All-American opera.Byline: FRED CRAFTS The Register-Guard ROBERT ASHENS, Eugene Opera's artistic director and conductor, believes he has a real winner on his hands. Her name is Susannah Polk. Or is it Meagan Miller, who will sing the title role in "Susannah," Carlisle Floyd's seminal American opera? Either way, Ashens is speaking in superlatives: one of the best young American sopranos singing one of the best American operas, a work often cited as second only to George Gershwin's "Porgy porgy (pôr`gē), common name for members of the Sparidae, a family of small-mouthed fishes with strong teeth adapted for crushing their food of shellfish and crustaceans. & Bess." Ashens is all hyped up hyped up Adjective Old-fashioned slang stimulated or excited by or as if by drugs about the final production of Eugene Opera's 2001-02 season. In staging the company's first American First American may refer to:
"It stands at the pinnacle of what defines 20th century American opera," Ashens says. "It's particularly well suited for Eugene audiences." By that, he means that it deals with American characters (the setting is Appalachia in 1948) doing peculiarly American things (a Bible Belt Bible belt n. Those sections of the United States, especially in the South and Middle West, where Protestant fundamentalism is widely practiced. Bible belt witch hunt). And it has lovely melodies with a haunting A Haunting is a television series on Discovery Channel that, according to its website[1] chronicles the "terrifying true stories of the paranormal told by people who experienced real-life horror tales. , American character. "Although his lyrical writing is an extension of Puccini-esque musical writing, his style of layout has a musical theater construction to it," says Ashens, who first met the composer when they did "Susannah" together while teaching in 1985 at the Hartt School in Hartford, Conn. "There will be the times when the music takes on a film-score quality." Floyd was born in 1926 in Latta, S.C., the son of a Methodist minister. His memories of the Southern Bible Belt served him well in creating this opera. Besides "Susannah," which won the New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Music Critics' Circle Award, Floyd has written "Slow Dusk" (1949), "Wuthering Heights Wuthering Heights remotely situated home where Heathcliff nurses his vengeful plans. [Br. Lit.: Emily Brontë Wuthering Heights in Magill I, 1137] See : Houses, Fateful Wuthering Heights " (1958), "The Passion of Jonathan Wade" (1962), "The Sojourner and Mollie mollie or molly, New World fish of the genus Mollienesia, in the same family as the guppy (see killifish). Mollies are found from the E and central United States to Argentina. Sinclair" (1964), "Of Mice and Men Of Mice and Men story of George Milton and Lennie Small’s futile dream of having their own farm. [Am. Lit.: Of Mice and Men] See : Futility Of Mice and Men " (1970), "Flower and Hawk" (1972), "Bilby's Doll" (1976), "Willie Stark" (1981) and "Cold Sassy Tree Cold Sassy Tree is a 1984 novel by Olive Ann Burns. Set in a fictional Georgia, United States, town called Cold Sassy (and based on the actual city Harmony Grove, now Commerce) during 1905-1906, it follows the life of Will Tweedy, and explores themes such as religion, death, " (2000). Now retired and living in Florida, Floyd had been scheduled to coach the cast in Eugene in mid-February. He canceled his trip when his wife became hospitalized in Houston. Whether he will attend the Eugene performances will be a last-minute decision. Southern-fried challenge "Susannah" occurred to Floyd in the early 1950s while he was teaching at Florida State University Florida State University, at Tallahassee; coeducational; chartered 1851, opened 1857. Present name was adopted in 1947. Special research facilities include those in nuclear science and oceanography. . "A faculty friend called my attention to her story in the book of Daniel Noun 1. Book of Daniel - an Old Testament book that tells of the apocalyptic visions and the experiences of Daniel in the court of Nebuchadnezzar Book of the Prophet Daniel, Daniel ," Floyd once said. "As I perused the text, I was struck by its dramatic possibilities. `It was also the time when Wisconsin Sen. (Joseph) McCarthy was making statements and charges about various persons' loyalty to this country. His impact was felt on our campus; I had to take a loyalty oath An oath that declares an individual's allegiance to the government and its institutions and disclaims support of ideologies or associations that oppose or threaten the government. ." While McCarthy loomed large in Floyd's thinking, so did the book of Daniel and Southern religious revivals - although he insists that "Susannah" is not an attack on revivals, or on religion in general. ` `Susannah' is basically a plea for tolerance and defense of human dignity," he said. Set in fictional New Hope Valley, Tenn., "Susannah" concerns a young woman who is ostracized by her community because of unfounded gossip and innuendo innuendo n. from Latin innuere, "to nod toward." In law it means "an indirect hint." "Innuendo" is used in lawsuits for defamation (libel or slander), usually to show that the party suing was the person about whom the nasty statements were made or why the comments . "It's very much in the Italian tradition of the suffering woman," says Meagan Miller, 27, who sings the title role. "She starts out with so much hope. She wants to go over the mountain and see all these places and leave the small valley where people are so closed-minded. She has this vision. `So it's even more upsetting to us when she loses all those opportunities because of the way people treat her." The role is huge; Susannah is on stage throughout the opera. It poses a number of problems, not the least of which is singing in a Southern dialect. `We have to chew our way through the twang, which is not normally what you think of as operatic sound," Miller says. Another challenge for the singers is volume. Even though a smaller, chamber orchestra will be used, at times the accompaniment rises to such a fury that the singers must fight to be heard. One such occasion comes in Miller's favorite moment in Act Two, when Susannah gets into a painful argument with the Rev. Blitch. Although she tries to convince him that she is telling the truth, he believes she