Harrison: Rapunzel
Jennifer Foster (soprano) - Rapunzel/Guendolen
Sanford Sylvan (baritone) - The Prince/King Sebald
Wendy Hillhouse (mezzo-soprano) - The Witch
Cabrillo Festival Orchestra
Marin Alsop (conductor)
Michael Scarola (stage director)
Thomson: The River
accompanying Pare Lorentz's 1937 film, The River
Milton Williams (narrator)
Cabrillo Festival Orchestra
Marin Alsop (conductor)
Saturday 11 August 2001
Cabrillo Music Festival
Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium, Santa Cruz, California, USA
Lou Harrison, one of the great under-appreciated American composers of the last and current century, dedicated Rapunzel, his short, six-act, twelve-tone opera of 1952, to his friend, mentor, and fellow music critic Virgil Thomson. After Harrison completed the orchestration in 1953, he won a Masterpiece Award when Leontyne Price sang the third act's prayer scene at the 1954 International Conference of Contemporary Music in Rome. The entire opera was first staged in New York City in 1959 and premiered on the West Coast at the 1966 Cabrillo Music Festival.
Harrison composed Rapunzel while still on the mend from a 1947 nervous breakdown. After encountering William Morris' poem of the same name, he was drawn to Morris' psychological portrayal of two mythic archetypes liberated from their individual hells by the power of love. Harrison's rare foray into serialist technique resulted not in dissonance, but rather in a strange, captivating, virtually hallucinatory score that successfully captures the psychological underpinnings of the Rapunzel fable.
Though the opera was sung in English, with the complete libretto printed in the program, the lack of either supertitles or light to read by greatly reduced comprehension. The minimalistic stage set was dominated by a central suspended movie screen on which were projected images by shadow artist Leonidas Kassapides and assistants. These were in black and white, save for red drops of blood that spread while Rapunzel sang of two knights who fought over her.
Even in the confines of an auditorium that seems more suited to basketball than opera, Sanford Sylvan consistently impressed with the power, beauty and evenness of his baritone. Jennifer Foster, physically convincing as the enslaved blond beauty, occasionally seemed stretched by the role's highest passages; otherwise, she produced radiant tone. Wendy Hillhouse provided a dark and menacing Witch, her repeated refrain, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your hair!" providing a consistently comprehensible anchor in the otherwise muddied dialogue. Marin Alsop and the orchestra acquitted themselves admirably.
This performance of The River marked the first time that Lorentz's film was screened on the West Coast accompanied by a live performance of Thomson's score and Lorentz's script. The simple score, which includes several traditional American hymns and songs, complements the film perfectly. The music begins optimistically, as the film shows the mighty Mississippi and all its riches. As the narrator intones, "We built 100 cities and 1000 towns, but at what cost... we left the mountains and hills slashed and burned, and moved on," the tone changes, the music more animated if nonetheless traditional in its harmonies. Thomson wisely remains silent at the film's horrible climax, as the narrator lists the results of ecological destruction. (More recently, Jack Heggie did the same at the conclusion of his opera Dead Man Walking, offering chilling silence during the lethal injection process). Then the music returns, as the film ends optimistically, naively positing the work of the Tennessee Valley Authority as the technological solution to technological ravages.
Thomson's melodic score, reminiscent of much of his other "American" music, is more pleasing than engaging; it fails to reach the level of interest and imagination achieved by his compatriot Aaron Copland. Alsop and the orchestra did a fine job, perfectly synchronizing the music to the visual cues. Most impressive of all was narrator Milton Williams, his James Earl Jones-like voice as powerful as the film's striking images.
