617.542.4912 x242 | education@blo.org SPECIAL EVENTS Danielle Schmidt 617.542.4912 x229 | dschmidt@blo.org GROUP TICKETS Rebecca Kittredge 617.542.4912 x263 | boxoffice@blo.org For a full listing of BLO staff, please visit blo.org/about.

BLO’s programs are funded, in part, by grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Welcome to the second issue of Coda, BLO’s bi-annual magazine! Our thanks to everyone who contributed feedback after the launch of our first issue. Your suggestions are much appreciated, and we have incorporated many of your ideas. Please keep them coming! Email boxoffice@blo.org to share your reactions, story ideas, and more.

I’m sure many of you know that, after months of negotiations, our contract with the Citi Performing Arts CenterSM Shubert Theatre was not renewed. This step has opened up a number of new possibilities for our 40th Anniversary Season in 2016/17, and we will soon be sharing some exciting news about a venue with you. We already have created inspiring productions and a fantastic lineup of artists for you. Stay tuned at blo.org for updates and make sure you’re on our email list to stay in the know!

In March, we launch the second half of our 39th Season with Massenet’s tale of unrequited love, Werther. Under the advisement of his physicians, Joseph Kaiser has had to withdraw from the production, so we are thrilled to welcome Alex Richardson, a nationally acclaimed tenor on the Metropolitan Opera roster, in the title role. The opera explores the intersection of passionate love and obsession—and its tragic consequences—while Massenet’s score throbs and thrills.

The Season closes with the Company’s first production of Lehár’s The Merry Widow, directed by Lillian Groag. Our production brings you to New Year’s Eve 1913—Europe on the cusp of World War I. While Susanna Phillips has withdrawn because she is expecting her first child, we are delighted that soprano Erin Wall, seen on the stages of La Scala and Paris, will perform as the titular Merry Widow, Hanna.

I look forward to seeing you at the theater as we continue this Season—and look to BLO’s historic 40th Anniversary in 2016/17.

Esther Nelson Stanford Calderwood General & Artistic Director

As Fast as Dreams: The Visuals of Werther:........................................................... 2 High Five: Get to Know Werther in Five Minutes or Less .................................... 4 Operetta’s Leading Lady: The Role of the Merry Widow .................................... 5 High Five: Get to Know The Merry Widow in Five Minutes or Less ................... 7 Writing the Words: Titles and the Operatic Experience ....................................... 8 Spotlight On: Costuming Werther ........................................................................ 10 Planning a Party at the End of the World: Designing The Merry Widow ..........12 Sparkle and Style: A Short History of Operetta ...................................................13 Werther Fever ............................................................................................................14 Spotlight On: Orchestra and Chorus—Abigail Cross and Ron Williams...........16 A Man in Six Portraits: Franz Lehár ........................................................................18 Contributors .............................................................................................................20 Curtains ......................................................................................................................21

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AS FASTAS DREAMS:

THE VISUALS OF WERTHER

With such an inward story concentrated on the hearts of its two leading characters, what can the design team do to visually bring this tale to life?

Quite a lot, says John Conklin, set designer and a driving force behind the production’s concept. Generally, theatre and opera productions are envisioned in three distinct but interconnected visual elements: the sets, which create the physical space onstage where the action of the drama takes place; the costumes, which transform the players into their characters and contribute to the overall look; and the lighting, which artfully directs the audience’s attention and contributes a sense of movement and flow.

For this opera, the creative team decided to add another component to this triumvirate—projections. Drawing inspiration from the emotional climax heard in the opera’s overture, the team imagined the entire opera as an abstract, dreamlike flashback.

“We’re doing the opera on a single set, derived from the idea that this is Werther’s room at the moment of the gunshot, but in a stylized manner…as if the gunshot has blown the walls open so we’re seeing that moment, frozen in time,” explains Conklin.

The walls then become a blank slate on which video and still projections are used throughout the opera.

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These projections summon up physical locations, from the garden where Werther meets Charlotte for the first time to the library where she rereads his letters, as well as dreamlike sequences.

“Stories that are very psychological work so well with video projections,” says Greg Emetaz, projection designer, explaining how he balances the opera’s need for specific scenes with this production’s abstract concept. “You have this ability, in an instant, to go somewhere, which is very much how memory works.…Video does that so well because you can take trips, take over the stage completely—the performer hasn’t moved but the whole space has changed around them, and then you can go back instantly. And in Werther, the music does that all the time as well.”

Projections in the performing arts are often considered a hightech phenomenon, but in truth they date back to the 17th century.

Around 1650, the Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens is credited with inventing the “magic lantern,” which used a concave mirror to direct as much light as possible through a painted glass slide to create a projection on the wall or surface opposite. These devices became popular through the 18th and 19th centuries with magicians and “seers,” who often used them in shows or séances

to depict images of the devil or ghosts. And in the 1900s, with the rise of modern technologies and the invention of the motion picture, theater producers and directors began experimenting with projections as early as the 1920s.

Today, as technologies have become computerized and become increasingly affordable for theaters, there has been an incredible proliferation of the use of video and projection technology onstage, including in opera. “Like every design element, [projections are] there to enhance the central story—to heighten or make more dramatic the story. And another thing that is always doing that in opera, for me, is the orchestra,” says Emetaz. “…I often think of video elements as the ‘visual score to the production.’”

All of this feeds into the central vision of Werther, where projection was conceived as an integral part of the overall experience of the opera. “The great thing about lights—and projections are, essentially, lights—is that they are fluid,” says Conklin. “That’s why I have given them [Emetaz and Paul Hackenmueller, the production lighting designer] a kind of frozen canvas in the set. They can move as fast as dreams.”

I often think of video elements as the ‘visual score to the production.’

GREG EMETAZ PROJECTION DESIGNER

Models of the set design for Werther by John Conklin and projections by Greg Emetaz.

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SANDRA PIQUES EDDY AS CHARLOTTE ALEX RICHARDSON AS WERTHER Directed by Crystal Manich and conducted by David Angus, with sets by John Conklin, lighting by Paul Hackenmueller, projections by Greg Emetaz, and costumes by Deborah Newhall.

HIGH FIVE:

Get to Know Werther in Five Minutes or Less WERTHER Music by Jules Massenet Libretto by Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet, and Georges Hartmann Based on The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Length: Approximately 2.5 hours, including 1 intermission SUPER-SHORT SYNOPSIS Werther, a poet, meets Charlotte and is immediately love-struck.

