The Picture of Dorian Gray

(American Premiere)
by Lowell Liebermann
Florentine Opera Company (Milwaukee)
Steuart Bedford, conductor

Performers listed below.

Remember that old saying that warns us about the dangers of our own goals and aspirations? It goes something like, “Be careful what you wish for, as you just might get it.” Now surely, we all tend to think we know exactly what we want, and when. Then again, Pandora was sure she just had to see what was in that box.

Romantic wishes may be the most obvious example. How many times have you thought you had found the perfect relationship -- or at least as perfect as you were likely to attain? And how many times did that relationship end with anguish and bitter recriminations? Is that really what you had wished for?

But that’s a bad example, right? Romance is so inherently unrealiable. OK, maybe so. But even our more straightforward, material wishes often don’t pan out. Like the dream house that turns into an impossibly expensive, maintenance nightmare; the sports car that’s so fun to drive that we don’t mind that it gets abysmal milage and attracts cops like flies, and costs a zillion dollars to insure; the initial public offering of that cyber stock that just had to be the next Microsoft - except that Microsoft already had it’s own version of the fledgling company’s key product, ready and waiting to scuttle your plans for early retirement.

And it’s not like our literature and entertainment don’t give us plenty of warning about this phenomenon. Take this week’s opera, The Picture of Dorian Gray. Dorian’s wish, as a handsome young man coveted by many, is to retain his youth while only his painted portrait grows old. He gets his way, and seems glad for it - he has a great time, actually. And why not? Sounds like a pretty good deal: Put the picture away in the attic and live the good life forever. But of course, there are complications - misery and death not least among them.

If you know Oscar Wilde’s classic book, you know all about those complications. If you haven’t read it -- or if you have and you’ve been hoping for a musical version - you can get the whole, sordid story in the world premiere broadcast of The Picture of Dorian Gray, by the American composer Lowell Liebermann. Hear it this week on NPR WORLD OF OPERA, with host Steve Curwood, in a performance from the Florentine Opera of Milwaukee. And for more, tune in half-an-hour before curtain time for NPR’s AT THE OPERA, with Lou Santacroce.

Performers:
Mark Thomsen, tenor (Dorian Gray); Jan Grissom, soprano (Sibyl Vane); Kelly Anderson, baritone (Basil); John Hancock, baritone (Lord Henry); Nancy Shade, soprano (The Whore)


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