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By Robert Wilder Blue

Patrick Summers

Patrick Summers has been busy since he last spoke to USOperaWeb and, as usual, his schedule has included a number of engagements conducting operas by American composers. He recently returned from Strasbourg, France where he conducted the European premiere of André Previn's first opera A Streetcar Named Desire, a work he had conducted during its world premiere run at San Francisco Opera in 1998. "It was very interesting going back to Streetcar with some hindsight on it and without the hype of the world premiere, when the volume gets turned up very high on everybody's criticism. The totality of the critical reaction to the premiere was pretty good, but the local [San Francisco] press was very bad. But, contemporary commentators have been notoriously bad historically at predicting what's going to be a success. If we had gone by the critics we would never have seen Madame Butterfly again. Pieces take time find their place. Streetcar has become stronger as people have seen it again.

"It was nice to do it in a small theater. Streetcar always reminds me of a baroque opera because it is full of short gestures - little melodic statements and reactions, much like Monteverdi where you don't get extended arias very often but you get two or three bars of melting beauty underneath certain words and then it changes. Streetcar has an immediacy that works wonderfully in a small house. I think perhaps it can seem rather choppy in a large theater or, in the case with San Francisco, an extremely large theater. It is an opera that certainly is about grand emotions - orchestrally it is very large - but the drama is quite intimate. It's a piece that works well in European houses that are smaller but can accommodate larger orchestras. In larger theaters there are always going to be compromises, whether with Streetcar or a Monteverdi opera or something like Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio. You make different musical and dramatic choices. But I think that is true about any piece; you make different choices about Aïda if you are in an 800-seat theater rather than in a large house.

"Both the audience and critical response in Strasbourg was fantastic. For André it was a big success. Europeans don't have the same expectations of this piece as Americans do; there isn't a big connection to the film in Europe and there's almost no connection to the play. I think that made for a much clearer audience response to the opera. I thought the production was wonderful. It was wacky, very 'European' [he laughs]. (Go to production photos) It was a very nontraditional presentation by Anja Sündermann who had quite a dark take on it, rightly so, I think. It was not just the movie put on stage, it was a whole different experience. It was quite stunning and it worked very well. Although I imagine that sort of interpretation probably wouldn't go over here, at least for a while."

In August, Mr. Summers conducted Carlisle Floyd's masterpiece Of Mice and Men at the Bregenz Festival in Austria. The production by Francesca Zambello was designed by Marie-Jeanne Lecca and featured Anthony Dean Griffey as Lennie and Gordon Hawkins as George. Julian Patrick, who created the role of George in the 1970 world premiere, sang Candy. It was an tremendous success, selling out all performances and garnering long, enthusiastic ovations. The production will travel to Houston in February where Mr. Summers will conduct again; Mr. Griffey, Mr. Hawkins and Mr. Patrick reprise their roles and Elizabeth Futral will portray Curley's wife. "Of Mice and Men is enjoying a big renaissance, partially in recognition of Carlisle's long career. It's a bleak work, but one that is very moving. It is much more sophisticated orchestrally than Susannah; it's almost a symphonic work. The psychological underpinnings of the drama - the violence and the yearning - exist in the orchestra. The music is so full of longing you can really hear these two guys searching for home in it. For me it is Carlisle's deepest and darkest work. It's the ultimate tragedy: none of the characters are fulfilled at the end. It is similar to the Janácek tragic operas in that regard. It's a big ensemble opera - one that would work wonderfully at the Met or San Francisco. It worked very well in Bregenz where the theater is small, and it is perfect for the opera house in Houston where our theater is not too big nor too small. It will have the sonic grandeur it needs but you'll able to hear and see everyone.

"I think the Bregenz performances and in particular this production were a success because we were all of one mind. Francesca directed the piece with enormous clarity in the portrayals of the people and their relationships. I was so impressed with the production. It had such a stark beauty and an incredible flavor of Steinbeck in the choices of color. The reaction of the public was incredible. They were really moved by the story and the immediacy of Carlisle's music. I will never forget the opening night audience saving their standing ovation for Carlisle's appearance on stage. The question of it being an American work or a European work was pointless. Nobody cared. When you have a great experience seeing La Traviata does it matter to you that it is an Italian opera?"

American opera has taken a bashing recently from Joan Peyser in Opera News and from Stacey Kors in Financial Times. Unfortunately, the opinions of these commentators and others like them get more airtime and attention than do those of more objective observers of the American opera scene. The subtext always reads, 'Why can't American opera be more European?' We asked Mr. Summers to comment on this. "These kinds of articles are very damaging and very shortsighted, but they make for great copy. Apparently, no one is going to write an article saying that there is all this new operatic activity in the U.S. and that it's wonderful we are creating pieces of our own time. Since World War II, the idea of creating pieces that tell our stories and connect with audiences is not something that has been in our experience. New music - new operas - have been something you had to endure.

