Elmer Gantry: The Opera

This sounds like a winner – an America opera based on Sinclair Lewis’ classic novel, Elmer Gantry:

…the public unveiling of their “Elmer Gantry,” produced by Nashville Opera along with the Peak Performances series at Montclair State University in New Jersey, had gone off beautifully, complete with ovations, Champagne toasts and excellent reviews. (“ ‘Elmer Gantry’ stirs soul, provokes thought” was the headline in that morning’s Tennessean.) The fledgling work even had legs, if short ones. After two more Nashville performances, it would move to Montclair for another four, which start on Wednesday.

No wonder the mood was expansive. The opera itself was an intoxicating experience: a new American work that set out to honor both its source material (the great Sinclair Lewis satire of evangelism) and its new medium…

The article is a bit “much of a muchness” – to get to the good news you have to wade through all the “Sunday feature coloring” that includes mentions of Brownie Troops and $12 mixed drinks – but if you get past that, you can become seriously excited that finally there may be a new America opera on the horizon that has some staying power.

Thanks to lessons learned grudgingly but applied smartly along the way, the opera that Mr. Hoomes directed in Nashville was one-third shorter, rather more emotional — and just plain better, they admitted — than it had been in Boston. It didn’t hurt that after seeing the production, opera companies in Columbus, Ohio; Milwaukee; Cleveland; Louisville, Ky.; and Houston had all expressed interest in scheduling the work.

Excellent, exciting news!

Speaking of opera, Christmas brought Catherine Maltifano and Bryn Terfel singing Tosca and Scarpia, respectively, in a 1998 production, partial scene here. It is breathtaking in parts and excellent throughout. I’m really waiting to see a release of the recent ROH Tosca w/ Gheorghiu and Terfel, but I hear that may never happen. Sigh. Meanwhile, this one is pretty good; this youtube vid does not reflect the excellent quality of the release, btw.

Not sure you’d like Tosca? Here (because I’m in the mood for it), Michelle Kwan skating Tosca in the 2004 US Nationals to get a sense of the music:

Available at Amazon (yes w/ English subtitles)