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Dale Duesing gives his take on
Jonathan Wade and American opera

Dale Duesing

Dashing American baritone Dale Duesing created the title role in the second world premiere of Carlisle Floyd's The Passion of Jonathan Wade. Duesing first became acquainted with Carlisle Floyd's music while attending Lawrence University. "I remember being really in love with 'Ain't it a pretty night' [from Susannah] from the Phyllis Curtin recording -- it enthralled me. Eventually, I sang The Pilgrimage, which is really for bass-baritone, but several of the songs are high and I sang them. To be honest, when my manager called me about doing the new version of The Passion of Jonathan Wade for Houston Grand Opera, I had to admit I had never heard of the opera. Some music was sent to me, I believe it was the second-act 'sleep' aria, and it was still in the pencil writing of Carlisle. I got a tape of parts of the original production with Ted Uppman and Phyllis Curtin. But comparing it to the little bit of the new version Carlisle had sent me, I could see that this opera was very revised - about 80% of the music was different. I flew to Houston and met with Carlisle and [HGO Music Director] John DeMain at Carlisle's house and sang through some of it, including the act-one "antiwar" aria. I thought it was very beautiful and I was very interested in doing it.

"It basically became a new opera. There was very little looking back because there was so little to look back at for ideas. It was as if we were doing a world premiere. It seems to me Carlisle said that he felt the first version had been written in haste, whereas that was not the case here.

"The whole sense of who Jonathan was changed. He was a much more sensitive, thoughtful personality in the new version. There was a certain strange gentleness that I didn't find in the first version. Whether Carlisle would agree or not I don't know, but that was my perception. In the first version, Celia was a much less energetic, less forceful personality. She became a stronger personality in the revision.

"I loved the role. Carlisle always portrays several sides to a character's personality. He showed a very gentle or thoughtful side of Jonathan, almost the feminine side of the personality. Jonathan talked about nature, the light and the stars. And yet at the same time he had a temper of sorts and he was willing to fight to put down the insurrection. Carlisle wasn't afraid to make the love story as much the story of Jonathan pleading for Celia as it was her longing for him. I find that quite beautiful. Jonathan has a youthfulness that is quite mesmerizing.

"I remember that there was no easy solution for the problem Jonathan faced. He was a white soldier from the North coming to bring justice to the South, and he wanted to do good but no one wanted to accept him. Whatever he did was going to wrong for someone. Carlisle talked about that too, about how you handle it when what you are expected to do is somehow morally incorrect. There was no real answer in the opera, which is just how it is in life.

"And there is the racism of the period, because of slavery, of course. Jonathan appoints a black judge who ends up being the only person who supports him. But the Judge resigns when he sees all the corruption around him and Jonathan is left alone to face his situation. The piece is really political and it brings up how we continue to judge people through the past and now.

"Carlisle Floyd is definitely a lyrical composer. From the beginning, I liked the music and had a feeling for it. I've done many modern pieces that I didn't love. But I loved doing this. It was wonderful that I got to do it in three productions [Houston, Miami and Seattle]. I felt much better as it went on; I became more and more comfortable with it vocally and emotionally. It's a long opera; I think it was 3½ hours, which is substantial. When we got to act three, I was really ready to die! There had been a lot of singing.

Dale Duesing as Jonathan Wade. Photo Courtesy of Houston Grand Opera

"I always remember the opening night because President Bush [Sr.] had just declared war, or whatever that action in Kuwait was called. I remember singing the aria about the futility of war, and you could honestly feel in the hall that everyone was thinking about our own soldiers fighting at the time. Sheryl Woods [who played Celia] and I talked about it at the time. For us, it was a bittersweet experience spending an evening on stage singing about war and death while life was literally being spent at the same time in the fields of Kuwait.

"The other thing I remember about that night was that I suddenly got a migraine during the performance and had to hold my hand against the side of my head. When I came off stage, Carlisle's assistant asked me 'What where you doing holding your head all night?' And I said that I was basically dying up there!"

Duesing has sung many new works throughout his career, including Conrad Susa's The Dangerous Liaisons (Washington, D.C., 1998) and the world premiere of Andrew Imbrie's The Angle of Repose (San Francisco, 1976). Imbrie's piece has not been seen since the premiere. "Often a decision is made by critics on one hearing that really destroys an opera. And then the word is out that it is not good and everyone believes it. That is one of the bad things about the American musical scene, that a decision is made on one hearing on the qualities of an opera or intentions of a composer that can be really damning. It's too bad for the artists as well. You learn these difficult roles and then that's it.

"I think that American opera is almost a stepchild. If a company wants to do something unusual, they will do an American opera. I would venture to say that every French company will certainly have French operas in the repertory, as will Germany and Italy. Even in the Netherlands they will put on a Dutch opera as often as possible. I don't see that happening as often in the United States. Why can't every American opera company do at least one American opera a year? The quality of some American operas is very high and should be done more.

Jonathan Wade is perhaps too big for the smaller, regional companies. It's big opera in every way, it has a huge orchestra and chorus. It's a shame because this opera needs to be done more. "After I finished the Houston performances, I went to Hamburg and I tried to push for Jonathan Wade a bit. But Europeans are not terribly enamoured with American opera except for Porgy and Bess. Vanessa has been done some and Mourning Becomes Electra was done a couple of times. But there isn't a great interest and that is a shame and it's unfair somehow given the quality of the works.

"It's important for audiences to see what we think and how we live now. That's why I like modern opera in general, it's done in today's language and it allows people to know how we act and react now. When you are hearing an opera in your own language, it connects in a different way, much more quickly, because you are understanding as you see. That's the best way for young people to be brought into opera. And if we don't get young people, we are in trouble. There is a problem when people are first exposed to opera if they are hit with another language. Seeing these new American operas has to affect people a different way, because you are getting the language with music that has been written now. That is something wonderful. It was that way in Mozart's and Verdi's time. We only help the tradition by being liberal and tolerant of the new and unfamiliar so that we can learn and grow to like it. I didn't like Bruckner ten years ago and now I love him. Our attitudes change only if we listen."