"What is always missed in this argument is that it automatically assumes the supremacy of another place and time. Well, this is the United States, not Europe. Certainly, in the romantic era there was enormous operatic activity in Europe. But it wasn't all great; it's just that the great pieces are the ones that survive. Our task as a nation filled with people from all over the world is to write about who we are now. In a hundred years the public will decide what is great. That is not our task now. No composer sets out to write a flop or a masterpiece. He or she sets out to be honest. I keep thinking of the glorious line in The Mikado when the Grand Executioner recites his list of people he could do without, including 'the person who praises with enthusiastic tone all centuries but this and every country but his own.' That is what this argument is for me.

"It's the same in the visual arts. You can't imagine the vehemence with which the people of Sydney greeted the Sydney Opera House when it was built, or the Parisians and the Eiffel Tower. Now those are beloved structures. The Sydney Opera House was an absolute scandal in Australian society and now it is viewed as one of the most beloved and recognizable buildings in the world.

"There are so many recent operas that have been great successes and are enjoying repeated productions: Streetcar, Little Women, Dead Man Walking, Cold Sassy Tree. As artists our job is to create the experiences, not to judge. I know it is irresistible for a critic to predict a masterpiece. They all want to be George Bernard Shaw. With new pieces I am conducting, I tend to remove myself from judging them and just try to make them work. With any work of depth, time is the judge."

Mr. Summers has enjoyed a long association with San Francisco Opera where he currently holds the position of Principal Guest Conductor. During his years with the Company he has been involved in almost every world premiere it presented. Pamela Rosenberg , the new General Director of San Francisco Opera, has announced that for the moment she will not continue the Company's commitment to presenting new American operas. We imagined Mr. Summers might have something to say about this. "Historically, San Francisco has been a European opera house that happens to exist in the U.S. This is extending that aesthetic. Do I think it is right or wrong? Well, I am the music director of an opera house [Houston Grand Opera] that has redefined very successfully what an American opera company can be. Is that the solution for other American companies? I don't know. I believe, however, that one of an opera company's most important tasks is to create opportunities for composers. Whether they are American or European composers doesn't matter ultimately in this very international world.

"We haven't had our Golden Age in opera here yet and we won't if we don't create opportunities for composers. There is an enormous amount of creative vitality in this country and it is important to recognize that and not continually tell American composers that their European contemporaries are better because they are European. I heard a lot of criticism leveled at Dead Man Walking always in the parlance of saying 'oh, it's so American.' That tells much more about the criticizer than the work. Why would a criticism of Dead Man Walking being American be just? It is an American story and an American drama created by an American composer and an American librettist. Why shouldn't it be American? But, that is something we have to live with as American artists.

"I don't believe much in the workshop process, having everyone sit around and criticize the piece and suggest changes as it is being created. You have to give the composer and librettist space to do their work. What does a criticism like, 'the second act libretto needed work' mean? That doesn't tell you anything, it's a pointless piece of criticism because it's so nonspecific. Every opera house has to create as much new work as it can. In Houston I have seen how that affects all the rest of the repertory: it makes everything new. The creative energy of the Company is geared toward the new so La Bohème is new when we do it because of how everyone approaches it. That's enormously important."

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) was in the news recently when it cancelled its planned world premiere of Lysistrata, Mark Adamo's second opera. The Company also announced the postponement of Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking, which it had planned for the 2002-03 season. "Lysistrata was cancelled because the opera was not finished. We would have had to bump a future commission to fit it into another season and we chose not to do that. The revival of Dead Man Walking was postponed; we won't be doing it next season but we will do it in a future season. This was a particularly painful decision because we really wanted to do it. In rescheduling it we have to coordinate many schedules and so the filming is on hold also. But, it was purely a financial decision, not an artistic one. The costs of mounting Dead Man Walking are enormous. Since September 11, our contributed income has dropped significantly and our pledges for next season have dropped as well, so we decided to deal with it sooner perhaps than other companies did. It's going to be a reality of the future I'm afraid."

What else is in the works at HGO? "We are hoping to have the world premiere of The Little Prince by Rachel Portman, which is a co-commission with the English National Opera. We'll be doing Jake Heggie's second opera, The End of the Affair. We are recommissioning Daniel Catán who wrote Florencia en el Amazonas and we are also talking with Christopher Theofanidas, a wonderful young composer who won the Prix de Rome a few years ago and who has done a lot of orchestral work."

How does the Company choose a commission? "If the composer has never written an opera before, you go by the music you hear and by how the composer reacts to words. Many composers write vocal and even instrumental music that is theatrical or operatic. It's hard to explain, but you get sense of what the composer might be capable of doing. Even if there is no singing in his or her previous work you get a sense of the drama. Every composition is a window into the psyche of the creator. You go with your gut. You take a risk and, of course, there are no assurances."

Read more on Patrick Summers
 San Francisco Opera - Biography

Photos from December 2001 Opéra National du Rhin European premiere production of Andre Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire (Un tramway nommé désir) with Barbara Havemann as Blanche DuBois and David Okerlund as Stanley Kowalski. Photos by Alain Kaiser, courtesy of Opéra National du Rhin.