But she is forced to reject him when she learns that Albert—the man she had promised her dying mother she would marry—has returned. Their wedding proceeds, and Werther is consumed with jealousy. Charlotte begs him to leave town, only conceding that they may meet again in a few months, at Christmas.

On Christmas Eve, Charlotte rereads Werther’s many passionate letters, unable to forget him. Werther returns and professes his love; she almost gives in to him but rushes away.

Albert receives a message from Werther asking him for the loan of his pistol. Charlotte rushes to Werther, but she finds him mortally wounded. She confesses her love as the sounds of children singing “Noel” echo outside.

THE SOURCE Massenet based his opera on a juggernaut—Goethe’s 1774 novel Die Leiden des jungen Werther (The Sorrows of Young Werther).

Written when Goethe was only 24, the story was loosely based on his own thwarted love affair with the real-life Charlotte Buff (though, of course, Goethe chose to deal with his pain via the pen, rather than the pistol). The Sorrows of Young Werther became an instant international sensation, helping to launch the Sturm und Drang movement in German literature and music and the Romantic Era at large.

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“WERTHER FEVER” The Sorrows of Young Werther was truly a phenomenon. None other than Napoleon Bonaparte considered it a masterpiece and carried it with him while campaigning in Egypt. Fashionable young men emulated Werther’s clothing as described in the text, donning yellow vests and blue jackets. Check out “Werther Fever” on page 14 for more information on Goethe and the mania that inspired the opera.

THE MUSIC Massenet’s score for Werther is intense, lush, and lyrical.

Combining influences of Wagner (whose operas were all the rage in Paris at the time) as well as French touches (such as a greater emphasis on melody), Massenet eschewed any chorus and focused on the emotional drama between mezzo-soprano and tenor. Their musical climax comes in Act III. After Charlotte and Werther have been apart for several months, she rereads his letters on Christmas Eve. It is a tour de force scene for mezzo-soprano, as Charlotte’s conflicted emotional journey culminates in a prayer.

Suddenly, Werther enters with a dramatic flourish and sings perhaps the most well-known song from the opera, “Pourquoi me réveiller.” They have their first embrace, but Charlotte rushes out, leaving Werther dejected and setting up the opera’s melancholic conclusion.

FUN FACTS • Massenet first submitted the completed Werther to the Paris Opéra-Comique in 1887, but it was declined because its subject matter was too depressing. The opera had its premiere in a German translation in Vienna in 1892. The French libretto remains the standard performed today.

• Mezzo-sopranos love the character of Charlotte not just for her exquisite music and role as the romantic center of the story, but also because she lives to tell the tale! As the famous singer Victoria de los Angeles said, “Charlotte reverses the roles.

It’s the man who dies for her.”

OPERETTA’S LEADING LADY: THE ROLE OF

BY RICHARD DYER

L

ehár’s The Merry Widow has waltzed around the world for 110 years now. There may not be as many Merry Widow byproducts as there used to be—cigarettes, hats, cocktails, entrees, and desserts—although a provocative undergarment is still around. But the operetta remains permanently popular in one form or another. It has been repeatedly re-orchestrated, the vocal lines transposed up or down, the characters renamed, the score either cut to shreds or augmented with other music by Lehár, or not

by Lehár at all; the dialogue and the lyrics have been translated, retranslated, the book revised and completely rewritten, in more than a dozen languages. BLO’s new production has a new book by director Lillian Groag, who has set the work almost a decade after it was written, when Europe was on the brink of World War I. No one, not even Lehár himself, was prepared for this operetta’s enduring success. By 1905, the year The Merry Widow premiered, he was 35 and had attempted three operas and six operettas.

Only five had reached the stage, and those had failed. Hopes did not run high for his tenth, The Merry Widow, which he had hastily composed for the Theater an der Wien in Vienna. The production was assembled from sets and costumes created for other operettas. Such was the overwhelming success of The Merry Widow—the biggest in Viennese operetta since Strauss’ Die Fledermaus three decades before—that it wasn’t long before the theater commissioned extravagant new sets and costumes.

MARTA EGGERTH AND JAN KIEPURA

So what were the reasons for the amazing triumph of The Merry Widow? There is a moderately amusing plot based on a French play by Henri Meilhac written 44 years previously, and Lehár’s Viennese librettists, Viktor Léon and Leo Stein, knew their business. The two leading characters, Danilo and Hanna, are intelligent and verbal but locked in antagonistic positions— descendants of Shakespeare’s bickering lovers Beatrice and Benedict in Much Ado About Nothing. Neither is willing or able to state what he or she really feels, except by indirection— by telling, and singing, stories. Z BOSTON LYRIC OPERA CODA FALL 2015 | 5

M MIZZI GÜNTHER GÜN

What tells us how they really feel is the music. The score is a delightful suite of songs and dances, and not just waltzes—Hanna makes her entrance singing a mazurka; there are galops, a cancan, and marches too. The music ranges across national styles: Viennese, where the operetta had its premiere; Parisian, where the story is set; Hungarian, Lehár’s own native country; Balkan, where Pontevedro exists musically, though not literally on the map. The music is lavishly, luxuriously, imaginatively, exotically and even erotically orchestrated. Most tellingly, a solo violin and solo cello tell the audience exactly what Danilo and Hanna are thinking and feeling when they are not capable of doing so themselves. It has often been pointed out that The Merry Widow is more overtly sexual than any previous operettas—Freud was active in Vienna in this period. At the time, the libretto was considered daring and even risqué. To this day, the music remains swooning and seductive; it flirts, shivers, tingles, and explodes.

Danilo was the title character in Meilhac’s play, but Lehár and his librettists put the emphasis on the Merry Widow herself— Hanna Glawari. It is no surprise that generations of singers from opera and operetta have been eager to take on the role. Her melodies are both lively and alluring and there is an irresistible, sad wistfulness to her most famous moment, the “Vilja” song.

The first Merry Widow was the Hungarian soprano Mizzi Günther, who was only 26, but had already been a star in Vienna for five years. One can hear just how delightful she was in the very 6 | BOSTON LYRIC OPERA CODA SPRING 2016

first recording of “Vilja,” made in 1905 and currently playing on YouTube. Since then, it has been a role for every conceivable kind and weight of voice from high coloratura soprano to low mezzo, from light soprano through Brünnhilde weight. It has been a role for young singers—Kirsten Flagstad sang the role years before her voice blossomed into the Wagnerian miracle of the 20th century.

