The opera "Central Park"

[Reyzl Kalifowicz-Waletzky <reyzl...>]

Loved all the posts in the last 24 hours guys.  Great going.  I don't want 
to stop those threads but the following did occur to me.   Sorry, Robert 
Weiner, I do think that this is an important perennial issue.

I happen to be looking for something on the PBS web site and accidentally 
came upon a new opera called "Central Park".  I didn't see this TV program 
nor see the production, but found several things here interesting, 
especially the Jewish opera written by Wendy Wasserstein in this triptych. 
  The composer, Deborah Drattell, also wrote other Jewish pieces, "Eishes 
Chayil, an acapella piece, based on the famous ode to a Jewish woman that 
is the last twenty-two verses of Proverbs, and premiered at the 92nd St. 
"Y";" and music for an Arthur Miller's play "Broken Glass", a play about a 
Jewish family on Kristalnakht.   (See the description of the opera and 
composers below.)  It occurred to me that we may ask the question, since 
these pieces are about Jews, Jewish occasions and/or Jewish themes, should 
we expect such music to be "Jewish" sounding?  Arguments can be made that 
the German family in Broken Glass is probably assimilated and the music 
may/should sound "like the music of 1938 Germany" whatever that means. 
  May/Should it sound like general Jewish-German of the period?   Do we 
mean Kurt Weill type of Jewish-German music? etc.

Arguments can be made that the Central Park opera _may_ sound like 
contemporary New Yorkish kind of music, but the "Eishes Chayil piece, I 
thought should definitely sound Ashkenazic Jewish, since that is the only 
thing it can be with that kind of name.  I don't know who Deborah Drattell 
is and she may very well be Jewish and the music may even be "Jewish" 
sounding.  I don't have a clue.  Has anyone ever seen any of these musical 
pieces?   Wendy Wasserstein is very Jewish and knows many wonderful 
Yiddishism outside the realm of Leo Rosten.  The composer seemed to be 
totally concerned with making the music funny, and Jewishness didn't even 
come into the picture for her as far as this interview went.   Anyway, the 
web is full of stories about Jewish composers and Jewish music.

I am asking these questions, but I doubt that I will have time to 
participate in any discussion.  Sorry, just wanted to share some of the 
things I found.  {Reading the section about Wendy Wasserstein is not 
important but I included it for those who want to get the whole picture 
about this opera.}

I love the sher/sherele thread in the last 2 days.  I hope that discussion 
isn't interrupted by this post.



Reyzl


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http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/centralpark/

Jointly commissioned by Glimmerglass Opera, New York City Opera, and GREAT 
PERFORMANCES, this extraordinary triptych of one-act operas partners three 
of the theater's most celebrated playwrights with three acclaimed young 
composers, utilizing New York City's Central Park as its unifying theme. 
 On Wednesday, January 19th, at 9 pm on PBS (check local listings), 
original librettos by Wendy Wasserstein, A.R. Gurney, and Terrence McNally 
are paired respectively with new scores by Deborah Drattell, Michael Torke, 
and Robert Beaser. With Central Park's illusory wilderness as inspiration, 
each opera dramatizes the illusions found within a variety of situations: 
the observance of a religious ritual, the distorted reality of the elderly, 
and the desperate plight of the dispossessed. The NEW YORKER acclaimed the 
Glimmerglass premiere as "a funny, haunting night of theatre . . . a 
sometimes cruelly accurate snapshot of life as it is lived now."

When you watch the operas that make up the triptych called "Central Park," 
it is important to bear in mind the resonance a New Yorker would find in 
this setting. In "The Festival of Regrets," Jews observe the ceremony of 
Tashlich, a casting of bread crumbs upon the water as a symbolic effort to 
rid themselves of sins and regrets and start anew. In a park setting that 
is both sylvan and urban, the juxtaposition of the potential to sin and the 
desire to resist it is very palpable.


http://www.nycopera.com/centralpark/festival.html

New York City Opera: The Festival of Regrets
www.nycopera.com/centralpark/festival.html
This page contains biographies and photos of Wendy Wasserstein and Deborah 
Drattell, the librettist and composer, respectively, of "Festival of 
Regrets."


SYNOPSIS

COMPOSER AND LIBRETTIST COMMENTARY

BIOGRAPHIES

Composer, Deborah Drattell and Librettist, Wendy Wasserstein


Synopsis

It is twilight on an autumn evening at Bethesda Fountain in New York's 
Central Park. Mrs. Springer, a woman "of a certain age," arrives with her 
40-year-old daughter Greta. Nearby, Wesley, an intellectual teen-ager, 
strikes up a conversation with Melanie, a young Greek-American girl from 
Astoria. Mrs. Springer recognizes Wesley as the son of Millie
Millstein, a wealthy, successful acquaintance. A rabbi arrives to lead his 
congregation in the ceremony of Tashlich, a Jewish new year ritual in which 
people cast breadcrumbs into the water in a symbolic effort to expiate 
their sins and regrets. Greta, to her horror, recognizes among the 
congregation her ex-husband Frank and his 20-year-old girlfriend Jessica. 
The rabbi summons his group to gather around the fountain. Wesley tries to 
persuade Melanie to stay for the ceremony, but she declines. Wesley then 
recognizes and greets Jessica. As the rabbi begins the ceremony of 
Tashlish, Mrs. Springer, Greta, Wesley, Jessica, and Frank all privately 
voice their regrets. When Frank approaches Greta and Mrs. Springer, Wesley 
seizes the chance to court Jessica. The ceremony ends, and the rabbi and 
his congregation begin to disperse. Greta and Frank are left alone to 
reconcile.


