MEET OPERA'S NEWEST SISTER ACT ON THIRTEEN/WNET'S GREAT PERFORMANCES: JO, AMY, BETH, AND MEG

Little Women From Houston Grand Opera Premieres on PBS

Mozart had Dorabella and Fiordiligi; Richard Strauss had Arabella and Zdenka. Mark Adamo has Jo, Amy, Beth, and Meg.

Yes, Louisa May Alcott's LITTLE WOMEN now joins opera's fabled sister-act canon, alongside favorites like "Così fan tutte" and "Arabella." Stylishly and sensitively adapted by Adamo for the Houston Grand Opera, Alcott's tale of four young ladies coming of age in Civil War-era New England blossoms into song Wednesday, August 29 at 8 p.m. (ET) on Thirteen/WNET New York's GREAT PERFORMANCES (check local PBS listings). Mezzo-sopranos Stephanie Novacek and Joyce DiDonato sing Jo and Meg, respectively. Patrick Summers, HGO music director, conducts.

Amazingly for a new operatic work, "Little Women" -- which was commissioned by and premiered at Houston Grand Opera in 1998 -- has already entered the repertory of Opera Pacific, Central City Opera, Opera Omaha, and Minnesota Opera, and bows at Glimmerglass Opera and New York City Opera in 2002-03. It is also the first of HGO's 25 world premieres to be remounted by the company, returning to Wortham Theater Center last March, where it was videotaped in High Definition for GREAT PERFORMANCES.

Reviewing that production, William Albright wrote in OPERA NEWS, "Adamo's score, which can soar exhilaratingly, is dotted with singer-showcasing arias, duets, and ensembles. Repeating her dramatically potent, vocally rich portrayal of Jo, Stephanie Novacek vividly anchored the opening night performance." He called Peter Webster's staging "first-rate" and cited the score's "many lovely colors, which Patrick Summers drew from a chamber ensemble of eighteen."

"I think it is a gem of a piece," says Summers. "This is a poet's observation on a very beautiful book."

Indeed, American composer Adamo wrote his own libretto, as well as the score. He focuses on three central events in the lives of the novel's March sisters: Meg's wedding, Jo's spurning of childhood swain Laurie, and Beth's death. Each event shows the passage of time and its effect on Jo's imagined "perfect" world. As the opera unfolds in a series of flashbacks, she reflects on her personal struggle to keep her family "perfect as we are."

Wrote the composer at the time of the premiere, alluding to Richard Strauss' gallantly aging Marschallin in "Der Rosenkavalier" and St. Paul's admonition to "put away childish things," "LITTLE WOMEN's small domestic events reveal a poignant Straussian/Christian theme. Who among us, at the pinnacle of a perfect moment, has not prayed for the clock to stop? Who among us has not feared, fought, and at the last forgiven the passage of time?"

David Gockley, HGO general director, is convinced the new work "is destined to be an American classic" and has already offered two more commissions to the 38-year-old composer. The first, a comedic chamber opera for the company's upcoming 2001-02 season, is adapted from Aristophanes' satiric play "Lysistrata," the classic tale of fed-up women who refuse to have sex with their husbands until the men agree to renounce war. The second, for a later season, will be based on the Dracula legend.

"Mark has a real sense as to how to shape a libretto -- and approach a story -- so as to serve musical purposes," Gockley told the HOUSTON CHRONICLE's Charles Ward, "and, conversely, to use musical structure to dramatize the story in a new way."

Recently named composer-in-residence for New York City Opera, Adamo, a native of Philadelphia raised in the suburbs of New Jersey, has premiered several vocal works in recent years. "Little Women," however, is his first opera. His compositions for orchestra include "Late Victorians," a solo oratorio in four movements, and "Alcott Portraits," a chamber orchestra suite from "Little Women," both of which were commissioned and premiered by Eclipse Chamber Orchestra in Washington, D.C. Choral works include "Cantate Domino: Choral Etude on Psalm 97," commissioned and premiered by the Choral Arts Society of Washington at the Kennedy Center; "The Poet Speaks of Praising," commissioned by the GALA V Festival; and "Three Appalachian Folk Tunes," commissioned by the Congressional Chorus of the United States and recently performed and broadcast by the BBC Singers.

A co-production of Houston Grand Opera and Thirteen/WNET New York, LITTLE WOMEN FROM HOUSTON GRAND OPERA is directed for television by Brian Large, with Michael Bronson as producer and Elaine Warner as coordinating producer -- the same team responsible for GREAT PERFORMANCES' Emmy-winning NIXON IN CHINA. Bronson also oversaw HGO's televised production of AIDA (1987) with Placido Domingo and Mirella Freni, plus the Leonard Bernstein specials THE GIFT OF MUSIC (1993) and BERNSTEIN AT 70 (1989) -- all on GREAT PERFORMANCES.

In addition to Stephanie Novacek and Joyce DiDonato, LITTLE WOMEN FROM HOUSTON GRAND OPERA features Margaret Lloyd as Amy, Stacey Tappan as Beth, and Chad Shelton as Laurie. Also singing prominent roles are James Maddalena (Gideon March), Gwendolyn Jones (Alma March), Katherine Ciesinski (Cecilia March), Daniel Belcher (John Brooke), Chen-Ye Yuan (Friedrich Bhaer) and Derrick Parker (Mr. Dashwood). A CD version is available on Ondine Records.

GREAT PERFORMANCES is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Arts, public television viewers, and PBS. Major corporate support is provided by Ernst & Young, a global leader in professional services. Additional funding for LITTLE WOMEN FROM HOUSTON GRAND OPERA was provided by The Wortham Foundation.

Visit GREAT PERFORMANCES ONLINE at thirteen.org and pbs.org for additional information about this and other GREAT PERFORMANCES programs.

David Horn is series producer for GREAT PERFORMANCES; John Walker is senior producer for GREAT PERFORMANCES music. Jac Venza is executive producer.

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