34 May 2 • 2019
jn

theater
arts&life

write opera,
” says Gordon, whose earlier
attention had been given to art songs
and musical theater.
“I sent 16 of my songs to opera com-
panies and said I really want to write
an opera. It was very fruitful because
Houston Grand Opera commissioned
my first opera, the Tibetan Book of the
Dead. Next was Minnesota Opera and
Grapes of Wrath.
”
In choosing a lyricist, Gordon
approached Korie based on stage
achievements. Gordon defines the
collaboration effect as “ballad opera”
with the use of a chorus for back-
ground details.
“Steinbeck wrote journalistic chapters
in between his story chapters,
” Korie
explains. “He would write about agri-
business or weather and kind of erect
barriers that his characters would run
into in the following chapters.
“I converted these chapters to dramat-
ic music with Ricky [using the chorus]
to dramatize and set up the obstacles
like the dust itself, the [exploitation at]
used car lots and the eviction process.
”

NONFICTION OPERAS
Both Gordon and Korie share a special
interest in nonfiction opera. While
Gordon brings a sense of grief expe-
rienced through loss of family and a
longtime partner, Korie brings a sense of
politics and news experienced through a
stint in journalism.
Both have brought their Jewish sensi-
bilities into opera development.
Gordon worked on Morning Star,
about Jewish immigrants in early
20th-century New York, and 27, about
Gertrude Stein. Korie, in writing the
opera Kabbalah with Stewart Wallace,
traced the history of mystical inter-
pretation of the Bible throughout the
diaspora after spending months in
Israel with Kabbalistic communities.
With religion and history in mind,
Gordon and Korie are working on an
opera about anti-Semitism, a story of
the past and an alarm for now. The
Garden of the Finzi-Continis adapts the
book written by Giorgio Bassani and
film directed by Vittorio De Sica tak-
ing place in Italy before World War II.
In transforming Grapes of Wrath
into opera, the team made a change
to the storyline. It has to do with the
loss of a character. In the book, the
character disappears and is assumed
dead; in the opera, the death becomes

a personal sacrifice to benefit family
by removing a burden.
Both men, entering their 60s and
active in the New York gay com-
munity, readily tell about mothers
as exemplars of people establishing
careers in the arts. Gordon’
s mom, Eve
Samberg (stage name Saunders), was
a singer-comedian who entertained in
the Catskills, where he joined her as
accompanist in his teen years. Korie’
s
mom, Janet Indick, is a sculptor often
working with Jewish themes.
Gordon studied at Carnegie-
Mellon University and Korie attended

Brandeis and New York universities.
Gordon’
s visit to Detroit extends
earlier professional travels to the
state. He has conducted master class-
es at Michigan State University and
the University of Michigan, where he
recently delivered a commencement
address for graduates of the School
of Music, Theatre & Dance.
Although Grapes of Wrath is sung
in English, it will have supertitles to
give additional clarity to the lyrics.

“I like to be involved with the
supertitle projections, so they don’
t
distract,” Korie says. “I want audi-
ences [essentially to experience the
opera] through the music and acting.
“It’
s up to the librettist and com-
poser these days to write dramati-
cally sound works, and supertitles
force us to be better in that regard.
Now that everyone can read it and
understand every word, it better be
good.” ■

“I like the dawning of awareness, and I feel that people begin
by watching a work that they think is historical as it catches up on
them that very little has changed.”

— MICHAEL KORIE

details
The Grapes of Wrath runs May-11-19
at the Detroit Opera House. $35-$160.
(313) 237-7464. michiganopera.org.

A scene from the opera Grapes of Wrath

Lyricist Michael Korie

JOANNA MORRISEY

Composer Ricky Ian Gordon

GREG DOWNER

KEN HOWARD

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