VOLUME 13, NUMBER 2 FEBRUARY 2015 Bolcom’s A Wedding: A Celebration of Opposites A Wedding By William Bolcom If the thoughts in your head were to burst have declined to attend. This revelation is Director: William Shomos into song, what music would pour forth the first of many moments designed to Conductor: Tyler White – a jazzy lick, a gospel melody or perhaps pique suspicion and curiosity. a country waltz? That was the question Friday, February 27 7:30 p.m. A short time later, in the ballroom, the composer William Bolcom sought to Sunday, March 1 3:30 p.m. Brenner family of Louisville, Kentucky answer for each of the characters in his Kimball Recital Hall makes a rousing entrance. Snooks and comic opera A Wedding. Just as a marriage his wife Tulip are introduced as the FOB celebration brings together two different Opera Preview talks by William and MOB – the father and mother of the families, so Bolcom brings together a Shomos begin 45 minutes before bride respectively. Snooks, a newly rich variety of musical styles through rich, curtain in the lower lobby of Kimball tycoon in the trucking business, declines vibrant characters. Recital Hall . a drink of alcohol with an enthusiastic Based on the 1978 Robert Altman film declamation of sobriety and pious living. Adults $20 of the same name, A Wedding presents Jules Goddard, uncle of the groom is Students/Seniors $10 the blue-blooded Sloan family and the immediately smitten by Tulip Brenner, For advance ticket sales, contact the newly rich Brenner family (somewhat mother of the bride. As the reception Lied Center Box Office: 402-472-4747 reminiscent of The Beverly Hillbillies). continues, so uncovered are the many A reception for Friends of Opera Comedy ensues as Dino, from the Sloan eccentricities and vices of both the Sloans members and their guests will be side, marries Muffin, the daughter of Tulip and the Brenners: anger, addiction, lust, held following the Friday, February and Snooks Brenner. gluttony, pride, and religiosity. 27th performance, in the lower The young couple is wed in a church in the During his recent residency at UNL’s lobby of Kimball Recital Hall. Cast members will attend. high-brow neighborhood of Lake Forest, Glenn Korff School of Music as the Ariel Illinois. After the official ceremony, the Bybee Visiting Professor of Opera, Mr. parties move to the Sloan family mansion Bolcom said of his compositions, “I want for the wedding reception. In an upstairs to see what happens when you collide This Issue bedroom, we are introduced to Nettie things.” This desire was manifested in the Sloan, the family matriarch. Here too we musical styles and thematic content of A Wedding . Cover meet other members of the Sloan family, A Wedding. Mr. Bolcom emphasized the President’s Corner ..........pg. 2 including Nettie’s three daughters Antonia, dark topics by colliding them with their Victoria (the mother of the groom) and opposite, the humor in the situations. In Wesleyan Presents Diana. We also meet Antonia’s husband fact, A Wedding could be considered a One-Act Operas . pg . 2 Jules and Victoria’s husband, the Italian- celebration of opposites – city folks vs. A Visit from The Composer . ..pg. 3 born Luigi. The butler Randolph, enters country folks, old money vs. new money, the bedroom to announce that, of the humor vs. drama, and life vs. death – and Scholarship Winners..........pg. 3 200-guests invited to the wedding, all how one accentuates the other. www.friendsofopera.org continued on page 4 CORNER IDENT’S PRES Dear Friends, I am writing this column (about two weeks before you will received an urgent Friday evening phone call: Chicago Lyric read it) at the end of one of the most exciting weeks ever at Opera was calling to see if she could stand-in the next day UNL’s Glenn Korff School of Music. The opportunity to have in an afternoon children’s opera production to sing one, two the iconic American composer William Bolcom in residence or three famous arias for an ailing soprano. Jeni agreed, and at UNL has had a profound impact on our students. Think Lyric Opera arranged for her to be excused from her Madison of rehearsing The Marriage of Figaro with Mozart sitting rehearsals the next day. ten feet from you, or doing La Boheme while Puccini offers thoughtful comments! None of this could have happened On Saturday morning, Jeni went by car to Chicago, not without the inspiration of former faculty member Ariel Bybee, knowing for certain if she would be needed at Lyric. When who helped found Friends of Opera, and now lives in Utah. she arrived, she got the royal treatment: private piano The Ariel Bybee Endowed Fund is a part of her living legacy rehearsal with the conductor, make-up, hair styling, and a brief to UNL, thanks in part to the generosity of Jim and