Composer and Librettist Commentary:

Wendy Wasserstein: I was the most reluctant to become part of this project, 
since, of everyone involved, I know the least about opera. In fact, what I 
knew about opera came from going to the opera with Terrence McNally, who 
knows everything about opera as far as I can make out. But then I was asked 
to attend this meeting at Paul Kellogg's home, along with Terrence and Pete 
Gurney, great friends of mine. We had all once been involved in a public 
television project together, "Cheever Stories," and developed a great 
camaraderie.

Then I started getting phone calls from Jac Venza [the PBS producer] 
saying, "You must write this opera." And my publisher Sonny Mehta called me 
and said, "You must write this opera." And I thought, there's a conspiracy 
going on. But actually, I had always been interested in writing in 
different forms.

As for my plot idea, I had first thought of writing about Central Park on 
the night of the moonwalk. I thought there was something wonderfully 
romantic about that. But of course, I've ended up writing about the 
Festival of Regret, a Jewish ritual that takes place in Central Park. I 
really don't know how I got from the romance to the Jewish ritual of 
regret, but I should probably talk to a doctor about it, because it's a 
serious leap.

Anyway, this Festival of Regret is an event called Tashlich, which I hadn't 
even known about. The day after the Jewish New Year, people gather with 
their rabbi and throw breadcrumbs into the water, symbolizing their 
regrets. I discovered this one day as I was walking through Central Park, 
and I passed the festive fountain, and there was this extraordinary group 
of people there. I remember seeing a woman in a pink Chanel suit, and a boy 
and his dog, and it was just the oddest range of people, standing and 
praying, and throwing bread crumbs into the water. There were people rowing 
by, too. I looked up and saw the Dakota and the city, and for some reason 
it reminded me, because I grew up in Manhattan, of that sort of confluence 
of times when you see different worlds connecting in the park. And for some 
reason it really struck me.

Then I met Deborah. And really, the way to write an opera is to have 
Deborah phoning you every day. Before long, you just think, "Okay, okay, 
I'll write the opera!" My feeling was very much that it would be Deborah 
leading this opera project, but it turned out to be very much a 
collaboration. We talked about the moonwalk idea, and then we talked about 
this idea of the Festival of Regrets and agreed on that. And then I decided 
I've got to move next door to Deborah in Brooklyn and we'll just write 
operas.

Deborah Drattell: But you're leaving out an important part! The first time 
I actually met Wendy, I very much wanted to work with her. We met in Paul' 
Kellogg's office and I was extremely nervous, but Paul said, "It's all 
going to be fine.". Wendy threw out a couple of ideas and I started to get 
very nervous because one of the characters was going to be very comical. I 
turned to Paul and I said, "Paul, I don't do comedy, I don't know how to be 
funny. I can't--it's so hard." And I was sitting there breaking into a 
sweat, thinking how difficult it would be to write a comic opera. Well, 
Paul and Wendy swore to me it was NOT going to be a comedy. So I left this 
meeting feeling very optimistic--"Okay, I can do this."

Well, when I got the first couple of pages of the libretto, I couldn't stop 
laughing. I mean, the opera begins with a mother and her forty-year-old 
daughter, Greta, arriving at the lake in Central Park. The daughter's 
saying to her mother, "Why am I here?" And the mother answers, "Look, you 
tried a shrink, you tried a facial, now give your mother's way a chance." 
Now, when you start out like that, you're not imagining dark and serious 
music.

So, after the first page, I knew I was in trouble. I was working with Wendy 
Wasserstein, this opera was going to be premiered at Glimmerglass, 
performed at New York City Opera, broadcast on "Great Performances." 
Millions of people were going to hear it, and I'm being asked to do what I 
don't do best.

But the words Wendy gave me were so rhythmic and so very musical. So I 
decided that I needed to stretch and broaden my horizons and write this 
comedy. And it turned out to be really easy. I keep on looking at it and 
thinking, "Maybe it was too easy, maybe I need to make it more complex, 
maybe I didn't do it right."

But a one-act opera is very condensed, very tight, there's no room for flab 
in the piece at all. And so I decided to deal with it in little scenes, 
since there are several groups of people that Wendy has appearing in the 
park. And I decided to assign different types of music to them. For 
instance, there's a young couple that I thought was very hip and I thought 
their music should be something very modern and rhythmic, so I used a 
trap-set, which was a lot of fun.

Wendy Wasserstein: The flipside of Deborah's story is that, when I first 
met Deborah, she gave me a CD of her music, and it was called "Sorrow is 
Not Melancholy"... very upbeat.

