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8
A Collaborative Endeavor
Composer Jimmy López, librettist Nilo Cruz, director
Kevin Newbury, creative consultant Renée Fleming,
music director Sir Andrew Davis, soprano Danielle
de Niese, general director Anthony Freud, and many
others.
As with every opera, many hands, minds, and voices have
come together to bring
Bel Canto
to the Lyric stage. And, as with every
opera, each step of the way has involved intense collaboration.
Even Ann Patchett’s writing of the novel became a collaboration of
sorts. Although she based the character of Roxane on a friend who
was an opera singer, it was Renée Fleming’s voice that she listened to
while she wrote: “I would pick the piece that [Roxane] would sing in
a particular scene…and then I would line it up on the stereo and just
have it replay 20 times while I would write the scene and try to write in
the feeling of the music.”
While Patchett set the novel in an unnamed South American country,
Jimmy López wanted to introduce a dose of history into the libretto.
His idea was “to throw in a phrase here and there, suggesting what’s going
on in the negotiations, or…the interests of each character. We have a lot
of little hints that complement the story, for anyone interested in…further
research, they will understand those references. That adds to the wealth of
the libretto.”
In their partnership, López and librettist Nilo Cruz shared a commitment
to, in López’s words, “put [their] egos aside.” There was give and take as
composer and librettist worked side by side. “I gave him ideas of what I
wanted for Carmen, for example, and then he wrote an aria for Carmen at
my request,” says López, who would sometimes memorize Cruz’s lines and
then take a walk and imagine the music that would bring them to life.
There was a similar exchange between López and stage director Kevin
Newbury, and even between López, Cruz, and Danielle de Niese who will
sing Roxane. After listening to de Niese sing, Cruz suggested extending her
aria, and de Niese had some suggestions of her own. López also relied on
what he called Fleming’s “global understanding” of
Bel Canto
. Initially,
he says, he’d thought the penultimate scene was going to be very dark
harmonically. Fleming suggested López shift the mood of the scene to one of
joy and hope to heighten the contrast with the tragic events that follow.
In López’s words, “With everyone working on this project, we’ve always had
a similar mindset in terms of what we want to achieve. Some people might
say ‘too many cooks,’ and so forth—I don’t think so. What you’re going to
hear is a very collaborative endeavor, the epitome of what collaboration is.”
If there is one remaining group of collaborators in
Bel Canto
, it is all of us—the
audience. At one point in the novel, the Russian diplomat Fyodorov says, “It is
a kind of talent in itself, to be an audience, whether you are the spectator in
the gallery or you are listening to the voice of the world’s greatest soprano.”
Patchett agrees: “I believe literature takes place between the writer and the
reader. You bring your imagination, they bring theirs, and together you make
a book…. Fyodorov was acknowledging the talent of the audience, the
importance of the person who listens, reads, sees. I believe this absolutely.
He makes a case of the audience member who has trained himself to
understand, to more fully appreciate the art.”
Left to right: director Kevin Newbury, librettist Nilo Cruz, set designer David Korins, Lyric music
director Sir Andrew Davis, costume designer Constance Hoffman, composer Jimmy López, Lyric
general director Anthony Freud.
Photo: Todd Rosenberg