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Carlisle Floyd continues his exploration of Southern life in his first major comic opera

By Robert Wilder Blue

In April 2000, Houston Grand Opera presented the world premiere of Carlisle Floyd's tenth opera, Cold Sassy Tree, based on the 1984 novel by Olive Ann Burns. A few weeks before the premiere, Floyd talked about his latest opera with Karen Keltner, Resident Conductor of San Diego Opera.

Carlisle Floyd and Ian Campbell, General Director of San Diego Opera.

"Cold Sassy Tree is essentially the story of a town's reaction to the marriage of their leading citizen, Rucker Lattimore, only two weeks after his first wife's funeral. The town is further scandalized by the fact that his new wife, Love Simpson, is young enough to be his daughter. This is a small town in Georgia at the turn of the 20th century, a hundred years ago and a small town very much influenced by the conventional church-going people of its time. Rucker is not the least bit disconcerted by the town's reaction. The story evolves in terms of the conflicts between the man and the town and the woman he has married. Also involved is the grandson, who serves as the narrator throughout the opera. They are very colorful personalities, especially Rucker. All three of the central characters are very strong, very well-drawn.

"The book was given to me by my sister, because she thought that somebody from this part of the world, the southeast, would probably fully appreciate it. But, everywhere I have traveled in this country, people have read Cold Sassy Tree and the standard reaction from everybody, male and female, is 'I loved it.' Obviously, its appeal goes far beyond regional boundaries. What appealed to me most about it in terms of its operatic possibilities were the very vivid, rich characters. And it is also rich in comic incidents.

Carlisle Floyd with Andrew Campbell, rehearsal accompanist for Cold Sassy Tree.

"Writing comedy has been one of the most difficult adventures imaginable for me. You know the famous statement, 'dying is easy, comedy is hard,' attributed to any number of actors? I found out that was certainly true, primarily because writing music for comedy is an entirely different kind of exercise. Basically, it is the situational aspect rather than the emotional. So, I felt very comfortable when I got into the heavy emotional scenes because that was what I had been doing for the last 40 years. But keeping the comedic aspect of the piece buoyant and lively, in the manner of a Falstaff, for instance, was no easy job. I can only hope I have succeeded. It certainly has been a challenge.

"I think Cold Sassy Tree contains aspects of everything I've done over the last 40 years in this business. There is more, of course, which is necessitated by the nature of the story. There is more light-hearted, boisterous music, which is not the kind of thing I am normally known for. Of course, it is necessary for the dramatic situation and for the central characters. So, while it employs country, folk-like materials and almost a jazzy element, it is all, I hope, my own voice.

Is writing a comedy fun? "Oh, absolutely, absolutely -- especially the libretto. I found myself thoroughly enjoying it and if the music plays as I expect it to, I think I will enjoy hearing it. The situations are very comic in themselves, not to mention the behavior of the characters. The problem with opera or any musical situation in comedy is the fact that the comedy primarily needs to be visual. It needs to be something the audience can appreciate by seeing rather than being something purely verbal. This is my first venture into comedy on this scale.

"But, I'm not alone in this. I found out there is a very good reason we haven't had many successful comic operas in the 18th and 19th centuries or even in the 20th century. Really, we have only a handful of comedies in the opera repertoire that have been successful. It's very difficult to find a libretto in which the comedy is visible to an audience without being absurd and outrageous -- especially for contemporary audiences. Yet it must be genuinely and inherently comic in terms of the clashes of personalities, in the lines and in the situation itself.

Verdi's second opera, Un giorno di regno, was a comedy that failed miserably. He waited until the end of his life to write another comedy. "I certainly understand why. I appreciate Falstaff the more I listen to it. In preparation for doing Cold Sassy Tree, I went back to the score again. I hadn't studied it in some years. I understand why Verdi made the choices he did in many cases, at least I flatter myself that I do.

"Cold Sassy Tree is a very curious mix. The book is of the comic, the broadly comic and, in some cases, the outrageously comic. Yet it is serious and very touching and, ultimately, tragic. That was a tall order to fill. I found the only way to handle it was to follow the intent of the novel. From the very beginning I thought, 'What is this? What do I call this?' The term I finally came up with to describe the piece on the title page was simply to call it a 'comedy drama in music.' That is about as precise as I can get.

"I think that what is fascinating about the material is its juxtaposition of the serious and the comic. It turns on a dime from something hilarious to something very tragic and then turns back to something very high-spirited. That quality is inherent in the material and it is what I feel I had to deal with musically and dramatically. There is no preparation for the changes which, I think, makes the comic elements even stronger and the tragic elements more vivid. In opera, we are used to setting things up a great deal more. You usually have more time to build situations. I hope the music keeps the audience riveted.

Read more on Carlisle Floyd
 Carlisle Floyd's Official Page at Boosey & Hawkes
 Cold Sassy