And in recent seasons, especially since The Merry Widow has entered the standard opera-house repertory, the role has become a late-career specialty of such diverse artists as Joan Sutherland, Beverly Sills, Frederica von Stade, Karita Mattila, Elena Obraztsova in Russia, Raina Kabaivanska in Italy, Dame Gwyneth Jones in Germany, Deborah Voigt, and Renée Fleming, all singers who could bring a wealth of stage and life experience to the role.

Hanna was von Stade’s choice for her farewell at the Metropolitan Opera, and afterwards she said, “What could be better than to waltz off the Met stage in the arms of Plácido Domingo?” The honor role of performers of The Merry Widow is long. From 1958 on into the ’70s, the reigning Hanna in England, Australia, and New Zealand was the bubbly June Bronhill; she even titled her autobiography The Merry Bronhill. In addition to those listed above, America’s prominent Merry Widows have included Kitty Carlisle, Dorothy Kirsten, Risë Stevens, Patrice Munsel, television star Edie Adams (my own first Merry Widow), and many more beloved artists.

Probably the most famous Merry Widow of all, and certainly the most travelled, was the Hungarian soprano and movie star Marta Eggerth. For more than two decades after 1943, the vivacious and beautiful Eggerth gave more than 2,000 performances of The Merry Widow in America (including Boston) and Europe opposite her husband, the popular Polish tenor, Jan Kiepura. They performed their roles in five different languages, and after Kiepura died, Eggerth liked to sing a multilingual medley of Merry Widow melodies in her concerts and recitals. In 2000, in the Theater an der Wien, home of the world premiere, Eggerth sang that medley when she was 88. And she continued to perform until not long before she died in 2013 at the age of 101.

Decades ago, in late 1970s or early ’80s, there was a remarkable institution created by an equally remarkable woman, Mary Wolfman Epstein, the New England Jewish Music Forum, and that organization presented a recital by Eggerth and her pianist son, Marjan Kiepura, in a Brookline synagogue. Eggerth must have been nearly 80 at that time, but her voice was still silvery, steady and clear, her charm undimmed, and her elegant musical style was that of a vanished world—but one with which her audience was familiar. Many were elderly; some of them, or their parents, had come to America to escape Hitler, just as Eggerth and Kiepura had. As she sang from The Merry Widow her voice sounded caressed by an aural halo; it was the audience humming along, celebrating not just a memory, but life-force itself.

ERIN WALL AS HANNA GLAWARI ROGER HONEYWELL AS COUNT DANILO Directed by Lillian Groag and conducted

by Alexander Joel, with sets by John Conklin and costumes by Gail Buckley.

HIGH FIVE:

Get to Know The Merry Widow in 5 Minutes or Less THE MERRY WIDOW Music by Franz Lehár Book by Lillian Groag after the original by Viktor Léon and Leo Stein with English lyrics by John Wells Sung mainly in English, with projected translations Length: Approximately 3 hours, including 1 intermission

THE MUSIC Part of The Merry Widow’s success is due to Lehár’s skillful composition and orchestration. His style combined the elegance of operetta with the grandeur of opera. Lehár wrote well for singers’ voices and expanded the use of the orchestra in the theatre, including shimmering effects for harp, celeste, and glockenspiel. The romantic and nostalgic “Merry Widow Waltz” became a hit tune from the operetta.

SUPER-SHORT SYNOPSIS At the Pontevedrian Embassy in Paris, Ambassador Baron Zeta urges Count Danilo to romance the fabulously wealthy recent widow Hanna Glawari, so that her inheritance can remain in the country. But Danilo and Hanna have a past…Years before, Danilo had been Hanna’s first love, before his aristocratic family put an end to their affair. Will they reunite?

WHAT IS OPERETTA, ANYHOW? Operetta, from the Italian meaning “little opera,” grew out of the French genre of opéra comique. Composer Jacques Offenbach’s French operettas were a sensation in Vienna. As Offenbach demanded ever-higher fees, Viennese producers sought a homegrown alternative. They persuaded Johann Strauss II, the “Waltz King,” to detour from his highly profitable career as a dance-band conductor and composer and enter the world of music-theatre, launching the tradition of Viennese operetta.

Can’t get enough? Read “Sparkle and Style: A Short History of Operetta” on page 13 for even more fascinating detail about this form and why it’s still important today.

Meanwhile, Valencienne, Baron Zeta’s young wife, is tempted by her own attraction to the French military attaché, Camille, who ardently pursues her. After intrigues and complications (including a scandalous secret rendezvous in the Embassy garden), Danilo and Hanna can no longer deny their love and are passionately reunited.

HOW IT CAME TOGETHER Viktor Léon and Leo Stein initially gave their completed libretto to the popular composer Richard Heuberger, but they disliked his musical settings. Instead, they turned to Franz Lehár. But the producers at the Theater an der Wein were not enthusiastic when they heard Lehár’s music. Confident it would flop and under pressure to mount the production quickly, they refused to allocate money to new costumes and sets, using pieces from stock instead. However, when The Merry Widow premiered in December 1905, Vienna received it rapturously. By 1907, the operetta had become an international hit.

FUN FACTS • Offenbach himself was actually the first person to suggest that Strauss try his hand at operetta. The composer reportedly told Strauss over dinner, “You ought to write operettas, you have the stuff in you.” Strauss was flattered, but it took much more convincing before he made the leap.

• Lehár lived through an era of great turbulence in Europe; he saw the turn of the century as a young man and lived through both World Wars, passing away in 1948 at the age of 78. The Merry Widow was said to be Hitler’s favorite operetta—but that didn’t mean Lehár’s life was easy. See page 18 for a full survey of Lehár’s eventful life and times.

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WRITING S D R O W E TH TITLES AND THE CE N IE R E P X E IC T A R OPE John Conklin — set designer, dramaturg, writer, and artistic advisor to the Company — is heavily involved in the overall concept of BLO productions and often writes titles, the line-byline libretto translations that are widespread in opera and are often projected above or alongside the stage, or sometimes on the seat backs throughout the audience.

BLO: You are, after all, primarily a set designer. How did you become involved with titles?

JOHN CONKLIN: When I first started designing opera, it was before titles became the norm. This has changed of course…

I vividly remember the first production that I was closely involved with that used titles—the Ring Cycle in San Francisco in 1985. I was struck by both the intimacy and connection that they engendered with the audience—a following of the drama moment by moment.

I am vitally concerned with the total experience when I design, and I soon realized that the titles (both in their textual content and their cueing placement) were a crucial element in the effect on an audience. I have always been very interested in the power and complexity of text in general, so I decided to join the fray.

I’ve enjoyed the ride, having now done titles for such organizations the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, English National Opera, and Opera Australia, among others. It’s a difficult job (perhaps more so than it seems).

