EL NIÑO Music by John Adams Libretto by John Adams and Peter Sellars Sung in English, Spanish, and Latin with English Supertitles
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24 OPERA EL NIÑO Music by John Adams Libretto by John Adams and Peter Sellars Sung in English, Spanish, and Latin with English supertitles First Performance December 15, 2000; Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, France Memminger Auditorium May 23 at 7:00pm; May 26 and 30 at 7:30pm SPONSORED BY BMW MANUFACTURING CO. Conductor Joe Miller Director and Set Designer John La Bouchardière Associate Set Designer Ellan Parry Costume Designer Magali Gerberon Lighting Designer Marcus Doshi Puppetry Director Steve Tiplady Puppet Designer Sally Todd CAST Mezzo-Soprano Erica Brookhyser Countertenor 1 Daniel Bubeck Countertenor 2 Brian Cummings Soprano Caitlin Lynch Countertenor 3 Steven Rickards Baritone Mark Walters Puppeteers Kate Brehm, Patrick Dunnevant, Nicole Fragala, Ewan Hunter, Gillian Hurst, Jorie Moss, Steve Tiplady, Sally Todd, Alex Underwood, Tyler Weakland Supernumeraries Ashlyn Chadwick, Marianna Folz, Isabella Hurd, Saffron Jones, Carson Jordan, Emily Martin, Remy Rogers, Channing Schroder, Carson Stekling, Maisy Whitworth Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra Westminster Choir Assistant Conductor Aik Khai Pung Assistant Director Cordelia Istel Choral Preparation Joe Miller Vocal Coach Diane Richardson Musical Preparation Renate Rohlfing Puppet Carver, heads Jan Zalud Carving Assistant Peter Seal Puppet Sculptor, bodies Nele de Craecker Puppet Costume Construction Keith Frederick Scenic Construction Spoleto Festival USA Scene Shop Production Stage Manager Becca Eddins Supertitles Bruno Ingram PERFORMED WITH ONE INTERMISSION . Additional support is provided by the Brand Foundation of New York, Inc. Opera programming is endowed by the Arthur and Holly Magill Foundation. These performances are made possible in part through funds from the Spoleto Festival USA Endowment, generously supported by BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America. By arrangement with Hendon Music, Inc., a Boosey & Hawkes company, publisher and copyright owner. Read “El Niño: Perspectives on the Miraculous” on page 18. EL NIÑO 25 DIRECTOR’S NOTE SYNOPSIS Brought up to believe that biblical stories were metaphors, PART ONE John Adams wrote El Niño “to understand what is meant by a miracle." While accepting the New Testament’s basic premise— The Angel Gabriel praises Mary’s humility and announces that that Jesus was the Messiah and thus the fulfilment of promises the Holy Ghost shall conceive the Son of God in her womb. made to God’s people in the Old Testament—Adams looks Mary travels to Judah to visit her cousin, Elizabeth. Despite her beyond the literal description of events relating to the Nativity, advancing years, Elizabeth is pregnant. When Elizabeth hears towards what they might represent today. Mary’s news, her baby—the future John the Baptist—leaps “A Messiah for the modern age” (LA Times), El Niño tells the in her womb. Mary, a woman of low status, is struck by the story of Christ’s birth in ways that reflect the time that has since magnitude of her role. passed. Compiled from a wide variety of sources, ranging from the Old Testament to late twentieth-century poetry, its texts A woman considers the eternal destiny of women to become examine both the original story and our relationship to it. In pregnant. between are passages from the Middle Ages and Renaissance, the eras that strongly influenced how we see and understand Joseph is angered to discover that Mary is with child. He Christianity today. In essence, Adams takes a contemporary demands to know who has defiled her but Mary protests her perspective on the Nativity, seen through a medieval window. innocence. An angel appears to Joseph in a dream, and reveals During the Middle Ages, miracles were accepted as factually that Mary was made pregnant by the Holy Ghost. He instructs true, and official doctrine went largely unquestioned. By Joseph to take Mary to Bethlehem, where she will be refused comparison, Adams’s use of unofficial gospels introduces shelter and have to give birth among animals. unfamiliar stories that lie beyond our received knowledge; he shifts the viewpoint away from the establishment’s idealized A man declares that the birth of Jesus fulfills promises made vision of the Nativity towards one that considers the miracle by God. of birth through modern female eyes, adding Spanish texts to the English of his religious upbringing to offer an earthier Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem. tone that reflects the increasingly polyglot nature of present- day America. Adams presents Rosario Castellanos’s “Memorial Two women consider pregnancy and giving birth. de Tlatelolco” as a contemporary parallel between Herod’s slaughter of the innocents