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Theodor Uppman Remembers Jonathan Wade

By Robert Wilder Blue

Theodor Uppman Photo by Jean Uppman

USOperaWeb had the pleasure of speaking to the great American baritone Theodor Uppman about creating the title role in Carlisle Floyd's The Passion of Jonathan Wade. We had warned him in advance that we wanted to talk about something that took place almost forty years ago, so Ted and his wife Jean put their heads together and recalled for us meeting Floyd and singing in the original New York City Opera production of Jonathan Wade.

"I was on a recital tour through the south and one of the recitals was at Florida State University, where Carlisle Floyd was teaching. He came back to see me after the recital and told me he was writing an opera, The Passion of Jonathan Wade. He thought Jonathan would be a wonderful character for me and told me he would be very pleased if I could do it. I thought to myself, if it's Carlisle Floyd who is asking, of course I'd be very interested! I told him I thought he was a wonderful composer and that I'd love to do it.

"I remember at the time we were in rehearsals for Jonathan, I was also at the Met doing Die Fledermaus for the first time, and I was running back and forth between rehearsals at the Met and City Center. Working on a new opera was an amazing process. Changes were being made every day and all of us felt that we were under more pressure than we wanted to feel. I think it's such a disgrace that American operas were done this way so often. They never got themselves settled for the performances. This was one of those instances. We could have stood a good deal more time to prepare. But I thought it was still a very good performance in many ways.

"The libretto was very good. Carlisle writes his own libretti and he writes as well as any person I can think of. I remember trying my best to fit into the character. I felt it suited me very well, musically and dramatically. It was always important for me to understand at all times what I was doing on stage, in every role I sang. But, it wasn't difficult for me to be Jonathan Wade. I was a Northerner and sympathetic with the people in the South. It's the same anywhere there is the tragedy of people not being able to understand each other. Sympathy and understanding for other people are traits I have as a person, I believe, so I felt comfortable with those aspects of the role.

"The music was difficult and I spent a lot of time learning it. I think Carlisle was trying not to be too tied to lyricism. And, the piece needed dissonance. It was hard to sing though, it wore you out. Carlisle's music is not easy. In Susannah there is a lot of difficult music. The range is extreme and there are moments where things must be sung with complete abandon because of the hopelessness of the situation. That is difficult for the singer.

Theodor Uppman as Billy Budd, 1951

"What a cast that was! Looking over the original program now, I had forgotten how many wonderful people there were in the cast: Patricia Brooks, Tom Paul and, of course, Phyllis [Curtin] and Norman [Treigle], and all the others I knew so well and admired so much in those days. Many of them are not remembered so well by the larger public now. Later, I did Così fan tutte and Die Fledermaus with Phyllis at the Met.

"Phyllis and I went to Houston for the premiere of the revised version of Jonathan Wade. It was a completely different opera. Phyllis and I kept looking at each other, saying, 'do you remember that?'. Carlisle rewrote almost the entire opera and left very little of the original version.

Uppman made his professional debut with the San Francisco Symphony under Pierre Monteux, singing Pelléas to the Mélisande of Maggie Teyte in a concert performance of Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande. Pelléas would become one of Uppman's most well-known roles. He was a leading baritone at the Metropolitan Opera from 1953 to 1978 and among his many roles there he was particularly beloved as Papageno in Mozart's The Magic Flute. In all the roles he assumed, Uppman was known for his total identification with the character. Virgil Thomson wrote "he was singing Pelléas and he was being Pelléas."

Uppman comments, "Papageno and Pelléas fitted my nature very well. I didn't do any real special preparation to understand the roles. Papageno was something I loved doing because it had a happy meaning. I had the wonderful opportunity of working on Papageno with Bruno Walter. He loved the role and the opera. I always had a feeling that Dr. Walter was an extension of Mozart. He seemed to have known him, as a neighbor, so to speak. He had such strong feelings about everything that Mozart did.

"Of course, the role most associated with Mr. Uppman is the title character in Benjamin Britten's great opera Billy Budd (based on the Herman Melville novel to a libretto by E. M. Forster and Eric Crozier). Uppman created the title role in London in 1951 and sang in the U.S. premiere of scenes from the opera, which took place on a 1952 NBC Opera Theater telecast.

"Billy Budd was something I loved from the beginning because Britten, to me, felt the story so deeply and found the right sound to tell it. But, at the time, I was very disappointed in the video. I had just come from London where I had sung the role on stage. It was different to do it on television. I didn't feel I had the freedom I had on stage, which bothered me. And of course they began cutting the piece. We had to do it in ninety minutes, which was very difficult. I felt very much for the people who had to do the cutting. They asked Ben if he would do it but he wouldn't even think about it. He said it would be like maiming his own child. Finally, though, he gave them permission to cut, but told them they must not call it Billy Budd; it had to called Scenes from Billy Budd. Looking at it today, I'm very happy I did it. It was a very good performance. I thought everyone in the cast was wonderful. It is the only document available today that shows what I was like in those days. I still hear from people who saw that original telecast and say they have never forgotten it. It was something that was so absolutely tantalizing and beautiful."

VAI Audio recently issued The Art of Theodor Uppman, a compact disk containing selections Uppman sang on his many appearances on the Bell Telephone Hour. Allan Altman writes in the liner notes that the album "documents a style of singing that has all but vanished. Since the time of these recordings, the rift between popular and classical culture has widened considerably…. But half a century ago, there existed a common ground, and one could more easily find singers who transcended categories and were appreciated by the public and critics simply as great vocal artists. Among American lyric baritones, Theodor Uppman epitomizes this ideal, combining the virtues of a 'bel canto' technique with a quintessentially American warmth and sincerity." Listening to the album, one is struck immediately by the beauty of Uppman's voice. Then one begins to be aware of a directness of communication, as if he were singing to you in your own living room. Placed among the opera excerpts are several American songs that were popular among recitalists in the 1950s and 1960s. Uppman sings them as though he were speaking to you as a friend. One hesitates even to use the word "diction" he makes the songs sound so natural, as if no special effort were being taken. We asked him if it gives him any special satisfaction singing in English.

"It certainly does. The songs on that album were done in recital, mainly as encores, and people loved them. Younger people tell me now when they hear the CD that they didn't know most of those songs. I tell them they were good songs. They might have been sung a little too much at the time, but they were good songs and should be considered today to be first-class American music." As for singing in American English, "you must sing the meaning of the words. I had two brothers who sang, both baritones. My brother John sang in the American Opera Company and traveled all over the country singing operas in English. My brother Carl sang with the San Francisco Opera, in the chorus and in minor roles. He had a lovely voice and also did recitals as well. They were both a little older than I, so I heard them sing as a child, and I heard what they did with the words. I have to give them credit."

Two generations of young baritones have come to Uppman seeking his insight into the role of Billy Budd and he has been in great demand as a lecturer and coach this year by the many companies that have scheduled 50th anniversary productions of the opera. Ted continues to teach in New York and he and Jean can be seen around the City at various musical events.