An American Opera Impresario Takes His Final Bow : Deceptive CadenceIn Houston and San Francisco, David Gockley commissioned operas destined for stages worldwide. As he retires, he reflects on reviving Scott Joplin and premiering Nixon in China.
Carmen Balthrop (center) sang the title role in Scott Joplin's Treemonisha in the first fully staged professional production, at Houston Grand Opera in 1975. This photograph dates from the company's 1981-82 revival.
Jim Caldwell/Houston Grand Opera Achives
Inspired by a production he saw in Cold War East Berlin, David Gockley presented a full operatic version of Gershwin's classic Porgy and Bess at Houston Grand Opera in 1976. The production traveled to Broadway, where it won a Tony Award.
Jim Caldwell/Houston Grand Opera Archives
After a chance meeting with Leonard Bernstein (center) in New York, Gockley (right) asked him to compose a work for Houston Grand Opera. In 1983 the company gave the world premiere of Bernstein's A Quiet Place, an acerbic family drama.
Jim Caldwell/Houston Grand Opera Archives
A scene from the world premiere of Bernstein's A Quiet Place with Peter Kazaras as François and Sheri Greenawald as Dede (left) and Carolyne James as Mrs. Doc and Peter Harrower as Doc (right).
Jim Caldwell/Houston Grand Opera Archives
For Houston Grand Opera's 1984-1985 season, Gockley (left) presented the American premiere of Akhnaten by Philp Glass.
Jim Caldwell/Houston Grand Opera Archives
James Maddalena (right) starred as Richard Nixon in the 1987 Houston Grand Opera world premiere of Nixon in China by John Adams. James Duykers sang the role of Mao Tse-tung.
Jim Caldwell/Houston Grand Opera Archives
Adams (right) goes over details of Nixon in China with conductor John DeMain in Houston in 1987.
Houston Grand Opera Archives
Stewart Wallace's opera Harvey Milk, recounting the story of the slain gay rights activist and San Francisco supervisor, opened at Houston Grand Opera in 1995. This photograph is from the West Coast premiere in San Francisco the following year.
Ron Scherl/San Francisco Opera
Houston Grand Opera gave the world premiere of Mark Adamo's Little Women (based on the Louisa May Alcott book) in 1998 and revived it the following season. A young Joyce DiDonato (right) played the part of Meg, with Stephanie Novacek as Jo.
George Hixson/Houston Grand Opera Archives
The 2007 Civil War drama Appomattox by Philip Glass was one of the world premieres David Gockley presented after assuming the directorship of the San Francisco Opera in 2006.
Terrence McCarthy/San Francisco Opera
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In 1970, a young business school grad — and failed opera singer — named David Gockley landed a job as business manager of the Houston Grand Opera. After two years, at age 27, he moved up to general director.
Over the next 30 years, Gockley transformed the company into a hothouse for new and revived American opera. During his tenure in Houston, Gockley presented 35 world premieres, including John Adams' Nixon in China, Stewart Wallace's Harvey Milk, Leonard Bernstein's A Quiet Place, Mark Adamo's Little Women and three operas by Carlisle Floyd.
Gockley continued along the same path after moving to the San Francisco Opera in 2006. As general director he racked up more world premieres — Philip Glass' Civil War drama Appomattox and Christopher Theofanidis' 9/11 story Heart of a Soldier. A new opera from Bright Sheng, Dream of the Red Chamber, debuts this fall, and Tuesday Gockley announced Girls of the Golden West, an Adams opera premiering in November 2017.
Now this pioneering impresario is about to "pack it in," as he says in the audio feature above. Gockley will retire in July. To mark the occasion, the San Francisco Opera is throwing a little party for him Thursday that will include a number of singers ("my kiddies") whose careers he helped nurture, including Renée Fleming, Susan Graham, Patricia Racette, René Pape and Dolora Zajick.
We asked Gockley to reminisce a little and tell a few stories about his early years and the great music he nurtured in Houston, beginning with his very first production of Carlisle Floyd's Susannah in 1972. That opera convinced him "there was an opportunity to have an American opera repertoire."
(Editor's Note: There is one mildly objectional word used twice during the audio feature.)