World Premiere of Tobias Picker’s 'An American Tragedy'
An American Tragedy
Opera in Two Acts
Orchestration:
2(pic)2(ca)2(bcl)2/4221/timp.1perc/pf.hp/org(in pit);small portable onstage organ; str
SATB Chorus; boy soprano; three additional children’s voices
The opera is accomplished [and] dramatically effective. …Many composers…could learn from Mr. Picker's know-how about the theater. An American Tragedy…works as an opera. The cast seemed to relish singing Mr. Picker's opera... and whole stretches of Mr. Picker's score would not be out of place in a Broadway theater...[C]ritics and opera buffs who want the Met to do its part to make opera a living art form have to be heartened that it presented this work, and that an audience on Friday gave a prolonged ovation to a living composer.
–Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times
[An American Tragedy] hits the mark....There are vernacular songs and religious hymns to establish the all-American scene, lush verismo textures for the lovemaking, suave Gershwinesque tunes to convey upper classes at play, distorted genre pieces à la Shostakovich and Britten for public confrontations, and, at moments of maximum fright, burst of Berg. There's also much that's individual; Picker's harmony flirts with traditional tonality without falling prey to cliché, his orchestration achieves both transparency and power, and his crowd scenes skillfully set solo voices against a booming chorus and a churning orchestra. It's a pleasure to listen to him put one idea in front of another; a twelve-tone composer in his youth, he retains the serialist's habit of working obsessively with a tight array of notes.
–Alex Ross, The New Yorker
…the hero here is composer Picker. He knows how to write emotionally searching arias constructed with lyrically declaimed lines and phrases that echo popular song. The orchestration is full of psychologically penetrating effects. …The score's theatrical good sense is remarkable…. Few modern operas are paced as effectively as this.
–David Patrick Stearns, The
Picker's score contains lush, singable, flowing music. …Gene Scheer's libretto is, to a fault, literate and considerate of composer, singer and audience. …The opera does a strong job of setting the scene. Picker's inexorable stream of lyric music acts like a society. It has a mind of its own and can't be stopped. [A]rias, duets, trios and ensemble numbers…seamlessly connect to a thread of arioso.
–Mark Swed,
The music is tonal and accessible, with lots of big arias to show off its principal characters, choral numbers for contrast, even dance music. …Mr. Picker’s deft musical scene changes gave the piece a cinematic flow.
–Heidi Waleson, Wall Street Journal
[Picker] is a natural opera composer, who is supremely comfortable writing for voice and who also -- mirabile dictu! -- knows how to write for orchestra so that it rarely drowns out the words. –Patrick Smith, Musical America
Tobias Picker is very much a man of the theater. …An American Tragedy deserves to find a comfortable place in the permanent repertory.
–Robert Levine, Classics Today
An American Tragedymay be the perfect modern opera for people who hate modern opera.
–Martin Bernheimer, The Financial Times
[O]pera companies will want An American Tragedy.
–Jay Nordlinger, The
…in Act II of Tobias Picker’s new opera…the elements of music, drama and stagecraft unite to create a scene of rare emotional power.
–Mike Silverman, Associated Press
Composer Note
Based on a true story, Theodore Dreiser’s novel An American Tragedy is one of American literature’s great, universal subjects. The central character Clyde Griffiths is Everyman, and his dilemma is at the heart of the American experience, a dilemma as timely today as it was when the work was written.
George Stevens, director of A Place in the Sun, the famous film adaptation of this novel, once commented: "The greatness of An American Tragedy lies in the fact that it is all things to all people...In the main this might have been the love story of any Johnny or Mary in America...Dreiser was factual; a man of great compassion, a tremendous realist...he made his central character, Clyde Griffiths, one of the most fascinating and controversial figures in literature. You can spend weeks debating Clyde’s guilt or innocence, his legal immorality over his spiritual immorality.”
The real life people upon whom Dreiser’s characters were based also echo throughout the pages of the entire opera. They are the haunting spirits that made the story and the writing of the music "real" for me. The heartbreaking, handwritten letters of Grace Brown, the tragic real life factory worker Dreiser brings us so painfully close to, inspired me to give them song as they are projected onto the stage in all their endless optimism and sorrow.
In this land of hope and boundless promise, how do we as Americans find the balance between the God "we trust" and our quest for wealth and the perfect love? How do we negotiate the sharp corners of this most dramatic of all emotional triangles? What is our moral duty versus our need to realize The American Dream, especially when confronted with powerful passions in a fundamentally religious society and a materialist culture? What anchors us as Americans and ultimately as human beings? How do we maintain our moral duty when we are magnetized by desire?
Librettist Note
Writing a libretto based on Theodore Dreiser’s classic novel An American Tragedy posed significant challenges as well as exciting possibilities. The novel explores central aspects of the American character through a powerful story of passion, desire and tragedy, perfect elements for an operatic treatment. It also features, however, a group of deeply flawed characters, all of whom struggle to resist the cultural currents which ultimately dictate the choices they make.
Biography
Tobias Picker’s Homepage: www.tobiaspicker.com
www.anamericantragedy-theopera.org
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