THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 18, 1995 TAG: 9501180032
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARK MOBLEY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 179 lines
IN ONE OF THE most daring campaigns of the 19th century, Simon Bolivar crossed the Andes with a ragtag army to capture Bogota.
He later snuck up on Thea Musgrave.
A decade ago, the Scottish-American composer was seeking a subject for her eighth opera. At a dinner party she met a student who'd traveled in South America. The young man described Bolivar, a leader still revered for defeating the Spanish and freeing six countries from colonial domination.
Hmmmmmm, she thought, filing Bolivar away. Six months later, while lecturing at Bowdoin College in Maine, her eyes fell on a Bolivar biography. She thought, ``Oh, boy, this is really interesting.''
Friday, the opera world learns what Musgrave found in the man called ``El libertador'' - The Liberator. As Musgrave's two-act grand opera ``Simon Bolivar'' has its world premiere at the Harrison Opera House, national and international critics and VIPs will be in attendance, re-creating the charged atmosphere of previous Virginia Opera premieres.
Musgrave, who is married to Virginia Opera General Director Peter Mark, has seen three of her works produced by his company. ``Mary, Queen of Scots'' received its American premiere here in 1978. ``A Christmas Carol'' (1979) and ``Harriet, the Woman Called Moses'' (1984) were first seen in Norfolk before being performed throughout the United States and Europe.
``Bolivar'' is different on a number of counts. ``It's the best one. It's absolutely the best one,'' Musgrave said, as rehearsals were beginning at the opera house the day after Christmas. ``First of all, it's a very good story. It's based on history, so the subject is serious. Nevertheless, I hope people will be able to dive in.''
The opening-night audience will have no choice. The show begins with a hail of taped gunfire, simulating one of the countless battles Bolivar fought in his quest to create a United States of South America. And if the barrage isn't enough, there is a fascinating stage picture - an asymmetric, seemingly infinite set by John Conklin, who created the Metropolitan Opera's ``The Ghosts of Versailles.'' It is in the guise of a dilapidated museum, with halls running off at all angles.
``There will always be something to look at, although it won't be the exact same thing for everybody in the house,'' said stage director Lillian Garrett-Groag.
There will also be odd things to hear from the orchestra pit, as a harp is threaded with paper to simulate a banjo and a synthesizer imitates various instruments.
But most unusual is the opera's language - Bolivar's own Spanish. Though Musgrave composed both English and Spanish versions of the opera, she and Mark have elected to present the premiere in Spanish, with the English translation projected above the stage.
Musgrave began working on the English libretto, or script, for the opera in 1986. She agreed to a Spanish version at the insistence of Peter Hemmings, director of the Los Angeles Music Center Opera, which commissioned ``Bolivar'' in cooperation with Scottish Opera. (Neither company has a performance scheduled, though each has expressed interest.)
``I was freaked out,'' recalled Musgrave, 66. ``I don't know Spanish.'' There are far fewer Spanish-language operas than Italian, German, French or even English ones.
Musgrave brought in Garrett-Groag, a native of Argentina who directed Virginia Opera's 1993 ``Tosca.'' She has also acted on Broadway in ``The Kentucky Cycle.''
``She would come up and start sort of translating,'' Musgrave said. ``She would speak out loud and I'd put it in the computer with ghastly spelling. I would learn it by ear, so when it came time to set it, I would have the memory of Lillian's voice in my ear. It's how a whole sentence flows, the rhythm.''
Having grown up in South America, though not in a Bolivarian country, Garrett-Groag knew the immensity of the task Musgrave had taken on. ``How do you do this mammoth, mammoth story? What makes a perfect subject for an opera is he was so huge.''
The opera moves seamlessly, like a movie. Musgrave has knitted each act's seven scenes into a flowing narrative. She has described Act I as the sweep to freedom, as Bolivar follows his years of temporary successes and disheartening setbacks with the liberation of Peru. Act II essays Bolivar's difficulty in unifying his six-state republic. An attempt is made on his life; he escapes but eventually dies in exile.
``I could have ended the opera with Bolivar's death, but I didn't want to do that,' Musgrave said. ``It goes very quickly into the next century.'' Musgrave displays the operatic equivalent of a split screen: As Manuela hears of Bolivar's body being exhumed and returned to Caracas, modern children learn of Bolivar's legacy. Then a crowd brings white flowers to an enormous statue of El Libertador, just as Venezuelans gather at similar statues on Bolivar's birthday each year.
