Carlisle Floyd
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
. The son of a Methodist minister, he based many of his works on themes from the South. His best known opera, Susannah
Susannah
Susannah is an opera in two acts by American composer Carlisle Floyd, who wrote the libretto and music while a member of the piano faculty at Florida State University. Floyd adapted the story from the Apocryphal tale of Susannah and the Elders, though the latter story has a more positive ending...
(1955), is based on a story from the Apocrypha
Apocrypha
The term apocrypha is used with various meanings, including "hidden", "esoteric", "spurious", "of questionable authenticity", ancient Chinese "revealed texts and objects" and "Christian texts that are not canonical"....
, transferred to contemporary, rural Tennessee, and is set in a Southern dialect.
Career
In 1943, Floyd entered Converse CollegeConverse College
Converse College is a liberal arts women's college in Spartanburg, South Carolina, USA. It was established by a group of Spartanburg citizens and named after Dexter Edgar Converse.-History:...
, in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and studied piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
under Ernst Bacon
Ernst Bacon
Ernst Lecher Bacon was an American composer, pianist, and conductor. A prolific author, Bacon composed over 250 songs over his career. He was awarded three Guggenheim Fellowships and a Pulitzer Scholarship in 1932 for his Second Symphony.-Biography:Ernst Bacon was born in Chicago, Illinois, on May...
. When Bacon accepted a position at Syracuse University
Syracuse University
Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...
, in New York, Floyd followed him there, where he received a Bachelor of Music in 1946. The following year, Floyd became part of the piano faculty at Florida State University
Florida State University
The Florida State University is a space-grant and sea-grant public university located in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a comprehensive doctoral research university with medical programs and significant research activity as determined by the Carnegie Foundation...
, in Tallahassee. He was to remain there for thirty years, eventually becoming Professor of Composition. He received a master's degree at Syracuse, in 1949.
While at Florida State, Floyd gradually became interested in composition. His first opera was Slow Dusk, to his own libretto (as was to remain his custom), and was produced at Syracuse in 1949. His next opera, The Fugitives, was seen at Tallahassee in 1951, but was then withdrawn.
His third opera was to be Floyd's greatest success: Susannah
Susannah
Susannah is an opera in two acts by American composer Carlisle Floyd, who wrote the libretto and music while a member of the piano faculty at Florida State University. Floyd adapted the story from the Apocryphal tale of Susannah and the Elders, though the latter story has a more positive ending...
. It was first heard at Florida State, in February 1955, with Phyllis Curtin
Phyllis Curtin
Phyllis Curtin is an American classical soprano who had an active career in operas and concerts from the early 1950s through the 1980s. She was known for her creation of new roles such as the title role in the Carlisle Floyd opera Susannah, Catherine Earnshaw in Floyd's Wuthering Heights, and in...
in the title role, and Mack Harrell
Mack Harrell
Mack Harrell was an American baritone who was regarded as one of the greatest concert singers of his generation....
as the Reverend Olin Blitch. The following year, the opera was given at the New York City Opera
New York City Opera
The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...
, with Curtin and Norman Treigle
Norman Treigle
Norman Treigle was an American operatic bass-baritone, who was acclaimed for his great abilities as a singing-actor, and specialized in roles that evoked villainy and terror....
(in his first great success) as Blitch, with Erich Leinsdorf
Erich Leinsdorf
Erich Leinsdorf was a naturalized American Austrian conductor. He performed and recorded with leading orchestras and opera companies throughout the United States and Europe, earning a reputation for exacting standards as well as an acerbic personality...
conducting. After receiving much acclaim, a City Opera production (directed by Frank Corsaro
Frank Corsaro
Frank Corsaro is one of America's foremost stage directors of opera and theatre. His Broadway productions include The Night of the Iguana ....
) was taken to the 1958 World's Fair in Brussels, with Curtin, Treigle and Richard Cassilly
Richard Cassilly
Richard Cassilly was an American operatic tenor who had a major international opera career between 1954 and 1990...
.