BLO: How have titles changed opera—for the better and the worse?

PHOTOS BY T. CHARLES ERICKSON (2015)

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JC: I was always confused and annoyed by the assumption that you needed to do “homework” before going to the opera.

What were you supposed to do if the opera was in an unfamiliar language…memorize the libretto? With titles, audiences are relieved of this burden and are reassured that they will be able to understand what is going on during the performance...and, importantly, feel the specific flow of the narrative as it unfolds,

rather than having a general idea of the plot gathered from a synopsis. Titles have certainly achieved this and have crucially contributed to the growth of opera as a popular, accessible form of dramatic excitement.

On the flip side, titles ask any given audience to respond to a performance in a complex way never demanded in all the history of opera before 1983. Audiences must listen to the orchestra, pay attention to the sung words emanating from the singers (even if in a foreign language), observe the staging and the visual world…and read?! It is my belief that the pervasive use of titles has fundamentally changed the opera experience, and I am not sure whether for the better or worse. One element that particularly bothers me is the severing of the direct bond between the performer and any given audience member. When one is constantly looking somewhere else (rather than at the singer), even for a brief glance above or to the side, that link is broken.

BLO: What are the special concerns or problem areas as you develop a title script?

JC: To my mind there are four major areas of concern: • To convey the narrative structure and movement of the piece.

• To convey its poetic or metaphorical flavor, if possible.

• To adjust the titles to the specifics of the production, particularly if the cultural milieu has been changed. Often productions have chosen to “translate” in the titles the original text even if the stage is showing something different.

This, to my mind, sets up a distracting discrepancy.

• To keep the audience from reading all evening! A long, plot-driven opera like The Marriage of Figaro can end up with over 400 titles…and even a text-heavy but relatively concise opera like Kátya Kabanová can cause title overload. How to resolve these conflicting forces is an unending challenge for the title writer. I have been very lucky this year to be working with the talented Allison Voth as a co-writer…we bounce ideas off one another.

changes in the titles, even though they often deviated from what was being sung on stage. We had useful discussions with the chorus and principals as to what the titles read and what they were actually singing in Italian. Since the cast enthusiastically supported the 1968 concept, they were able to resolve psychologically and dramatically this apparent incongruity. One specific example—the end of Puccini’s Act II. In the original, the chorus is singing about the arrival of a troop of soldiers led by a dashing drum major. In the BLO production, this scene was a student demonstration. Since the music Puccini gave us already sounds like a kind of organized anthem, we wrote titles that transformed it into a version of the “Internationale,” the 19th century left-wing anthem: “Brothers and Sisters, unite…

Arise, we can change the world,” and so forth.

BLO: Some critics actually commented upon the titles in reviews of In the Penal Colony. Was there something unusual that caused this response?

JC: For this Opera Annex production in the Cyclorama, the title screen was closely integrated into the design of the set and the whole space. The titles themselves became almost a character in the unfolding story. As the infamous punishment machine breaks down during the course of the opera, so did the “title machine” itself begin to malfunction…letters and words dropped out or were repeated incoherently…eventually some of the titles became incomprehensible.

BLO: Any thoughts on the role of titles for the upcoming Merry Widow?

JC: We are setting Widow in 1913, a few months before the outbreak of WWI, and the titles again almost become a character in the piece, giving to the audience a more or less historically accurate (and therefore often ironic) picture of the disintegrating world outside the mostly carefree embassy of the opera itself. Also reflecting the polyglot international world of Paris, we are using many sung languages: English, German, Italian, French, Russian…and of course the titles allow us to do this without losing comprehensibility.

BLO: BLO’s Bohème this fall was set in the Paris of 1968 rather than the more usual 19th century setting. How did this affect the titles?

JC: This was the source of much debate between the director, the staff of BLO, Allison, and myself. How much to adapt the titles to the reimagined cultural setting? We did go ahead with significant

projected in In the Penal Colony, sings in front of Left, David McFerrin, as the Officer ce. rien expe and gn the production desi titles that became an integral part of nary ème, set in Paris 1968, featured revolutio Right, BLO’s 2015 production of La Boh s. rtitle supe ul II and required thoughtf slogans on posters at the end of Act BOSTON LYRIC OPERA CODA SPRING 2016 | 9

Deborah Newhall, returning to BLO for the new production of Werther, is a costume designer for ďŹ lm, television, theatre, and opera based in Providence, RI. We connected to talk about her process and designs, how she got into the business, and what she hopes the audience will take away from the opera.

From left, costume sketches for the characters of Sophie, Werther, and Charlotte

by Deborah Newhall, designer.

SPOTLIGHT ON:

COSTUMING WERTHER

Costume Designer Deb Newhall makes adjustments as Sandra Piques Eddy models one of her Werther costumes at a fitting in January.

BLO: Tell us about the concept of the new BLO production n of Werther. What are you excited for audiences to see or experience?

DN: In our production, the story comes through Werther’s mind—his visions, reflections, desires, and obsession. It’s not a realistic telling, rather a reverse spiraling dream which will be err’ss shown through John Conklin’s amazing set, Paul Hackenmueller’s ch, h lighting, and Greg Emetaz’s projection elements. Crystal Manich, the stage director, knows this opera well and has exciting staging and direction ideas. I am thrilled to be working with this team.

John and Crystal requested that the clothes seem very real, with a controlled color palette to support and define the story.

However, there is a more theatrical process that happens with Charlotte, which I am most excited to create. John and Crystal want her look to transition through Werther’s mind, suggesting that her costumes lose color as the story unwinds. By the final scene, the color has faded from her dress. She will have three identical dresses that will be painted so the color looks as if it is draining away, with uneven shards of color, light and paleness, using dying and painting to achieve that effect…it’s a challenge for the shop, and my dyer is experimenting with different techniques. I am excited to see the final result.

BLO: What is your research and design process?

DN: Soon after receiving the assignment, John and I had a long talk about the story and how Werther will be presented for the BLO 2015/16 Season. I listen to the score several times during my preparation, evoking my own emotional response to the core of each character and their place in the story. John also suggested films to watch for a sense of time and place. I map the passage of time for everyone and where the emotional peaks and valleys are, also mapping the color story. Whenever I begin to draw, I often have music playing that is related to the project, whether it’s an opera or a musical, or I’m working on a movie idea or a play.

That is a big part of setting the space and giving me ideas visually.

