DIRECTOR’S COMMENTARY ON APRIL IN PARIS
Sahar Nouri (Pianist) and Catherine Cook (Wendy Barrie) filming episode two of April in Paris. PHOTO Opera Colorado / Rocky Mountain Public Media (2021)
BY DAVID LEFKOWICH
OPERA COLORADO
2020-21 SEASON
When Greg got in touch with me about this project, I was so overwhelmed. It had been months since I’d worked on something creative and artistic and satisfying. I was so excited—it wasn’t just an opportunity to direct an opera, but to create something new with these amazing artists and colleagues.
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While April in Paris was an incredible opportunity, it was also a bit of a puzzle. How was I to use the talents of Catherine Cook, an amazing opera singer, performer, and comedienne, and fit the selected pieces into one cohesive evening of music and joy? What stories could we tell together? I decided to begin with Julia Child. Lee Hoiby’s chamber opera Bon Appétit! got me thinking about what it means to be an icon and who the other
mid-twentieth century icons were. As that idea developed I decided to structure each of the three episodes around a different icon. It was really fun! I had a lot of quarantine time on my hands, so I spent hours researching and watching episodes of golden-age variety shows. I even interviewed a few folks in my life asking, “who do you remember from the 1940s and 1950s?” This led to a few strange answers, but ultimately I settled on three television stars. Our first icon is Ed Sullivan. He is a universally recognizable symbol of that era of television and was a great supporter and promoter of opera and opera singers. So, it made sense to set Catherine up as a performer on The Ed Sullivan Show for the first episode.
