The Sacred in Opera December 2009

The Sacred in Opera December 2009 In This Issue In this newsletter, the SIO continues with the The SIO welcomes contributions from any NOA topic of staged oratorio, with interesting contributions members who have had experience producing, present- about the staging of the St. John and St. Matthew Pas- ing, performing, composing, or conducting sacred dra- sions from Dr. Mozelle Clark Sherman and from con- ma. Plans for the future include setting up an SIO blog. ductor Dr. Keith Clark. We are also pleased to mention Please send your articles and ideas directly to Ruth Dob- the performances of three sacred dramas recently pre- son, Chair of the Sacred in Opera project, at dobsonr@ sented in the US, Esther, by Hugo Weisgall, at New York pdx.edu. City Opera, Ruth, by Philip Hagemann, also presented in New York City, and Unfinished Sermons by Maurice Say- lor, premiered in Arlington, Virginia. In This Issue Our previous newsletters can be accessed on the NOA website under the Sacred in Opera initiative. Re- SIO Lifetime Achievement Award............................2 cent contributors to the newsletter are Allen Henderson, G. William Bugg, Carl Gerbrandt, Bruce Trinkley, and Su- san Boardman. Topics have included discussions about Staging Oratorio: Should Bach’s Passions Be Staged performances and production requirements of several Today?....................................................................3 operas, including Eve’s Odds (Bruce Trinkley and J. Ja- son Charnesky), Only a Miracle (Seymour Barab), The Shepherd’s Play, St. Nicholas, and Good King Wenceslas Staging Oratorio.....................................................6 (Richard James Shepherd), A Gift of Song and The Night of the Star (Mary Elizabeth Caldwell), The Greenfield Christ- mas Tree (Douglas Moore), The Christmas Rose (Frank Recent Performances Of Sacred Drama In The US : Bridge), and in the last issue, the staging of oratorio, Ruth.......................................................................8 with special emphasis on Mendelssohn’s Elijah. We are pleased to announce that Dr. Carl Ger- brandt will receive the lifetime achievement award in the Esther.....................................................................9 area of sacred drama award in this area at the convention in Atlanta. The NOA presented the first award for lifetime achievement in this area to Evelyn Swensson in Unfinished Sermons...............................................10 2008. 1 The National Opera Association The Sacred in Opera The SIO Lifetime Achievement Award The Sacred in Opera project of the National of the late American composer. In 2004, he was again Opera Association will honor Dr. Carl Gerbrandt for invited to Cambridge University, this time as a Visiting his lifetime achievement in the area of sacred music Fellow researching Zarzuela. drama at the upcoming convention in Atlanta. In ad- dition, Dr. Gerbrandt will be presenting the Sacred in Opera session at the convention on Saturday, January 9. This session will address the staging of Mendelssohn’s Elijah and will be entitled “Mendelssohn’s Elijah - An Interactive Session”. The session will feature baritone Gregory Gerbrandt as Elijah, Kathleen Roland Silver- Gerbrandt’s book, “Sacred Music Drama: stein as the Widow, Christopher Meerdink as Obadiah, The Producer’s Guide” and Nancy Maria Balach as Jezebel. The audience will participate as the chorus. Dr. Gerbrandt will serve as narrator/stage director. Carl Gerbrandt is Professor Emeritus of Voice and Director of Opera Theatre at the University of Northern Colorado. While he made his mark in the Conductor of the heralded Greeley Chorale from field of operatic performance, Dr. Gerbrandt has also 1987-present, Dr. Gerbrandt directed the auditioned presented many recitals nationwide, masterclasses, and 90-voice choir on five International concert tours and choral workshops. Of his over seventy opera and ora- presented 10 world premieres. In Summer, 1996, he torio roles, four have been American premieres. He has became the first guest conductor of the Oxford Acade- appeared as bass soloist in two professional filmings of my Orchestra in Oxford, England, leading the orchestra Handel’s Messiah. Dr. Gerbrandt made his professional and the Chorale in Mozart’s Requiem to a near capacity directing debut at Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center audience in the world renowned Sheldonian Theatre. in Mozart’s The Abduction From the Seraglio. Addi- In 2005, he took the Chorale to Italy. Most noteworthy tionally, his staged production of Mendelssohn’s Elijah was a performance before the Pope in Rome, a High was filmed by PBS-TV with subsequent broadcasts. He Mass in St. Peter’s, and a performance of Mozart’s has staged over 40 operas, has served on a distinguished Requiem with the Mozart Sinfonietta of Rome before panel of international artists, and has given a presenta- a standing room only audience in the Pope’s church, tion on the “Opera/Music Theatre Cross-over Singer” Chiesa di St. Ignazio. before a national audience. Recently, Dr. Gerbrandt has lectured before the Prior to his