I’ve never written an opera before. But one day, during the beginning of the pandemic, I decided in my own mind, “Why not?” I thought it a great challenge and frankly, as a fulltime composer/playwright, what else was I going to do during a lockdown?
The biggest challenge for me was finding a topic that truly interested me and at the same time, was more operatic in nature. It had to be big – Wagnerian so to speak. Immediately, I decided to explore Lake Superior, its lighthouses, the ships and docks, and the railways from the Iron Range. God only knows that the folklore and history is rich in this area, but it also meant so much more to me. I love this area. It is embedded in my soul.
Some background. I lived in Duluth, Minnesota for 15 years. Yes, it is fricking cold up there and its seasons consist of 3 months of wonderful summer and 9 months of beautiful yet wearisome winter. One has to actually live there to appreciate what cold can be. I remember the public schools closing one day there when I was teaching, due to extreme cold – 70 degrees below zero wind chill. If that doesn’t make you hearty and strong, nothing will.
Even living in Duluth, I had never heard of the ship, The Mataafa, before. I actually ran across it while researching the history of the Split Rock Lighthouse. It mentioned this huge November storm that shipwrecked 29 vessels and killed 36 sailors in 1905. The Mataafa was one of the ships in that storm. Suddenly, this had piqued my interest. I looked deeper.
The Mataafa ignores storm predictions and sails out to Cleveland, hits a blizzard with hurricane winds, turns around to find safety in Duluth, crashes into the North Pier of Duluth, and becomes shipwrecked 300 feet offshore, with some of the crew stranded outside in the freezing elements, on the deck of the ship. And the Duluth folk can’t go out to save them that night due to the storm, but still see them and watch them from the shoreline.
Wow. This was the story I had been looking for – pure opera.
Everything in this story spelled out BIG, so I had to think big in its production values. The cast must be huge. The technical imagery must be huge. The music had to be huge. And yes, I had to have a love story too.
The Lake Between Us was born. It is indeed a large cast show – all music – with a love story intertwined. 32 songs. A chorus. Plus, Lake Superior is a major character who sings. She is a large SATB choir that will be upstage of the action, like an oratorio. How else can one depict something as large, as deep, as spiritual, and as powerful as Lake Superior?
Now the big challenge: how do I get it developmentally workshopped when it is 2 hours of music, 12 major soloists, a chorus with individual solo parts, and another large chorus playing Lake Superior? Ai yi yi. What was I thinking?
An opera, I guess.
Stay tuned.
