Two of the Bay Area's best-loved musical artists, composer Jake Heggie (Dead Man Walking) and mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, reunite for this poignant new chamber opera, based on a play by Terrence McNally (Master Class). Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer use operatic ensembles and Broadway-style solo numbers to explore the loving but often-strained relationship between a famous actress and her two grown children, one of whom is a gay man whose partner is dying of AIDS. The ten-piece instrumental ensemble features two pianists intimately familiar with Heggie's gift for lyricism: conductor Patrick Summers and the composer himself.
Three Decembers (Last Acts) made its world premiere in Houston last March to the delight of audiences and critics:
"Jake Heggie...has a true gift for soaring and meaningful melody, a great ear for orchestral effects, a talent for picking good source material, and a knack for crafting affecting melodrama (in the best sense of that word) that can move an audience to tears...the luminous mezzo [Frederica] Von Stade [is] a classy, beautiful, consummate artist...She charms, she rants, she belts, she caresses, she provokes, she soothes, and she pours out phrase after phrase of plangent sound."
-Opera Today
This special production is a co-production with Houston Grand Opera and Cal Performances presented at Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley.
Two of the Bay Area's best-loved musical artists, composer Jake Heggie (Dead Man Walking) and mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, reunite for this poignant new chamber opera, based on a play by Terrence McNally (Master Class). Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer use operatic ensembles and Broadway-style solo numbers to explore the loving but often-strained relationship between a famous actress and her two grown children, one of whom is a gay man whose partner is dying of AIDS. The ten-piece instrumental ensemble features two pianists intimately familiar with Heggie's gift for lyricism: conductor Patrick Summers and the composer himself.
Three Decembers (Last Acts) made its world premiere in Houston last March to the delight of audiences and critics:
"Jake Heggie...has a true gift for soaring and meaningful melody, a great ear for orchestral effects, a talent for picking good source material, and a knack for crafting affecting melodrama (in the best sense of that word) that can move an audience to tears...the luminous mezzo [Frederica] Von Stade [is] a classy, beautiful, consummate artist...She charms, she rants, she belts, she caresses, she provokes, she soothes, and she pours out phrase after phrase of plangent sound."
-Opera Today
This special production is a co-production with Houston Grand Opera and Cal Performances presented at Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley.
PART ONE (1986)
Scene 1: in San Francisco, Hartford and Barbados
Madeline Mitchell's two children, Charlie (26) and Bea (28), are on the phone with each other. They have just received their mother's annual Christmas letter and are reading it together. Charlie lives in San Francisco with his lover, Burt, who has AIDS. Bea lives in Hartford with her husband, Syd, and their two children. Their mother (who is approaching age 50) joins in from Barbados, where she is spending Christmas prior to the start of rehearsals for her first Broadway musical. She is a famous, glamorous and beloved American actress who has always put her career first. Her children are alternately amused and horrified by her.
We learn that Charlie and Bea's father died in a car accident when they were 5 and 7 years old. They hold loving feelings, but can hardly remember anything about him. They learn that before they were born, Maddy and their father walked across the Golden Gate Bridge at Christmas. At the end of the letter, Maddy sends love to Syd and the kids, and also tells Charlie to send a hug to "Curt." Charlie is furious and tells Bea it has always been a struggle for him to deal with his mother's homophobia, which is why he moved far away from her to San Francisco. He refuses to go see his mother in her new show, but he asks Bea to come visit him and she agrees. We see that Bea has a white wine habit.
Scene 2: in Barbados and on a Broadway stage
Maddy is in Barbados at a splendid Christmas party and leading everybody in a jolly carol. She's asked to sing a song and offers the eleventh-hour number from the new Broadway show she's starring in. Halfway through the number, the scene changes and we are at an actual performance of the Broadway show. Maddy brings the house down.
Scene 3: backstage after a Broadway performance
Bea joins Maddy backstage after the performance. Maddy is ecstatic and Bea compliments her. There are indications that things are not going well with Bea's marriage, but she changes the subject and ask about her dad. Bea thinks about him all the time. She tells Maddy that she and Charlie plan to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge to remember things about him. This makes Maddy slightly uncomfortable, and then Bea decides to chastise her mother about her behavior toward Charlie. She indicates that Charlie needs his family, especially now that Burt is so sick. Maddy believes Charlie doesn't want her in his life. Bea gets angry and reminds her mother that she was never there for them as children. Maddy tells her that she had to work. One day a car pulled around a corner and killed their father and suddenly she was left alone to raise two young children. In the telling, she accidentally makes a mistake in the details of the accident, and then she bursts in to tears. Bea is curious about the mistake Maddy made.
