Not Enough Drama, Love to Rescue - on San Francisco Opera's Commissions "Heart of A Soldier"

"Not Enough Drama, Love to Rescue" was widely used in late 1980s in China to ridicule unwarranted love plot twist.  The relaxed political atmosphere just allowed love to be depicted in movies and consequently there was rampant overdose, particularly when drama became tepid, a love scene was duly inserted to keep the audience engaged, often to the detriment of the overall dramatic arc.

What made me think of this phrase was the San Francisco Opera's new commission, "Heart of a Soldier", to be presented on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center.

The opera was set to music by Christopher Theofanidis to Donna di Novelli's libretto, which was in turn based on James Stewart's book of the true story of Rick Rescorla.

SFOpera's website summarized the opera thus:

What makes a hero? The question was never an academic one for Rick Rescorla, a British-born adventurer who fought in Vietnam before settling in New York as head of security for a brokerage firm based in the World Trade Center. On September 11, 2001, his extraordinary courage and calmness in a crisis paid off: Rescorla led all of the 2,700 people under his care to safety—literally singing them down the stairs—before heading back into the burning building for one last check. He never emerged.

The opera covered vast ground - not only Rick Rescorla's heroic deeds on that fateful day, but also his long friendship with Dan Hill who served with him in Vietnam and helped to devise an evacuation plan for Rescorla's company in World Trade Center, and Rescorla's late found love with Susan.

The creative team argued that this is not just a hero's story, but intense love story.  I sincerely believe that all three strands - hero's growth and deeds, friendship and love are interesting in their own rights, but however I examine the story and the synopsis on SFOpera's website, I see them as separate strands.  They hardly mingle.  They refuse to merge.

Not once the friendship endangered or strengthened the love, or vice versa.  The love between Rick and Susan did not interfere with his duty, nor facilitated it.  The only connection was the joint effort of Dan and Rick's effort to create an evacuation plan but then Dan had largely remained in the background on the final day of Rick.

Therefore, I became suspicious of the over-reaching of the librettist.

San Francisco Chronicle reported this:

Stewart, an amateur pianist himself, heard about the opera project from director Francesca Zambello.

"I'm not an opera fanatic, but I have a subscription to the Metropolitan Opera and I do love music. And I started thinking, 'If this was "La Bohème," what would the acts be?' Suddenly it didn't seem so far-fetched."

When he saw DiNovelli's libretto, Stewart says, he was surprised and impressed at how much it included. "In my 'Bohème' version I'd had to cut a lot of the story out. I'd given up the whole Africa section, and Rick's childhood experiences on D-Day. But she got all that in there."

It seemed to me that the inclusion of so many events only made the opera episodic without much focus.  The love story here seems to me just as (ir)relevant to that in John Adams' Doctor Atomic, another San Francisco Opera commission, which was meandering, tedious and lacked confrontation, struggle and drama, a fault should be squarely put on the librettist's shoulders.  In that opera, there was long love scene between Dr. Oppenheimer and his wife, touching but entirely dispensable. There was no competing, conflicting motivations.

If love is to be included, it ought to have purpose.  People sneered at the improbability of the plot in Verdi's Il Trovatore, but it presented easy-to-grasp emotional motivations and competing love, and the love interest caused calamity, therefore, we had a riveting theater.  His Don Carlos had many love interests, often competing, and each of these propelled the march of the drama.  Not so in the cases of Doctor Atomic or Heart of a Soldier.

My biggest misgiving regarding Heart of a Soldier is that there is no clear dramatic arc and no coherent dramatic situation.  Take the friendship between Rick and Dan, which the opera's instigator and director Francesca Zambello had compared to the Greek tragedy-Orestes and Pylades.  However, Pylades and Orestes were vying to be sacrificed so their friend could live, while there was no such conflict existed in this new opera.  The comparison doesn't stand.

Ultimately, all those three strands compete with one another and the sum would come out less than parts.  Such was the case with Doctor Atomic - despite its masterful orchestral music and one powerful aria, it was a very boring night at theater.

For a ruminating opera, only Wagner managed to succeed with his hypnotically chromatic writing.  As for the music we are to have, we can get a glimpse from what Opera News reported that San Francisco Opera's general director David Gockley wanted "a legitimate composer, one with 'a big emotional sweep, who's not afraid to write a popular melody but still can deal with a big arc and complexity and breadth.'"

