One way to make opera less intimidating is to connect it to things ordinary people know- such as books. So when Kentucky Opera decided to produce Carlisle Floyd’s “Of Mice and Men,” the company chose to precede the actual performances with a series of “Opera Bound” events tying into John Steinbeck’s celebrated 1937 novella.
One way to make opera less intimidating is to connect it to things ordinary people know — such as books. So when Kentucky Opera decided to produce Carlisle Floyd’s “Of Mice and Men,” the company chose to precede the actual performances with a series of “Opera Bound” events tying into John Steinbeck’s celebrated 1937 novella.
Because that book is on the official school reading lists for many high school juniors, students already have a window into the 1930s world of George and Lennie. Those two characters, bound by mutual restlessness on a path toward tragic destruction, provide an optimal launching point into modern opera.
Earlier this month, Walden Theatre staged the often-performed dramatic adaptation of the novella. And reflecting Steinbeck’s fundamental links to the Great Depression era, the University of Louisville’s Ekstrom library is mounting an exhibition of photographs by Dorothea Lange, best known for her iconic image “Migrant Mother.”
Film buffs may want to reserve a spot at 1:30 p.m. Oct. 25, when the Speed Art Museum will screen the 1992 movie version of “Of Mice and Men” starring John Malkovich and Gary Sinise.
And during October, members of the opera cast will visit area schools, singing excerpts from Floyd’s 1969 work and discussing how the opera relates to Steinbeck’s original prose.
Opera Bound culminates with performances of the opera itself at the Brown Theatre at 8 p.m. Oct. 30 and at 2 p.m. Nov. 1.
Considering how the current economic recession is often called the worst since the Depression, “Of Mice and Men” looms with particular resonance and relevance. It’s one reason Deanna Hoying, Kentucky Opera’s director of education, wanted to put Opera Boundon its feet.
“I couldn’t have picked a better time in history to see how people react when things fall apart,” Hoying says. Staging “Of Mice and Men” helps “give people a sense of why we are still talking about it.”
Like the subject itself, the “characters are so in-depth,” she emphasizes. “They are not caricatures.”
A longtime admirer of Steinbeck’s fiction, Hoying praises the lyrical beauty of his writing. “Read the opening page of ‘Mice and Men,’ and then play some of the Carlisle Floyd music, especially the interludes and the ‘One Day Soon’ theme,” she urges. “It just describes the Salinas Valley (in California where the story takes place); Floyd really captures that in his musical style.”
At Walden Theatre, education director Dan Welch observes that students have benefited from a double dose of Steinbeck’s vision.
“Not only are they reading it in school,” Welch says of “Of Mice and Men,” but “they are also experiencing it through live theater. Additionally, “as part of this, they’re learning more about the Great Depression and the Works Projects Administration” (the New Deal program that funded a vast number of public initiatives, using unemployed Americans).
Still, Steinbeck remains a potentially thorny author. His syntax, often wrapped in allusion and metaphor, can be a challenge for high school students. And then there is the question of stark, racially charged exchanges that rear up from time to time.
“One thing we had to grapple with is the language — whether to edit it or not,” Welch acknowledges. “The only editing was some of the racial slurs; we made them a little more politically up to date.”
Now that the Walden students have already experienced the prose and dramatic versions of Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men,” they’ll be headed to the Brown Theatre in a few weeks to hear and see the opera. Meanwhile Hoying, who has written study guides for the work and who helped produce an earlier production for Arizona Opera, says she is excited about the prospect of it coming to Louisville.
“It is one of my favorite operas ever,” she says, calling the terse saga of George and Lennie “brilliant, heartbreaking. You care so much about these guys by the time the end comes.”
Reporter Andrew Adler can be reached at (502) 582-4668.
http://www.kyopera.org/press-bound.html