Festival Opera salutes an ‘astounded’ Jake Heggie
Company will perform three of the composer’s short works
Composer Jake Heggie is best known for large-scale operas including “Dead Man Walking” “Moby-Dick” and “It’s a Wonderful Life.” But his list of credits also includes a number of captivating short works. Now Festival Opera is presenting three of those one-acts on a single program.
“A Jake Heggie Triptych,” presented Friday and Sunday at the Lesher Center in Walnut Creek, features the composer’s “At the Statue of Venus,” “Camille Claudel: Into the Fire” and “For a Look or a Touch.”
The triple bill, which celebrates Festival Opera’s 30th anniversary season, is a first for the company under general director Zachary Gordin — and a first for Heggie, who said he was surprised when Gordin suggested it.
“When Zachary proposed the idea, I was sort of astounded,” Heggie explained in a recent interview, adding that the three works have never been performed together. “But the more I thought about it, I realized they all do have similar themes.”
For Gordin, those themes are all related to the human need for connection — something he says became more important than ever during the pandemic. Although planning for the triple bill started more than a year ago, the program marks Festival Opera’s first return to live, in-person performance, at a time when celebrating connection feels essential.
“We’re so excited that we finally get to do this,” said Gordin, “and it’s really shaping up to be something lovely.”
Directed by Mark Foehringer, the evening begins with “At the Statue of Venus,” about a woman anxiously awaiting a blind date. Heggie, who composed the opera in 2005 to a libretto by the late playwright Terrence McNally, will accompany the production on piano; soprano Carrie Hennessey — who sang brilliantly in the title role of “Katya Kabanova” at West Edge Opera last month — stars as Diana. Gordin thinks it starts the program on just the right note. “It’s such a humorous, super-relatable piece,” he said.
“Camille Claudel,” with a libretto by Gene Scheer, introduces the title character — a consummate artist who was also the lover of French sculptor Auguste Rodin — as she spends a final night in her studio. The opera was commissioned in 2012 by San Francisco Performances, which presented its premiere, starring Joyce DiDonato. Festival’s production features mezzo-soprano Diana Tash; Gordin heard her sing the dramatic title role in a previous production, and says she’s ideal.
In 2007’s “For a Look or a Touch,” Heggie and Scheer focus on the story of Gad Beck and his partner, Manfred Lewin, reallife lovers persecuted during the Holocaust for being gay; both men died at Auschwitz.
Commissioned by Seattle’s Music of Remembrance, an organization devoted to presenting Holocaust themes, the opera is drawn from actual events described in Lewin’s journals.
Gordin, a baritone, was already familiar with the work: He was cast as a cover (understudy) for the role of Manfred in a recent Music of Remembrance production. Learning the role was a revelation, he said, and when the project concluded, he knew he wanted to return to it. In that production, the role of Gad was sung by Curt Branom, who is Heggie’s husband. Branom, a versatile actor and singer who was a principal cast member in “Beach Blanket Babylon” for more than 20 years, partners with Gordin in these performances for the program’s finale.
Gordin says “For a Look or a Touch” brings the program to a transcendent conclusion. “It’s a moment of complete acceptance, and you’re left in this pool of light and love,” he said.
Under conductor Bryan Nies, each opera will feature a different accompaniment: Heggie on solo piano for “At the Statue of Venus,” Festival Opera string players for “Camille Claudel” and a larger ensemble in “For a Look or a Touch.”
As the first performance approaches, Gordin says that he and the company are thrilled to be working together on a live production.
“It’s live,” said Gordin, “and we have a roof.”
A roof, and an audience: something that performers everywhere have been missing for more than a year.
Heggie says he can’t wait. The composer notes that last year’s loss of live performances was critical for singers and musicians everywhere. Although he gave several streamed performances and other online events, he recalls a recital he played live with mezzosoprano Jamie Barton a few months back, and says it was a revelation.
“It was in a space with a hundred people, all masked, but there wasn’t a recording and there wasn’t a film being made. It was just for the people in the room. … I had sort of forgotten how special that is, to share that vibration in the room. The concert hall, the opera house — they’re sacred spaces, places of reflection and meditation and community, and you have to show up for it.
“That’s what the arts demand: that you show up and participate in that way. So for everyone to show up again, to be in the room together, is beyond description. It’s what it’s all about.”