Robert Aldridge, composer, musician, and Montclair dad has been working on his musical chef d’oeuvre, Elmer Gantry, off and on for 17 years. Based on the novel by Sinclair Lewis and later made into a 1960 Oscar winning film, Aldridge says big American themes like religion and business – and caricatures of con man, preacherman, and salesman makes Elmer Gantry a perfect vehicle for the traditional Appalachian-rooted and gospel-style score set to the libretto by Herschel Garfein.
Aldridge and Garfein have created a new opera which is both satire and tragedy, while exploring evangelical Christianity in America. The opera’s original hymns and religious songs were inspired from the King James Bible.
Elmer Gantry premieres in the Tri-State area this week at Montclair State University’s Alexander Kasser Theater. The Saturday night (January 26) performance features an all-student cast including Andrea Saul in the lead. (Andrea is a familiar operatic voice in Montclair, for those of you who dine at Joe Bartoni’s.) The other performances also include Andrea, Glen Ridger Margot Levinson, Glenfield student Micaela Aldridge, and MKA student Edward Rosini in the chorus.
Elmer Gantry had its world premier on November 16, 2007, at the Nashville Opera. Sunday’s NY Times looks at the background in the ambitious undertaking of Elmer Gantry and its place in the European-dominated genre.
“We wanted to show how evangelism moves from frontier to city by taking on the techniques of American business,” Mr. Garfein explained dryly. He might also have said they were showing how ambition enables and then pollutes faith.
Tickets ($15) are available for performances on Wednesday, January 23 & 25, 2008 at 7:30pm, January 26, 2008 at 8:00pm (all student cast), and January 27, 2008 at 3:00PM. Box Office: 973-655-5112 or order online at peakperfs.org. More information, here.