``It's the biggest work that we've ever put on,'' Mark said. The cast is large - between principals, bit players and extras the total exceeds 60. The production team includes a dance and fight choreographer.
The cast is led by tenor Stephen Guggenheim as Bolivar. He appeared as Tito in San Francisco Opera's 1993 production of Mozart's ``La clemenza di Tito,'' after singing a number of roles in the company's training program for young artists. He is scheduled to return there for performances of ``Lucia di Lammermoor.''
The core of the cast is the repertory company Mark has established for this season's productions. Michael Lynn Galanter, who appeared in ``La traviata'' as Alfredo and ``Salome'' as Narraboth, is Bolivar's ally, General Sucre. General Santander, who ascends to the vice presidency of Gran Colombia, is played by baritone Douglas Nagel, who has been given all of Virginia Opera's major baritone roles in recent seasons.
Bolivar's mistress Manuela is played by soprano Amy Johnson, who sang in the company's recent ``Don Giovanni'' and ``Carmen.'' Paez is baritone Russell Cusick, who appeared as Masetto in ``Don Giovanni.''
But the eyes and ears of the world are on Musgrave herself. She is heir to a tradition of English opera exemplified in the 20th century by Benjamin Britten, composer of ``Peter Grimes'' and ``Billy Budd.'' In fact, she learned of John F. Kennedy's death at a performance of Britten's ``Gloriana,'' an historical opera on the scale of ``Bolivar'' that has recently come back into vogue.
``I knew him quite well, as well as anybody could know him,'' Musgrave says of Britten, who died in 1976. ``I learned from him, to go back and look at (Elizabethan composers) Purcell and Dowland.'' Musgrave says one of Britten's main lessons was a flexibility in setting words: ``You don't have to do things plonk on the beat.''
Critics on both sides of the Atlantic have hailed her dramatic acumen, as expressed in both her operas and her orchestral works. Many of her instrumental pieces require players to behave almost as actors, standing up on cue or even walking through the orchestra. But for ``Bolivar,'' Musgrave says her most important job is telling a compelling story in the clearest possible way.
``Opera is the balance of drama and music,'' she said. ``With certain composers, the music wins or the drama wins. Getting them to balance properly, that's a difficult tightrope to walk.''
In Bolivar, she fuses the two, telling the story through the music. A system of musical figures illustrates various characters and ideas. And to convey the flavor of Bolivar's time, she has made liberal use of South American folk materials, including a dance found among Bolivar's papers.
``Each scene has its own particular color,'' she said. ``What I tried to do was make every character very distinct. I thought a lot about that. Bolivar's first entrance. Manuela's first entrance. Santander's first entrance. Very dramatic.
``I've lived around an opera company for 20 years. You learn stuff as you go along. You learn the particularities. You're aware of what it can do.''
While Musgrave's works are carefully constructed, she also displays a sense of humor. In ``Mary, Queen of Scots,'' a crucial scene is played out while soldiers sing a folk song including the phrase ``for love of Musgrave.'' During a party in ``Bolivar,'' the band plays a dance from ``Mary, Queen of Scots,'' causing Bolivar to exclaim, ``Ah! An ancient dance.''
Now her work is signed and sealed, and she is waiting for it to be delivered by others. ``You do your absolute best and then you depend on the production team.'' Though she has conducted many of her premieres, this one will be led by the conductor who knows her best - Mark, her husband.
``I did the first performance of `Mary,' '' Musgrave recalled. ``He did it here. I did it in San Francisco. He did it in New York. I don't really like to conduct the premiere of an opera. In a funny way, you don't see it. When you're concerned with cuing the singers, you can't sit back and see the whole thing.''
And Musgrave feels confident that she's in good hands. ``If I have a rotten conductor, I can't wait to get up and do it. He does it so well. I'm very happy.''
Despite the excitement of the ``Bolivar'' premiere, Musgrave says she has no plans for Opera No. 9.
``No, no, no, no. not yet. Not now. I always say this is my last one.
``Until the next one happens.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
PAUL AIKEN/Staff
Thea Musgrave, above, composed the two-act grand opera ``Simon
Bolivar,'' which stars Stephen Guggenheim and Amy Johnson, below.
D. KEVIN ELLIOTT/Staff
MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN/Staff
From left, Lillian Garrett-Groag is the stage director, Peter Mark
the conductor and John Conklin the designer for the Harrison Opera
House production.
Graphic
JOHN CORBITT/Staff
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SIMON BOLIVAR
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
KEYWORDS: PROFILE BIOGRAPHY OPERA COMPOSERS by CNB