This article evolved in an odd way with many switches in my own point of view. It all began with a New York Times article in the Arts and Leisure section by John Adams lamenting the fact that neither of his operas “Nixon in China” and “The Death of Klinghoffer” have been revived. What good arc these commissions to composers if after the big bash opening the operas fade into oblivion? Let me say, and I’ve said it before in my Nixon obit column, that “Nixon in China” which premiered in 1987 is the opera of the eighties, and possibly the nineties also. As for “The Death of Klinghoffer” it isn’t as bad as it’s detractors say. Adams’ lament caused me all kinds of guilt feelings.
My next thought was that I am partly responsible. A friend gave me a yearbook from tlie Sarasota Opera. The managing director wrote a variant of the sixties saying: “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.” In other words, if you’re not a subscriber, you’re not an opera lover, or we need your “fanny” in a seat. I can’t go any more except on occasions. I’m just tired after a full day’s work. So if I’m not going as often as I should be, who am I to tell them to revive “Nixon in China” or any other opera?
I also had and have guilt feelings because I’ve written more than once, that the theater is really dead. No one is commissioning or caring if there are or are not new masterpieces. But opera was different look at all these new commissions and masterpieces. Hurn! It seems from Mr. Adams’ lament that opera’s desire to renew itself is not as urgent as I thought. Which made me think of Samuel Barber. To me “new” opera is Britten even though he really has not just entered the repertory, but smashed into it with “Peter Grimes, “Death in Venice,” “Turn of the Screw,” “Billy Budd,” and even “A Midsummer’s Dream.”
However for me it isn’t Britten but Barber’s “Vanessa” of 1957. Why? Well, I remember listening to the first Met matinee broadcast of “Vanessa” in the season of I 958. Yet “Vanessa” has never been revived at the Met. I think of Samuel Barber in this regard even more for “Antony and Cleopatra” commissioned by Lincoln Center to open the “New Met” on September 16, 1966. That was not even a succes d’estirne, but a fiasco. I heard that opening night broadcast. Needless to say the Met has not revived “Antony and Cleopatra” either. So far it has been all doom and gloom for both Adams and Barber. Hang on – this article will become more hopeful, and we will bring in Giancarlo Menotti, who, when Barber revised “Antony and Cleopatra,” staged it at the Spoletto Festival in Charleston in 1979. Incidentally, the libretto of “Antony and Cleopatra” is by Franco Zeferelli. When it was restaged Menotti also revised the text. An excellent recording came out of that production. Oh! “Vanessa” did win a Pulitzer Prize, and there is a marvelous “original cast” (shades of Broadway) recording on RCA. See, we are getting more hopeful in that
Now let’s talk about Menotti. I knew that Menotti was not only Samuel Barber’s librettisi, but his lover. All of the books use the more fitting “companion.” So the names of Menotti and Barber really do belong together. However, that isn’t how Menotti got into this article. Grand Army Plaza has no books on Barber. They do have “Menotti” by John Gruen. The book is obviously better for Menotti, “Antony and Cleopatra” didn’t just die but their lives were so intertwined that there’s certainly enough Barber material to cover this article. Last, but not least, Menotti is a great opera composer in his own right, and he, though less so, has a revival problem of his own. With the possible exception of Britten no one has done more for opera in the twentieth century than Menotti. This has nothing to do with greatness, though I think some of his work, is great. It has to do with services, as composer, librettist, promoter, and even impresario. Then again, I’m sure I don’t have to remind you, that “Amahl and the Night Visitors” for a while became almost as much a part of Christmas as “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.” Unfortunately, “Rudolf’ had more staying power. However, I remember when “Amahl” was an annual Christmas event. The old NBC opera company who commissioned it also is owed a debt of gratitude for services to opera. “Amahl” was probably Menotti’s greatest success, maybe even opera’s greatest success, but it is not his greatest opera. What is?
In my opinion, and here City Opera has revived, I give the palm to “The Saint of Bleeker Street.” Though, and City Opera has revived this as well, “The Consul” is excellent as well. That opera brilliantly portrays the individual versus the nameless faceless bureaucrat who has life and death power over the individual especially if the individual is Stateless. I know of no recording of “The Consul” though that doesn’t mean there isn’t one. “The Saint of Bleeker Street” was commissioned by the City Center for Music and Drama (predecessor of the New York City Opera), and opened on Broadway on December 17, 1954. So as to “The Saint” it is fair to say there is an original Broadway cast album which brings up the fact that Menotti was never afraid lo bring opera to Broadway extending his and it’s reach. From the Gruen book: “The Saint,” Menotti’s most ambitious undertaking to date, was a critical but not a commercial success. It ran on Broadway for some four months and as Charles Cowles put it, was a “labor of love.” It also won the Pulitzer Prize. Let’s leave Menotti with a reminder that his barcarolle from the ballet “Sebastian” is one of the great short “bonbons” (no negative connotation intended) pieces of our time Menotti could write hits.
Although Menotti wrote works other than opera, he will live on mainly through his operas. Barber was broader and greater. Barbara Heyman writing in “The Groves Dictionary of Opera” says that he is: “One of the most honored and most frequent! y performed American composers in the Americas and Europe during the middle of the twentieth Century.” She also says (but this I definitely knew) that almost all his published works entered the repertory soon after composition. I mean there’s “The Violin Concerto,” “The Adagio for Strings,” “The Essay for Orchestra,” and a personal favorite of mine “Knoxville Summer of 1915.” He is also justly famous for “The School for Scandal Overture,” “The Piano Concerto” and the “Serenade for Strings.”
The article in Groves by Richard Jackson says that I am wrong to say the Mel never revived “Vanessa.” It was staged again in 1964-5 season, but that’s not a true revival just a recycling of the original production. However, it was the first American opera ever produced at Salzburg. That is an unbelievable honor. The Seattle opera is doing it this season. It’s day is coming. Barber served in the U.S. Army in World War 11, and was assigned to the Air Force. That was before the Air Force was a separate service. They commissioned a symphony which Koussevitzky performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Barber never really like it and allegedly he destroyed all but one movement now known as “Night Flight.” Somehow Andrew Schenk reconstructed it and it is available on a Stradivari C.D. Eleanor Steber commissioned three vocal works from Barber: “Knoxville Summer of 1915,” “Three Hermit Songs,” and “Prayers of Kirkegaard.” Her recording of Knoxville Summer of 1915″ is on Odyssey. Dawn Upshaw has recorded it as well. Virgil Thompson, a critic and composer, said that Barber seemed to be “laying the ghost of Romanticism without resorting to violence.” Richard Jackson says not so Barber is always romantic. After the failure of “Antony and Cleopatra” Barber took to the Alps for five years of seclusion. Rejectlon hurts but “Vanessa'”s day will come, and so will “Antony and Cleopatra”‘s. Getting back to John Adams, “Nixon in China’s” day will come. Let’s end on a note of hope. The Met is doing Carlyle Floyd’s “Sussanah” and City Opera is doing his “Of Mice and Men.” However, for me the Chicago Lyric Opera on October 6, will revive Martin. David Levy’s “Mourning Becomes Electra” first heard at the Met in 1967, one year after “Antony and Cleopatra” and that’s the revival of the year. It takes time, but opera is still alive and if you wait long enough your favorites will come back. If you can, please see Rebecca Pall’s article for more about “Mourning Becomes Electra” in September’s Opera News. For me, I’m looking forward to Andre Previn’s “A Streetcar Named Desire.”