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Music Department presents New Directions in Contemporary Opera symposium

The UC Santa Cruz Music Department presented a week-long opera symposium titled New Directions in Contemporary Opera, on the university campus in early April.

Conceived and coordinated by music professor/conductor Nicole Paiement and UC Santa Cruz opera director Brian Staufenbiel, the series of panels and performances brought together scholars, composers, and performers from the professional world, as well as from such institutions as UCLA, UC Irvine, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and the University of Washington in Seattle.

UC Santa Cruz opera director Brian Staufenbiel and professor of music Nicole Paiement (Photo by Jim Mackenzie)

The events kicked off on Tuesday, April 3, with a reprise performance of renowned composer Lou Harrison’s opera, Young Caesar, by Ensemble Parallèle, under the baton of Paiement and director Staufenbiel, in the UC Santa Cruz Music Center Recital Hall. The final version of the opera had its world premiere in February at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. UC Santa Cruz professor of music Leta Miller gave a pre-concert talk.

On Wednesday, Paiement and Staufenbiel were joined by librettist Robert Gordon, composer/conductor Robert Hughes, and musicologist Leta Miller for a panel discussion titled “Harrison’s Young Caesar: Opening the Door to a New Aesthetic,” at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History.

Internationally acclaimed tenor John Duykers also presented a vocal masterclass on Wednesday at the UC Santa Cruz Music Center. And on Friday there was a roundtable discussion on “Gender Issues and Politics in Contemporary Opera,” with scholars Mitchell Morris from UCLA, Byron Adams from UC Riverside, Judy Tsou from the University of Washington, and UCSC’s Nina Treadwell and Leta Miller. Later that evening, the UC Santa Cruz Opera Program presented selected opera scenes with music by Poulenc, Britten, Vinci, Susa, and Puccini.

Other highlights of the symposium were a composer’s panel discussion moderated by UC Santa Cruz music professor David Cope with Conrad Susa, Paul Dresher, David Evan Jones, and David Conte, titled “Challenges in Composing New Theater Pieces Today”; as well as a presentation by Clifford Cranna from the San Francisco Opera titled “Commissioning New Opera.”

The symposium concluded on April 7 with a gala concert of contemporary arias featuring soprano Sheri Greenawald, mezzo-soprano Wendy Hillhouse, tenor Joseph Meyers, and Adler Fellow Eugene Brancoveanu as baritone. Pianist Keisuke Nakagoshi accompanied the singers in an evening of music by Stravinsky, Bolcom, Susa, Menotti, Weill, Dresher, Conte, Harrison, Adams, and UCSC composer David Evan Jones.

Paiement—the founder/director of Ensemble Parallèle—said that she hoped the symposium helped people appreciate contemporary opera, understand how diverse the genre has become, and recognize the great possibilities that lie ahead for opera in the future.

“Working on Harrison's Young Caesar, as well as other contemporary operas in the last five years, I realized that opera is quickly expanding its shape and borrowing from other art forms and cultures,” said Paiement. “In many ways, opera has become much more involved in commenting on society, and it continues to be a leading musical art form. So, a symposium to reflect on where opera is going felt essential.”