Two composers cast spell on village of Shakespeare
Operas written 60 years apart share bill in Toronto Friday
The cereus is a gangly plant, long skinny arms straggling out in all directions. But once a year, in July, it becomes beautiful when its flower appears.
This happened recently in the offices of Summer Opera Lyric Theatre, an unexpected piece of inspiration and authenticity for its upcoming production of John Beckwith’s Night Blooming Cereus.
Beckwith wrote the opera 60 years ago with late poet James Reaney. Thanks to a poetic licence, in their version the flower blooms only once every 100 years, with the action taking place in the Ontario village of Shakespeare, a short distance east of Stratford.
The magic of the flower instigates the action among the villagers that special night. In true Shakespearean fashion, a “spell” is cast upon the Ontario folk.
Beckwith, now 90, is delighted to see his opera attracting new interest and laments the fact that many Canadian operas don’t get the exposure they should because operas are expensive to produce.
Lyric Theatre is producing a pareddown version with piano accompa- niment when it opens Friday at the Robert Gill Theatre.
Also on the program is a second opera written by Canadian composer Michael Rose, in a commission by Lyric Theatre’s general director Guillermo Silva-Marin. Just finished, it is receiving its world premiere on Friday.
The composer, who wrote both the music and the libretto, takes the action to present-day Shakespeare and, using many of Beckwith and Reaney’s characters, also writes a tale of transformation through magic.
In the case of A Northern Lights Dream, it is Robin Goodfellow — a.k.a. the familiar character Puck from A Midsummer Night’s Dream— who casts the spell.
The story revolves around the spouse of a man who “comes out of the closet,” says Rose, adding that he thinks that side of the story is often overlooked.
“She’s been told a lie. That’s a hurtful thing,” Rose says. It’s time, he says, “to take the blinds off.”
Hockey plays a role in the action in Rose’s creation, which takes place 50 years after that in Beckwith’s piece.
Beckwith said seeing his composition performed 60 years after its creation makes him feel old, even if he had just returned from a biking holi- day in Portugal. It’s because so much has changed for composers since he first started out, he said.
Back then, the CBC commissioned many of his works for full orchestra. As time went on, he found himself facing requests to reduce the musicians from14 to seven, a demand he found impossible for some works.
What’s produced now are smaller “chamber operas,” he said, which is how Rose — who visited Shakespeare to get a feel for the community today — describes Northern Lights.
Universities have a great thirst for his works, Beckwith added, with the University of Victoria, Western University and McGill showcasing the four operas he wrote with Reaney.
Beckwith, former dean of the University of Toronto faculty of music, has written more than 100 compositions and is a member of the Order of Canada. He writes extensively about Canada and notes that much has changed since Night Blooming Cereus was first produced — for example, there is discussion in the opera of the telephone operator and small-town party lines, which both might be unfamiliar to younger audiences.
This summer’s three Summer Opera Lyric Theatre productions — Carmen, The Marriage of Figaro and the Canadian double bill — run from July 28 to Aug. 6, at Robert Gill Theatre, 214 College St. See solt.ca for information.