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Higdon’s Cold Mountain Gets Fine Performance

Robert Levine

Artistic Quality:

Sound Quality:

The book sold 4 million copies and spent a year on the best-seller list and the movie won an Oscar. How can the opera fail?

Well, I have a feeling that this particular work, in which the narrative alternates between past and present and different locations, is probably easier to “get” on stage than on a recording, which, unless you are assiduously following the libretto, may seem textually incomprehensible. I mean “incomprehensible” only in the larger sense: librettist Gene Scheer has crafted a libretto that is so clear that almost no words are lost, and composer Jennifer Higdon’s vocal lines are singable and her orchestration so gentle during difficult textual moments that it is all easy to hear. But the narrative itself is dislodged, leading to the fact that listeners can’t tell where or when things are happening without referring to the libretto, or unless they’ve memorized Charles Frazier’s book.

The plot: W.P. Inman is a wounded Civil War soldier who deserts and walks 300 miles to his home, Cold Mountain, in Raleigh, N.C.  so that he can be reunited with his love, Ada Monroe, who has been left to tend to her dead father’s farm. In addition to being hunted by the Home Guard, in particular a man named Teague, he meets Veasey, a would-be murderer, a war widow, a quartet of conniving loose women, a blind man, a preacher; he almost drowns; he is arrested and put on a chain gang.

He eventually gets home to Ada, but is soon murdered by one of Teague’s co-hunters. Ada, for her part, is a citified gal unaccustomed to country/farming ways, who overcomes her fancy upbringing and learns to cope throughout the book/movie/opera, aided by a woman named Ruby, a self-assured, country-wise woman who comes to live with her.

Not to state the obvious, but one of the functions of the “music” part of opera is surely to bring words and drama to a higher level of understanding and feeling, and for the most part Higdon’s opera does not do this. There are fine touches—the rushing strings when Inman is almost drowning; two wonderful choruses in Act 2 sung by the war dead and soldiers that haunt Inman; a touching duet for Inman and Ada that, indeed, tells more than words can (although there’s not a memorable tune in it).

I read that Higdon is an admirer of Chris Thile, perhaps the greatest bluegrass mandolin player in the world (who also plays Bach on the mandolin in a manner that could compete with Segovia on the guitar). Why, then is there no “country”-type music in this Civil War story, which calls out for it? I’m not asking for a hoedown, just atmosphere. Pulitzer Prize-winning Higdon, a fine composer, makes music in the vein of Britten and Barber. Nothing is either too self-consciously tuneful or self-consciously nasty/dissonant, but the music mostly just moves the plot, in a functional sort of way, with the good news being that the pace is natural and not operatically slow or repetitious. Occasionally the orchestration is stripped down to a lone oboe when despair is in the air, but somehow the whole lacks specific character.

Most of the performances are vivid and telling. Nathan Gunn’s handsome voice is ideal for Inman, and he is particularly fine in all of his more desperate scenes. Near the opera’s end, when he is re-united with Ada, I do wish he sounded a bit less vigorous: he’s been through physical and emotional hell, but he still sounds like a baritone-in-the-grand-tradition. Isabel Leonard’s Ada can be both girlish and firm, and her tone is invariably lovely. Ruby, who helps Ada learn to cope and manages to be both tough and warm at the same time, is brilliantly portrayed by mezzo Emily Fons—she’s almost the backbone of the opera.

The wicked Teague, viciously out to get Inman, is performed with snide cruelty by tenor Jay Hunter Morris, and Roger Honeywell colors his text and music superbly as the duplicitous preacher, Veasey. As Stobrod, Ruby’s father, who shows up to complicate matters and milk what he can out of the situation, Kevin Burdette adds flavor.

Scheer and Higdon have added the character of Lucinda, a runaway slave, to the narrative (I don’t recall her at all from the movie, and friends tell me that she’s merely mentioned in the book). Deborah Nansteel sings the role with great personality, and a duet in which she and Inman each tell of their hardships gives the situation perspective and is very moving. Miguel Harth-Bedoya leads the Santa Fe forces with clarity and forward propulsion—this is music drama that lives.

This is Jennifer Higdon’s first opera, and I suspect that making music that would specifically separate both action and timeframe would be a challenge for many more experienced composers. Opera is, of course, a medium to see in addition to hear, and so a recording doesn’t always do it justice (can we actually hear Cherubino hiding from the Count?). Still, it’s an interesting work and should not be dismissed.


Recording Details:

    Soloists: Nathan Gunn (baritone); Jay Hunter Morris, Roger Honeywell (tenor); Isabel Leonard, Emily Fons, Deborah Nansteel (mezzo-soprano); Kevin Burdette (bass)

    Santa Fe Opera Orchestra, Miguel Harth-Bedoya

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