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

continued from page 32

