Hendrick said the music is highly approachable. “I think people will feel drawn to it musically. I have never heard of anyone who is turned off to this piece. This is a true American opera and I think they will feel so naturally inclined to it because of the universality of some of these things, having a purpose in life, wanting to be with someone you can share your life with.”
Singing Steinbeck: Sarasota Opera stages ‘Of Mice and Men’
By Jay Handelman, Herald-Tribune / Sunday, March 3, 2013
John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men” may be one of the rare books that high school students don’t mind reading.
The story of the ranch hands George Milton and Lennie Small trying to survive during the Depression when the least transgression can put you out of work touched millions of readers.
Composer Carlisle Floyd read the novel when he was in school, but he didn’t think of it in operatic terms until years later, when he looked at two of his singer friends, thinking they would be perfect as George and Lennie.
Floyd’s version of “Of Mice and Men,” which had its premiere in 1970 in Seattle, opens Saturday as the third (and potentially final) entry in the Sarasota Opera’s American Classics series that previously featured “The Crucible” and “Vanessa.”
The costly series has had some critical success, but mixed results at the box office because the works are less familiar than most produced in Sarasota. Because the operas are newer, they are generally more costly than other, more popular operas because they are covered by copyright laws and require royalty payments. With tightening budgets, company leaders are considering ending the American focus, at least temporarily.
The 86-year-old Floyd, who may be best known for “Susannah” and other works of contemporary Americana, said the “leanness of the story and simple through line, plus vivid characters in highly dramatic situations” helped him see the possibilities of turning Steinbeck’s novel into an opera.
He had the support of Steinbeck (1902-1968) and his publishers when he started writing. His goal was to “maintain the compression of the story and attempt to realize the characters through music,” he said in an interview conducted through e-mail.
Carlisle Floyd is the composer of “Of Mice and Men,” part of the Sarasota Opera’s 2013 Winter Season. COURTESY PHOTO/PROVIDED BY SARASOTA OPERA
One of his earliest decisions involved the musical treatment of Lennie, described as a big, child-like man who doesn’t know his own strength, which is his downfall.
Floyd’s dilemma was solved “when I determined to create music for him that was childlike and direct, taking my cue from George’s referring to him frequently as ‘a great big kid.’ ”
Floyd made few changes in the story — he did eliminate one character — but found a way to tell the story through music and motifs that recur throughout the opera with changes along the way as the story progresses.
During a recent “Spoken and Sung” program at the Sarasota Opera, several singers performed scenes from Floyd’s work after students from the FSU/Asolo Conservatory acted out the corresponding scene from the play version of the novel.
As emcee Greg Trupiano, the company’s artistic administrator, noted, the biggest change Floyd made may have been altering the price of a farm that George and Lennie planned to buy from $600 to $400 “because four is easier to sing than six.”
The Sarasota Opera production stars two familiar performers. Sean Anderson, a favorite at the company, returns to sing the role of George. He starred in “The Crucible” as John Proctor and as Iago in last season’s “Otello,” among many Sarasota performances. Michael Hendrick, who sang several roles in such productions as “May Night” and “Jenufa,” returns to sing Lennie. Hendrick was a last-minute replacement for Corey Bix, who withdrew to take the lead tenor role of Erik in Wagner’s “The Flying Dutchman” for Los Angeles Opera.
Hendrick is singing Lennie for the fifth time since his debut in the role at Utah Opera in 1999. He most recently performed Lennie at Kentucky Opera in Louisville in 2010. His familiarity with the role was a relief for Anderson, who said he initially worried about what singer would be available at the last minute who could also sing the complex score.
“I was worried they would find someone who was going to be good, but hadn’t been learning it for months and months. It could have turned into a nightmare,” Anderson said.
Now, the singers are bonding over their roles as two good friends who try to hold their own and survive in the face of challenges and opposition from fellow workers and bosses.
Unger said he is approaching his staging the way he would any piece of theater, to “tell the story as faithfully as you can to the author’s intentions and make it mean something to a modern audience. It’s the same for any medium, the same process of storytelling and getting performers to hook in emotionally and to be truthful.”
The fact that it is sung in English and tells a tale far more familiar than most of the operas presented in Sarasota may help audiences more easily connect with the story.
Both Anderson and Hendrick said they are working with Unger and conductor David Neely to approach the work as if it were brand new.
“If you come in to something with preconceived notions, you end up protecting yourself, and if you do a lot of work way ahead of time, you can’t work as well with the other people on stage with you,” Anderson said.
Audiences know the story, but many won’t recognize the music. Unger said, “It’s not your melodic Puccini, but it’s very powerful and there are some great melodies.”
Anderson said that it is “harder than anything I’ve had to work on. Dramatically it’s a challenge. Most operas tend to have larger-than-life characters, but the power of this show comes from people who are very real, so the challenge is finding a way to present that, the real emotion, the real 1930s Depression era. It’s not taking place in the mythical Chinese-esque world of ‘Turandot.’ It’s something that people can be familiar with.”
The singers described the score as occasionally dissonant but not atonal, with beautiful and sometimes elegant harmonies and themes that fit the character.
The word dissonant may scare some people, but Hendrick said the music is highly approachable. “I think people will feel drawn to it musically. I have never heard of anyone who is turned off to this piece. This is a true American opera and I think they will feel so naturally inclined to it because of the universality of some of these things, having a purpose in life, wanting to be with someone you can share your life with.”
And, Unger adds: “having a dream. That’s what drives all these characters who are evolved enough to have a dream.”
OPERA PREVIEW
“Of Mice and Men” opens at 8 p.m. March 9 and continues at 8 p.m. March 12, 14 and 20 and 1:30 p.m. March 17 and 23 at the Sarasota Opera House, 61 N. Pineapple Ave., Sarasota. Tickets are $20-$130. For more information; 366-8450; sarasotaopera.org
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