Ruders discusses "The Handmaid's Tale"

Ruders Discusses "The Handmaid's Tale"

This month dacapo records issues a live recording of the premier performance of Poul Ruders’ new opera "The Handmaid’s Tale," based on Margaret Atwood’s novel of the same title. The initial performances were the highlight of the Danish Royal Opera’s 2000 season, and garnered rave reviews in the international press. As someone privileged to have seen that first production, I can only add my voice to the general enthusiasm. Ruders’ opera is the "real deal": exciting, dramatic, lyrical, and terrifying. The music grips you from its first notes, and never lets up. Paul Bentley’s libretto strikes me as one of the finest adaptations ever made for the operatic stage. It preserves Atwood’s language as much as possible, while structuring the situations in the most effective way. With new opera, however successful on stage, there’s always the question of whether or not the music works outside the theatrical setting. This music does. In fact, listening without the visual element has only increased my admiration for Ruders’ achievement. While in Copenhagen, I had the opportunity to speak with the composer about the creation of a work that, I have no doubt, will soon begin a triumphant progress around the world’s operatic stages.

Q. Could you tell us something about how you first came across the subject of The Handmaid’s Tale?

A. Yes. I read the novel, I guess, in 1992. We lived in London and it struck me quite forcefully that the whole thing embodied the matrix of a real dramatic opera. It’s got clearly defined situations, love and hate, violence and tenderness and the whole setup, at least for me begged to be set. Although when finally I got a commission from the Royal Opera House in Copenhagen I wriggled in my own net a bit because I realized that it was going to be a monumental, massive job to do, not because I’m particularly lazy. I thought that this could be the end of me! But then, after a week or so of deliberation, I told the then chief of the Opera that I’d do it, but it’s got to be The Handmaid’s Tale. She bought the novel, read it, and said immediately "Here we go."

Q. How did you turn the novel into an opera libretto?

A. That’s an interesting story. I didn’t know Paul Bentley at all; his name came up though one of my colleagues at the opera. When she called him to discuss the commission, he said, "Just a minute, I have to turn down my stereo." He was listening to one of my pieces.

Q. Oh, really?

A. No kidding, that’s serendipity, isn’t it? So we both thought well, this is a sign from above. And he wrote an absolutely fantastic libretto, both faithful to the novel and beautifully structured for a musical setting.

Q. When did you actually get the clearance to begin work on the piece?

A. I met Margaret Atwood in Copenhagen I think in 1995. My publisher and I, we went to her hotel to discus the project, and she gave the go ahead – and then there was a lot of legal negotiation back and forth, obviously, it took about two years – massive contracts. But we had it all sorted out eventually. And then the Paul started doing the libretto. It took him about, I think, maybe four weeks to hammer it all out and it was perfect.

Q. Did she have any say in the final libretto? Margaret Atwood?

A. She didn’t want to. She understood that we had to structure the story for the stage, but we sent her first and the second draft anyway and she said, "Fine". And here we go.

Q. You wrote it to be performed both in Danish and English?

A. Yes. The first language was English. It was written in English, but it was stipulated by the Royal Opera that be sung in Danish, so I did the translation as I composed. That was very difficult, because there are so many more syllables in Danish as opposed to English. One key word is "love," that’s one syllable in English, and in Danish it’s three. So I had lots of tough decisions.

Q. What kind of forces does the opera call for in terms of performance resources? Is it do-able by smaller opera houses or is it really a big production?

A. It’s a really big production, and I’m afraid it may be very expensive. You need a large symphony orchestra with electronics, and you have a big chorus. The stage requirement, lighting, scenery—it’s all so complex. The stage crew actually had a T-shirt made for this production, like at sporting events. So, it’s a big one.

Q. Was it fun?

A. Oh, yes. I’ve always been there for almost all the rehearsals, general rehearsals, stage rehearsals, and it’s been wonderful.

Q. It must be really a great thrill to see a big project like that come off the table and take on life before an audience?

A. Oh yes! I mean the support all the way through has been second to none. Everybody from the floor sweeper to the maestro, everybody has been behind it completely. It has been a great sensation in the house as well.

Q. So the whole project took about three years from start to finish?

A. One year and six months to compose the whole thing. It’s not always easy, I can assure you. But having this amazingly adaptable libretto in my hands, it really meant a lot. I mean literally you only have to form the notes on top of the words, as it were. It was all there in the text. And then of course you have to have the parts copied out, vocal scores prepared, rehearsals—all in all about three years total.

Q. When you’re writing an opera, the operatic audience is very different from the contemporary music audience. There’s a contemporary music ghetto—a small group of people who enjoy modern "art" music, but an operatic audience is much larger and more broadly constituted, isn’t it?

A. And that’s why this project was so exciting for me, because I knew from the word go that I would eventually have a much different audience from what I normally have.

Q. Did this fact affect the kind of music that you wrote?

A. Not in the sense that I had to make compromises stylistically. My music has always been dramatically disposed—I just emphasized this aspect to the maximum. I really went nuts. This is opera, theater! The music must have impact.

Q. And I understand that attendance has been high?

A. As of a week ago we had 92% of the seats sold out for all performances.

Q. What do you expect an audience watching the opera to take away from it?

A. I believe that in the audience should start to think twice about what sort of world we live in—Margaret Atwood’s target is, of course, the Bible Belt in the United States, the fundamentalist Christian right. But at the end of the day this is a story, an opera about or against intolerance, dehumanization, and totalitarianism. And this is important because these horrors do exist out there in some form or another as we speak. If I, as an artist, can contribute even a little by having a paying audience think about these issues, by moving them to think about them through the impact of my music, then I will have succeeded.