• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Berkshire Links

BerkshireLinks.com

Berkshires schedules and attractions.

  • TLI programs
  • Tanglewood reviews
  • Hotels
  • About
  • Poetry
You are here: Home » Tanglewood concert reviews » The Great Gatsby John Harbison’s Opera performed at Tanglewood

The Great Gatsby John Harbison’s Opera performed at Tanglewood

The Great Gatsby John Harbison’s Opera performed at Tanglewood

July 11, 2013 performance; by Dave Read

Ryan Turner, conductor and Gordon Gietz as Jay Gatsby, Tanglewood; photo: Hilary Scott.The concert performance in Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood of The Great Gatsby, by the orchestra and chorus of Emmanuel Music, was so enjoyable that we’re tempted to propose a corollary to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s adage, There are no second acts in American lives, to wit, American novels can get third lives.

None of the movie versions of The Great Gatsby has achieved anything near the stature of the novel, but we think the opera has legs and can give the book a run for its money. Whereas Fitzgerald’s standing as a prose stylist cannot be ignored, his choices relating to plots and characters can make it easy to overlook his books. But it is precisely the contrivedly tragic plot and one-dimensional characters that make Gatsby such a good fit for Opera.

Cast of The Great Gatsby at Tanglewood; Hilary Scott photo.We particularly enjoyed the performance of baritone David Kravitz as Nick Carraway, the steady narrator, and we came to prize soprano Devon Guthrie, who got Daisy Buchanan off to a slow start, only to hit her stride and then practically blow the roof off the joint in the middle of Act ll.

Composer John Harbison, recipient this month of the BSO’s Horblit Award and present tonight, was commissioned in 1998 by the Metropolitan Opera to compose the opera in honor of James Levine’s 25th anniversary there. Since then, there have been several related projects including the compilation of a Gatsby Suite. In the program notes, Mr. Harbison, whose Tanglewood relationship includes stints as a TMC Conducting Fellow, faculty member and coordinator of the composition program, calls tonight’s performance a revival.

Ozawa Hall was a lovely accompanist for the performance on a rare comfortable July evening, with a near-capacity audience indoors and a good compliment of West Eggers peering on from the lawn.

Primary Sidebar

How to get to the Berkshires

Here are inks for local and regional public transportation depots and stops, plus where to get Peter Pan bus and Amtrak train schedules and tickets: how to get to the Berkshires.

Book local hotels

  • Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites
  • Days Inn Great Barrington
  • Great Barrington MA Travelodge
  • Vacation Village At Berkshires
  • Super 8 Lee
  • Days Inn – Lenox MA
  • Howard Johnson Express Inn
  • Hampton Inn Suites
  • Holiday Inn BERKSHIRES
  • The Porches Inn at MASS MoCA
  • Orchards Hotel
  • The Red Lion Inn

Local sponsors

Tennis court contractor - Tennis courts & sports surfaces built, repaired, maintained in the Berkshires. PirettiSports.com
Lenox, MA Apts. - Bright sunny one and two bedroom units; On BRTA bus line, near Village center and Rt. 7 Bypass. SunnyBankLenox.com

Footer

Tags

1999 Tanglewood reviews 2000 Tanglewood reviews 2001 Tanglewood reviews 2002 Tanglewood reviews 2003 Tanglewood reviews 2004 Tanglewood reviews 2005 Tanglewood reviews 2006 Tanglewood reviews 2007 Tanglewood reviews 2008 Tanglewood reviews 2009 Tanglewood reviews 2010 Tanglewood reviews 2011 Tanglewood reviews 2012 Tanglewood reviews 2013 Tanglewood reviews 2014 Tanglewood reviews 2015 Tanglewood reviews 2016 Tanglewood reviews 2016 theatre schedules 2017 Tanglewood reviews 2018 Tanglewood reviews A Prairie Home Companion Beethoven's Ninth James Taylor Jazz Silk Road Ensemble Tanglewood Festival Chorus Tanglewood jazz Yo-Yo Ma

Subscribe

Keep in touch with BerkshierLinks

buy a book

Except for Love; New England Poets Inspired by Donald Hall
Except for Love; New England Poets Inspired by Donald Hall

© 2019 Dave Read · ReadWebco

  • TLI programs
  • Tanglewood reviews
  • Hotels
  • About
  • Poetry