Just a few days ago, Tobias Picker (or whoever runs his youtube channel) uploaded performances of three of his operas, including this one from the Glimmerglass Festival in 2014. It was commissioned by the Met, but apparently not video recorded, so only the audio is available through Met on Demand. And because you want the one you can't have, I was really keen to see it. Well, also, I enjoyed his Fantastic Mr. Fox. As far as literary sources go, these two may be polar opposites.
So we've got this Clyde Griffiths fellow. He's super-ambitious, and he gets a supervisor's job at his rich uncle's clothing factory. In spite of being told to keep his hands off the women on the floor, he quickly takes up with one Roberta Alden. But while this is going on, he meets a woman named Sondra, one of his uncle's daughter's friends, another rich girl, natch. They starts flirting and this is GREAT, marrying her would be perfect for his ambitions, but whoops, turns out Roberta's pregnant and he has to do...something. And that "something" is murder (introducing a bit of a noir-ish element to the proceedings). He takes her out in a boat and overturns it, her having casually mentioned earlier that she couldn't swim. The perfect crime? No, an extremely imperfect one, as investigators find her body and then their correspondence, and in spite of lying a very determined fashion, he's ultimately found guilty and executed.
I think a story like this works because it's so easy to identify with Clyde's dilemma. I feel like some people wouldn't like to admit that, because it's a little scary, but it's true. I mean, I certainly hope that I would behave in a more mensch-like fashion, but fuck, man. You don't sympathize with him, but you definitely understand him.
It's kind of weird, when I think about it, that I've never read Dreiser. I suppose I should. The main thing I know is that when I was in grad school, various students from some class I was not in were kvetching about how incredibly boring Sister Carrie was. Who can say? This one isn't boring, certainly. The story compels, and the sort of mostly-tonal neo-romantic music, with a few gospel or general Americana-ish elements, is very good. I enjoyed it.
As for this production, well, it appears to cut out a prologue about Clyde's earlier life, which is less than ideal, but the piece doesn't feel incomplete or anything. The video is archival footage (the words "Property of Glimmerglass Opera Not for Distribution" periodically appear at the bottom of the screen--Picker is a rebel at the gates of hell, apparently), and it's shot from a fixed camera, meaning no close-ups or anything like that. I suppose that makes it in some sense more like watching live, but the limitations of the format and the video quality make it impossible to really get a good idea of what any of the singers look like. Not the hugest deal, but I do think the drama would have been enhanced by being able to see it better.
Picker's pretty good, and I do believe that all his operas are available in video format currently (putting him ahead of most contemporary composers), so I'll probably see them all at some point.
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