Little Women (opera)

This article is about the opera. For other uses, see Little Women (disambiguation).

Little Women (1998) is the first opera composed by American composer Mark Adamo to his own libretto after Louisa May Alcott's tale of growing up in New England after the American Civil War, Little Women. The opera also includes text by John Bunyan (Beth's setting of The Pilgrim's Progress), Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Dr. Bhaer sings "Kensst du das Land"), and Alcott herself (an excerpt of one of her thrillers at the beginning of Act II, which is spoken and mostly omitted on the audio recording).

Performance history

Commissioned by the Opera Studio of Houston Grand Opera (HGO), then under the guidance of General Director David Gockley, Little Women was first performed on March 13, 1998 in a smaller scale production. The success of this first production prompted Gockley to pronounce it "destined to be an American classic" and scheduled the opera for a mainstage premiere of ten performances in March 2000 — making it the first of HGO's twenty-some commissions to be so revived.

G. Schirmer published the opera in May 1998; National Public Radio broadcast the recording of the premiere the following September; and there have been more than 35 distinct productions, professional and academic, domestic and international, since the world premiere, ranging from established American stages (Minnesota Opera, New York City Opera, Opera Pacific), to newer, more progressive companies (Fort Worth Opera, Opera Columbus) from American summer festivals (Glimmerglass Opera, Central City Opera, Chautauqua Opera), to international venues (Teatro de la Ciudad in Mexico City, World Expo in Tokyo and Nagoya, Japan), and to conservatories (Indiana University at Bloomington, Anderson University (three of this cast died in a small plane crash in Bloomington a few years later), Westminster Choir College, New England Conservatory of Music, Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, University of the Philippines College of Music.)

The American television premiere took place on August 29, 2001 on PBS's Great Performances (a co-production between Houston Grand Opera and Thirteen/WNET New York), and the world premiere recording of the HGO production was released on Ondine on August 28, 2001.

As of January 2006, Little Women was scheduled for its Australian premiere in Spring 2007. The Israeli premiere is scheduled for July 2008 in Tel Aviv.

"Little Women" is scheduled to have its European Premiere in Bruges, Belgium on August 1, 2009. The performers are participants in the Intermezzo Foundation's Young Artist Program. The Canadian premiere will take place in January 2010, performed by the Calgary Opera.

Critical reaction

While some critics have argued that the score's reach exceeds its grasp — Opera News suggests that "the nontonal pages never quite mesh with the arias' flights of aching, Bernsteinian lyricism" — critical consensus has largely followed that of John Rockwell of The New York Times, who, on the occasion of the March 2003 New York City Opera premiere, called Little Women a "masterpiece".

Roles

Role	Voice type	Premiere Cast, March 13, 1998 (Conductor: - Christopher Larkin)	Televised Cast, August 29, 2001 (Conductor: - Patrick Summers)
Jo	mezzo-soprano	Stephanie Novacek	Stephanie Novacek
Laurie	tenor	Chad Shelton	Chad Shelton
Meg	mezzo-soprano	Joyce DiDonato	Joyce DiDonato
Beth	soprano	Laura A. Coker	Stacey Tappan
Amy	soprano	Jennifer Aylmer	Margaret Lloyd
John Brooke	baritone	Daniel Belcher	Daniel Belcher
Cecilia March	mezzo-soprano	Katherine Ciesinski	Katherine Ciesinski
Alma March	mezzo-soprano	Tiffany Jackson	Gwendolyn Jones
Friedrich Bhaer	bass-baritone (or mezzo-soprano)	Edward Scott Hendricks	Chen-Ye Yuen
Gideon March	baritone	Christopher Scott Feigum	James Maddalena
Dashwood	baritone	Christopher Scott Feigum	Derrick Parker