I hope that Mr. Theofanidis will succeed.  But if the opera does falter due to lacking of a coherent dramatic curve, it can at best offer colorful music episodes, some blinding color bursts, which were not enough.  Ever pessimistic, I'm dreading this cinematic stirring sweep already.

Gockley had a strong record of presenting new operas.  But most of them are non-threatening, sleek but without a strong dramatic or aural profile.  Gockley, Zambello and Theofanidis had all worked at Houston before.  I'm afraid some less inbreeding might have brought much more fresh ideas and intellect into any new enterprises.  Sometimes, it is much more rewarding to work with someone who's not always readily to agree with you.  Beside, Gockley cannot keep giving us Gershwins, Barbers or Menotis; we need some Bergs, Schoenbergs or Bartóks!



Related articles:
--> A Wasted Opportunity - on San Francisco Opera's New Commission "Heart of A Soldier"
--> World Premiere Opera "Heart of A Soldier" and What Is a Tragedy
--> San Francisco Opera's New Commission - Heart of a Soldier 

World Premiere Opera "Heart of A Soldier" and What Is a Tragedy

San Francisco Opera (SFOpera) is to present the World Premiere Production of Heart of a Soldier, with libretto by Donna di Novelli and music by Christopher Theofanidis, and was based on James Stewart's book of the true story of Rick Rescorla.  The opera is scheduled to be premiered on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center, New York City, in 2001.  It is to be staged by Francesca Zambello, who just triumphantly staged Wagner's Ring Cycle for SFOpera.

SFOpera's website summarized the opera thus:

What makes a hero? The question was never an academic one for Rick Rescorla, a British-born adventurer who fought in Vietnam before settling in New York as head of security for a brokerage firm based in the World Trade Center. On September 11, 2001, his extraordinary courage and calmness in a crisis paid off: Rescorla led all of the 2,700 people under his care to safety—literally singing them down the stairs—before heading back into the burning building for one last check. He never emerged.

This paragraph is a quiet philosophical musing.  I remembered that it was called a tragedy before but I cannot find the word on their website any more.  Online search led me to their cached earlier press release, which did describe the story as a tragedy:

A story of war, love, friendship and heroism, Heart of a Soldier reflects on the extraordinary true story of Rick Rescorla, a man trained to be a consummate warrior who gave up his own life saving thousands in the attacks on September 11, 2001. Inspired by the American soldiers he saw as a boy in Cornwall, England preparing to launch the Normandy invasion on what became D-Day, and his adult friendship with American fighting man Dan Hill, whom he meets in war-torn Rhodesia, Rescorla emigrates to the United States in the early 1960s to become a soldier and a “Yank,” ultimately becoming a decorated platoon leader during the Vietnam War.

On September 11, 2001, as head of security for Morgan Stanley at Two World Trade Center, Rescorla is thrown to the floor when United Airlines Flight 175 crashes into the South Tower.  Amidst the unimaginable chaos that ensues, Rescorla uses his commanding presence and booming voice to literally sing his colleagues down smoke-filled stairs and out of the building. While he successfully evacuates all of his company’s 2,700 employees from the South Tower before it collapses, Rescorla makes the ultimate sacrifice when he goes back into the building to search for stragglers. Heart of a Soldier is an opera about a hero who disdains that very term, and about his deep friendship with an American soldier, so unlike him in approach and yet so similar in dedication and bravery.

“For nearly a decade I have been hoping to commission an opera from the brilliantly talented Christopher Theofanidis,” stated David Gockley. “When there finally was a window of opportunity at Houston Grand Opera, I changed jobs and preliminary plans for Heart of a Soldier had to be put on hold.  Once in San Francisco, I felt the opportunity to commission this work in observation of the tenth anniversary of the tragic events of 9/11—and the commitment of Tom Hampson to create the lead role—gave the project critical mass.  On the surface the piece is about what it takes to be a true hero, but what will drive the music is the passion, the suspense and the ultimate tragedy.” [I changed the font to bold and italic so my reader can find it.]

Perhaps, it was with good reason that SFOpera stopped to describe the opera as a tragedy.  To me, Mr. Rescorla's story is moving, sad and with a heartbreaking and unhappy ending.  But is it tragedy and what is a tragedy?

Typically, in a loose sense, we call all sad stories tragedy.  But I prefer to limit the use to a narrower sense.

