Florentine Opera Draws Curtain on ‘Idiot’s Delight’
By Tom Strini, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Apr. 13–The Florentine Opera has abandoned its “Idiot’s Delight” project, a proposed opera after Robert Sherwood’s 1935 play. William Bolcom, an acclaimed composer who has had two major successes at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, was to have written the music. Arnold Weinstein was in the early stages of writing the libretto when he died, in September of 2005.
The plan, announced in March 2004, was to premiere “Idiot’s Delight” as a chamber opera at the Pabst Theater during the 2005-’06 season. The show had a connection to the Pabst, as Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne starred in the play there in 1937. The play, an odd blend of screwball comedy and anti-war polemic, was later made into a movie starring Clark Gable and Norma Shearer. William Florescu, the Florentine’s general director, inherited the project from his predecessor, Dennis Hanthorn.
“Once Arnold died, the steam went out of ‘Idiot’s Delight,’ ” Florescu said. “When I talked with Bill Bolcom, I felt that he was relieved to have it off his shoulders.”
In an e-mail, Bolcom confirmed that impression. He wrote that Weinstein had conceived the leading roles as vehicles for soprano Joan Morris, Bolcom’s wife, and ragtime pianist-singer Max Morath. Morath, another old Bolcom friend, would play opposite Morris as Harry Van. The high-water mark for the effort, which was budgeted at $1.2 million, came in May of 2004, when Bolcom, Morris and Morath came to town to perform some in-progress bits for donors. The pitch worked; two major donors stepped up to support the project, which also attracted grant money from Opera America, a national service organization.
Florentine officials in both administrations tried to nudge Weinstein and Bolcom away from casting Morris and Morath. Morath’s rare skill set, as an on-stage singer-pianist, would have made it unlikely for the opera to have a life beyond its first production. Florentine managers were also concerned about the advanced age of the proposed principals.
In his e-mail, Bolcom showed that he understood those concerns: “It also has to be admitted that the project as I envisioned it would have been better done about 20 or so years ago, when we were all younger!”
Still, he would have forged ahead, had Weinstein left him a viable libretto.
“We had to extract everything we could find off his computer after he died,” Bolcom wrote. “He had never solved many of the serious problems the script had, but insisted the libretto was finished. It proved to be far from that . . . . Joan and I cobbled together as workable a script as we could, and I began to compose, got about 25 pages of vocal score, and came to a dead stop. There was no way to go on.”
Bolcom said that he was grateful the Florentine had no rancor over the advance (of $46,500) it paid for “Idiot’s Delight.”
“I never saw any of that money . . . but it did keep Arnold’s body and soul together at the last,” Bolcom wrote.
The Florentine had raised about $160,000 for the project. Florescu said that the donors and Opera America, instead of asking for their money back, were keen to direct it toward an alternative commission. The Florentine has taken up “Rio de Sangre,” a Spanish-language tale about the downfall of an idealistic politician in a small Latin American country. Kate Gale is the librettist and the composer is Don Davis. Davis, born in Anaheim, Calif., in 1957, has composed orchestral and choral works and various sorts of chamber music. He has also written extensively for TV and films and is best known for his scores for the “Matrix” trilogy.
Florescu said that work on “Rio de Sangre” is far along and that he expects it to be on the Marcus Center Uihlein Hall stage in 2010, as an opera in three acts for an orchestra of 62 players.
E-mail Tom Strini at tstrini@journalsentinel.com.
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