Opera japonica/Interview with the Thérèse Raquin Creative Team

An Interview with the Creative Team for Thérèse Raquin,
a new opera by Tobias Picker

by Maria Nockin

Composer Tobias Picker (left) and librettist Gene Scheer (right)

Photo of Tobias Picker by permission of Amberson Inc.

On November 30. 2001, the Dallas Opera will present the world premiere of Tobias Picker's opera Thérèse Raquin. Based on Emile Zola's 1867 novel, this new work has a libretto by singer and songwriter, Gene Scheer. It will be conducted by the Dallas Opera's music director, Graeme Jenkins, the stage direction will be by the challenging and sometimes controversial Francesca Zambello and it will have costumes and scenery by Marie-Jeanne Lecca, best known in this country for her work on the Minnesota Opera Carmen.

To learn about the creation of this opera, I spoke with the Dallas Opera's General Director, Anthony Whitworth-Jones. He describes the Zola story as "ideally suited to operatic treatment because it deals with the archetypal issues of opera: sex, murder and suicide". The music is "accessible, dramatic and full of beautiful moments", and he added that "the production by Francesca Zambello promises to be extremely exciting, arresting. It'll really pack a visual punch".

Streetscape design for Thérèse Raquin by Marie-Jeanne Lecca

Dallas Opera Director of Artistic Administration, Jonathan Pell, recalls that when he attended a performance of Picker's first opera, Emmeline, at the Santa Fe Opera in August of 1996, he happened upon the composer backstage. "I didn't realize that he was still there because it wasn't the premiere. I walked up to him, shook his hand and asked if he would be interested, perhaps, in doing a commissioned work for the Dallas Opera."

"We asked him to come to Texas in the fall of that year to see what we did because, of course, he had never been to the opera there. I think he was suitably impressed with the quality of our work, and we got into serious negotiations that went on for a long time. First of all we had to agree on a subject . Numerous titles were discussed."

Ultimately, it was a minor happening at the home of the composer's sister that solved the problem. She was dusting her apartment when the Zola novel fell off the shelf. Picking it up, she looked at it and thought that it might be the type of dramatic work that would interest her brother. She showed it to him shortly after that and the rest was, of course, history!

Another coincidence which led to the composition of the opera was mentioned by librettist Gene Scheer, involving the baritone Nathan Gunn and stage director Francesca Zambello. "Nathan was doing a song cycle that I wrote called 'Voices from World War II' at Wigmore Hall in London and, prior to going off to the concert, he had coffee with her." Gunn was very keen on the song cycle and told her about it. She in return asked him to have Scheer get in touch with her. Scheer then sent her some of his songs and an excerpt from his only opera libretto to date, an adaptation of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure.

"I had no idea that Tobias Picker was looking for a librettist," said Scheer. "I just went to see Francesca to see what might happen. After talking with her for about an hour, she asked if I'd be interested in writing an opera libretto, to which I answered, yes, depending on the nature of the project. She put me in touch with Picker. We met, started the process of getting to know each other, and it ultimately wound up with him offering me this opportunity."

I asked Scheer how they decided on which parts of the novel would go into the opera. He replied that "you have to distill it down to its essential elements and then try to find the core issue of each scene, as well as the core issue of the novel, and focus on that."

Split set design for Thérèse Raquin by Marie-Jeanne Lecca

The Zola novel, now a Broadway show and soon to be a movie, tells the story of Thérèse, a motherless child from Algeria, who comes to France where she lives in a very restricted environment with an aunt, Mme Raquin, and semi-invalid cousin, Camille. Eventually, Thérèse marries Camille, but it is not until her husband brings home a good looking friend, Laurent, that she realizes that she much prefers this strong, virile man to her husband. These then are the four main characters we meet in Thérèse Raquin.

Scheer went on to say that "music is what ultimately brings the greatest subtlety to opera, to the art form. I think the task of the librettist is to give room for the music to work its magic, to carry the real message of the piece. Ultimately, if it were not for the music we'd just be talking. My goal was to distill the story down to its essentials and then to try to find ways for the characters to reveal their feelings. I tried to be very, very honest and to find a poetic voice for each character. I think the opera is basically true to the major aspects of the characters."

The Production Team from left to right: Francesca Zambello (director), Graeme Jenkins (conductor), and Marie-Jeanne Lecca (designer)

Graeme Jenkins, the conductor for the Dallas performances of the new opera, has had considerable experience with contemporary works. He spent many hours with Tobias Picker discussing the orchestral palette of the piece, a conversation which, he explained, "will continue until the first night so as to achieve the greatest clarity and audibility of the text".

Maestro Jenkins explains that Picker's music underscores and defines "the extraordinary way in which Thérèse and her lover, Laurent, become so guilt ridden that it causes their deaths. The way in which that ever-intensifying guilt becomes more and more obsessive is told by the music - which becomes overwhelmingly mesmerizing."