There are many definitions of tragedy but I think the first definition used by Dictionary.com is the most pertinent:  

1. a dramatic composition, often in verse, dealing with a serious or somber theme, typically that of a great person destined through a flaw of character or conflict with some overpowering force, as fate or society, to downfall or destruction.
2. the branch of the drama that is concerned with this form of composition.
3. the art and theory of writing and producing tragedies.
4. any literary composition, as a novel, dealing with a somber theme carried to a tragic conclusion.
5. the tragic element of drama, of literature generally, or of life.

To me, tragedy is the destruction of something good, noble and/or beautiful, something people recognize as good, and ought to through the flaw(s) in character(s), otherwise, the stories can be sad and touching but hardly tragic.
Wagner's Ring Cycle is the tragic story of the gods, because due to their greediness, they brought disaster onto themselves and the world. 

Shakespeare wrote many tragedies.  Take his most famous ones such as Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, or Romeo and Juliet for example. The first three plays arrived their sad endings through the fatal flaws of the main characters, who were basically good and noble, but Hamlet was hesitate and indecisive, Othello was insecure and jealous, Macbeth was ambitious and easily manipulated.  Romeo and Juliet themselves perhaps had no such overt flaws, but taking their clans as a whole, we can see clearly that this is rather a conventional tragedy due to their inflexible hatred and thirst for revenge, they destroyed these two children they love, therefore the play was a tragedy for them collectively.

Back to the opera "Hear of A Soldier".  The more I read about it, the more I am convinced that it is a story of reassurance in humanity, and celebration of friendship, love and heroism, rather than the bemoaning a sad fate and event.

That is quite appropriate and it is how we should observe the event and honor the people who perished due to no fault of their own as individuals.

It we insist on treating 9/11 as a tragic event, then we have to examine ourselves collectively.  The event was the result of some religious zealot who bore obvious hatred of the U.S. for certain.  But, had we, the American people and the American government done something in the past contributing to the poverty, economic and environmental disasters, political corruptions and other humiliations to other parts of the world?  Couldn't we see something of ourselves in Wagner's chief god Wotan?  The answer can be nothing but yes.  Therefore, in a certain sense, the September 11 event in New York City could be partially, however significantly or insignificantly, be attributed to the flaws of our collected characters or behaviors, and that made the loss of so many lives on that fateful day tragic.




Related articles:
--> A Wasted Opportunity - on San Francisco Opera's New Commission "Heart of A Soldier"
--> Not Enough Drama, Love to Rescue - on San Francisco Opera's Commissions "Heart of A Soldier"
--> San Francisco Opera's New Commission - Heart of a Soldier

San Francisco Opera's New Commission - Heart of a Soldier

On 7 December, San Francisco Opera (SF Opera) announced the details of their new commission, Heart of a Soldier, by Christopher Theofanidis based on a book of the same name by James B. Stewart about Rick Rescorla, the head of security for Morgan Stanley who died shepherding people to safety during the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center.  The librettist of the opera is Donna DiNovelli and it will be conducted by SF Opera's Principal Guest Conductor Patrick Summers, with SF Opera Artistic Adviser Francesca Zambello chosen as director.  The main characters will be performed by baritone Thomas Hampson, tenor William Burden and soprano Melody Moore.

SF Opera disclosed that the opera has a traditional orchestra but also includes electric guitar and synthesizer. Theofanidis claimed that there are hints of music from very different circumstances here that run below the surface, music from the 1940s, rock of the 1960s, Cornish folksong and Islamic calls to prayer, as a reference to a character’s conversion to Islamic religion.

Producing an opera is expensive and staging a commissioned opera is a gigantic task. SF Opera should be lauded for its efforts.  However, I only wish it would be more selective.  In recent seasons, it had presented several interesting or so-so world premiere operas.  Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking was a runaway success, if largely due to its vivid theatricality, while Stewart Wallace's Bonesetter's Daughter was a dud.  Saddled in between were dramatically flaccid Doctor Atomic by John Adams or inept A Streetcar Named Desire by André Previn.

Current SF Opera's general director David Gockley freely admitted that the current enterprise started with his last job as general director of Houston Grand Opera and it was Zambello who came up with the idea of adapting Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist James B. Stewart's book on the life stories of Susan Rescorla, Rick Rescorla and Daniel J. Hill into an opera.

