February 11, 2012
At the outset of Eleanor Roosevelt, an opera premiered last March by Syracuse’s Society for New Music, the audience learns of FDR’s infidelity.
“She had been my social secretary — my excessively social secretary,” intones Eleanor. The line is clever, but it also has a certain weight of sadness to it. Later, when Eleanor is pressured to confront the issue, she firmly resists: “Now’s not the time to talk of it, Franklin.” Her resolve and composure in the face of changing family dynamics are central to the message of the opera, which will have its second run Sunday at 3 p.m. in Wellin under the orchestral direction of Associate Professor of Music Heather Buchman. The opera is based on Rhoda Lerman’s play, “Eleanor: Her Secret Journey.”
This production is not what some students might think of as a traditional opera; there are no elaborate sets or virtuosic coloratura, and it’s not stuffy or cliché. Composer and Buffalo resident Persis Parshall Vehar’s score is bouncy, angular, and undecorated — it is only “opera” in the sense that there are no regular speaking parts. The result is a provocative and musically rich demonstration of how Eleanor Roosevelt found her voice and shaped her life’s purpose.
The opera (which is brought to us by the only new music organization in upstate New York) deals with Eleanor’s political awakening and her contributions to the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. In Act 1, Eleanor learns about the realities of trench warfare from her escort in Paris, Major Duckworth, who suffers from undiagnosed post-traumatic stress syndrome from his combat experience in World War I. Eleanor’s reflection on the horrors of what she’s seen are especially moving; the libretto (text), written by Vehar’s daughter, Gabrielle Vehar, contains some of Eleanor’s own words discovered in old letters.
“This simply must be heard — the exhilaration and transformation of this moment is something that can only be experienced through music,” said Buchman, who characterizes the work as “cathartic and inspiring.”
It also employs universal themes such that any audience member will feel in some way transformed by its artistic empowerment. Buchman says that is why she wanted to bring it to Hamilton.
“Persis Vehar's music is so perfectly attuned to the spirit of this story, and I want for people in this community to experience how affecting and beautiful a piece of music can be that was written just one year ago,” she said.
And for all the beauty, there is of course some ugliness. Eleanor’s struggles with her mother-in-law, Sarah, are rooted in Sarah’s racist and homophobic tendencies; she chides Eleanor for inviting her new friends from the women’s rights movement (who, according to Sarah, “prefer each other”) to the house. Some of the most memorable and rousing lines come from such interactions between Eleanor and Sarah.
Tickets to Eleanor Roosevelt are $15 for the general public, $10 for the Hamilton community, and $5 for students. And on Friday, at 4 p.m. in Schambach 108, Persis Vehar will be talking with students and other members of the community about the opera, her music, and how it feels being a woman composer in this modern era.