Operas in Concert: Classics of English Fiction
Jonathan Dove/Alastair Middleton and Jane Austen
Unlike most operas, Jonathan Dove and Alastair Middleton’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s beloved Regency novel Mansfield Park was never conceived for traditional opera houses. Instead, Dove imagined it for presentation in historic homes with four-hand piano accompaniment; as he observes, “singing around the piano in a drawing-room is an entertainment which Jane Austen would immediately have recognized.” While a newer orchestration for thirteen instruments expands the work’s palette, this version maintains much of the original’s intimacy and an un- or semi-staged version is similarly natural. Musically, Dove “conjures up a remarkable variety of moods, switching from silent movie comedy capers to subtle hints of classical pastiche, as well as minimalist rocking between major and minor at moments of high emotion [… and] some stunning moments of choral singing.” (Bachtrack)
Soloists: Alexandra Jerinic (Fanny Price), Andrew Pardini (Edward Bertram)
excerpt, The Grange Festival
Bernard Herrmann/Lucille Fletcher, based on the first part of the novel by Emily Brontë
As The Guardian observes, “A Wuthering Heights opera by the man who scored Psycho and The Birds is well worth a listen.” Hermann uses the dramatic instincts of his film scoring background to good effect in this substantial opera; Heathcliff’s “opening cry of ‘Cathy!’ sets the chilling tone, with the orchestra’s brooding gusts instantly transporting us to the windswept Yorkshire moors.” Fletcher’s sensitive libretto draws heavily on Brontë’s phrasing, maintaining a palpable sense of the formality and social restrictions of the era. Never performed during Herrmann’s lifetime, this opera has since enjoyed a number of partial and full performances.
Soloists: Layla Claire (Catherine Earnshaw), John Chest (Heathcliff)
excerpt, Minnesota Opera
Art’s Afterlives | Feminist Essays | Casting Off Chains: Abolition and the Civil War | The Americas: Latine Culture and History | East Asian Love Stories | Positively Medieval: Stories of the Middle Ages and Renaissance | Classics of English Fiction | The 19th Century: Great Wars and Colonial Sorrows | Upheavals of the 20th Century | The Weight of Motherhood