According to SF Opera's announcement, the new opera is

a story of war, love, friendship and heroism. Heart of a Soldier reflects on the extraordinary true story of Rick Rescorla, a man trained to be a consummate warrior who gave up his own life saving thousands in the attacks on September 11, 2001. Inspired by the American soldiers he saw as a boy in Cornwall, England preparing to launch the Normandy invasion on what became D-Day, and his adult friendship with American fighting man Dan Hill, whom he meets in war-torn Rhodesia, Rescorla emigrates to the United States in the early 1960s to become a soldier and a "Yank," ultimately becoming a decorated platoon leader during the Vietnam War.

On September 11, 2001, as head of security for Morgan Stanley at Two World Trade Center, Rescorla is thrown to the floor when United Airlines Flight 175 crashes into the South Tower. Amidst the unimaginable chaos that ensues, Rescorla uses his commanding presence and booming voice to literally sing his colleagues down smoke-filled stairs and out of the building. While he successfully evacuates all of his company’s 2,700 employees from the South Tower before it collapses, Rescorla makes the ultimate sacrifice when he goes back into the building to search for stragglers. Heart of a Soldier is an opera about a hero who disdains that very term, and about his deep friendship with an American soldier, so unlike him in approach and yet so similar in dedication and bravery.

Gockley said that on the surface the piece was about what it takes to be a true hero, but what would drive the music was the passion, the suspense and the ultimate tragedy.  Francesca Zambello added: "When I read James Stewart's true story of an unsung hero of 9/11, its epic themes of a warrior's code of honor, intense bonds of loyalty, late-found love and overwhelming tragedy struck me as extremely theatrical.  It also takes up ideas and ideals, morals and morality in the context of modern American lives. I have always wanted to create an opera based on a real life story and was very gratified when David Gockley agreed to develop this work with me."

These statements were meant to be reassuring but they didn't.  More often than not, a spate of new commissioned operatic works in the US are devoid of engaging dramatic situations and musically conservative in pseudo-hollywood ways.  I see quite a lot parallel between Heart of a Soldier and Doctor Atomic, which had stretches of gorgeous music but was dramatically very flat.  That project was more a presentation of a strong-willed director's idea (Peter Sellars), rather than the ideas of a dramatist and composer.  The central issue of Doctor Atomic was if the weather going to be too bad to detail the detonation of the first atomic bomb.  How interesting.  Adams, a truly amazing composer, unfortunately ignored the entreaties from then SF Opera general director Pamela Rosenberg, to compose a modern Faustian story.  Like Heart of a Soldier, Doctor Atomic had a love story as well - an absolutely non-essential one.  Doctor Atomic made a wonderful oratorio and home listening but didn't made a theater at all.  A golden opportunity wasted.  That said, even if the central issue is less obviously dramatic and less complex, it still might work well, if a character's obsession is presented dramatically - the smashing success of Jake Heggie's new opera for Dallas, Moby Dick, was a prime example.

But I am not confident in this creative team.  They all have some connections to one place and are of too much similar minds, thus the whole project smells like created by committee.  Gockley had presented many world premieres in Houston before but his record was impressive more for its sheer numbers.   Many of his commissioned works were just like television movies with generic and obvious scores.  He is a crowd pleaser but not cerebral enough to make real valuable contributions to modern lyric literature.

As for the music, I'm afraid that it falls to the same camp as Stewart Wallace's - lush, colorful, easy-listening and very cinematic but ultimately meandering and watery.  On-cue crescendos and spices of exotic sound designs could not prevent it from being bland.

Similarly, Doctor Atomic used electronic sounds as well but it neither added nor deduced - all the special effects could be achieved with traditional instrumentation.  This rely on electronic sounds has become a common folly of the modern composers.  Citing a master composer, who was not an intellectual but an instinct theater animal, Puccini, generated myriads local colors without any such electronic wizardry.

To sample Theofanidis's work, you can view below video of the ending of his orchestral concert work, Rainbow Body, which has been one of the most performed new orchestral works of the last ten years, having been performed by over 100 orchestras internationally. 



Related articles:
--> A Wasted Opportunity - on San Francisco Opera's New Commission "Heart of A Soldier"
--> Not Enough Drama, Love to Rescue - on San Francisco Opera's Commissions "Heart of A Soldier"
--> World Premiere Opera "Heart of A Soldier" and What Is a Tragedy