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L Y R I C O P E R A O F C H I C A G O
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December 7, 2015 - January 17, 2016
America as a mine for a musical language that would lend itself
geographically to this piece?” Uultimately, conductor Miguel
Harth-Bedoya recommended Jimmy López to me when we were
on tour in Scandinavia.
How do you view your role in the piece’s development?
I’ve tried to be helpful with vocal writing, providing variety, a
reasonable range and tessitura, and a balance between declama-
tory and lyric style. The lyric component is the melodic and more
musical line, and declamatory expression is the equivalent of
intoning text. Many composers get stuck on one or the other, or
they don’t write interludes that give the audience and the singer
a break. There are so many pitfalls. Having sung a lot of new
music, my major contribution to the piece is really as a singer.
I honestly believe that composing a great opera with the vast
number of elements involved, in a long, dramatic genre, is some
kind of miracle!
JIMMY LÓPEZ,
composer
Ann Patchett’s novel is based on real-life events that you remember.
At the time of the Lima hostage crisis [1996-97] I was 18 years old.
The country was in a terrible situation financially, and its internation-
al standing had been going down in the late ’80s. By the early ’90s
we’d thought terrorism had been defeated, so by the time the hostage
crisis happened, everyone believed this was unthinkable – that’s why
it took everyone by surprise.
During those four months, everyone was wondering what was
going on inside – no one really knew. This is what the novel exploits
so well, and it’s the core of the story: the fact that the terrorists were
very young, and many of the hostages were highly educated older
people. They started bonding in really unexpected ways.
This is your first opera, as it is for Nilo Cruz, your librettist.
He did a fantastic job bringing this story to the stage, and I appre-
ciate his understanding and knowledge of Latin-American reality.
How much text did you have in hand when you began composing
the music?
I had a nearly-complete libretto almost before I began writing the
piece, so I could immediately start working on structure. The first
step was to write some key moments – after that, I could fill in. It’s
a luxury to have the whole story already in front of you. You want
to make sure you make the right allusions thematically, and that
you make musical connections between the beginning and the end.
You’ve had incredible support from the whole team.
Sir Andrew Davis has been involved from the very beginning. We
have {director} Kevin Newbury, who’s attended the work sessions.
And of course, Renée originated this project – it’s her brainchild.
As a composer, it’s a privilege to have her giving you advice on
vocal writing when you’re composing your first opera. She’s been
very gracious, responding to emails right away, meeting me in
New York – she’s made herself available.
How do you respond to the title
Bel Canto
?
There’s a lot of weight in the title, a tradition behind those words,
and this is an opera with an opera singer as the leading character.
Certainly that has to be taken into account when writing the music;
however, I’m not writing an opera in
bel canto
style – although
I’m not writing in a single style either! One thing I’ve always been
proud of is that I can switch styles with a certain ease. I’m looking at
past centuries, at contemporary music, and using everything I have
to deliver the story, which glues everything together.
Nilo Cruz, Jimmy López, and Kevin Newbury
at the 2014 summer workshop.
Working session: Renée Fleming with Kevin Newbury, Sir Andrew Davis, and Jimmy López.