I did many rough sketches for Werther. I brought about 50 fullpage pencil sketches to meet with John and Crystal, and we laid them all out on the floor and walked around them, making groups w liked and eliminating those that didn’t feel as right to us. we T concept firmed up that day. Then we met again, showing The s sketches now with color, and later fabrics and swatches were a ad added, including some dye samples for Charlotte. Adjustments ar expected as we go along, and all will be finalized once we ar are reach tech in the theater.

BLO: What do you see as the role of the costume designer?

How does your work fit into the audience experience?

DN: My job as costume designer is to support the production designers’, and director’s point of view of the story through the costumes. Using clothing as clues, revealing the essence of the character, social status, relationships, social conditions, the world they inhabit, through specific costumes found or created.

Costumes can reflect the history and current state of the character and changes in their internal condition. My work helps prepare the performers as they see their characters develop visually in the fitting process. My intent is also for the audience to experience the costumes, and feel the costumes support the characters in this world created before them. Werther has smaller costume requirements, so it’s important that each character’s costumes have the right elements, in shape, fit, texture, color, and patina and are visually satisfying.

BLO: Tell us a bit about you! What led you to choose costume design as your career? Any other exciting projects coming up?

DN: I went to art school and loved to draw. My undergraduate degree was in illustration, but I soon gravitated to work in the theater and became attracted to costume design. I enjoy the research process, the digging and discovery and how to tell a story through drawing, leading to the storytelling on stage. My background as an illustrator/painter translated easily into costume design and served the work well. My skills help communicate ideas quickly which has brought a lot of varied work in theater, dance, opera, television and film. I’m very happy to return to Boston Lyric Opera for this exceptional project.

NEXT UP, Ms. Newhall’s work will be featured in the family film Annabelle Hooper and the Ghosts of Nantucket, premiering in 2016. This will be followed by two additional films in the Annabelle Hooper series. She is also in preproduction designing for films titled Dead of Winter and another film to be announced soon.

BOSTON LYRIC OPERA CODA SPRING 2016 | 11

PLANNING A PARTY AT THE END OF THE WORLD

DESIGNING THE MERRY WIDOW BLO’s new production of The Merry Widow is set in Paris 1913, just before war would destroy the world of the past. Filled with romance and unforgettable melodies, the opera conjures a glamorous, opulent Paris at the height of the Belle Époque. Check out these design sketches by Set Designer John Conklin and Costume Designer Gail Buckley for a sneak peek at the new production, opening April 29.

Top, Set for Act I, Scene I and Act II, Scene I; Costumes, from left, for chorus ladies, the wives during Act III’s party scene, Count Danilo and Vicomte Camille de Rosillon.

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SPARKLE & STYLE:

A Short History of Operetta

BY CAROL DAVIS A BRIEF HISTORY It all began with Hervé. It’s true: most sources trace the roots of operetta to this mid-19th century French composer, whose real name was Louis Auguste Florimond Ronger, and who is credited with more than 120 “opérettes.” Offenbach quickly followed him on the French charts, with hits like La Vie Parisienne, La Belle Hélène, Orpheus in the Underworld, La Périchole, and his grand opera, The Tales of Hoffmann.

Elsewhere, the Austrian composer Johann Strauss II was beginning to make his mark in the 1870s with waltzes and songs (e.g. “The Blue Danube”), as well as operettas like Der Zigeunerbaron and the still wildly popular Die Fledermaus. And, of course, at around the same time, the team of William Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan took the English-speaking world by storm with The Pirates of Penzance, H.M.S. Pinafore, and The Mikado. The wordsmith Gilbert is credited by many as having perfected the seamless integration of songs and dialogue, a hallmark of operetta and, later, musical theater.

None of this was occurring in a musical vacuum: Dvořák, Smetana, Verdi, Boito, and Wagner were all at the top of their grand opera games at the end of the century. Opera didn’t spawn a new musical idiom and return to its lofty mountain top; the two art forms evolved side by side.

Early operetta was primarily comic and often risqué, arising from opera as well as the traditions of burlesque and music hall.

Not surprisingly, mid-19th century audiences were predominantly male. With the introduction of street lighting and easier transportation, evening entertainments became more accessible, and later operetta was able to draw from a wider theater-going pool. Families could now enjoy toned-down, less rambunctious versions of French operettas, as well as the gentler Savoy operas (or comic operas) of Gilbert and Sullivan.

Lehár’s contemporaries included Emmerich Kálmán (Countess Maritza, The Gypsy Princess) and Oscar Straus (The Chocolate Soldier, A Waltz Dream) in Europe; Rudolf Friml (Rose-Marie, The Vagabond King), Sigmund Romberg (The Student Prince, The Desert Song), and Victor Herbert (Naughty Marietta, The Red Mill) in America. During the early 1900s, their more romantic, lush music predominated, with more credible characters and plots.

World War I brought at least two changes: a sudden dearth of available Viennese operetta and a desire for lighter, escapist fare.

This led to the popularity of the smart, upbeat comedies of Jerome Kern, who began incorporating jazz and other innovations into his compositions, and Noël Coward (Bitter Sweet, many plays and songs)—all of which eventually heralded the era of (primarily American) musical theater.

DEFINING OPERETTA Operetta differs from grand opera in several ways, the most obvious being spoken dialogue (though there are some cases in which opera features this as well). An operetta is also assumed to be shorter and sillier than an opera, though not categorically: compare The Desert Song or Countess Maritza or Yeomen Continued on page 20 Z Poster for 1954 film adaptation of Rose Marie; DVD of 1971 Hungarian version of The Gypsy Princess; Poster for 1935 film adaptation of Naughty Marietta; sheet music for The Red Mill.

This continued until the turn of the 20th century, when operetta around the world veered in a decidedly more romantic direction, like Franz Lehár’s masterpiece, The Merry Widow, shedding much of the silliness of earlier operetta but retaining enough glitter to keep fans in their comfort zone.

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F

ew literary characters have grabbed and held the popular imagination with greater force than Werther, the melancholy, self-involved dreamer at the center of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s slim epistolary novel, The Sorrows Goethe of Young Werther. Described by one critic as “the first bestseller of modern mass culture,” this weepy confessional tale of thwarted passion introduced to the world a new sort of Romantic hero (or anti-hero). Not a confident macho warrior, but rather a hypersensitive and self-doubting wannabe poet liliable to burst into tears at the slightest provocation, Werther is a “gifted but ill-adjusted young man” who w wa llows in hhis misfortunes with masochistic pleasure. wallows

BY HARLOW ROBINSON

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Even more sshocking to Goethe’s contemporaries was Werther’s gruesome gr suicide in the final pages, a “shot heard ’round the world,” to use a phrase coined by Ralph Wald Waldo Emerson in reference to the opening salvo of the American Revolution in 1775. That Werther appeared in print in 1774, just one year earlier, and only 15 year years before the French Revolution, has often been cited aas proof of Goethe’s uncanny prescience, his anticipat anticipation of the momentous social changes that would upend the European status quo at the close of the 18th century. As Marxist critic Georg Lukács has written in Goethe and His Age, Werther’s tragic suicide arose from a fundamental personal rebellion that “shows the insoluble conflict between the free and full development of personality and bourgeois society.”

