After three weeks in New York, I have not found Jozéf. I have learned only that he went to work on a farm in a place called North DAkota. With no money, I will have to travel by foot. I found a map in the library. I know it will be an arduous journey but I am determined to find him. I must find him.
Behind every great opera lurks a great libretto. Sometimes wonderful music can mask a weak story and weak libretto (script) but, in my opinion, for an opera to achieve greatness and universal, on-going acceptance, the libretto must also be of the first rank. The poet/playwright must not only supply inspiration to the composer but also deliver to the audience a moving and literate script.
For Lillian Alling we have such a libretto – and such a librettist. I am so honoured and thrilled to be working with the esteemed Canadian playwright John Murrell, who has supplied us with a stirring, mysterious, and moving libretto for our world premiere.
John is one of Canada’s most distinguished and most frequently produced playwrights (as well as a highly regarded arts advocate, mentor, and consultant). His plays have been translated into 15 languages and performed in more than 30 countries.
His best-known plays include Memoir, Waiting for the Parade, Democracy, The Faraway Nearby, Farther West, and New World. He is also a successful translator of classic theatre texts, including works by Chekhov, Sophocles, Ibsen, and Racine. He has adapted Homer’s Odyssey for young audiences, written scenarios for new works by Ballet British Columbia and The National Ballet of Canada, and the screenplay for a recent award-winning film, The Secret of the Nutcracker, produced by CBC in collaboration with Alberta Ballet.
But let’s talk about opera! “The two Johns” – Murrell and Estacio – have developed into a wonderful operatic team. Their first opera was the celebrated Filumena (2003) produced first by Calgary Opera then the Banff Centre; it was the centrepiece of The Alberta Scene at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. Presented by the Edmonton Opera in November 2005, Filumena was filmed for CBC-TV’s Opening Night series and has twice been nationally telecast. Filumena was followed by Frobisher (2007), also produced by Calgary Opera and The Banff Centre.
I believe that allowing a creative team to develop over the creation of more than work is very important. Think of the great opera-writing teams: Mozart and da Ponte (The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, Cosi fan tutte), Verdi and Piave (Rigoletto, Macbeth, La Forza del Destino), Strauss and Hofmannsthal (Ariadne auf Naxos, Der Rosenkavalier, Elektra). They were able to work together over the course of years, learning from one another, bending to accommodate one another’s strengths, developing a cohesiveness that comes only from experience.
The team of John Murrell and John Estacio has done this, thanks to Calgary Opera, The Banff Centre and Vancouver Opera, who have given them the opportunity – the freedom – to explore this art form together. Of course, the ultimate beneficiary of this luxury is the audience. I know when we hear this opera in October we will realize that this is a team that is seasoned and in its prime. Here are two samples of John’s text for Lillian Alling, with accompanying piano/vocals from our most recent workshop.
Lillian strikes out across the country, all alone, searching for the man who went before her. She is awed by the land, its stark beauty, and its promise of freedom:
LILLIAN: The land is large and smooth and green. I hear many birds, I hear no war. Such quiet I have not heard before… A place of questions, not answers, Of mistakes they do not call sins. Here nothing, Nothing is ending. Everything, Everything begins!
The land is large and smooth and green, A quiet never heard before. Its windows are open, so is its door… A place of prairies, not gardens, Not ghettos and cities, but farms. Not sadness, Not shadows, but sunlight. Everything, Everything warms!
I walk and the land comes out to meet me. I rest and the land lies down for a while. The land stretches out its hand to greet me, Mile after mile after mile after mile…!
The land is large by day or night. A music never heard before… I hear its clear voice In the telegraph lines: “You are welcome,” it says, “Go where you will. Here everything, Everything shines!”
Later in Act One, the young farmer Kristian falls quickly and rather hard for Lillian as she passes through looking for her betrothed. He cannot convince her to stay with him awhile, and shares his frustration and loneliness:
KRISTIAN: I cannot leave my father, Though I dream of it all the time. You have traveled. Please let me ask you: Does it feel lonely, Or does it feel free? Does every new day fill you with strength, Or does it fill you with fear? I know everything about North Dakota, I know everything about here… The here and the now. But I would love to learn about what’s out there… What the future might look like…somehow. Will you stay and teach me, just a few days? When I saw you, I could see That you are traveling To find a brand-new life. I cannot believe that is with Jozéf. I cannot believe it is being his wife! (He looks at her longingly.) Lillian Alling... Lillian Alling... Lillian Alling...
LILLIAN: What is your name?
KRISTIAN: Kristian.
LILLIAN: Kristian.
I think you can tell from these two brief selections that these are beautiful and descriptive words and music. The opera is filled with such moments – moments brought to us by Canada’s foremost operatic team.
~ James W. Wright, General Director
Credits: Allison Angelo, soprano Colin Ainsworth, tenor Kinza Tyrrell, piano Recorded January 3, 2010 at the Glenn Gould Studio, Toronto Used with permission
We last left Lillian Alling at the Oakalla Prison Farm, just outside Vancouver, where she’d been incarcerated by Constable Wyman after trying to steal food from the spirited telegrapher, Scotty Macdonald, along the telegraph trail in northern BC.
