The Letter (opera)
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The Letter is an opera by composer Paul Moravec and librettist Terry Teachout. It was commissioned by the Santa Fe Opera and will be premiered there on July 25, 2009.[1]
The opera is based on The Letter, a 1927 play adapted by W. Somerset Maugham from one of his short stories. The play has been filmed twice. The first version, called The Letter, was made in 1929 and starred Jeanne Eagels. The better-known 1940 version, also called The Letter, starred Bette Davis and Herbert Marshall and was directed by William Wyler.
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[edit] Development of the opera
[edit] The collaboration
Both Moravec and Teachout are making their operatic debuts with The Letter. Teachout began writing the libretto in November 2006 and started posting an ongoing account of the opera's genesis and development on his blog, About Last Night, when the commission was announced by the Santa Fe Opera on May 9, 2007. He describes it as "a cross between a verismo opera like Tosca and a film noir like Double Indemnity or Out of the Past. We don't want The Letter to sound old-fashioned--Paul's musical language is in no way derivative of Verdi or Puccini--but we do want it to move fast and hit hard." [2]
Later Teachout described the challenges to adapting a literary work into a new medium, in this case an opera: "Every great opera based on a literary source involves an imaginative transformation of the original, one that typically goes far beyond the setting of the old words to new music." [3]
In May 2008 Moravec and Teachout discussed the opera at a press conference held in Santa Fe. Moravec called it “an opera noir, a music drama about ordinary people who make a few mistakes and suddenly find themselves swept into very deep emotional water. It combines the aesthetic of American verismo with dream-like qualities often characteristic of a psychological drama. We intend it to be as fast-moving and hard-hitting as a film noir from the ’40s.”
Teachout added that their goal was “to write a work that’s firmly rooted in traditional operatic practice--one that will make dramatic sense to mainstream audiences.”[1] By January 2009, as reported in the January 5th blog, both the opera's libretto and the orchestral score had been finalized and it was ready to go to the publisher.[4]
Teachout plans to continue posting about The Letter on his blog between now and the opera's premiere.[5]
[edit] Production plans
The premiere will feature soprano Patricia Racette and baritone Anthony Michaels-Moore (who appeared in Santa Fe's 2008 Falstaff). The two appeared together in the Metropolitan Opera's new 2008 production of Peter Grimes. The production will be directed by British theatre and opera director, Jonathan Kent, whose work has been seen in Santa Fe several times (notably in the 2008 The Marriage of Figaro) and conducted by Patrick Summers of Houston Grand Opera. Hildegard Bechtler will design the sets. The costumes will be designed by the well-known fashion designer Tom Ford, who is making his debut as a stage designer with this production.
[edit] Roles
| Role | Voice type | Cast of the premiere production 25 July 2009 (Conductor: Patrick Summers) |
|---|---|---|
| Leslie Crosbie | soprano | Patricia Racette |
| Robert Crosbie | baritone | Anthony Michaels-Moore |
| Howard Joyce | bass-baritone | James Maddalena |
| Geoff Hammond | tenor | Roger Honeywell |
| Chinese Woman | mezzo-soprano | Mika Shigematsu |
| Ong Chi Seng | tenor | Rodell Rosel |
| John Withers | tenor | Keith Jameson |
[edit] Synopsis
Leslie Crosbie, a British expatriate who lives with her husband Robert on a rubber plantation in the jungles of Malaya, shoots and kills Geoff Hammond on the verandah of her bungalow. She claims that Hammond, a neighbor, had tried to rape her. Howard Joyce, her lawyer and Robert’s best friend, learns of the existence of a letter sent by Leslie to Hammond on the day of the murder which suggests that she and Hammond were lovers. The letter is in the possession of Hammond’s mistress, a Chinese woman who offers to sell Leslie the incriminating letter for ten thousand dollars on the eve of her murder trial. Joyce obtains the money from Robert under false pretenses and buys the letter, after which Leslie is acquitted. When Robert finds out what really happened, he tells Leslie that he loves her in spite of what she has done. “With all my heart,” she replies, “I still love the man I killed!”
The opera is in eight scenes. It will run for approximately ninety minutes and play without an intermission.
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b Santa Fe Opera press release with details of the 2009 season, 30 April 2008
- ^ "Men at Work (III)", About Last Night, 17 September 2007
- ^ Terry Teachout in interview with Desirée Mays, "The Letter", Opera Unveiled,(see below), p.64
- ^ "...Paul has finished orchestrating The Letter and is ready to transmit the manuscript to Subito Music. Once it's set up in type, we'll proofread it, after which the orchestral score will go to press." In "Free at Last", January 5th, 2009, see below
- ^ See the "External links" section below for the progress of the Teachout blogs
- ^ Terry Teachout in interview with Desirée Mays, "The Letter", Opera Unveiled,(see below): "Maugham's play is set in 1924; we chose not to uproot the opera from the period." The time of the opera was originally given as 1924 in the score, but Moravec and Teachout have since decided to identify it less specifically.
[edit] References
- Mays, Desirée, "The Letter", Opera Unveiled, Vol. 11. Santa Fe: Art Forms Inc., 2009. ISBN 9780970782274
- Maugham, W. Somerset, "The Letter" in Collected Short Stories, Vol. 4. New York: Penguin Books, 1978
