Ravinia 2019, Issue 4, Week 8

Renée Fleming originated the role of Blanche DuBois in André Previn’s operatic take on A Streetcar Named Desire at San Francisco Opera in 1998 (top left) and reprised the performance at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2013 (right). Fleming reconnected with Previn (bottom left) for several concert pieces—more than any other composer to date—including his final opus, Penelope , a work for soprano, string quartet, and piano, which Fleming will premiere at Ravinia on July 28 with the Emerson Quartet and Simone Dinnerstein. As Ravinia’s audience will discover this summer, many oth- er distinguished artists are very interested in Penelope as well, including superstar soprano Renée Fleming, playwright ex- traordinaire Tom Stoppard, the members of the scintillating Emerson String Quartet, and the spellbinding pianist Simone Dinnerstein. Their fascination with the mythological queen will all converge at the Martin Theatre in a new concert monodra- ma by composer André Previn entitled, of course, Penelope . When Previn passed away in February, Amer- ica lost one of our most prolific, if perhaps (despite a slew of awards and acco- lades) underrated musical forces. Previn had been such a ubiquitous presence that he was possibly taken a bit for granted—rath- er like that wise old uncle you assume will be around forever, until suddenly he isn’t. Throughout his ex- traordinarily eclectic ca- reer, Previn composed or arranged an endless stream of musical gems encom- passing classical, pop, jazz, easy listening, and every- thing in between. During his time as music director of the Los Angeles Philhar- monic, he earned the sou- briquet “Bernstein West”— he once said, “Bernstein has made it possible not to specialize in one area of music … Broadway, mov- ies, or conduct[ing]; you can do any or all of them.” Previn scored over 50 films and won four Academy awards as well as 10 Grammy Awards, plus an 11th for Lifetime Achievement. He worked with such a disparate cadre of artists along the way, from Oscar Peterson to Leontyne Price to Doris Day. Quite a legacy for a musician who had once been critically dubbed a “wunderkind in a turtleneck.” Previn first collaborated with Fleming with his Tennessee Williams–in- spired opera A Streetcar Named Desire, which premiered in San Francisco in 1998. Penelope , his final opus, will premiere at Tan- glewood directly preceding its Ravinia performance on July 28, with outings at Aspen and the Kennedy Center to follow, com- pleting the tour of the work’s four co-commissioners. AS FLEMING RECALLS, “The Emerson Quartet and I were having a conversation about André and thought we should we try to commission him to do something; we knew he wasn’t traveling anymore, but he was still his witty, brilliant self. Plus, I am such a fan of Tom Stoppard, and I knew they were friends. I thought, well you never know, what do you think about asking them? And they said ‘great’!” As for the selection of Homer’s Pe- nelope as subject matter, “That was the choice of Tom Stoppard. And you don’t say no to Tom Stoppard,” Fleming laughs. “You say ‘Thank you! Yes , thank you!’ ” Stoppard’s brainstorm was just the ticket for the soprano, who, as the Emerson Quartet later recalled, wanted to interpret a “mature, complex woman.” “I wanted to do something that was a little more interesting,” Fleming affirms. “I had had my share of—as a lyric soprano, the bread-and-butter repertoire is mostly young women, and not necessarily the most interesting or stron- gest characters. So, Penelope is interesting, and obviously the potential for telling her story was there. André was just great. He was really pleased to have the opportunity. He wasn’t able to fin- ish the piece, exactly. We never really got a chance to talk about it, we never got to work on it together. We are basically working with a couple of drafts, though they are far more than just drafts. There is enough there. Fortunately, we have his longtime copyist David Fetherolf, who has done the lion’s share of the work put- ting this together. He knows André’s voice, he knows his musical language, he knows everything about how he writes. ANDREW ECCLES (FACING PAGE); MARTY SOHL/SFO (1998); TODD ROSENBERG/LYRIC OPERA OF CHICAGO (2013) JULY 15 – JULY 28, 2019 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE 17