work at UNC, Dr. Gerbrandt was National Opera Association convention in New York opera director for Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hop- City, served as opera stage director and voice teacher kins University, Southern Baptist Seminary where he for the Vocal Arts Symposium in Colorado Springs, and began their Sacred Music Drama Program, and Tabor is involved as guest stage director and conductor. He College. In 1990, Dr. Gerbrandt held a Visiting Scholar holds conducting and performance degrees from Tabor position at Cambridge University, England, where he College and Wichita State University, and a doctoral completed his book, Sacred Music Drama: the Produc- degree in Voice Performance from Peabody Conser- er’s Guide. The second edition has recently been pub- vatory of Music of Johns Hopkins University. Post- lished by AuthorHouse. He has also edited The Songs doctoral studies in voice and opera were taken at Nord- of Louis Cheslock, a collection of the complete songs westdeutsche Musikakademie in Detmold, Germany. 2 The National Opera Association The Sacred in Opera Staging Oratorio: Should Bach’s Passions Be Staged Today? Mozelle Clark Sherman, PhD Founding Director Emeritus: Church Music Drama Theatre Southern Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky In London, 2005, Robert Hugill speculated on the role of dramatic presentation in recent ENO’s productions of Handel’s Semele and Jephtha. Asking what the composer would have thought about his works being staged, Hugill stressed the importance of this consideration when discussing if any oratorio should be staged today. Anthony Tommasini mused in the Critic’s Notebook, New York Times, April 11, 2006: How different music history might have been had Bach been interested in opera. Bach wrote a promise to the Leipzig town electors that he would write church music, which would not last too long, and should be of a nature that would not make an operatic impression. Yet, in his Passions Bach composed stunning musical dramas while steering clear of opera per se. His scores abound with such visceral operatic sweep that stage directors periodically do stage them; e.g., St. Matthew Passion, directed by Jonathan Miller at the Harvey Theater of the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1997 and 2001. In a performance of the St. John Passion at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, April, 1984, the singers in the roles of Jesus, Peter and Pilate wore robes and acted out their parts on a stage, while the choir of men, women and children was divided with 32 members on each side of the stage. A highly-acclaimed staging, directed by Deborah Warner for the ENO at the London Coliseum, April 12, 2000, presented a compelling, convincing and moving alternative to the standard concert format of the St. John. Seen as a milestone in opposition to the usual constraints of Brit- ish liturgical music, her production in English simulated a form of popular worship that enlisted theatricality and musical spectacle to deepen audience responses. In deference to the aforementioned examples, may I tell of two, different, staged Passion performances that I directed? On Good Friday, April 20, 1984, with the Morningside Presbyterian Church and Orchestra, Phoenix, AZ, we mounted a St. Matthew Passion in similar form to the Cathedral of St. John’s St. John. With a traditional raked and robed chorus in a semi-circle around a central orchestra and conductor, the biblically-costumed soloists performed as singing actors in a “stage” space between the conductor and the church congregation. To be free to act, the soloists performed this long and complex work from memory, a feat in itself. Their scenes were realistic in intent, but became a frozen 3-dimensional painting at the moments when the choir would come alive to invade the scene with their comments or musings. Lighting added to the color and focus desired within the stage area. Extra costs of this production were zero: the orchestra was already a part of the church program; the church choir wore their robes, yet reacted physically when appropriate; the costumes were made by members of the church from donated materials and time; the soloists were church members who believed in the program and supported it with their time and talents. The lighting was installed in the auditorium, and was enhanced by a memorial donation for the purchase of four ellipsoidals that would be used again in the future. Similarity with the later Warner production can be found in our larger dramatic presentation of the St. John’s Passion in the Alumni Memorial Chapel, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, on May 7, 1987. Peopled with a Greek-like chorus of 200, an orchestra of 78, and 12 soloists within four stage spaces, the direction of this plan was determined by the following considerations: 1. What was the spiritual purpose of doing it? What 20th-century needs could be met by blending the Scripture, the music, and contemporary theatrical staging possibilities? 3 The National Opera Association The Sacred in Opera 2.

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