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<< F O R C E S & C A S T >>
Duration: Approximately 1 Hour I’d like to thank Christopher Durang for allowing me to use his play for this work. As soon as I read it, I was sure that I needed to make it into an opera. I’m grateful that he was willing to let me try. ‘dentity Crisis was first performed at the University of California at Irvine on May 30 th, 2003. The production was directed by Robin Buck and conducted by Stephen Tucker. The cast was: Edith – Ann Noriel << D E T A I L S & E X C E R P T S >> Excerpts taken from a live recording of the premiere performance. ‘dentity Crisis (2003)
I’ve had a lot of people (starting with my parents) ask me to explain what it was about Christopher Durang’s play ‘dentity Crisis that made me want to turn it into an opera. There is no easy answer to this question, but the first time I read it I knew that I would eventually need to set it to music. There were several inherent opportunities for mischief...Robert’s many personalities, the fact that Edith is clearly insane but also fully functional and in charge of her own reality, and most excitingly to me, we never really know what is real and what is illusion. When I first started studying music at the University of Chicago, one of the areas of interest to me was the relationship between speech and music in opera. Do these opera characters really know that they are singing, or in the world that they inhabit, is singing just their version of speech, and music just part of the environment? The character of Jane offered me an opportunity to play around with these issues. Here you have a character whose sanity is the characteristic that clearly separates her from the world in which she lives. It seemed natural that Jane’s sanity would prevent her from singing her lines (except for a fantastic flashback) until she loses her sanity like everyone else around her. I wanted to explore the strain that a character would be under simply by becoming aware that everyone is singing around her and that this is not normal. The only other character with as much spoken dialogue is Mr. Summers, Jane’s psychologist, who would naturally need to be able to communicate with her on her own level. Another opportunity suggested by the play was the chance to include the "characters" of the onstage piano and cello. The never-defined, but somehow devious relationship between Jane and the cello allowed me to give Jane that instrument as an anchor for her reality, and an emotional bridge to her family. It is when Jane finally goes insane again that the cellist leaves the stage. Jane no longer needs their help. The onstage piano, mostly linked to Edith, but utilized by almost everyone, provides a link between the orchestral musicians and the characters in the story, while also providing Edith with yet another element in her world that is under her control. But mostly, I started it because it was so much fun. I love Edith’s flexible optimism and creative inventing streak. I love the fact that Robert has four personalities, but none of them are named Robert. I love that Mr. Summers and his wife don’t understand why their instant gender changes would cause a problem for Jane or anyone else. I’ve loved taking on all of the many challenges that this work presented. I hope that the end result is a work that the musicians have enjoyed playing and that the audience enjoys hearing. |
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h o m e p a g e b i o g r a p h y w o r k s l i n k s c o n t a c t |
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Copyright © 2003-2008 Jason V. Barabba. All Rights Reserved. |
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