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Saturday, Nov 21, 2009
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Jake Heggie's For a Look or a Touch now on CD |
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| Jake Heggie's For a Look or a Touch now on CD | ||
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by Rod Parke -
SGN A&E Writer The fantasy was simply to have available a recording of one of the most moving operatic experiences I have known, namely out Gay composer Jake Haggie's half-hour opera, For a Look or a Touch. The CD is now available on the Naxos label, paired with Gerard Schwarz' In Memoriam (2005) and Lori Laitman's 2004 song cycle The Seed of Dream, set to poems written in the Vilna Ghetto by Abraham Sutzkever. The title of Haggie's little opera refers to how little it took to be arrested and killed in Nazi Germany for being Gay. Just a look or a touch could do it. The work was commissioned by the Seattle-based Music of Remembrance, an organization devoted to the spiritual and cultural remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust. I was privileged to see the premiere of this opera at Benaroya Hall in May 2007. Mina Miller, founder of Music of Remembrance, wrote, "For many years Music of Remembrance had envisioned commissioning a work which would address [the fate of homosexuals in the Holocaust]. Our challenge was to find a composer who could communicate its moral and historical importance, and do so in a way that would be intimate rather than didactic. When I came to know Jake Heggie's music (operas Dead Man Walking, The End of the Affair), I knew immediately that we had found the perfect composer for this work. I am so impressed by the emotional honesty of his writing, and by how expressively his music captures complicated human relationships. Jake Haggie has been a wonderful collaborator, and For a Look or a Touch reflects his heart as well as his genius." I quote Mina Miller because she is one of the most articulate people I have ever met and because she knows what she's talking about. She also knows musicians and always manages to get top-flight people to perform at MOR's concerts. (See www.musicofremembrance.org.) This was especially true on this occasion. And, characteristic of Mina, intensity was a prominent element in each performer. The work is scored for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano to support the singers. Baritone Morgan Smith (a striking and excellent Don Giovanni at Seattle Opera) was perfect to sing and act the part of the young Manfred, the actual person who was murdered at Auschwitz with his entire family. Morgan's performance could not have been more beautiful or moving, both for his gorgeous voice, invisible technique, and stunning appearance. Seattle Opera favorite Julian Patrick (Napoleon, Alberich, etc.) here acted the part of Gad Beck, Manfred's lover, who survived the Holocaust and in this work, at age 80, is visited by Manfred's ghost. The work dramatizes what remembering their teenaged love affair does to Gad. At first he resists the pleas of Manfred to remember, for Gad has succeeded for decades in stuffing those memories away from his consciousness to avoid the pain of his loss. One senses the price he has paid for the effort of forgetting. As Manfred gradually wins, as Gad finally embraces these memories, both the joy and the pain, the healing and newfound wholeness to Gad's life is palpable and irresistible. Gad embraces Manfred's ghost and they dance together. Fortunately the recording captures much of this emotional effect. This story is based on a remarkable, compelling film, Paragraph 175, which was the German law outlawing homosexuality. That film, available on DVD, provides living testimony from several Gay men, including Gad, who survived the concentration camps and are in their 70s, 80s, and 90s, telling stories they thought they would never be able to tell. (No one wanted to hear their stories after WWII; after all, homosexuality was still illegal in Germany until 1970.) I highly recommend both the CD of For a Look or a Touch and the DVD (narrated by Rupert Everett and available from Netflix). And I am grateful to MOR for commissioning such a fine work and thus alerting me to the excellence of their work. CDs can be ordered online at www.musicofremembrance.org or by calling 206-365-7770. Reviewer Rod Parke can be reached at rmp62@columbia.edu. |
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