Lyric Opera 2022-2023, Issue 7, Factotum

15 | Lyric Opera of Chicago and librettists was frequently collaborative, there is little information about the connection between librettist Cesare Sterbini and Rossini (except for the opera Torvaldo e Dorliska , a Sterbini libretto Rossini had set the year before). The success of Barber is generally credited to the well-crafted Beaumarchais play it was based on. While Rossini’s opera planted the seed for The Factotum , the full genesis of the opera has proved more collaborative than the Italian great could ever have imagined. Liverman and DJ King Rico have worked closely together to craft the story, write the music, and oversee many elements of the production. Both perform in the opera. Liverman takes the role of Mike, the head barber and co-owner, with his brother Garby, of Master Kutz, the barbershop left to them by their father. Jackson is on stage as the DJ controlling the electronics during the performance. The opera borrows elements from musical theater in the creation of a “Book” that goes beyond the lyrics of the libretto and includes narrative about the characters, storyline, and structure. That piece is co-credited to Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj, who serves also as director and dramaturg. The collaborative compositional team was also expanded to include Marcus Norris as the orchestrator. The orchestra includes instruments that are familiar in opera as well as some new sounds: three saxophones (alto, tenor, and baritone), trumpet, trombone, ve-part strings (with contrabass sometimes replaced by electric bass), drum set (with supplemental percussion including suspended cymbal and bass drum), piano (and electric keyboard), and electric as well as acoustic guitar. Additionally, DJ King Rico will play his electronic tracks (including a smattering of Barber quotations) during the performance. References to musical theater are also included in the range of vocal styles employed. Yet rather than thinking of this show as crossing between or bending genres, this is an opera that is best explained as expanding the genre. Both lead co-creators, Liverman and Jackson, were trained as opera singers and are clear about how this is an opera that weaves in new in uences. Jackson wanted to make sure that they were “able to communicate the Blackness within opera, in the sense of keeping the singers unapologetically operatic while being able to blend those two styles.” “I really want to make sure that the performers, the operatic singers that we have singing, sing operatically,” Liverman says. “It’s not like some different sound or R&B sound.” During workshops, he would say, “Stay with the operatic voice,” and “Sing with your full voice as you would your Tosca aria. If you’re thinking patter, like a spoken-word, hip-hop thing, think of Rossini patter.” Perhaps one of the most salient musical theater in uences can be seen in the role of Cece, who is a dancer and has few conventional lyrically sung melodies. Yet once again, this can be seen as expanding the operatic tradition since of course dance (frequently ballet) has a long history of being paired with opera. Dance is featured in the pivotal work La muette de Portici (Auber, 1828), which led into the vastly popular nineteenth-century style of French grand opera. In Auber’s opera the title role of Fenella expresses herself entirely through dance, movement, and pantomime. As in many early nineteenth- century operas (including Rossini’s Barber ) and similar to most musical theater today, The Factotum features a two-act structure. The rst half introduces the characters, setting, and con ict with unresolved issues highlighted in the rst act nale. The second half frequently adds a big dramatic moment and a twist that helps nd a way to restore a new peace. Like most Italian operas of its time, Barber opens with a chorus, in this case a men’s chorus that sets the scene for the Count’s serenade and then the boisterous entrance of Figaro. All of this happens outside of Dr. Bartolo’s villa, the central location for the action of the opera. The Factotum , too, opens with a men’s chorus—this time fashioned into a barbershop quartet of Old Heads: Bootleg Joe, Charlie (a barber), Leeroy (a bookie), and Sam, one of the regular customers. The drama sets Master Kutz as a community space where everyone is invited. Unlike the setting of Barber , where enforced boundaries keep the guarded heroine in and the unwanted suitor out, The Factotum ’s barbershop is the central locale of the opera, welcoming all the public—both the characters and, in a metaphoric sense, the audience as well. This is not to imply that there are no tensions, con icts, or anxieties. The drama of the story is animated by the two brothers—Mike and Garby—who have inherited the barbershop from their father. They both have different talents for keeping the shop going. “Every time, no matter where you go on a gig, you’ve got to nd the Black barbershop in town.” —Will Liverman