Werther rebels against the rules of feudal society, including the legal institution of marriage, which Z

Left, From Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther, “Lotte and Werther” illustration by Tony Johannot, 1845; Inset: Goethe, by Joseph Karl Stieler, 1828.

Right, Werther poster by Eugène Grasset, 1893; “German costume of the Werther Era,” the latest fashions inspired by Goethe’s novel, published in Münchener Bilderbogen Nr. 401, Zur Geschichte der Costüme, 18th century; Reading from Goethe’s Werther by Wilhelm Amberg, 1870.

“But she has been mine. I have possessed that heart, that noble soul, in whose presence I seemed to be more than I really was, because I was all that I could be.”

WERTHER, THE SORROWS OF YOUNG WERTHER

imprisons his beloved Lotte in a respectable but stifling union with Werther’s dull rival, Albert. (In writing the novel, Goethe drew heavily on his own experiences, including his unrequited love for Lotte Buff, betrothed to a friend, and the 1772 suicide of his acquaintance Karl Jerusalem.)

Werther’s struggle for free self-expression against the forces of patriarchal order inspired some famous revolutionaries, including Napoleon (he read the novel seven times) and Vladimir Lenin, leader of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. Conversely, conservative institutions such as the Catholic Church denounced Werther (banned in Italy during Goethe’s lifetime) as a dangerous tract promoting sinful impulses including suicide and adultery. The book was also eventually banned in Leipzig (where it was initially published), in Denmark, and elsewhere as an affront to public decency.

History has repeatedly shown that censoring texts only adds to their allure. Translations rapidly appeared in all major European languages. In France alone, Werther appeared in fifteen different translations between 1776 and 1797. “Werther Fever” spread even to China, where porcelain models and paintings of Werther were manufactured and marketed to Western consumers. Poems, plays, songs, and operas based on the novel proliferated. A Werther fireworks display was held at Vienna’s amusement park, the Prater.

Werther mania also swept through the field of fashion. Men donned blue frock coats, yellow waistcoats and leather breeches in imitation of their hero, while women wore Werther jewelery and Eau de Werther perfume carrying Werther fans in hands encased in Werther gloves. In order to “prove that they had experienced unfathomable melancholy” like their idol, some men preserved their tears in special crystal vials.

A more troubling aspect of the Werther mania was the persistent belief that unbalanced readers could be prompted to follow his drastic example and commit “copy-cat” suicides. Several highly

publicized suicides that occurred in the immediate aftermath of the book’s b k’s publication were blamed on Goethe, although the evidence was circumstantial at best. (After one young woman, jilted by her lover, jumped into a river and drowned near Goethe’s house in Weimar, a copy of Werther was found in her pocket.)

Later, one researcher even coined the term “Werther effect” to describe the influence of suggestion on suicides more generally.

By the time Jules Massenet (1842-1912) completed his opera Werther in 1887, six other composers had already composed operas based on the novel. A happily married, very successful and pragmatic artist, Massenet had little in common with the sorrowful and self-pitying Werther. And yet he reportedly came close to tears while reading the novel in a French translation during an 1886 trip to Wetzlar, the scene of the action. Of course Massenet and his librettists made numerous significant changes. Charlotte’s role (mezzo-soprano) is considerably expanded, as is the intensity of her feelings for Werther (tenor), while her sister Sophie, whom Goethe barely mentions, becomes an important character (a soprano)—for purely musical reasons. Massenet also gives Charlotte and Werther a long final scene together (set against the pathetic background of children singing Christmas carols) as he lies dying from his self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Critic Henry Krehbiel complained that the opera “smacks more of the atmosphere of the Parisian salon than of the sweet breezes with which Goethe filled the story,” but Massenet did attempt to preserve one important aspect of the novel: its epistolary narrative. The opera’s most effective scene comes in Act III, when a shattered Charlotte reads excerpts from Werther’s sad letters, followed by Werther’s poignant aria of dashed romantic hopes,“Pourquoi me réveiller” (“Why awaken me”). If Massenet’s opera lacks the revolutionary bite of Goethe’s anti-establishment message, it still affirms the enduring power of Werther’s dreamy idealism and poetic sensitivity.

BOSTON LYRIC OPERA CODA SPRING 2016 | 15

SPOTLIGHT ON:

THE ORCHESTRA AND CHORUS — ABIGAIL CROSS AND RON WILLIAMS Abigail Cross is a viola player and has been part of the BLO orchestra since 1996. She lives in Grafton, MA, and is principal violist with the Rhode Island Philharmonic. Abby also plays with the Boston Ballet, Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, and Odyssey Opera.

BLO: How did you become a musician and when did you start playing viola?

Abigail Cross: I started piano when I was three years old through a Suzuki program in Syracuse, NY, where I grew up. Then, in fifth grade, in public school, the students all chose instruments, and I chose cello. But when I got to my first lesson, [the other students] were all boys and I didn’t want to be the only girl! …So my music teacher suggested the viola.

BLO: And a star was born!

Abby: [Laughs] Yes, absolutely! And I stuck with it. I went to Boston University, I did my undergraduate and my Master’s degree there; I studied with Steven Ansell of the Boston Symphony.

BLO: What do you like best about being a professional musician?

Abby: I like being onstage—and I like having a big group of colleagues I can also call my friends who I get together with at night and make beautiful music. It’s just a unique career, I think.

And I also have a great family life, being home a lot during the day with my three children, getting the homework done, going to soccer, going to gymnastics and all that, then playing a show at night and getting my break, my enjoyment.

Violist Abigail Cross, member of the BLO orchestra. A scene from BLO’s 1999 production of Akhnaten.

BLO: What’s your preparation and rehearsal process like for a BLO opera?

BLO: What are some of your favorite operas that you’ve played with BLO?

Abby: I get the music about a month beforehand…So probably about two weeks before, I’ll take a peek, look through it, maybe earmark a couple of pages that look a little tricky. It depends on the opera too—Mozart operas, there’s not too much in the viola parts to practice, really. But Verdi will definitely have some practice time! Puccini, possibly. Shostakovich, which I did at Odyssey [Opera], that was tricky.