But then I remembered that my friend Chris Durang once told me, "When you 
write comedy, you should never force it to be funny." And I thought, "We're 
not going to force here. The libretto's got sorrow, it's got melancholy -- 
we'll just see what happens."

Deborah Drattell: For all of you who know Wendy's plays - they're 
ostensibly comedies, but there's real angst in those characters. And that 
was the fun part of writing this opera. If you approach something and 
decide it's light and fluffy, you'll get light and fluffy. But if you 
approach it realizing that there's darkness behind all humor, then 
hopefully you get something with a lot of texture. So that's how I did it. 
I got to write my dark, melancholy type of music. And hopefully, especially 
with the type of singers that we have cast, when Greta sees her ex-husband 
entering with their former baby-sitter and screams out, "Frank is here - 
I'm going to kill myself,"... everybody will laugh. I hope.


Biographies:

Deborah Drattell

Praised as "a remarkably original voice" by Opera News, composer Deborah 
Drattell adds to her long list of accomplishments her new position as the 
first composer-in- residence with the New York City Opera and the 
Glimmerglass Opera Companies. As part of her residency, she composed a 
one-act opera with playwright Wendy Wasserstein, co-commissioned by 
Glimmerglass Opera, New York City Opera, and Great Performances, and 
directed by Mark Lamos. Her recent opera, Lilith, for soprano, Lauren 
Flanigan, commissioned by Meet the Composer was premiered in concert 
version this summer at Glimmerglass Opera. Her next opera, A Captive 
Spirit, based on the life and work of the great Russian Poet, Marina 
Tsevtaeva, for Ms. Flanigan and actress Kathleen Chalfant (Mark Lamos, 
director) will premiere this fall.

The Seattle Symphony with Gerard Schwarz will record three of Ms. 
Drattell's new vocal works. One of these pieces, "The Lost Lover" will be 
premiered next season by the New York Chamber orchestral works; the world 
premiere of Sorrow Is Not Melancholy for string orchestra; Lilith, 
commissioned by Meet The Composer and premiered by the New York 
Philharmonic; The Fire Within, a flute concerto for Ransom Wilson, 
commissioned by the Barlow Foundation and premiered by the Richmond 
Symphony, and Syzygy commissioned and premiered by the New Orleans 
Symphony.

"Occasionally, a work comes along that is unmistakably a masterpiece; this 
is it" says the Richmond-Times Dispatch about Drattell's Flute Concerto. 
This has been the hallmark of her compositions. Recent and upcoming 
premieres include a new work for the New York Chamber Symphony, a saxophone 
concerto for Cynthia Sykes with the Richmond Symphony (featured in an 
upcoming CBS Sunday Morning segment), the flute concerto for the Israel 
Chamber Orchestra, and works for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln 
Center, Eugenia Zukerman (for her new Delos CD), Essex Quartet 
(commissioned by Chamber Music America), Brentano and Chester String 
Quartets. Several works were performed by the St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble 
with soprano Angelina Reaux at the Caramoor Music Festival, Weill Recital 
Hall, and Brooklyn Museum Series. Also, Ms. Drattell composed the music for 
the Philadelphia Theater production of Arthur Miller's The Broken Glass.

Ms. Drattell has collaborated with soprano Lauren Flanigan on many musical 
evenings and has coposed several works for her including: Letters Home, for 
string orchestra, based on Sylvia Plath's poetry and letters to her mother, 
and premiered at Alice Tully Hall; Eishes Chayil, an acapella piece, based 
on the famous ode to a Jewish woman that is the last twenty-two verses of 
Proverbs, and premiered at the 92nd St. "Y"; Love Gave It To Me, a song 
cycle on Anna Akhmatova's poetry; and Alone, with strong quartet based on a 
poem by Edgar Allen Poe.

Past positions include composer-in-residence with the Denver Symphony, 
where conductor Phillipe Entremont premiered several of her compositions, 
as part of the Meet The Composer Orchestra Residency Program. She also 
helped to create and was artistic director of the Bryant Park and Battery 
Park Young Performers Series, and the New York Historical Society's Concert 
Series.

Among the prestigious honors awarded Drattell are commissions from the 
Fromm Foundation, Concert Artists Guild, and the New Orleans Symphony; 
First Prize, International Women's Brass Conference: the Leonard Bernstein 
Fellowship in Composition at Tanglewood; two Vermont Composers Fellowships; 
and a Yaddo Fellowship. She is the recipient of an NEA grant, Meet The 
Composer grants, ASCAP awards, and grants from the Louisiana Arts Council 
and the American Music Center.

Deborah Drattell received her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and 
studied composition with Ralph Shapey. She held the position of Associate 
Professor of Composition and Theory at Tulane University from 1981-90, and 
was Music Director and Conductor of the First Monday Contemporary Chamber 
Ensemble and the "Vivace" Festival in the New Orleans. In addition to 
conducting the New Orleans Symphony, she has also conducted the Denver and 
Portland Symphonies.


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