Later in 1958, Floyd's Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights (opera)
Wuthering Heights is an opera in a prologue and three acts with music and a libretto by Carlisle Floyd. The work is adapted from Emily Brontë's novel of the same name. The opera premiered at the Santa Fe Opera on July 16, 1958 in a production directed by Irving Guttman...
(after Emily Brontë
Emily Brontë
Emily Jane Brontë 30 July 1818 – 19 December 1848) was an English novelist and poet, best remembered for her only novel, Wuthering Heights, now considered a classic of English literature. Emily was the third eldest of the four surviving Brontë siblings, between the youngest Anne and her brother...
) was premiered at the Santa Fe Opera
Santa Fe Opera
The Santa Fe Opera is an American opera company, located north of Santa Fe in the U.S. state of New Mexico, headquartered on a former guest ranch of .-General history:...
, with Curtin as the heroine. In 1960, at Syracuse, his "solo cantata on biblical texts," Pilgrimage, was first heard with Treigle as soloist. The Passion of Jonathan Wade was first seen at the City Opera, in 1962. Set in South Carolina during Reconstruction, the piece had Theodor Uppman
Theodor Uppman
Theodor Uppman was an American operatic baritone. He is best known for his creation of the title role in Benjamin Britten's opera Billy Budd....
, Curtin, Treigle and Harry Theyard
Harry Theyard
Harry Theyard , tenor, is a native of New Orleans and is a 1957 graduate of Loyola University of the South, where he studied under Dorothy Hulse, who was also the teacher of Audrey Schuh and Charles Anthony...
in the large cast; Julius Rudel
Julius Rudel
Julius Rudel is an American opera and orchestra conductor who emigrated to the United States from Austria at the age of 17 and studied conducting at the Mannes College of Music in New York City. He then forged a 35-year career with the New York City Opera, from 1944 to 1979, and was the Music...
conducted.
Floyd's next opera was The Sojourner and Mollie Sinclair, which was a comedy regarding the Scottish settlers of the Carolinas. Patricia Neway
Patricia Neway
Patricia Neway is an American operatic soprano and musical theatre actress who had an active international career during the mid-1940s through the 1970s. She is particularly remembered for creating roles in the world premieres of several contemporary American operas, most notably Magda Sorel in...
and Treigle created the title roles, with Rudel conducting. The composer's Markheim (after Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde....
) was first shown at the New Orleans Opera
New Orleans Opera
Opera has long been part of the musical culture of New Orleans, Louisiana. Operas have regularly been performed in the city since the 1790s, and for the majority of the city's history since the early 19th century, New Orleans has had a resident company regularly performing opera in addition to...
Association in 1966, with Treigle (to whom it was dedicated) and Audrey Schuh
Audrey Schuh
Audrey Schuh was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on , and studied both music and medical technology at Loyola University of the South, where she studied with Dorothy Hulse, who was also the pedagogue of Harry Theyard and Charles Anthony...
heading the cast. Floyd himself served as stage director.
Of Mice and Men
Of Mice and Men (opera)
Of Mice and Men is an opera in three acts by the American composer Carlisle Floyd. The English libretto was written by Floyd and is based on the novella of the same name by John Steinbeck. The opera was composed in 1969.- History :...
(after John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...
), following a long gestation, was heard at the Seattle Opera
Seattle Opera
The Seattle Opera is an opera company located in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1963 by Glynn Ross, who served as the company's first general director through 1983, Seattle Opera's season runs from August to late May, with five or six operas offered and with eight to ten performances each, often...
in 1970, in a staging by Corsaro. A monodrama on the royal subject of Eleanor of Aquitaine
Eleanor of Aquitaine
Eleanor of Aquitaine was one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in Western Europe during the High Middle Ages. As well as being Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right, she was queen consort of France and of England...
, Flower and Hawk, was premiered in Jacksonville, Florida, with Curtin directed by Corsaro. (The production was then seen at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
.)
Bilby's Doll (after Esther Forbes
Esther Forbes
Esther Louise Forbes was an American novelist, historian andchildren's writer who received the Pulitzer Prize and the Newbery Medal.-Life:...
