From: NewLGVoice@aol.com Date: Sun, 4 Feb 1996 20:22:29 -0500 Subject: Submission: "Four Saints" -- a gay opera from the past speaks to our time A Submission From THE NEW LESBIAN AND GAY VOICE 1747 "S" Street, Northwest Washington, DC 20009 Telephone: (202) 483-1311 Facsimile: (202) 265-9737 Internet: NEWLGVOICE@AOL.COM 830 words, "Four Saints" opera advance. If interested contact the author directly,, Gary N. Reese Austin, Texas/ (512) 447-6408 ------------------------------------------------------------- This submission by the New Lesbian and Gay Voice is directed primarily to the lesbian and gay print media, as a means of distributing articles of possible interest to their readers. New Lesbian and Gay Voice prefers to distribute and communicate by Internet: It's cheaper and easier. Therefore, where practicable, please utilize our address for all communications, and, if you are aware of any lesbian or gay print media that has a e-mail address, please let us know. 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Our goal is to improve the already high quality and scope of the lesbian and gay press by providing unconventional articles and points of view that might otherwise not be available. ******** NEW YORK POINTS, PLEASE NOTE: This production of "Four Saints" will be part of the inaugural Lincoln Center Festival 96 this summer. Artist photographs and performance photographs may be obtained by contacting Jo LaBrecque-French or Siegfried Schoen at the press office of Houston Grand Opera; (713) 546-0240; 510 Preston, Houston, TX 77002-1594; fax: (713) 228-4355 "Four Saints" -- a gay opera from the past speaks to our time By Gary N. Reese HOUSTON -- Exactly one year ago, Houston Grand Opera was feverishly putting the final touches on a world premiere, "Harvey Milk," based on the life of the late San Francisco city supervisor and gay rights activist, the first grand opera in history with homosexuality as its principal theme. Now, HGO is back with another "gay" opera, but this time it is not the protagonist, but the creators of the work who make it so -- librettist Gertrude Stein and composer Virgil Thomson. "Four Saints in Three Acts" is receiving its first major American production since its premiere more than 60 years ago with a new design and staging by Robert Wilson on Friday, Jan. 26. This production will be seen later this year as part of the inaugural Lincoln Center Festival 96. Wilson, one of the most sought-after opera designers and directors in the world, staged Wagner's "Parsifal" in Houston in 1992 and helped create the avant-garde theater piece, "Einstein on the Beach," with Phillip Glass in 1976. The conductor is Dennis Russell Davies, a leading proponent of modern music, who also will conduct the work later this year at the Lincoln Center Festival in New York City. "Saints" marked a turning point for American musical theater, but over the years, it has become a work that is more heard about than heard. Stein and Thomson, two American expatriates living in Paris, conceived of the opera in early 1927. They settled on the subject of 16th century Spanish saints, because, as Thomson later wrote, "we saw among the religious a parallel to the life were leading, in which consecrated artists were . . . channeling their skills without loss of inspiration." They chose two historic figures for the cast -- Theresa of Avila and Ignatius Loyola. "Miss Stein liked the saints because they were Spanish, I liked them for being powerful," Thomson wrote. Thomson used Stein's text, which employs repeated words and phrases, as the basis for a tuneful and harmonically consonant composition. From the beginning, the pair's approach to their material was unorthodox; Thomson even set some of Stein's stage directions to music. His score evokes modern Spanish dance and American military marches, waltzes, gospel and the Southern Baptist hymns of the composer's native Missouri. And his music anticipates the minimalism of our own time, like that of Wilson's celebrated collaborator in past theatrical projects, Phillip Glass. It was seven years before "Saints" made it to the stage. Thomson and Stein feuded and broke off their relationship in 1931. Eventually, they made amends, financing for the work was secured, and the premiere took place in Hartford, Conn., in 1934 with an all-black cast, whom Thomson had recruited in Harlem. "They alone possess the dignity, the poise, and the lack of self-consciousness, that proper interpretation of opera demands," Thomson declared. "A knockout and a wow," the critic Carl von Vechten wrote back to his friend Stein, who had stayed home in Paris with Alice B. Toklas. From Hartford, the production moved to Broadway, where it played the Great White Way for six weeks, the longest continuous run an American opera had enjoyed on Broadway up to that time (although in a few short years, Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess" would claim that distinction). "Saints" has drawn other illustrious collaborators over the years as well. John Horseman, who became famous later in life in the TV series, "The Paper Chase," was the opera's original producer and director. Frederick Ashton, at the time a young English dancer, fashioned the work's choreography; Ashton later became director and principal choreographer for Britain's Royal Ballet. And a 1952 New York revival of "Saints" -- which also employed an all-black case -- saw the first professional appearance in a minor role of a young Julliard student named Leontyne Price. Houston's cast, which will be racially mixed, is headed by the renowned American soprano Ashley Putnam in the role of St. Theresa I. Mezzo Suzanna Guzman, last heard in Houston's 1994 production of "Carmen," returns as St. Theresa II. Baritone Sanford Sylvan, who created the role of Chou En Lai in Houston's 1987 world premiere of "Nixon in China," will sing the role of St. Ignatius. Soprano Nicole Heaston sings St. Settlement, and other principal case members include: tenor Gran Wilson as St. Chavez, mezzo Marietta Simpson as the Commere, and bass Wilbur Pauley as the Compere. Remaining performances are at 7:30 p.m. Feb 7 and 9. The non- literal, highly imagistic work lasts 91 minutes; there will be no intermission, and the opera will be performed in English without surtitles. Ticket prices range from $15 to $75; orders may be placed by phone at 227-ARTS, or toll-free at 1-800-828-ARTS, or in person at the Wortham Center's ticket lobby or the courtyard level of Jones Hall, or at all TicketMaster locations. -30- A review on "Four Saints in Three Acts" and "La Boheme" also is available.