Michael Daughterty, Jackie O (1997)

So...here's an opera about Jackie Onassis Kennedy. Obviously. Kind of. It's a very impressionistic thing, about which more anon.

The first act takes place at a happening in Andy Warhol's Factory, featuring also Grace Kelly and Elizabeth Taylor. It's the sixties! It's groovy! Jackie shows up: as far as I know this never happened in real life, but Warhol did do a famous image of her:

Aristotle Onassis also shows up with his lover, Maria Callas. He and Jackie meet and spark up a relationship. In the second act they're married. Jackie's feeling depressed about the Unpleasantness that ended her first marriage; after a long duet between her and Callas, where they sort of reconcile, she hears Kennedy's disembodied voice. She forgives him his infidelities, opens herself up to future possibilities. It ends with a number based on Kennedy's "Ask not what your country can do for you," which, seriously, everyone talks about like it's so inspiring, but how is it not a paean to fascism? What am I missing here?

Welp. That's it. How to even start? How about at the beginning, by quoting the opening chorus:

One, nine, six, eight, 1968, freeze!

One, nine, six, eight, 1968, smile!

One, nine, six, eight, 1968, click!

Things are happening!

One, nine, six, eight, 1968, freeze!

One, nine, six, eight, 1968, flash!

One, nine, six, eight, 1968, cheese!

It's a happening!

One, nine, six, eight, 1968, we communicate!

One, nine, six, eight, 1968, we annihilate!

One, nine, six, eight, 1968, sex with stars is great!

That is big Waiting for Guffman energy, and briefly, I thought this was going to be something I'd never seen before: an opera that's so bad it's good. But as things proceeded, it sadly became clear that, no: sadly, this is the much more common so bad it's bad.

I am one hundred percent here for this in theory: an avant-garde sixties collage and character study? Sign me the fuck up. I'm possibly the ideal audience for this, having consumed quite a lot of literature in that vein and also, obviously, being a huge opera fan. But while a good concept may give you a tiny step up, it's at least almost all in the execution, and the execution here is...not good. The libretto is really, really dire, and not mostly in fun ways. It's just utterly leaden, and its efforts to catch that sixties spirit are all clumsy failures. In theory it also includes evocations of the ever-popular story of Orpheus and Eurydice, but you'd need some better writing for that to be apparent. Then there's the music, which includes imitations of jazz and sixties rock stuff, plus some inevitable opera quotes because of Callas' presence, but the whole thing is really, really thin. There was one part that I thought sorta-kinda almost worked, where Onassis is inviting Jackie to see I Am Curious (Yellow) (weird first date movie), and that forms the backbone for an aria--I say "almost" because, like everything else, it's crippled by the terrible writing and the unimaginative music, but there are fun and creative aspects to it, and I could at least see the dim silhouette of a much better opera. That's about all I can say that's even vaguely positive, though. On the basis of this, I am not convinced that Daughterty is actually a very good composer, and it may be a mercy that this is his only opera to date.

The debut of this, at Houston Grand Opera (who commissioned it and therefore presumably felt obligated to stage it) featured an absolutely stupidly overqualified cast, including Joyce DiDonato, Stephanie Novacek, and Eric Owens. This recording, as you can see from the box...does not. Fair enough. It's actually a decent production, dominated by that big ol' soup can. Well...it's mostly a decent production, until you get to the end, which inexplicably features TV footage of 9/11. I'd say it's in poor taste, but you kind of get distracted from that by just how baffling it is. We will never know what the hell the producers thought they were saying. Or, to be fair, care. But regardless, that's a big swing and a miss. Probably accidentally hurling the bat into the stands and hitting a pregnant woman.

I'm happy I only paid four dollars to stream this, but even that seems a little much. Michael Daughterty, your opera is bad and you should feel bad.  And now I feel guilty about saying that.  What if he reads this?  You don't have to feel bad, dude.  I forgive you.  But your opera is bad.  I can't compromise on that.