Scene 4: the Golden Gate Bridge
Bea and Charlie are walking on the Golden Gate Bridge. The wind is fierce and invigorating. Charlie notices a big diamond on Bea's finger and once again, Bea wants to change the subject. She asks if Maddy and Charlie have spoken. He indicates that Maddy's homophobia offends him and he doesn't believe she really cares about him at all. Bea tries to assure him that she does care, but has doubts about it all herself. The wind dies down. Bea asks Charlie what he remembers about their father and the two sing a duet filled with yearning and loss, about their vague memories of "the man in a chair."
PART TWO (1996)
Scene 1: in San Francisco
Charlie is surrounded by boxes filled with Burt's clothes. He is thumbing through a journal he started the day Burt died, just seven weeks earlier. He tries to write four lines of poetry each day to remember him, but they turn into curses, prayers and lists. His mother has convinced him that today is the day to send all the boxes away and he is struggling with his grief and loneliness. We learn that Maddy actually did show up for a few hours while Burt was dying and left a note for him: "Charlie and I haven't always been the best of friends, but your love for him has given him stature. Seeing you through his eyes made me realize what I'd missed not knowing you." Charlie is at a loss as to what comes next.
Scene 2: San Francisco, New York, Hartford
Maddy sings a lullaby that Bea and Charlie's father used to sing to them. Halfway through there is a phone call between Bea and Maddy in which we learn that Maddy's been nominated for another Tony Award. She wants her children to come to the awards with her. She'll help Bea get dolled up. She also remarks that she understands Charlie's grief, but Bea's sorrow is a mystery. Bea ends the phone call, and the three of them finish the lullabye as a trio.
Scene 3: Maddy's New York apartment the afternoon of the Tony Awards
Bea is alone in Maddy's apartment getting dressed. She's trying on different combinations of her mother's clothes and drinking white wine. She's filled with self loathing as she looks in the mirror. Nothing seems to work. She comments on the big diamond ring she wears, a gift from Syd after he cheated on her. She is in a loveless marriage and feels empty and lost. She thinks about her father and how she misses him so terribly. Nothing seems fun without him and if only he were here it would all be better. She drinks some more wine. Charlie enters and notices his sister's tears. She assures him it's just because she can't find an outfit she likes. Charlie tries to cheer her up and the two tear into a very funny duet about their mother, the Tonys and designer shoes. Bea goes into the closet to look for some more clothes.
Maddy enters and tells Charlie that if she wins, she plans to talk about her courageous son, his strength in the midst of his loss, and the tragedy of AIDS and how we must all unite to win. "Venceremos! We will win!" she cries. Charlie is stunned and horrified at his mother's exploitation of his personal tragedy. Bea enters the scene clapping and saying "Brava!" She's quite tipsy by now and begins to needle her mother. Maddy is having none of it on her special night and they become very confrontational. Bea asks how their beloved father ever survived Maddy's ego and selfishness. Bea only wishes she were more like her father. Maddy finally snaps. She tells Bea she is exactly like her father: a sad, sorry, drunken mess.
Maddy decides this is the time. She tells the children that their father was a lost, empty man who couldn't get work and wouldn't get help. He sat in the chair and got drunk or high and left real life to her. With Charlie's urging, Maddy tells them that there was no car accident. The father suddenly got up one night, walked to the subway, and stepped in front of an express train. He committed suicide. Bea and Charlie are thunderstruck. Bea is furious with her mother, believing her life would have been completely different if only she'd known. Charlie is angry that her mother would pick and choose the truth about their lives, when he's lived his life honestly all along. Maddy explains that she was only protecting them, trying to find an acceptable version of the truth of their lives. A big ensemble builds in intensity.
Finally, Maddy can't take it any more. She snaps into a professional mode and decides to get ready for the awards. She asks for Bea's assistance. Bea, completely furious and incredulous, tells both her mother and brother to go to hell and leaves. Charlie follows her. Maddy, alone, slowly gets dressed for the Tonys. By the end of the scene she is more glamorous and beautiful than ever.
PART THREE (2006):
Maddy's memorial at a Broadway theater
Charlie and Bea are presiding at a memorial for Maddy. She died suddenly in her sleep after writing her annual Christmas letter. Maddy, unseen to Charlie and Bea, appears as a ghost in this scene. Bea describes how hard it was to be Maddy's children. Charlie tells her this is not the time, but Maddy urges Bea and Charlie to speak their true feelings. In that moment, on the stage with all the audience watching, Bea has a sudden understanding of her mother and what she lived for. Charlie, too, has a new appreciation and understanding. They are able to wish their mother's soul, and their father's soul, rest. They quote their mother's final letter in which she wrote: "All in all, isn't life simply grand? I'm so awfully glad I showed up for it." After their goodbyes, Maddy is alone on the stage a last time. She looks about with love at the theater, the balcony, the audience, the stage, and says "curtain." The curtain falls slowly.