) was first mounted at the Houston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera Houston Grand Opera was founded in 1955 through the joint efforts of Maestro Walter Herbert and cultural leaders Mrs. Louis G. Lobit, Edward Bing and Charles Cockrell...
in 1976, with Christopher Keene
Christopher Keene
Christopher Keene was an American conductor.Born in Berkeley, California, Keene studied at the University of California, Berkeley. Associated with the Spoleto Festival from 1968 , he was co-founder of the Spoleto Festival USA, where he was Music Director from 1977 to 1980...
conducting and David Pountney
David Pountney
David Pountney is a British theatre and opera director and librettist internationally known for his productions of rarely performed operas and new productions of classic works...
producing. In 1976, Floyd co-founded, with David Gockley
David Gockley
David Gockley is an American opera company administrator. He served as general director of Houston Grand Opera from 1972 to 2005 and has been general director of San Francisco Opera since 2006.-Biography:...
, the Houston Opera Studio, a training program administered by the Houston Grand Opera for outstanding young professional singers and repertory coaches. Between 1976 and 1996, he held the M.D. Anderson Professorship at the University of Houston School of Music
Moores School of Music
The Rebecca and John J. Moores School of Music is the music school of the University of Houston. The Moores School offers the Bachelor of Music, Bachelor of Arts in Music, Master of Music, and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in music performance, conducting, theory and composition, music history...
.
In Houston, Willie Stark (after Robert Penn Warren
Robert Penn Warren
Robert Penn Warren was an American poet, novelist, and literary critic and was one of the founders of New Criticism. He was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He founded the influential literary journal The Southern Review with Cleanth Brooks in 1935...
) was also first heard, in 1981, in staging by Harold Prince. After an hiatus of almost twenty years, Floyd's latest opera was premiered in Houston: Cold Sassy Tree
Cold Sassy Tree (opera)
Cold Sassy Tree is an opera composed by Carlisle Floyd, based on the 1984 novel by Olive Ann Burns.Cold Sassy Tree was Floyd’s tenth opera and his first comic opera. It had its world premiere on April 14, 2000, at the Houston Grand Opera, with a production staged by Australian filmmaker Bruce...
(after Olive Ann Burns
Olive Ann Burns
Olive Ann Burns was an American writer from Georgia best known for her single completed novel, Cold Sassy Tree, published in 1984.-Background:...
), in 2000. Patrick Summers conducted, Bruce Beresford
Bruce Beresford
Bruce Beresford is an Australian film director who has made more than 30 feature films over a 40-year career.-Early life:...
directed, and Patricia Racette
Patricia Racette
Patricia Lynn Racette is an American operatic soprano. A winner of the Richard Tucker Award in 1998, she has been a regular presence at major opera houses internationally. Racette has enjoyed long-term partnerships with the San Francisco Opera, where she has been a regular performer since 1989,...
led the cast.
Carlisle Floyd composed a Piano Sonata in the 1950s for Rudolf Firkušný
Rudolf Firkusny
- Life :Born in Moravian Napajedla, Firkušný started his musical studies with the composers Leoš Janáček and Josef Suk, and the pianist Vilém Kurz. Later he studied with Alfred Cortot and Artur Schnabel. He began performing on the continent of Europe in the 1920s, and made his debuts in London in...
, who played it at a Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
recital, but it then languished until Daniell Revenaugh
Daniell Revenaugh
Daniell Revenaugh is an American classical pianist and conductor. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, he made his debut at the age of 14 playing Beethoven's First Piano Concerto with the Louisville Orchestra....
recorded it in 2009, at the age of 74. Revenaugh worked with the composer in learning the piece (Floyd himself has never learned it), and their rehearsal sessions and the live recording itself were filmed for posterity. The recording was made on the Alma-Tadema Steinway that graced the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
during the presidencies of Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
and Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
.
Major works
- Slow Dusk (1949)
- SusannahSusannahSusannah is an opera in two acts by American composer Carlisle Floyd, who wrote the libretto and music while a member of the piano faculty at Florida State University. Floyd adapted the story from the Apocryphal tale of Susannah and the Elders, though the latter story has a more positive ending...
