Margaret Garner (opera)
Encyclopedia
Margaret Garner is an American opera
loosely based on actual events in the life of runaway slave Margaret Garner
. It was co-commissioned by the Michigan Opera Theatre
, Cincinnati Opera
and Opera Company of Philadelphia
. The music was composed by Richard Danielpour
with a libretto
in English
by Toni Morrison
. Morrison previously used the historic Margaret Garner as the inspiration for her novel Beloved
. This is one of a few operas written about the African-American experience; other notable examples are George Gershwin
's Porgy and Bess
(1935) and Scott Joplin
's Treemonisha
(1910/1972).
The 2-act opera explores themes of freedom and personal and community relationships, and makes some use of the African-American musical tradition of spirituals
. It was the first libretto for the author and the first opera for the composer. Danielpour began work on the opera in 1998. The opera premièred on May 7, 2005 in Detroit; it was performed in Cincinnati in July 2005, and Philadelphia in February 2006. The three companies spent more than $2 million on the opera. Denyce Graves
sang the title role in the premiere run, which featured a cast of nearly one hundred, flaming torches, a hanging
on stage, and blackpowder pistols. The opera requires a large cast because of the requirement for separate African and Caucasian choruses to portray the slaves and slave-owners. Other members of the initial cast were Angela M. Brown as Cilla, Eric Greene as Robert Garner, Rod Gilfry
as Edward Gaines, Roger Honeywell as the Auctioneer and John Mac Master as Casey. Kenny Leon
directed.
The opera has also been staged by Opera Carolina in Charlotte, North Carolina in 2006, the New York City Opera
in 2007, and in Detroit and Chicago
in 2008. NPR aired the Opera Carolina production.
Margaret Garner as a new master comes to Maplewood, the Kentucky
plantation where she is held. Margaret catches her new owner's eye and is brought in to work in the "big house", while her husband Robert is rented out to another farm. While the widowed plantation owner, Edward Gaines, sees Margaret as a sexual object, his daughter Caroline comes to see Margaret as a sort of foster mother. At Caroline's engagement party, a rift develops between Gaines and his daughter over her respect for Margaret.
Robert returns to escape with Margaret and his children; his mother Cilla refuses to go, claiming to be too old to learn the new habits of freedom. While they prepare to escape, the overseer Casey finds them and, after a struggle, Robert kills him. The couple and their two children flee, but are later found by Gaines and a posse
. After a gun fight, Robert is captured and lynched
. Margaret kills her two children to prevent them being returned to slavery, but she is taken alive.
Gaines forces a criminal trial where Margaret is charged with "destruction of property" for the killing of his slaves, her children. Caroline appeals to Gaines to advance the abolitionist
agenda by having Margaret tried for murder instead, acknowledging the slaves' humanity. He refuses. After the guilty verdict and sentence of execution
, Gaines fears losing Caroline. Believing he acted as a "proper" gentleman, he obtains a commutation for Margaret if she admits her guilt. Ignoring him, Margaret steps voluntarily off the gallows
.
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...
loosely based on actual events in the life of runaway slave Margaret Garner
Margaret Garner
Margaret Garner was an enslaved African American woman in pre-Civil War America who was notorious - or celebrated - for killing her own daughter rather than allow the child to be returned to slavery. She and her family had escaped in January 1856 across the frozen Ohio River to Cincinnati, but...
. It was co-commissioned by the Michigan Opera Theatre
Michigan Opera Theatre
Michigan Opera Theatre is Michigan's principal opera company. The company is based in Detroit, where it performs in the Detroit Opera House. Each year it presents an opera and dance season. The company usually presents five operas in their original language with English supertitles and hosts five...
, Cincinnati Opera
Cincinnati Opera
Cincinnati Opera is an American opera company based in Cincinnati, Ohio and the second oldest opera company in the United States .-History:...
and Opera Company of Philadelphia
Opera Company of Philadelphia
The Opera Company of Philadelphia is an American opera company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and is the city's only company producing grand opera. The organization produces four fully staged opera productions annually, encompassing works from the seventeenth through the 21st century...
. The music was composed by Richard Danielpour
Richard Danielpour
Richard Danielpour is an American composer.-Biography:Danielpour is born of Persian/Jewish descent. He studied at Oberlin College and the New England Conservatory of Music, and later at the Juilliard School of Music, where he received a DMA in composition in 1986...
with a libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
by Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison is a Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, editor, and professor. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed characters. Among her best known novels are The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon and Beloved...
