Margaret Garner

Vital choices in a new opera
Friday, September 7, 2007

By EVELYN SHIH
STAFF WRITER

Mezzo-sopranos are used to playing second fiddle. With a range between soprano and contralto, these singers are underappreciated: always a bridesmaid -- and sometimes an evil witch -- never a bride.

[Richard Danielpour, pictured left. Courtesy of schirmir.com]

But American composer Richard Danielpour knew that Margaret Garner, whose story inspired Toni Morrison's "Beloved," could be nothing other than a mezzo.

"I had a sort of instinct; call it a hunch if you will," he said.

Working with Morrison as his librettist, Danielpour created the mezzo character of Margaret Garner, a pre-Civil War slave who escaped with her children but killed them rather than let them be taken back into enslavement. The opera "Margaret Garner" debuted in 2005 and comes to New York City Opera in a new production beginning Tuesday.

In a way, the role carries on the tradition of mezzo leads, said Danielpour. George Bizet's "Carmen" was another story of a strong woman in hopeless circumstances.

"The whole opera revolves around Carmen's ability to choose," said Danielpour. "Once she makes a choice, her power is played out. With Margaret, the only choice that she has left to her is in what she does to her children.

"She must have been aware that without the power to choose, there is no power at all."

Danielpour also chose the mezzo-soprano range because he had his heart set on the diva whose voice would carry the role: "Carmen" veteran Denyce Graves. "I just knew she would be the person that should first sing it," he said. "She was at the height of her career, and just entering her prime."

But Tracie Luck, the singer who will be playing the role for the New York debut, has a unique connection to the piece in its earliest form. It was Luck, not Graves, who worked on the role with the composer in its embryonic stages.

[Tracie Luck, pictured left. Courtesy of skidmore.edu]

"It was like preseason training," joked Luck about her intense work with Danielpour and Morrison before the world premiere. "I knew they relied on my suggestions. And that in itself was really an honor, to be digesting the music and expressing how I felt about them.

"It's so rare where you can talk to the composer and call him your friend."

"What is really worth mentioning about her is that she has grown as 'Margaret Garner' has grown," said Danielpour. "This is her moment. She's come full circle with me."

Luck and Danielpour have been on tour all year, visiting colleges and high schools across the nation to talk about the historical background of the opera and introduce youth to it. The New York City Opera production is the culmination of this series, dubbed "The Year of Margaret Garner." Tenafly High School was one of the stops on the circuit.

"People ask, 'Haven't we had enough about slavery?' " said Danielpour. "Well, maybe we have. But this is not just about slavery. This is about remembering that we are all a part of one family: the family of the human race. Terrible things happen when we forget this."

Margaret Garner, her children, her husband and other slaves were not considered entirely human in her time. Garner was put on trial for "destruction of property" instead of murder when she killed her own children.

But worth, explained Danielpour, is relative. Slaveowner "Edward Gaines is a free man, but in a way becomes enslaved to his attachments," he said. "Whereas Margaret is born as an enslaved person, but becomes free in her ability to make a choice."

E-mail: shih@northjersey.com

Copyright © 2007 North Jersey Media Group Inc.