Abby: I really liked Akhnaten, [by] Philip Glass [performed by BLO in 2000], mostly because the violas are the top voice and there are no violins in it. So that was really cool, and I think we had about eight viola players for that!…My dream opera to do is Peter Grimes, by Britten, with David Angus conducting. It’s a huge production, a huge orchestra, and under the skillful baton of David, it would be a huge hit!

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Ron Williams, center and in inset, in performance as the Messenger in BLO’s La Traviata.

PRODUCTION PHOTO BY ERIC ANTONIOU (2014)

Ron Williams, baritone, is a member of the BLO chorus and a frequent soloist and performer in the greater Boston area, including organizations such as Boston Cecilia, the Boston Pops, Cantata Singers, Symphony Pro Musica, and Greater Worcester Opera. He joins BLO again this spring for The Merry Widow.

BLO: What was your first job with Boston Lyric Opera?

Ron Williams: I made my BLO debut in January of 1992 with Kurt Weill’s Lost in the Stars and have been performing on and off with BLO ever since. I took a few years off when my children were young, then came back. And actually, during the first Opera Annex production of [Britten’s] The Turn of the Screw, my son also sang Miles, as a boy soprano! He was about 12 or 13 at the time, so that was fun.

BLO: A musical family! How did you become a singer?

Did you also grow up in a musical home?

Ron: Yes, absolutely—I’m the son of a Baptist minister, so music was always part of my life. I actually did a pre-med [program] during undergrad; that was during the Vietnam War era, so then I did a stint in the military. But I came back to music and did my graduate studies at San Jose State and lived there [for a time].

I moved out to Boston for my future wife—and because I wanted to have four seasons again, after 16 years in California!

BLO: What’s the rehearsal process like for a BLO chorus member?

Ron: The chorus is amazing. There are lots of veteran [chorus members], and it’s also a first chance for many young students coming out of conservatory and getting their feet wet. It’s a

wonderful blend of talent. There are four weeks of intense rehearsals…depending on the opera, [the chorus] might be enmeshed in the entire drama or just in a few scenes. We rehearse mainly at night and on weekends, [and] many of the members have day jobs or other gigs. I teach [voice] professionally, as well as some opera survey and appreciation courses.

BLO: What’s the craziest thing that has ever happened to you onstage?

Ron: Oh, this is a good one! Many years ago, I was doing a children’s opera, a new work, at Michigan Opera Theatre. I was playing a shaman, a high priest, and the musical rhythms were really difficult. We used flash powder [as a magical effect] to wow the children. So I’m singing, and I really had to concentrate on the rhythms, and my costume was a vest made of hemp—then the flash happened and suddenly the music stopped and someone started patting me really vigorously! My vest had apparently started to spark—it didn’t actually catch fire, but it came really close. In the Q&A afterwards, the kids asked if that was supposed to happen and I said, definitely not!

BLO: What’s the most important thing for the audience to know about the opera chorus?

Ron: That the chorus is part of drama onstage.

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A MAN IN SIX PORTRAITS: On December 30, 1905 in Vienna, The Merry Widow received its (somewhat rocky) first performance. It went on, of course, to become a roaring success in Vienna and soon everywhere else. Less than ten years later, all Europe was plunged into a bitter, senseless, and suicidal conflict.

Looking back, can we see a foreshadowing of the abyss ahead?

Perhaps—The Merry Widow seems, in retrospect, like a beautiful but bitterly ironic farewell to pre-war Europe…oh, those waltzes, the very embodiment of a lost world.

Lehár himself lived a long life that in its fluctuating fortunes seems to mirror the shifting and ultimately tragic tides of the times he lived through. In the year he was born (1870), Dickens died, Lenin was born, and Die Walküre premiered in Munich. In the year he died (1948), Gandhi was assassinated, Harry Truman was elected president, and Kiss Me, Kate opened on Broadway. Lehár was for most of his life (certainly after the stunning debut of Widow) a celebrity and was often photographed. I have chosen six images which encapsulate his fascinating journey. Some biographical notes and a few stories are appended. Acknowledgment here to Bernard Grün’s biography of Lehár as well as articles in The Viking Opera Guide and The Grove Dictionary of Opera.

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Lehár was born in Komáron, Hungary, in 1870. His father was a military bandmaster and composer of dances and marches.

At the age of 12, Lehár entered the Prague Conservatory studying violin, theory, and composition…and received some advice from Dvořák (“Know what, my boy? You should hang up your fiddle and write music.”). In 1888 he was called up for military service and joined the band of the 50th Austrian military regiment, playing under his father. He soon became the youngest 18 | BOSTON LYRIC OPERA CODA SPRING 2016

bandmaster in the Austro-Hungarian Army. Lehár resigned military service to become conductor at the Theater an der Wien in 1902, where his operetta Viennese Women was performed in November of that year. Also that year, his waltz “Gold and Silver” was performed at a society ball and became all the rage. He composed several more operettas, with mixed success.

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Then came 1905. The Merry Widow opened, soon becoming the greatest success in operetta history. The work heralded a newly-resplendent era for Viennese operetta through works of Lehár himself, Oscar Straus, Leo Fall, and Emmerich Kálmán. Lehár continued composing at an amazing pace but, not content with the apparent routine of the operetta genre, he was intent on developing his style. A sense of melancholy and fantasy appeared; the cohesive elegance of The Merry Widow gave way to quasi-historical exoticism coupled with comic numbers written in a more vernacular style. Lehár was unusual in his time in orchestrating his own scores, which he did with notable skill and imagination.

However, with the onset and uneasy conclusion of WWI and its social disruptions, his new works failed to attract the same wide public. His attempts of raise the quality of operetta while at the same time bringing elements of popular music into it (the foxtrot, tango, and shimmy) now brought critical cries of both pretentiousness and pandering.

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A new era of success then arrived with his close relationship with the tenor Richard Tauber beginning in 1921. Lehár went on to write several works for him, and simultaneously Tauber made himself an international celebrity in the

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FRANZ LEHÁR Caruso-Pavarotti vein. The association culminated in 1929 with the most popular and enduring of the Tauber vehicles, Das Land des Lachens (The Land of Smiles), with its unforgettable melodic effusion “Dein ist mein ganzes Herz” (“Yours is my heart alone”).