. Morrison previously used the historic Margaret Garner as the inspiration for her novel Beloved
Beloved (novel)
Beloved is a novel by the American writer Toni Morrison, published in 1987. Set in 1873 just after the American Civil War , it is based on the story of the African-American slave, Margaret Garner, who escaped slavery in 1856 in Kentucky by fleeing to Ohio, a free state...
. This is one of a few operas written about the African-American experience; other notable examples are George Gershwin
George Gershwin
George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...
's Porgy and Bess
Porgy and Bess
Porgy and Bess is an opera, first performed in 1935, with music by George Gershwin, libretto by DuBose Heyward, and lyrics by Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward. It was based on DuBose Heyward's novel Porgy and subsequent play of the same title, which he co-wrote with his wife Dorothy Heyward...
(1935) and Scott Joplin
Scott Joplin
Scott Joplin was an American composer and pianist. Joplin achieved fame for his ragtime compositions, and was later dubbed "The King of Ragtime". During his brief career, Joplin wrote 44 original ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas...
's Treemonisha
Treemonisha
Treemonisha is an opera composed by the famed African-American ragtime composer Scott Joplin. Though it encompasses a wide range of musical styles other than ragtime, and Joplin did not refer to it as such, it is sometimes incorrectly referred to as a "ragtime opera"...
(1910/1972).
The 2-act opera explores themes of freedom and personal and community relationships, and makes some use of the African-American musical tradition of spirituals
Spiritual (music)
Spirituals are religious songs which were created by enslaved African people in America.-Terminology and origin:...
. It was the first libretto for the author and the first opera for the composer. Danielpour began work on the opera in 1998. The opera premièred on May 7, 2005 in Detroit; it was performed in Cincinnati in July 2005, and Philadelphia in February 2006. The three companies spent more than $2 million on the opera. Denyce Graves
Denyce Graves
Denyce Graves is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer.-Early life:Graves was born on March 7, 1964, to Charles Graves and Dorothy Graves-Kenner. She is the middle of three children and was raised by her mother on Galveston Street, S.W., in the Bellevue section of Washington...
sang the title role in the premiere run, which featured a cast of nearly one hundred, flaming torches, a hanging
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
on stage, and blackpowder pistols. The opera requires a large cast because of the requirement for separate African and Caucasian choruses to portray the slaves and slave-owners. Other members of the initial cast were Angela M. Brown as Cilla, Eric Greene as Robert Garner, Rod Gilfry
Rod Gilfry
Rodney Gilfry is a leading American opera baritone. After launching his career at Frankfurt Opera in 1987, Gilfry quickly established a reputation for stylish singing and acting...
as Edward Gaines, Roger Honeywell as the Auctioneer and John Mac Master as Casey. Kenny Leon
Kenny Leon
Kenny Leon is an African-American director notable for his work on Broadway and in regional theater. His success on Broadway has made him one of its foremost African-American directors....
directed.
The opera has also been staged by Opera Carolina in Charlotte, North Carolina in 2006, 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...
in 2007, and in Detroit and Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
in 2008. NPR aired the Opera Carolina production.
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere Cast, 2005 (Conductor: Stefan Lano) |
|---|---|---|
| Margaret Garner, a slave | mezzo-soprano Mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above... |
Denyce Graves Denyce Graves Denyce Graves is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer.-Early life:Graves was born on March 7, 1964, to Charles Graves and Dorothy Graves-Kenner. She is the middle of three children and was raised by her mother on Galveston Street, S.W., in the Bellevue section of Washington... |
| Robert Garner, a slave, her husband | bass-baritone Bass-baritone A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing three Wagnerian roles: the Dutchman in Der fliegende... |
Eric Greene |
| Cilla, a slave, his mother | soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody... |
Angela M. Brown |
| Edward Gaines, the plantation owner | baritone Baritone Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or... |
Rod Gilfry Rod Gilfry Rodney Gilfry is a leading American opera baritone. After launching his career at Frankfurt Opera in 1987, Gilfry quickly established a reputation for stylish singing and acting... |
| Caroline, his daughter | soprano | Kelly Kaduce Kelly Kaduce Kelly Kaduce is an American soprano. She was born in Winnebago, Minnesota, United States of America. A graduate of St. Olaf College and Boston University , Kaduce won the 1999 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions... |
| George Hancock, her fiancé, later husband | tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2... |
|
| An auctioneer | tenor | Roger Honeywell |
| Casey, the overseer | tenor | John Mac Master |
| Three judges | tenor, baritone, and bass-baritone | |
| Black slaves, white slave-owners | ||
Synopsis
The plot follows the slaveSlavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
Margaret Garner as a new master comes to Maplewood, the Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
plantation where she is held. Margaret catches her new owner's eye and is brought in to work in the "big house", while her husband Robert is rented out to another farm. While the widowed plantation owner, Edward Gaines, sees Margaret as a sexual object, his daughter Caroline comes to see Margaret as a sort of foster mother. At Caroline's engagement party, a rift develops between Gaines and his daughter over her respect for Margaret.
