Music beat
‘A Wedding’ reimagines Altman film as opera
January 27, 2008
by Peter Jacobi
With the presentation of “A Wedding,” the Indiana University Opera Theater continues its tradition of introducing contemporary works as part of its repertoire. But for those opera lovers who feel trepidation whenever the arrival of something new is announced, the folks involved in the production of “A Wedding,” which opens its four-performance run at the Musical Arts Center this coming Friday, offer assurances that this particular morsel has the potential to please traditionalists as well as seekers of musical adventure.
Take William Bolcom, for starters. He’s the composer who, in previous seasons, brought you “McTeague” and “A View from the Bridge.” For both of those operas, it should be pointed out, as well as for “A Wedding,” IU Opera Theater productions followed world premieres at Chicago’s Lyric Opera.
The composer calls his newest opera “an out-and-out comedy that should be enjoyed.” The idea for it came to him when he saw Robert Altman’s film of that name. “My heavens, I said to myself. This looks like a ‘Marriage of Figaro’ about old money and the nouveau riche. It’s a comedy with bite and operatic potential. But this was no political tract. It’s kinder, built on a ceremony that brings together differing backgrounds and pretensions. The story hates no one. It caused me to smile, and I thought, an opera to make people smile, even laugh, that’s something to aim for.”
Guest conductor David Agler, the artistic director of Ireland’s highly regarded Wexford Festival, says Bolcom is “an original as composer who knows how to write music people can easily like. The audience will have a really good time, not only watching as two families from two classes, brought together by money and marriage, come unglued, but also listening to music that’s no less than appealing. Bill has a way of making extraordinary complexities in his score come across as absolutely simple and natural, easy on the ears. He is a phenomenal orchestrator, and what he writes, I might add, though it becomes comfortable to listen to, is very difficult to play, not so much the notes themselves, but rhythmically and in terms of articulation.”
When “A Wedding” premiered in Chicago, Robert Altman served as stage director. He, of course, has since died. IU’s Vincent Liotta is serving in his stead, an act not new for Liotta. After Altman directed “McTeague” in Chicago, Liotta followed through in Bloomington, and successfully so. He also directed IU’s “A View from the Bridge.”
He judges the operatic version of “A Wedding” to be “infinitely better than the movie. The music gives the story structure and backbone, which I never found in the film. Here, you can follow what’s going on. The music supports the story. Besides, Bill writes such interesting and eclectic music. It’s as much fun as the tale itself. The opera works. The more time I spend with it, the more I know how well written it is.
“It’s far from easy to act out, to stage,” he adds. Though rehearsals “are going nicely,” Liotta explains, “when we started, the singers were a bit shell-shocked. Here was an opera of a different nature, not an ‘I have my turn and you have yours’ piece but one requiring ensemble. At various times, almost everyone in a large cast is on stage, and everyone must be doing something in support of the story. Getting that to happen was hard work, but the singers are all getting it now. Actually, I consider the opera to be a good one for young singers. Doing it teaches them a lot about acting. They will go away — whether doing Verdi or Mozart or modern opera — bringing stronger acting techniques with them. That will stick for their entire career.”
Both Liotta and Agler praise the libretto, the handiwork of Bolcom’s longtime artistic partner, Arnold Weinstein, who also died since “A Wedding” was conceived and whose “brilliance and friendship,” as Bolcom described a colleague’s talent and their relationship, he “profoundly misses.”
“He managed to collapse a huge and rangy movie into an opera with flow,” says Liotta. “Bolcom wanted to streamline it, to make it move like a theater piece rather than like a film with fade-ins and outs. Arnold made that possible.”
“The character development is sharper,” says Agler. “The characters have been condensed, down from 48 in the movie to 16. Those that remain leave a stronger impact. Bill’s music takes it from there, adding to the humor. A funny film has been made into a funnier opera. It’s a romp musically, covering so many styles, and each fits character and situation.”
Putting all this into a stage picture has been the task of Robert O’Hearn, IU’s veteran designer, who has announced his retirement and insists “A Wedding” will be his last new production. O’Hearn says he’s not kept a count of how many productions he’s devised but estimates more than 30 for opera and ballet here and close to 200 overall, including quite a few at the Metropolitan.
As for “A Wedding,” he admits to having faced “a challenge. Altman had an entire mansion in Lake Forest, Ill., for his setting. We’ve had to put everything on stage. There are 25 scenes requiring 10 different sets and repeats. Things have to move on and off quickly and without the presence of stagehands.
“To manage that,” O’Hearn explains, “a false floor has been built with cables underneath, allowing us to shift scenes without visible people or pauses. There are lots of locations: a cathedral, a full scale ballroom, a mirrored powder room, a grotto, a restaurant/bar, a bedroom where the matriarch dies, even a room with shower stall and toilet. A lot happens in compact time. In the final five to 10 minutes, scenes pile one on top of another.”
O’Hearn, who also designed IU’s sets for “McTeague” and “View,” predicts “this one will be beautiful. I like this opera, the story and the jaunty music.”
Bolcom says O’Hearn is “a legend, terrifically brilliant, ingenious when it comes to seeking solutions. He’s done all three of the operas for me, and I’m still astounded by what he can accomplish.”
From Liotta, whom Bolcom labels as “one of the most lucid directors who understands styles,” comes this final bit of advice about “A Wedding,” advice mixed with a wish: “I hope people won’t be so intimidated by the idea of coming to a new opera and listening to its unfamiliar music that they fail to react to the comedy. The music is catchy, and the opera is comic stuff. Bill doesn’t want silent respect for his music, respect though it deserves. He yearns for an active response.”
The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music would like
to thank the Herald Times for permission to republish this review.
