Cold Sassy Tree

by Carlisle Floyd
Houston Grand Opera Orchestra and Chorus
Patrick Summers, conductor
Performers listed below

Carlisle Floyd completed his first opera in 1955 when he was not yet 30 years old. It was quite a debut. The opera was Susannah, a tragic and moving story of narrow-mindedness and pious hypocrisy, set in the American South. Its premiere was a sensation, and, by now, many regard Susannah as not just one of the finest American operas but as one of the finest 20th-century operas, period.

Since the mid-'50s, Floyd has sustained an active and successful career in the opera house. His works include Wuthering Heights and Willie Stark, among many others. Actually, two of those others have been heard on NPR World of Opera: The Passion of Jonathan Wade -­ (from Florida Grand Opera) and, more recently, Of Mice and Men (from Glimmerglass Opera).

Now in his mid-70s, Carlisle Floyd has returned to the world of Susannah, the American South -- the Bible Belt, if you will -- with a new opera. Called Cold Sassy Tree, it's featured this week on NPR World of Opera in its World Premiere production, from Houston Grand Opera.

Like Susannah, this new work uses pious hypocrisy as a running theme. But in other ways, it's very different. In fact, Cold Sassy Tree might remind you of another opera written by a mature composer nearing the end of a long career spent writing serious operas: Verdi's Falstaff. Unlike the dark, tragic operas we've come to expect from Carlisle Floyd -- and which also typify Verdi -- this new work from Floyd is justly called a comedy. And, like Falstaff, it's a very human comedy about an irascible old guy who simply refuses to take life so seriously that he can't enjoy himself -- even when confronted by dire circumstances.

Ok, so you may be leery of "new" operas. Not to worry. There's nothing ominous about this one. It's a work of true warmth and charm, and with an uncanny sense of Americana. Tune it in this week on NPR World of Opera, with Steve Curwood.



Performers:
Patrica Racette (Love Simpson); Dean Peterson (Rucker Lattimore); Jon McVeigh (Will Tweedy); Margaret Lloyd (Lightfoot McClendon); Diane Alexander (Mary Willis Tweedy); Beth Clayton (Loma Williams)

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