Robert returns to escape with Margaret and his children; his mother Cilla refuses to go, claiming to be too old to learn the new habits of freedom. While they prepare to escape, the overseer Casey finds them and, after a struggle, Robert kills him. The couple and their two children flee, but are later found by Gaines and a posse
Posse comitatus (common law)
Posse comitatus or sheriff's posse is the common-law or statute law authority of a county sheriff or other law officer to conscript any able-bodied males to assist him in keeping the peace or to pursue and arrest a felon, similar to the concept of the "hue and cry"...
. After a gun fight, Robert is captured and lynched
Lynching
Lynching is an extrajudicial execution carried out by a mob, often by hanging, but also by burning at the stake or shooting, in order to punish an alleged transgressor, or to intimidate, control, or otherwise manipulate a population of people. It is related to other means of social control that...
. Margaret kills her two children to prevent them being returned to slavery, but she is taken alive.
Gaines forces a criminal trial where Margaret is charged with "destruction of property" for the killing of his slaves, her children. Caroline appeals to Gaines to advance the abolitionist
Abolitionism
Abolitionism is a movement to end slavery.In western Europe and the Americas abolitionism was a movement to end the slave trade and set slaves free. At the behest of Dominican priest Bartolomé de las Casas who was shocked at the treatment of natives in the New World, Spain enacted the first...
agenda by having Margaret tried for murder instead, acknowledging the slaves' humanity. He refuses. After the guilty verdict and sentence of execution
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
, Gaines fears losing Caroline. Believing he acted as a "proper" gentleman, he obtains a commutation for Margaret if she admits her guilt. Ignoring him, Margaret steps voluntarily off the gallows
Gallows
A gallows is a frame, typically wooden, used for execution by hanging, or by means to torture before execution, as was used when being hanged, drawn and quartered...
.
Historical accuracy
The opera does not intend to be accurate history. Some of the differences between the story of the opera and historical events follow:- Robert Garner did not kill anyone, and was not lynched. In a shootout, he wounded two of the slave-hunters sent to recapture his family. He survived the escape and recapture, and fought on the Union side in the Civil War. He raised two sons, Tom and Sam, and died in 1871 from a chest injury suffered while working on a ship.
- Margaret Garner was pregnant at the time of her escape, and killed one of her children, Mary, when faced with recapture. Of the three other children, two sons, Tom and Sam, lived to maturity; a daughter Cilla was drowned at the age of ten months when she and Margaret were thrown overboard in a collision of their steamboat (headed for the slave market in New Orleans) with another ship.
- Margaret was not hanged, and survived the ships' collision. She and her husband were sold to a plantation in Mississippi, where Margaret died of typhoid feverTyphoid feverTyphoid fever, also known as Typhoid, is a common worldwide bacterial disease, transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person, which contain the bacterium Salmonella enterica, serovar Typhi...
in 1858. - Margaret's trial was focused primarily on the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850Fugitive Slave Law of 1850The Fugitive Slave Law or Fugitive Slave Act was passed by the United States Congress on September 18, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern slave holding interests and Northern Free-Soilers. This was one of the most controversial acts of the 1850 compromise and heightened...
, rather than on the killing of her daughter.
External links
- News story
- Website for this opera
- Margaret Garner, Compass: A Journal of Leadership
- Margaret Garner in Chicago