needs to repent and be saved. He says, `It's the sin in your heart.' And she screams back, `It ain't!' Miller says she loves that moment. "The music is just huge. Emotionally, it's just more than I can take sometimes. It can move me to tears. `I'm going to have to do something about that by the time opening night happens, so I'm not being swept away by the piece." Another breathtaking moment comes during "Ain't It a Pretty Night?" a lushly beautiful aria with which Miller won the 1999 Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions. "It's been close to my heart for a long time," she says. Miller's time Born and raised in Wilmington, Del., Miller attended Virginia's Washington and Lee University Washington and Lee University, at Lexington, Va.; coeducational; founded and opened 1749 as Augusta Academy. It was called Liberty Hall in 1776; became Liberty Hall Academy (a college) in 1782, Washington Academy (following a gift from George Washington) in 1798, before entering New York's Juilliard School, from which she graduated in 1997. She then spent two years at the Juilliard Opera Center. Besides the Metropolitan Opera auditions, she also has won a Robert Jacobsen Study Grant from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation, the Liederkranza Foundation Competition and the Joy in Singing Award. She has sung with San Francisco Opera's Merola Program, the Wolf Trap Opera, Annapolis Opera, Minnesota Opera, L'Opera de Montreal, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Nashville Opera, Syracuse Opera, New York Choral Society at Carnegie Hall, National Chorale chorale (kōrăl`, –räl`), any of the traditional hymns of the German Protestant Church. The form was developed after the Reformation to replace the plainsong of the earlier service and as a means of congregational participation in at Avery Fisher Hall Avery Fisher Hall, located in New York City, is a part of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts complex. It is the home of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. The hall contains 2,738 seats. in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. and in a Marilyn Horne Foundation gala. Ahead is an engagement with the San Francisco Opera San Francisco Opera (SFO) is the second largest opera company in North America. It was founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola (1881-1953). The Opening Night Gala of the San Francisco Opera is widely considered to be one of the most memorable events of the year for opera patrons. . "I know very few singers of my age who are supporting themselves solely by their singing, and I can make that claim," she says, smiling. "My No. 1 definition of success is being able to choose where you sing, what you sing and with whom you sing. `Right now, I'm still in the `please hire me' stage.' She says she is extremely pleased with the "Susannah" cast, which includes baritone Thom King (making his Eugene Opera debut as Blitch) and Brennen Guillory (playing Susannah's older brother, Sam). The townspeople are Joel Weiss, Sandy Naishtat, Victoria Hart, Andrew Sweeney, Gretchen Farrar, Harold Turnquist, Marieke Schurrs, Benjamin VonAtrops and Elspeth Franks. The stage director is Chuck Hudson. Ashens says he picked Miller because "she has a gorgeous voice. And she looks the part, in the sense that Susannah must have a certain natural beauty to her that speaks to itself in her movement and her smile. `Yet she must have enough strength to show us that she's going to become who she becomes by the end of the work." Piece with a pedigree The first performance of "Susannah," at Florida State University, drew the attention of the New York City Opera The New York City Opera (NYCO) is based in Philip Johnson's New York State Theater at Lincoln Center. The company was founded in 1944 with the aim of an opera company that would be financially accessible to a wide audience, innovative in its choice of repertory, and a home , which produced it in 1956 to great acclaim. Critic Winthrop Sargeant called the opera "probably the most moving and impressive opera to have been written in America, or anywhere else, as far as I am aware, since Gershwin's `Porgy and Bess.' ' Its New York successes led to "Susannah" being America's entry at the Brussels World's Fair in 1958. Over the decades, Floyd's opera has been presented more than 1,000 times and has been seen in every major American city and most of Europe - an astounding a·stound tr.v. a·stound·ed, a·stound·ing, a·stounds To astonish and bewilder. See Synonyms at surprise. [From Middle English astoned, past participle of astonen, achievement for a contemporary opera. In addition, a 1994 recording won international acclaim and a Grammy Award for best opera recording The Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording has been awarded since 1961. The award was originally titled Best Classical Opera Production. The current title has been used since 1962. , an honor rarely granted to a work by a living composer. Adding to its popularity are its folk-type themes, which are a mixture of Appalachian square dances and revival hymns. "You feel like at certain times you are in the West," Ashens says. But to call "Susannah" a folk opera is going too far for Floyd: "I've talked to many people who want to label `Susannah' a folk opera. I say, `That establishes the locale, but I hope that is only the beginning of it.' ' Arts reporter Fred Crafts can be reached by phone at 338-2575 and by e-mail at fcrafts@guardnet.com. SUSANNAH WHAT: Eugene Opera presents Carlisle Floyd's American opera, with soprano Meagan Miller and baritone Thom King WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Friday; 2:30 p.m. March 10 WHERE: Silva Concert Hall, Hult Center, Seventh and Willamette streets HOW MUCH: $12 to $65 through the Hult Center box office, 682-5000 GUARDLINE: To hear musical from "Susannah," call GuardLine at 485-2000 from a touch-tone phone and request category 3733. OPERA INSIGHTS: Conductor Robert Ashens will present a free preview at noon Tuesday in the Hult's Studio One PRE-OPERA LECTURE: Ashens will discuss the opera at 6:45 p.m. Friday and at 1:45 p.m. March 10 in the Hult Center lobby CAPTION(S): Stage director Chuck Hudson works with Meagan Miller on becoming the title character in "Susannah." |
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