'Vortex': a design for Thérèse Raquin by Marie-Jeanne Lecca

The designer chosen to work on this new production is Marie-Jeanne Lecca, who says that "working on a new opera gives you a certain freedom of approach. There's no doubt that doing a new piece is an exciting challenge."

A passionate Zola fan, she said that his work is "an absolute gift for the designer because of his amazing descriptions, abundance of detail and pure, powerful drama." She finds that Picker's music creates the perfect mood for the story, defining the way it flows and providing its moments of high tension."

Lecca said that the production was set in the original period "but there's a continuous mixture of real and surreal. On one side there is the domestic melodrama, and on the other, for me, the actual soul of the novel, the water environment." Since Thérèse and Laurent drown Camille, water becomes very much a part of their mutual guilt.

Lecca modestly concluded that she hoped that the visual world she has created will be "the right lens to observe the struggles of the characters, their passions and their fateful journeys."

'Waves'; a design for Thérèse Raquin by Marie-Jeanne Lecca

Francesca Zambello spoke of gaining the sympathy of the audience for the opera's characters "we need to understand and empathize with Thérèse. We need to feel her suffocating existence, so that we can be drawn into her character and understand the irrational passion that drives her."

Speaking of Thérèse's lover, she says, "Laurent is not like her. He is driven by an insane passion which makes him lose any sense of reason. I don't think we need to feel sympathy for him. He is not trapped. Only Thérèse is trapped by her husband and mother-in-law."

The cast from left to right: Sara Fulgoni, Diana Soviero, Gordon Gietz and Richard Bernstein

Photos of Diana Sovierro and Richard Bernstein by Christian Steiner, Sara Fulgoni by courtesy of IMG Artists

The Dallas Opera has chosen an all star cast with which to launch Thérèse Raquin. The title role, written for a mezzo-soprano, will be portrayed by the fiery Sara Fulgoni, who recently sang Carmen at Santa Fe. "It's an amazing part! The role is a tour de force, extremely taxing and incredibly dramatic at the end. Thérèse starts off rather innocent, inexperienced, and ends up as a possessed tigress." The mezzo told me that her part had not been written when she auditioned for it, so much of the music has been composed to fit her specific talents.

Tenor Gordon Gietz describes his character, Camille, as a man who is physically weak due to constant spoiling by his mother. "The fact that he submits to her ministrations is his fatal flaw, and it is what makes Thérèse ultimately despise him."

"Camille is portrayed very sympathetically, and thus I suspect the audience will feel the crime of his murder more than the reader of the book. Because of the powerful musical climax that underscores this moment, the horror of it, the sin of Thérèse and Laurent, will be palpable and inexcusable."

When asked about Camille's music he replied that "there is a beautiful aria in the first act in which he tries to persuade Thérèse to go with him and Laurent to Saint Ouen. Later, he appears as a ghost singing an aria that is, "very difficult, very angular and powerful".

The costume designs for Thérèse Raquin by Marie-Jeanne Lecca, including Laurent (right)

Cast in the role of Laurent, the lover, is bass-baritone Richard Bernstein, who describes his character as "a beast of a man in the sense that he acts on his instincts in the most primal way. He kills Camille without any hesitation because of his intense passion for Thérèse." Bernstein compares Laurent to Don Giovanni because both characters have charm, charisma, sex appeal and both are able to manipulate the scene every moment they are on stage.

Bernstein did an outreach concert in a California prison last year which gave him the opportunity to speak with the inmates. He found it impossible to distinguish the murderers from those who had been convicted of lesser crimes: "I left with the feeling that murderers could be anywhere around us at any moment".

He went on to say that "I'm very grateful to have the privilege of being involved in such a magnificent new opera by Tobias Picker. It is my first world premiere and collaborating with the composer, librettist and director has been an incredibly dynamic experience".

Corresponding with Diana Soviero, who will not only sing Mme Raquin in English in Dallas, but will also sing that role in French in the later Montreal production, I asked if the audience would empathize with Thérèse's mother-in-law. She answered, "Yes, Mme Raquin gives her niece a home after she loses her mother and she thinks she is doing the right thing for her son. Her only thought is for his welfare".

Soviero describes the score as "very lyrical and beautiful". She finds it wonderful to be able to talk to the composer. She only wishes she could have spoken to Puccini!

Thérèse Raquin will be performed for the first time in Dallas on the evening of Friday, 30 November 2001. The Montreal premiere (in French) will be on 24 April 2002. There will be further performances in San Diego, California.

A recording of the opera will be released on the Chandos Label enabling opera fans who are unable to see it in Dallas, Montreal or San Diego to hear the work in anticipation of further productions being mounted in other operahouses around the world.