Midtown Opera Festival showcases art form that's alive and well
Ned Canty wants to pull you into a conversation. He hungers for dialogs that will bounce between and among people and performances. And as Opera Memphis’ general director he’s igniting these exchanges through the annual Midtown Opera Festival which, in its fifth incarnation, runs from March 31 to April 8 at Playhouse on the Square.
One of his favorite characterizations about the festival is that it is about density.
“Our goal is density and breadth of different experiences,” Canty said. This year, as in the past, he’s putting out a rich variety of experiences that are centered on opera while avoiding the common cliches of the art form.
For one thing, the three operas that will be performed twice during the festival “are by living American composers and librettists and all have been composed in this century,” Canty said.
“We are in the process of creating a few ourselves,” he said, noting that next year will see the premieres of Opera Memphis’ next round of commissions. “So, we pulled together these pieces because we thought they represented a survey of the kinds of opera that are being created in America now. There’s a tremendous renaissance going on in American opera and I want to make sure we are not only aware of it and showcasing it but that we’re a part of it in terms of creating new works.”
Other events at the festival are based in a variety of art forms, including hip-hop, contemporary circus, photography and the blues. And all connect in some way to opera.
The three operas that will be on the stage at Playhouse on the Square have been performed elsewhere, including the frequently produced “Three Decembers.”
The opera by Jake Heggie with Gene Scheer as librettist is based on an unfinished play by renowned playwright Terrence McNally. The three Decembers in question are in 1986, 1996 and 2006 and the story looks at the evolution of a family decade by decade. The three characters you see and hear are Madeline, an actress who achieves some fame on stage, her daughter Beatrice who is trying to hold together her less-than-ideal suburban existence, and son Charlie whose partner has AIDS.
“The husbands and lovers are always off stage,” Canty said. “The children’s father, Charles, died when they were very young and the circumstances of his death are the core mystery of the piece. It looks at the way you mythologize certain things for your kids to make a loved one who’s no longer with us look good and how over time that can have more negative consequences than positive ones. A lot of the action of the opera is the kids trying to learn more about their father and the circumstances of his death and of marriage.”
Canty said what’s notable about the story is that it’s fair to all.
“They’re equally flawed," Canty said. "They’re equally generous and selfish at different times in their lives in different circumstances.”
The opera “Later the Same Evening” has, Canty said, a singular narrative structure.
“You see it in movies and occasionally on television with interweaving narratives, people connected in ways we don’t know at first but find out later," Canty said. "It’s inspired by five Edward Hopper paintings and it tells the stories of the characters in those paintings, either what happens after the moment captured in the painting or the events that led up to the painting.”
The setting is a night in New York in 1932. All the characters meet at a Broadway show where they are – or are supposed to be – in attendance. “I love a story that is honest to the source material, that expresses something about the source material that can only be expressed in opera rather than the original art form,” Canty says. “Since most operas are either original or these days come from a play, book or movie, this opera is the only one I know of that is inspired by a purely visual art form. Hopper is so evocative – you look at his paintings and you wonder what’s up with these people, who are they and what brought them here. The emotions are full and rich but scaled in a very human way. It’s a favorite of mine.”
“Blue Viola” is the third of the operas, the lightest of the three and most comic, much in the tradition of Saki (H. H. Munro) or O. Henry. It’s a blues opera that brings in a combination of styles from blues to classical opera. “It tells the story of a seemingly priceless viola that is found by a junk dealer and taken by his girlfriend who shows it to her boss, hoping to sell it,” Canty said. “The music shifts depending on who is talking to who at any given time. It’s also fun in that it’s scored for piano and viola. From the first time I heard it, I thought it was interesting — the piano as a blues instrument and the viola which is really an orchestral instrument. There’s a lot in there about the nature of music and why we play music.”
Beyond those central performances are others in different media that look promising – something Opera Memphis calls fringe events.
After the performance of “Blue Viola” on April 6, hip-hop artist and social activist Marco Pavé will present an early look at an opera he’ll be premiering next year. Canty said it’s an exploration of what his music is, how it works and intersects with other kinds of music.
Pavé says he’d met Canty a couple of years ago and was astonished at what he heard.
“He said he wanted me to write an opera — and I had never done anything like that in my life or even been a part of anything like that.”