and more recent massacres: here, the Joseph notices how all is still, and that every living thing is soprano rails at society for turning a blind eye to the slaughter gazing up to Heaven. A star announces the birth of Jesus. of innocents in any age; Adams’s placement of this, just before the young Jesus performs his first miracles, suggests that only PART TWO by accepting our own complicity in such crimes can we enjoy the rebirth offered by Christ. Thus, while Handel’s Messiah was People consider the inevitability of death. an unqualified celebration, Adams’s El Niño asks sincere but challenging questions, not so much of the Bible as of ourselves. Three wise men travel from the East to Jerusalem, in search of As an oratorio, El Niño was not written in a dramatic form. the King of the Jews. Herod sends them to find him, promising The performers usually describe action rather than act it out; to follow in worship. no one voice is allowed to become exclusively associated with a single character, as performers share and switch between People warn against deceit. identities; Adams does not even make time for practical issues like changing scenery or exiting the stage. In short, although The wise men travel to Bethlehem and present Jesus with he wrote El Niño to be performed either staged or in concert, precious gifts. An angel warns Joseph, in a dream, that he and Adams deliberately prevents the piece from functioning as Mary must flee to Egypt, because Herod wants to destroy Jesus. conventional drama, as if—like conventional wisdom—that Herod orders that all of the children in Bethlehem shall be killed. were inappropriate for understanding what might be meant by a miracle. A woman accuses the people of silent complicity in acts of Adams does reference one theatrical form: the opening slaughter. They remember. In their shared grief and desperation, scene of the Annunciation is taken from a medieval miracle they find solace and renewal through God. play, linking El Niño not only to the oratorio but to a long tradition of drama aimed at spreading the story of Jesus, Jesus performs miracles to protect his mother as they travel including the puppet-plays that Franciscan monks used to with Joseph through the desert. convert indigenous Americans nearly 500 years ago. In such traditions, the life-like characterizations and realistic spaces of ©John La Bouchardière modern naturalism were not expected. Performers would travel by walking between various locations indicated on an open set, and the very distance between the identities of character and performer was indicative of the audience’s understanding of the drama itself. Somewhat in the matter of Berthold Brecht, it is not pretending to be the biblical characters in El Niño that creates meaning, but witnessing them. –John La Bouchardière, March 2014 26 EL NIÑO CREATIVE TEAM ELLAN PARRY (associate set designer) is a previous winner of the Jocelyn Herbert Award and a Linbury Prize JOE MILLER (conductor), Spoleto Finalist. Forthcoming designs include The Festival USA’s Director for Choral Nightmares of Carlos Fuentes, directed Activities, is conductor of two of America’s by Nicolas Kent at The Arcola Theatre, most renowned choral ensembles: the London. Recent opera designs include Westminster Choir and the Westminster Noye’s Fludde directed by Olivia Fuchs at Symphonic Choir. He is also director of Southbank Centre, London; Il Matrimonio choral activities at Westminster Choir segreto directed by Martin Lloyd-Evans at College of Rider University. His 2013- British Youth Opera at Peacock Theatre, London; I Lombardi alla 2014 season with the Westminster prima crociata directed by Jamie Hayes at Bloomsbury Theatre, Choir has included several national London (costume design); The Fairy Queen directed by Susannah radio broadcasts, a concert tour of Oklahoma and Texas, and Waters at Brighton Theatre Royal; Great Expectations directed their annual residency at Spoleto Festival USA. Their newest by Bill Bankes Jones at Royal College of Music, London; and recording, The Heart’s Reflection: Music of Daniel Elder, which community productions of Carmen directed by James Hurley at was released in October, has been hailed by Minnesota Public Sadlers Wells, London and Die Zauberflöte directed by Andrew Radio’s Classical Notes as “simply astounding.” As conductor Leveson in Glyndebourne. Recent theater designs include The of the Westminster Symphonic Choir, Miller has collaborated Miser directed by Nancy Meckler at the Watermill Theatre in with some of the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, Newbury; and Without You directed by Steve Maler at Menier earning him critical praise. The New York Times wrote about Chocolate Factory, London and the Panasonic Theatre, Toronto the ensemble’s performance of Mahler’s Symphony no. 2 with (co-designer with Timothy Bird). Parry trained at Motley and the Cleveland