Rhonda vocalization on the stage to test the acoustics and her “carry.” Seacrest and many of you. Our wonderful opera students The final decision was that Jeni would sing Olympia’s “Doll have had a once-in-a-lifetime experience! Aria” from Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffman from downstage left, while the ill soprano acted the part from center stage, Elsewhere in this Newsletter you will find more information as there was no time to teach Jeni the staging or fit her for a about Mr. Bolcom and about UNL Opera’s production of costume. So, within hours of her arrival, Jeni sang the “Doll his opera A Wedding. Please consider this your personal Aria” at Chicago Lyric, which included a number of high G’s at Wedding invitation. I can assure you that you will laugh, sigh the end. Afterward, she was roundly congratulated, and also and cry – and that’s just in the first ten minutes! I hope to told there had not been many notes that high performed on see you at Kimball Recital Hall and, Friday evening, at the the Lyric stage. Congratulations, Jeni! Friends of Opera reception following the show. Sincerely, Colluratura Jeni Houser, a 2011 UNL Master’s Degree recipient, has recently proved that there is more than one way to get onto the mainstage of a major opera house. While in Madison, Wisconsin rehearsing for the role of Johanna Don Burt in Madison Opera’s production of Sweeney Todd, Houser President NEbraska WESLEYAN OPERA THEatER presents two comic one-act operas, La Canterina by Haydn and Mavra by Stravinsky, Friday, April 17 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, April 19 at 3:00 p.m. in O’Donnell Auditorium, 50th & Huntington Streets. Adults: $10; students/seniors: $5. Visit us at www.friendsofopera.org or contact us at [email protected] FriENDS of OPEra BoarD of DirEctors Don Burt, President Michael Tully, Vice President Karen R. Lusk, Secretary Mike Fardella, Treasurer Judy Amber, Talea Bloch, Kate Butler, IV Dickson, Marsha Dunn, Kim Einspahr, Kathy Friedman, Ginny Parker, Laurel Shoemaker, Bill Shomos, Dee Tenney, Carol Walker, Diana Warner, Connie Pejsar (University of Nebraska Foundation), John W. Richmond (Director, Glenn Korff School of Music) Friends of Opera is a tax-exempt, nonprofit corporation supporting opera at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Bolcom Visits UNL As First Bybee Professor Friends of Opera American composer William Bolcom was of contemporary American works, then Scholars: Different welcomed to UNL’s Glenn Korff School asked William Bolcom to accept the Ariel Roots, Similar Goals of Music January 26-30 as the first Ariel Bybee Endowed Visiting Professorship. Bybee Endowed Visiting Professor of Mr. Bolcom spent his residency at UNL This year’s Friends of Opera Scholarship Opera. His residency coincided with the attending opera rehearsals, coaching cast winners come from different states, school’s preparation of Bolcom’s opera A members, leading question and answer but embrace a common goal of sharing Wedding. discussions, and appearing on NET Radio. their love and appreciation of music Born in 1938 in Seattle, Washington, Bolcom coached all of the performers with others. Each Spring, Friends of Bolcom began playing the piano and individually in their roles, and he attended Opera sponsors a vocal competition composing at a very young age. He and actively participated in all opera among high school seniors, selected entered the University of Washington rehearsals during the week. Bolcom’s by the voice faculty, who have been to study composition when he was just commitment to character delineation and admitted for study in the UNL Glenn eleven years old. Bolcom went on to study their “edginess” was evident during his Korff School of Music the following Fall. with Darius Milhaud while earning his interactions with the student-performers. Three $1,000 scholarships are awarded Master of Arts degree from Mills College. Senior Angela Gilbert, who plays the role by an independent panel of judges. He also attended Stanford University and of Tulip Brenner, said that Mr. Bolcom, Let’s meet our 2014 winners: later worked with Olivier Messiaen and “helped me [to] feel solid in my character Brittany Bell graduated from Boyd Milhaud at the Paris Conservatoire. and reminded me that an aria is not High School in McKinney, Texas, always meant to be sung in perfect During his 35-year tenure on the University where she participated in a variety of rhythm. He allowed me to take liberties of Michigan faculty, he continued to music programs, including school and that helped me [to] express the things compose and in 1988, was awarded the state-wide choirs and the Texas Youth I couldn’t before.” Joshua Zink, a third- Pulitzer Prize in Music for his work 12 New Orchestra.