But the idea grabbed him and he got to work on it. Various things came together: Pavé’s new album “Welcome to Graceland” coming out in May ties into it and the festival production is part of the independent hip-hop RiverKings 2 Tour of 17 cities headed by Pavé and New Orleans' Alfred Banks.
“I used music that I wrote for my album to tell the story of Memphis and connect it with the opera,” Pavé said. “The album is inspired by the I-40 bridge protest last year. For me as a hip hop artist, I wanted to create a soundtrack for the movement. I felt there wasn’t any music that was speaking to people’s emotional state in Memphis during the protest, how frustrated they were. That’s what I wanted to do with the album and it ties in perfectly. I wanted to blend how I view Memphis to the overall story of the opera.”
Pavé says Thursday’s presentation is a scaled down version of what will be in the festival in 2018.
“We have orchestral arrangements by Sam Shoup and original music by me and Kenneth Wayne Alexander and we have some opera singers who will accompany us,” he said. Also in the presentation are Juju Bushman, DJ Wyzlyfe, DJ Christ Cross and RobenX.
Other attractions during the festival include a libretto reading Monday for "The Falling and the Rising,” co-commisioned by Opera Memphis, San Diego Opera, Arizona Opera and the US Army Field Band. The opera, with libretto by Memphis playwright Jerre Dye, is based on interviews with injured veterans and patients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
“We’re especially interested in getting feedback from veterans or actively serving military and their families,” Canty said. “The goal is to tell the story of soldiers because there are so few Americans who really have first-hand experience of either themselves or a member of their family serving in the 21st century and we really want to get it right.”
On Tuesday, there will be an unveiling of photos from the Ernest Withers collection with pieces that focus on Danny Thomas and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
On April 7, there will be a performance of “Pierrot Lunaire,” a piece by Schoenberg which, Canty says, “isn’t an opera — Schoenberg called it a melodrama, so it’s theatrical and dramatic but not an opera.”
There is history of this work thanks to Opera Memphis music director Ben Makino. In 2010, Makino's Blackbird Music Project produced a multimedia performance of “Pierrot Lunaire” that got favorable reviews from the LA Times. Now, Makino has reimagined the work and is setting it against the photography of Joey Miller.
On Friday and Saturday of the first weekend of the festival, High Expectations Aerial Arts will have aerial performances and various circus arts done to recorded and live music.
Also, Opera Memphis is working with the Blues Society to provide live music before and after the performances of “Blue Viola.”
Midtown Opera Festival
Here’s the lineup:
Friday
5:30: Festival Lounge & Bar opens
6:00: Opera Prelude Dinner - Festival Lounge
6:45: Opera Prelude Talk - Festival Lounge
7:30: Performance: “Later the Same Evening” - Theater
9:30: Performance: Opera Takes Flight - Second Floor
Saturday
5:30: Festival Lounge & Bar* open
6:00: Opera Prelude Dinner - Festival Lounge
6:45: Opera Prelude Talk - Festival Lounge
7:30: Performance: “Three Decembers” - Theater
9:30: Performance: Opera Takes Flight - Second Floor
Monday, April 3
7:00: Libretto Reading & Feedback — “The Falling & the Rising”
Tuesday, April 4
6:00-9:00: True Saint: An Ernest Withers Photography Unveiling and Wine Tasting with music by Opera Memphis - Second Floor (free to attend, but RSVP required).
Thursday, April 6
7:30: Blue Viola: Pay-What-You-Can - Theater
9:00: Performance: River Kings at the Opera - Marco Pavé & Albert Banks - Second Floor
Friday, April 7
5:30: Festival Lounge & Bar* open
6:00: Opera Prelude Dinner - Festival Lounge
6:45: Opera Prelude Talk - Festival Lounge
7:30: Performance: Blue Viola - Theater
9:00: Performance: Pierrot Lunaire - Theater
Saturday, April 8
10 a.m.: Cartoons & Cereal
2:00: Festival Lounge & Bar* open
2:15: Opera Prelude Talk - Festival Lounge
3:00: Performance: Blue Viola - Theater
4:15: Opera Prelude Talk - Festival Lounge
5:00: Performance: Later the Same Evening - Theater
6:30: Opera Prelude Dinner - Festival Lounge
7:15: Opera Prelude Talk - Festival Lounge
8:00: Performance: Three Decembers - Theater
9:30: Closing NIght Party - Festival Lounge
A festival pass is $100. Tickets may be purchased for individual events. Info: operamemphis.org and 901-202-4533.