Soprano Kate Lindesy and composer Daron Aric Hagen at a preview of Amelia.
Seattle Opera's Artist of the Year awards--annual honors presented since 1991 to a singer and a conductor, director or designer--went to Kate Lindsey, who sang the title role of Amelia, and to Stephen Wadswrth, who created the opera's story and directed the world premiere production in May..(Cornichon, regular readers may recall, praised the production itself but was unimpressed by the music.)
The Chairman's Award went to the creative team behind Amelia. Composer Daron Aric Hagen, librettist Gardner McFall, and story creator Wadsworth shared the honor. Said chairman John Nesholm, "This extraordinary team gave us a new opera that spoke powerfully and movingly about the complex tensions between the promise and the danger of flying, one's duty to country, honor, and familial love, all told within the context of one of the most significant periods in our recent history. We are extraordinarily grateful to Gardner, Daron and Stephen for their work with us and the legacy they leave to the world of opera."
It was a vindication for Wadsworth, who had shaped the story from a series of poems about flight by McFall. Of his work on Amelia, the Wall Street Journal said "Mr. Wadsworth's subtle and incisive directing made the opera's multiple levels and interactions absolutely clear, communicating the story's emotional weight without allowing it to slip into sentimentality."
Seattle Opera said the just-completed 2009-2010 season brought in $30 million in revenues but cost only $28 million, thanks to a salary freeze and careful planning to reduce production costs. The company's first production of the 2010-2011 season, Tristan und Isolde, premiered this weekend to mixed reviews that generally praised the Wagner's music and the conducting of Asher Fisch but were cool to Robert Israel's staging.
According to McFall in an afterward to the libretto as published by University of Washington Press (ISBN 978-0-295-98939-6), "by September 2004, Stephen had turned Daron's early treatment into a two-act story, titled "Amelia," featuring elements drawn from my poems and life but revised and developed for dramatic effect." She goes on to describe in detail the process by which she, Hagen and Wadsworth together crafted the libretto and shaped the story. Like your original review of the opera, which was factually inaccurate and loosely-written, this blog entry is also loose on an understanding of the actual subject, but superficially authoritative. Please read the forward to the libretto by Speight Jenkins and the afterward by Ms. McFall herself to develop a more factually-based idea of the true nature of the Amelia Creative Team's work together.
While in no way diminishing Stephen's brilliance or the excellence of his performance as a member of the team assembled around me for the creation of "Amelia," I'd say that the Chairman's Award also "vindicates" (as if that were needed!) Gardner McFall's performance as part of the creative team as well.