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Sweeney Todd,
and
The Sound of Music.
While the idea of an opera company
presenting musicals might seem contradictory,
the lines between opera and musicals have always
been blurred. Renée Fleming, Lyric’s creative
consultant since 2010 and one of the forces
behind the creation of the initiative, believes
wholeheartedly that musicals and opera are not
mutually exclusive. “The Broadway musical is a
natural descendant of the European opera and
operetta tradition. With its productions of classics
like the great Rodgers and Hammerstein shows,
Lyric is celebrating music theater that is a central
part of American culture,” says Fleming.
Lyric’s general director Anthony Freud also
embraces the fluidity and ambiguity between the
two genres: “Many people have tried to define
the difference between an opera and a musical,
but I don’t think there is a truly useful distinction.
Any attempts to describe the basic characteristics
of an opera versus a musical ultimately don’t hold
water.”
However, Freud does add an important
caveat. “There are certain types of musical
theater for which an opera company – its scale,
its expertise, its range of skills – can be truly
transformational,” he notes. “But there are many
musicals, indeed the majority of musicals, to
which opera companies don’t actually bring the
skills and the experience that would benefit those
pieces.”
Taking this careful and measured approach,
Lyric selected the greatest works of Rodgers
and Hammerstein to begin the initiative. These
five masterpieces of the American musical are
perfect examples of works that benefit from an
operatic treatment.
The partnership between Lyric and Rodgers
and Hammerstein was fortuitous from the start.
“From the first meeting I had with Anthony Freud
and Renée Fleming, I was thrilled with the idea
that this major American opera company would
devote the same sort of passion and artistry to
the musicals of Rodgers and Hammerstein that
they already give to Mozart, Verdi, and Wagner,”
said Ted Chapin, president and executive
director of The Rodgers and Hammerstein
Organization: an Imagem Company, when the
series was announced. “This is the first series
of its kind. For Lyric Opera to recognize the
role that musicals from Broadway’s Golden Age
have in the world of 21st-century lyric theater
is remarkable – and a great honor for us.”
New works, new audiences, new challenges
Part of the essence of the American Musical
Theater Initiative is to expand the breadth of
repertoire that Lyric produces and to attract new
audiences to the Civic Opera House.
“Opera is and will always be the heart of why
Lyric exists,” Freud warmly reminds. “Broadening
our operatic repertoire, doing more new
productions, giving our audiences opportunities
to think about the great masterpieces as well
as introducing them to more rarely performed
Following
Sweeney Todd, Show Boat
(2011-12) was the second musical to be presented as part of Lyric’s mainstage stage.
Pictured at left are Angela Renée Simpson (Queenie) and Morris Robinson (Joe); and at right, Ericka Mac (Ellie, center).
ROBERTKUSEL
Sweeney Todd
was presented at Lyric in 2002-03, with Judith Christin as Mrs. Lovett and Bryn Terfel in the title role.
DANREST
ROBERTKUSEL