A Civil Union

This fall, the SF Opera prepares for battle.

Although David Gockley has been in the driver’s seat at the SF Opera for nearly two years, this coming season will be the first that is truly his. So what better way to make a second first impression than by inviting along some of your high-profile friends to mark the occasion? October’s world premiere of Philip Glass’ Appomattox is the latest in a string of collaborations between Gockley and Glass, one whose origins date back to Gockley’s tenure at the Houston Grand Opera. Set during the Civil War, Appomattox leavens Glass’ trademark minimalism with popular vocal music of the time. Glass isn’t the only big name associated with the production, though—the director is the eminent Robert Woodruff, and the librettist is Christopher Hampton, best known, in the States at least, for his play Les Liaisons Dangereuses (the American film version of which starred Glenn Close and John Malkovich).

Why ask an English playwright to tell the story behind the final week of the American Civil War? Glass has said he wanted an outsider’s perspective, and Hampton definitely came to the material fresh: “I knew absolutely nothing about it at all. But I had meetings early on with Philip in New York, and soon discovered that every large bookshop there had an enormous Civil War section.” The two have their own shared history (Glass did the music for Hampton’s film The Secret Agent; Hampton wrote the libretto for Glass’ opera Waiting for the Barbarians), which began at SF’s War Memorial.  “I met Philip Glass 20 years ago, at a performance of [his opera] Satyagraha,” Hampton says. “It was a revelation to me—it was the first time I’d seen a contemporary opera that I really responded to.”

The contemporary world was something both Glass and Hampton wanted to keep sight of in  Appomattox. “The first act is [an] account of what was happening to Grant [played by bass-baritone Andrew Shore] and Lee [baritone Dwayne Croft] in the days leading up to the surrender. The second act [takes place mainly] at the farmhouse in Appomattox, as Lee and Grant deal with the subject at hand in as grown-up and unvindictive a way as possible,” Hampton says. “You start to see that however civilized they were, the fallout from the war began immediately and carried on till the present day. [It’s not] an original thing to say, but [the war] was a national trauma which is still being exorcised.”

The parallels with the current crisis in Iraq are hard to ignore. “Right from the beginning, we were saying, ‘At least these men knew how to end a war, and they knew how to end it in a way that preserved the dignity of both sides,’” Hampton points out. “And that is a talent that is very sorely missed in this day and age.” But to see Appomattox as an exercise in wishful thinking would be to miss the point: It doesn’t really matter how deftly a peace is negotiated. “Without the will to really improve matters”—racial or otherwise—“it ain’t gonna happen,” Hampton says. “People can’t just be told by a piece of paper that everything’s fine—they need to live that.” 

Appomattox at the War Memorial Opera House, Oct. 5-24.

OTHER HIGH NOTES
Turn of the Screw at the Oakland Opera Theater, Oct. 5-14.
Lucia Di Lammermoor at Opera San Jose, Sept. 8-23.
Tales of Hoffman at the Legion of Honor, Sept. 21, 22, 28 & 29.
Il re Pastore (The Shepherd King) at multiple venues, Sept. 22, 23, 27 & 28; philharmonia.org
Samson and Delilah at the War Memorial Opera House, Sept. 7-28.

email page | print page