(1955) - Wuthering HeightsWuthering Heights (opera)Wuthering Heights is an opera in a prologue and three acts with music and a libretto by Carlisle Floyd. The work is adapted from Emily Brontë's novel of the same name. The opera premiered at the Santa Fe Opera on July 16, 1958 in a production directed by Irving Guttman...
(1958) - The Passion of Jonathan Wade (1962)
- The Sojourner and Mollie Sinclair (1963)
- Markheim (1966)
- Of Mice and MenOf Mice and Men (opera)Of Mice and Men is an opera in three acts by the American composer Carlisle Floyd. The English libretto was written by Floyd and is based on the novella of the same name by John Steinbeck. The opera was composed in 1969.- History :...
(1970) - Flower and Hawk (1972)
- Bilby's DollBilby's DollBilby's Doll is an opera in three acts composed by Carlisle Floyd. The libretto is based on the 1928 American novel A Mirror for Witches by Esther Forbes....
(1976) - Willie Stark (1981)
- Cold Sassy TreeCold Sassy Tree (opera)Cold Sassy Tree is an opera composed by Carlisle Floyd, based on the 1984 novel by Olive Ann Burns.Cold Sassy Tree was Floyd’s tenth opera and his first comic opera. It had its world premiere on April 14, 2000, at the Houston Grand Opera, with a production staged by Australian filmmaker Bruce...
(2000)
Awards and nominations
- 1956 Guggenheim FellowshipGuggenheim FellowshipGuggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
- 1957 Citation of Merit from the National Association of American Conductors and Composers
- 1959 Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Nation Award from the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce
- 1964 Distinguished Professor of Florida State UniversityFlorida State UniversityThe Florida State University is a space-grant and sea-grant public university located in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a comprehensive doctoral research university with medical programs and significant research activity as determined by the Carnegie Foundation...
Award - 1972 Resolution of Appreciation by the State of Florida Legislature
- 1983 Honorary Doctorate from Dickinson CollegeDickinson CollegeDickinson College is a private, residential liberal arts college in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Originally established as a Grammar School in 1773, Dickinson was chartered September 9, 1783, five days after the signing of the Treaty of Paris, making it the first college to be founded in the newly...
- 1983 National Opera Institute's Award for Service to American Opera - the highest honor the institute bestows
- 2001 Inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters
- 2004 National Medal of ArtsNational Medal of ArtsThe National Medal of Arts is an award and title created by the United States Congress in 1984, for the purpose of honoring artists and patrons of the arts. It is the highest honor conferred to an individual artist on behalf of the people. Honorees are selected by the National Endowment for the...
from the White HouseWhite HouseThe White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical... - 2008 National Endowment for the ArtsNational Endowment for the ArtsThe National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
Opera Honoree for lifetime work - National Patron of Delta OmicronDelta OmicronDelta Omicron is a co-ed international professional music honors fraternity whose mission is to promote and support excellence in music and musicianship.-History:...
, an international professional music fraternity.
Discography
- Susannah (Studer, Hadley, Ramey; Nagano, 1993-94) Virgin Classics
- Susannah (Curtin, Cassilly, Treigle; Andersson, 1962) [live] VAI
- Pilgrimage: excerpts (Treigle; Torkanowsky, 1971) Orion
- The Sojourner and Mollie Sinclair (Neway, Treigle; Rudel, 1963) VAI
- Markheim (Schuh, Treigle; Andersson, 1966) [live] VAI
- Of Mice and Men (Futral, Griffey, Hawkins; Summers, 2002) [live] Albany Records
- Cold Sassy Tree (Racette; Summers, 2000) [live] Albany Records
Videography
- Susannah: Revival Scene (Treigle; Yestadt, Treigle, 1958) [live] Bel Canto Society
- Willie Stark (Jesse; J.Keene, McDonough, 2007) [live] Newport ClassicNewport ClassicNewport Classic, Ltd, is a record label of classical music, and is located in Newport, Rhode Island.In its catalog are recordings of both familiar and unusual works, including Casanova's Homecoming, A Waterbird Talk, Trouble in Tahiti, A Ceremony of Carols, Médée , Il campanello di notte, The Jumping...