As the curtain rises on Act 2, the past and the present become more entwined. It’s spring 1928 and Lillian has been released from Oakalla to find work in a café in Vancouver. She is determined to continue her search for Jozéf Nikitich Lazinsky when Scotty Macdonald appears on the scene. Meanwhile, in the present, not only is Jimmy hearing the story of Lillian ‘the mystery woman’ from his mother Irene for the first time, he has discovered a connection to his own past and his father Scotty Macdonald.
In late November, the creative team of John Estacio, John Murrell and Kelly Robinson met at Holy Rosary Hall for the final 10 day music workshop to delve into Act 2.
With singers Allison Angelo, Aaron St. Clair Nicholson, Rebecca Hass, Keith Klassen, Colin Ainsworth, Gregory Dahl, Thomas Goerz, Calvin Powell, Karen Ydenberg, Barbara Towell, Brian Lee and Willy Miles-Grenzberg and accompanied by pianists Kinza Tyrrell and David Boothroyd with music dramaturge Leslie Dala and stage manager Theresa Tsang, they dive in.
It’s exciting, focused and intense. This process demands such creative generosity and flexibility from all the participants as the new scenes are worked through one day, re-written overnight, re-worked the next day.
Here stage director Kelly Robinson works through a scene with Allison Angelo singing the role of Lillian and Aaron St. Clair Nicholson singing the role of Scotty to explore the libretto and music from all angles.
Sometimes the cuts are embraced, other times there is the realization of the power of the original inspiration, and sometimes there is still dissatisfaction and more re-working to be done. Who knew there was a ‘cutting room floor’ in opera?
~ Jennifer Lord, Special Projects Manager
Audio clip: Irene tells her son Jimmy about his dad, Scotty Macdonald
Audio clip: Scotty tracks down Lillian in Vancouver
A few weeks ago, during the performance run of Salome, we held the fourth workshop – and second music workshop – for our new, commissioned opera, Lillian Alling.
It was an exciting week, as composer John Estacio brought lots of new music to the rehearsal hall. Librettist John Murrell, stage director and dramaturge Kelly Robinson and music dramaturge Les Dala, worked with a group of singers and a pianist all day everyday probing and refining. Every evening John Estacio returned to his rooms and wrote and re-wrote and refined, bringing yet more new music to the rehearsal hall each morning!
It is an intense and energetic and exciting process!
I am a big fan of Estacio’s music. Another time I’ll go into greater detail as to why. For now, let me say that his lush sound and full bodied vocal writing, which will be amply on display throughout Lillian, is punctuated by some very different music written to give us an exact aural picture of place and time. One example is the “Tin Pan Alley-esque” ensemble for a group of Brooklyn boys circa 1920s, singing John’s “Polly from Poughkeepsie,” as they “take notice of Lillian and begin to catcall and make other bad-boy noises as they circle around… (Murrell’s description of the scene).
Another example of Estacio’s aural postcard from another time and place is the music he has written for a raucous barn dance on the Norwegian farm in North Dakota that Lillian visits on her way from New York to British Columbia. During her brief time there she meets young Kristian who – reluctantly – sends her on toward BC to meet her fiancé.
We’ll put a bit of the music from these two scenes on this site for your enjoyment. Check back soon.
LILLIAN. (Continuing a thought) This land is large and wild and fine, Such freedom I never knew before… Here, it is always all right to ask for more… But I am bound to a promise That I made long ago and far away. Until that promise is kept, Nothing – Nothing will stand in my way. SCOTTY. You promised Joseph – LILLIAN. Jozéf. SCOTTY. To be his wife – LILLIAN. More than that. My life is bound to his life. SCOTTY. He left you in the lurch twice before. LILLIAN. He did not know when I come – Or if I could come at all. Maybe he thought I would forget. Maybe he forgot – SCOTTY. That can’t be true. Not you. LILLIAN. You are a good man, Scotty, But you do not understand. SCOTTY. I understand that you owe him nothing – Nothing! Not anymore! (Getting more and more worked up) Your life is not bound to his life. If he wanted you for his wife, He would have waited in Brooklyn, He would have waited in Dakota, He would have waited in Russia Till both of you could leave! Look at me, Lillian, Do you really believe he’s waiting in Telegraph Creek? He’s been playing a game of hide-and-seek! How many more continents will you chase him across? Never mind – go on – go on and find Jozéf! Why should I care? It’s your loss! No…it’s my loss… (He stands and moves away.) LILLIAN. You do not understand. SCOTTY. (Turning to her) Then tell me!
**I've Found a Place of Pure Delight
**We Have Had The Rain
**The Land Is Large
**Kristian's Lament
***Irene tells her son Jimmy about his dad, Scotty Macdonald
**Scotty tracks down Lillian in Vancouver
**Sweet Polly from Poughkeepsie
A World Premiere Opera
In 1927, young Lillian Alling arrives in New York City from Russia in desperate search for a man named Jozéf. Penniless, she walks across North America and into the wilds of northwestern BC, following Jozéf’s elusive path.
Seeking freedom in the future but bound to a dark past, Lillian’s fierce determination and alluring mystery drive her into danger and forever change the lives of everyone she meets. Her story will take you deep into the emotional heart of love, courage, betrayal and revenge