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Lehár became involved with revisions and film versions of his operettas, also composing some original film numbers. His only entirely new stage work after 1929 was Giuditta, which premiered in 1934. It was in many ways his last attempt to resolve his own musical ambitions and the essentially popular requirements of operetta. The premiere at the prestigious Vienna Staatsoper was a glittering affair…but the critical reception (for the most part) was dismissive. Operetta in the sacred house of opera! Lehár was crushed. A few months later, Austria was absorbed into the Nazi empire.

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In 1935 Lehár founded his own publishing house, GlockenVerlag, and acquired the rights to most of his works with the notable (and financially, deeply regrettable) exception of The Merry Widow. Thereafter he concentrated primarily on preserving his works for posterity, making several recordings of his works.

During WWII he remained in Vienna and Bad Ischl, and his life in this period has remained controversial.

His wife, Sophie, was Jewish (although she converted to Catholicism upon marriage and was declared in 1938 an “honorary Aryan by marriage”) and several of his friends and collaborators died in concentration camps. Yet he accepted honors from the Nazi government. In 1939 and 1940, he personally received awards from Hitler in Berlin and Vienna, including the

Goethe Medal. On Hitler’s birthday in 1939 Lehár gave him a leather-bound score of The Merry Widow (reportedly one of the Führer’s favorites). Wrapped up in his music and shunning politics, his failure to protest Nazi atrocities later made him an object of suspicion outside Germany.

Suffering ill health, Lehár moved to Zurich in 1947. His wife died a year later, and that summer he returned to Bad Ischl where he died soon afterwards. His villa in Bad Ischl is now a Lehár museum and a memorial was erected in the Stadtpark in Vienna in 1978.

Lest we be left with this somewhat sad final glimpse of the man whose joyous and spirit-lifting music will always be with us, I would like to end with a charming, bittersweet anecdote of Lehár and his friend and colleague Puccini, as described by Lehár’s brother. It occurred during a visit to Vienna by Puccini in 1920: From his period of service at Pola, Franz spoke pretty good Italian but Puccini had very little German. But there was no problem of communication, for already during the meal the two masters were conversing almost exclusively by quoting and softly singing alternately from their works.…Then they sat at the piano and played: Puccini with the right hand, Lehár with the left. The most wonderful harmonies sound forth, Puccinisms and Lehárisms, one surpassing another in sound effects and original turns of phrase.…[T]hey played happily on for another hour before Puccini had to regretfully depart for another engagement.

BY JOHN CONKLIN BOSTON LYRIC OPERA CODA FALL 2015 | 19

“Operetta,” continued from page 13 of the Guard with Die Zauberflöte or Così Fan Tutte or L’Elisir d’Amore. You’ll quickly see that in some cases, opera can be just as lighthearted and romantic as its younger cousin. But, on the whole, it’s generally understood that operetta is frothier. When is the last time anyone told you an opera “sparkled”? Operetta has wit, as well as an unmistakable satiric streak not generally found in its grander progenitor.

The vocal demands and “legit” training required for both opera and operetta are virtually indistinguishable. Add to that the acting chops necessary for dialogue scenes and feet nimble enough for at least a waltz or two, and you have principal performers who just might have to be “triple threats,” rather than “mere” opera singers.

OPERETTA TODAY New professional light opera companies are springing up, for instance the now decade-old Light Opera of New York. Amateur theatre and Gilbert & Sullivan groups will frequently perform a change-of-pace production of The Student Prince or The Red Mill.

Today, many major opera houses spice up their seasons with the occasional foray into the world of operetta. The struggle for “butts in seats” and technology like high-definition video simulcasts have helped move opera toward a more populist approach, and operetta is often seen as a solution.

It’s not just financial exigencies that dictate this move; the wit and fun, the beautiful melodies and romance never fail to bring smiles to the faces of both operetta devotees and people just discovering the genre.

By far the most enduring choices have proven to be Die Fledermaus, frequently presented on New Year’s Eve, and The Merry Widow. Boston audiences will have the opportunity to experience Lehar’s gem this spring in Boston Lyric Opera’s production featuring world-class performers Erin Wall and Roger Honeywell. The production’s setting, immediately prior to WWI, will add even more poignancy and urgency to an already engaging story.

Operetta’s appeal is enormous even now, drawing huge crowds all over the world. Operetta tours of Europe sell out quickly. Opera fans, the writing is on the wall. Embrace operetta, and get swept away in the waltz.

FURTHER READING: We suggest the thorough, and entertaining, Operetta: A Theatrical History (Revised Edition), by Richard Traubner. Routledge, 2003, paperback.

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CODA CONTRIBUTORS Y John Conklin (pages 8, 18) is an internationally-recognized set designer and dramaturg. He has designed sets on and off-Broadway, at the Kennedy Center and for opera companies around the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Bastille Opera in Paris, the Royal Opera and the opera houses of Munich, Amsterdam, and Bologna, among many others.

Mr. Conklin is on the faculty of New York University’s Tisch School and has served as the Artistic Advisor to BLO since 2009.

Y Carol Davis, (page 13) is the founding president of Light Opera of New York, now celelebrating its 10th year. She is a board member of the New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players and past president of the G&S Society of New York. Ms Davis produces and directs operettas and concerts in New York and England.

Y Richard Dyer (page 5) is a distinguished writer and lecturer. He wrote about music for The Boston Globe for more than 30 years, serving as chief music critic for most of that time.

He has twice won the Deems Taylor/ ASCAP Award for Distinguished Music Criticism.

Y Harlow Robinson (page 14) is an author, lecturer and Matthews Distinguished University Professor of History at Northeastern University.

His books include Sergei Prokofiev: A Biography and Russians in Hollywood, Hollywood’s Russians. He is a frequent lecturer and annotator for the Boston Symphony, Metropolitan Opera Guild, and the Aspen Music Festival.

A scene from BLO’s 2013 production of Richard Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman (Der fliegende Holländer).

CURTAINS A LOOK BACK AT BLO’S PAST PRODUCTIONS

ERIC ANTONIOU FOR BOSTON LYRIC OPERA © 2013

BOSTON LYRIC OPERA CODA SPRING 2016 | 21

11 Avenue de Lafayette Boston, MA 02111-1736

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Coda noun \ co·da \ ‘ko¯-d \ symbol O \ (1) a concluding musical section that is formally distinct from the main structure (2) something that serves to round out, conclude, or summarize and usually has its own interest.

OPENING NIGHTS AT BLO! Our Opening Night packages offer an extraordinary opportunity to mingle with the cast and creative teams as well as socialize with the opera community, all in an intimate setting-it's a must-do experience for the opera lover.

Call our Audience Services team to learn more and reserve your seat today—617.542.6772.

WERTHER OPENING NIGHT FRIDAY, MARCH 11

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