Kevin Puts Gives Cinematic Scope To New Opera In Minnesota

Cast Your Votes: Composer Kevin Puts

"Like the kid who won baseball’s Triple Crown in his rookie season, Kevin Puts returns to Minnesota Opera with the eyes and ears of the music world upon him. His first opera, Silent Night, won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for music, and his sophomore attempt, The Manchurian Candidate, launches its world premiere at Ordway Center on Saturday. He has again teamed with librettist Mark Campbell, and early listens in workshops and rehearsals justify an optimism and curiosity about this new work. Dale Johnson, the opera’s artistic director, told a gathering of cast, designers and staff that he believed that The Manchurian Candidate is 'the best thing we’ve ever done.' Kevin Newbury, who is directing the staging, added that he believed that Minnesota Opera was 'looking toward the future' with this new piece. 'Our goal is for audiences to say, ‘I’ve never seen anything like that,’' Newbury said. And Tomer Zvulun, director of the Atlanta Opera, upped the ante in a recent conversation about Puts. 'He is the composer of our generation,' said Zvulun, who directed the European premiere of Silent Night at the Wexford Festival. 'He understands with a witty partner in crime [Campbell] that we live in a generation that expects strong, fast stories.' No wonder Puts, a modest and polite gentleman, admits in understatement, 'There is a lot more pressure and expectation now.' The composer of his generation still has to work for a living. He was just finishing two long days of

Composer Kevin Puts Will Debut His First Opera in Minnesota

Composer Kevin Puts
(Photo: Gregory Downer/Opera News)

"When Dale Johnson, artistic director of Minnesota Opera, saw Joyeux Noël, Christian Carion's 2005 film inspired by this true story, he immediately sensed in it the makings of a powerful opera. 'I was so moved by it. The singing of 'Silent Night,' the image of Sprink carrying the Christmas tree, the three lieutenants' struggle with the orders from their commanders [to resume fighting], their struggle with themselves as human beings.... Here are these young guys stuck in this horrible situation. How are they going to deal with it?' Joyeux Noël focuses on the lieutenants, the priest and the German singer and his love interest, all of whose lives are irrevocably changed by the unofficial truce. 'It felt like a very classical opera plot. They're all trying to live their lives, and there's this huge story going on around them that they can't control, and that they're being buffeted by.' The film has many potent visual images, and Johnson felt music could be used to create equivalent effects. So he knew he wanted a composer who was 'a really strong orchestral writer.' Johnson wanted a fresh voice and contacted music publisher Bill Holab to ask, ''Who's interesting? Who's got a real point of view?' And Bill sent me Kevin Puts, plus several other extraordinary young people. I was listening to Kevin's Second Symphony, and I started crying — it was so beautiful. The next day I told [Minnesota Opera's then President and CEO] Kevin Smith, 'I think I have the guy for Joyeux Noël.' He listened and agreed.' However, though Puts (Puts as in

Conductor Michael Christie
(Photo: Krista Campbell)

'Johnson puts his money where his mouth is') had written a great deal of extraordinary orchestral work, including four symphonies and numerous concertos, he had never written an opera. In fact, the composer, who is thirty-nine, had written only one piece of vocal music — Einstein on Mercer Street, a work for baritone and chamber ensemble. Still, Johnson believed in him. 'I knew he had it in him. I knew he knew how to create tension and develop a piece of music — really develop it to a climax and finish it — and that's a rare commodity.' So, like that German singer on the battlefield, Johnson took a leap of faith and offered Puts the commission." [Source] Read the whole story, including a funny anecdote about troubleshooting a bagpipe during composition, at Opera News. The Minnesota Opera will perform Silent Night on November 12, 15, 17, 19 and 20, 2011. The cast includes William Burden, Joseph Beutel, Liam Bonner, Troy Cook, Ben Wager and Karin Wolverton. Michael Christie will conduct. A full biography for composer Kevin Puts is after the jump. For more information about the opera, click here.

OPERATIC OVERTONES
One of the reasons the Dale Johnson may have felt the film was worthy of becoming an opera, was the fact that the soundtrack heavily featured soprano Natalie Dessay and tenor Rolando Villazón. Listen to clips from the film to hear the extraordinary use of music to touch the hearts of so many film goers. A trailer of the film follows.