THREE DECEMBERS (formely LAST ACTS) PRODUCTION REVIEWS

OPERA TODAY, Wes Blomster (July 12, 2010)

Three Decembers is a modern masterpiece, and it documents the unusually intense collaboration between Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer, his partner also in Moby-Dick. It is a triumph for Central City…

…Heggie’s voice remains his own – closer here to Broadway than the Met. That, however, is of little concern. It is music that speaks to the heart; it provokes feeling and demands emotional reaction. He is clearly America’s No. 1 opera composer.

CHICAGO TRIBUNE, John von Rhein (May 10, 2010)

Three Decembers may be closer in letter and spirit to a musical comedy than it is to opera, but what of that? It’s sharp and witty and poignant, and it gave Chicago Opera Theater an engaging crowd-pleaser with which to wrap up its spring season…

Heggie has provided smart, simple, accessible music to flesh out he characters’ tangled emotions, with long stretches of instrumentally-driven parlando giving way to tender lyrical episodes. The score reminds you how achingly expressive a simple song can be. Heggie loves the singing voice and he writes beautifully for singers, which is more than can be said, alas, for many contemporary composers.

DENVER POST, Kyle MacMillan (July 13, 2010)

Like earlier works by Heggie, such as Dead Man Walking, the music here is tuneful and expressive, with his usual affinity for the human voice. But the composer’s complex uncompromising language gives the score backbone and never allows it to sink into sentimentalism.

OPERA NEWS, Mark Thomas Ketterson (May 8, 2010)

…the opera provides a vastly rewarding evening of music drama and aptly demonstrates a raison d’etre for Heggie’s viability as an opera composer: his music is primarily character-driven. Time and again, we are aurally reminded of someone’s affective experience… Heggie’s people move us because they have musical souls.

OPERA ONLINE.US, R. Todd Shuman (May 8, 2010)

Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer have created a first-rate modern American work that proves that the new American opera is alive and well…

CHICAGOCRITIC.COM, Tom Williams (May 10, 2010)

It is so lovely to come across a new, vibrant modern chamber opera that both enchants and soothes. So is the case with Jake Heggie’s Chicago premiere of Three Decembers…the finest modern opera I’ve seen. Who said that no one is writing enchantingly wonderful new operas? See Jake Heggie’s marvelous new work, it’ll dazzle you. The opening night audience gave Three Decembers a roaring standing ovation. It sure deserved it. Add Three Decembers to your list of “must see” operas.

ARTS HOUSTON MAGAZINE, John DeMers

“… it’s hard to imagine any work in recent years that has filled us with so much hope for the survival of the art form. Heggie, you see, is willing and able to grapple with opera as musical theater, as he did triumphantly in Dead Man Walking… With Last Acts, he not only returned to straightforward (and deep) human emotions but perhaps pointed to ways opera itself might find and delight a new audience…he kept the cast small [and] kept the orchestra for Last Acts tiny as well, and even played one of the two pianos himself, with a dexterity and sensitivity that recalled those scratchy recordings of Gershwin playing his stuff. The libretto by Gene Scheer is lovely: funny, sad, candid, painful, and sporting a few modern expletives that (humorously) never showed up on the HGO surtitles … The ensemble pieces for two or even all three singers are heartbreaking in their lilting harmonies. Most sounded like lullabies written to sing angels to sleep, with extraordinary orchestrations to match, and they were sung as such by von Stade with lyric baritone Keith Phares, making his HGO debut as son Charlie, and soprano Kristin Clayton as troubled daughter Beatrice. Last Acts is intimate, thought-provoking, clearly heartfelt by all concerned and touching from beginning to end”

“Keith Phares [Charlie] delivered a powerfully affecting, high-flying solo without a trace of self-pity, and joined Kristin Clayton [Beatrice] at act’s end for a deeply moving, beautifully sung duet about the memory of their father. This was moving stuff, and arguably one of the high points in a score filled with pleasures … Act Two gives way to Beatrice’s demons and Ms. Clayton is up to the challenge, with a bountiful lyric voice and spot-on projection throughout the range … Any opera featuring the luminous mezzo Frederica von Stade (“Madeline Mitchell”) at its center already has a lot going for it. The good news is that she is not only still a classy, beautiful, consummate artist, but she is also singing very very well … And our composer has given her some wonderful musical moments that play to all her interpretive strengths. She charms, she rants, she belts, she caresses, she provokes, she soothes, and she pours out phrase after phrase of plangent sound … The music was typically tuneful, dramatic Heggie. In addition to the afore-mentioned set pieces, there were several hauntingly lovely motifs that caught the ear. Mme. von Stade had a wonderful scena when she reveals all about dad, and there were two sinuously intertwining trios that were achingly beautiful. Each character had a telling, well-considered monologue. And our composer sure knows how to deliver comedic punch lines with well-paced set-up and accurate pay-offs. [Director Leonard Foglia] placed the chamber orchestra on stage at the top level of some stepped platforms, making good, varied use of this playing space, to include raising and lowering actors and set pieces on the hydraulic pit apron. But it was not just flash and dazzle and sleight of hand from our director. Add to the above an unerring sense of communicating character relationships, and a clarity in relating the story line, resulting in our being treated to some uncommonly fine acting.”

“Conceived and written for Frederica von Stade, the principal role of Madeline is admirably created for her. In great form and invested 200% in the work, the American mezzo delivered, at more than 62 years old, a performance overflowing with charm, chic and emotion. The music has the merit of being eminently singable with an immediate melodic charm. The orchestration is enveloping, with beautiful moments as in Charlie’s second act monologue, with a declamation approaching Britten, or the air – which becomes a duo – in which Beatrice brings up the memory of the father who disappeared, or even the savvy musical comedy piece that launches Madeline …. Baritone Keith Phares and soprano Kristin Clayton were perfect.”
 

“Heggie pays homage to the legendary mezzo [Frederica von Stade] in his latest work, Last Acts, a two-hour exploration of a sorely dysfunctional family, begun as Some Christmas Letters, a 1999 play by Terrence McNally… When Heggie is on stage there’s no Capriccio-style clamour about words versus music. He’s a setter of words, a composer first of songs, then of operas and musical scenes in which the text comes first. The new score is smooth and flows without huge ups and downs; an occasional nudge of dissonance might have made listeners more aware of the finely-wrought music they were hearing. Heggie makes it too easy, drawing them into the story with a refined sense of theatre and allowing them to overlook the sophisticated music he has written … In the well-balanced score each of the children has a major solo scene. Heggie writes ‘big’ music, even when composing for chamber forces. Last Acts is lush and listenable, warm and warming; it’s accessible and affirmative in gesture.”