James Conlon

By Carie J. Delmar
OperaOnline.us

When Patti LuPone was asked what made James Conlon such a vibrant conductor, she answered: “His passion.” And she should know because the two have been friends and artistic colleagues since their student days at Juilliard.

“He was just one of the happiest human beings that I ever met, and he supported the Drama Division of the Juilliard School when not very many other students did,” she said from her home in Connecticut. “Many of us became friends with Jimmy because he was very enthusiastic about the Drama Division and us as actors.”

Conlon, 56, will conduct LuPone in Los Angeles Opera’s new production of Kurt Weill’s “Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny” in February and March.

“I’ve always thought I should do Brecht-Weill,” continued LuPone. “I thought I was a perfect candidate for that style of music and acting, and it will certainly challenge me as a musician. It will be risky; it will be edgy; it will be challenging; and it will be everything that one expects from a theatrical experience. This will be my second full opera, so I’m freaking out.”

The production will also star Audra McDonald and Anthony Dean Griffey and will mark Conlon’s third assignment this season as Los Angeles Opera’s new music director. He will conduct “Tannhäuser” almost concurrently.

Becoming the company’s new music director was the farthest thing from his mind a few years ago. Although he first conducted the New York Philharmonic in 1974 and débuted at the Met in 1976, he lived and conducted mostly in Europe for 20 years as music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic, general music director of the city of Cologne, and principal conductor of the Paris Opera. But then he decided to move back to the U.S. with his wife so that their children could be educated in America. That’s when L.A. Opera’s general director, Plácido Domingo, persuaded him to do more than just freelance. Domingo realized how significant Conlon’s presence in L.A. might be.

“Opera News” recently named him one of the 25 most powerful names in U.S. opera and one of the four most influential conductors in the U.S. today. “His ability to reach out and connect to an audience with a single piece of music is extraordinary,” said “Opera News” editor-in-chief F. Paul Driscoll from his office in New York. “Los Angeles is a town that thrives on that kind of excitement.”

When I sat down to chat with Conlon in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion recently, I was immediately struck by his intensity. He looked me squarely in the eyes and told me what he believed. He was wearing a casual black shirt and pants, seemed rushed and on overdrive, but was eager to talk about his wider goals. We discussed his new position as music director, the upcoming productions of “Mahagonny” and “Tannhäuser,” and about his mission to revive the music of composers who were persecuted during the Nazi era.

ON HIS NEW POSITION AS MUSIC DIRECTOR

When first asked to explain the difference between being a conductor and music director, Conlon observed that as a conductor, he is able to perform and interpret music all over the world and experience a different chemistry with each orchestra. Some experiences are better than others, he said. “As a music director, you marry yourself to that theater or orchestra and develop it,” he said, adding that he has seen symphonic conductors who “drop in on an opera” and think that all they have to do is direct the orchestra. “This is completely inadequate as a music director,” he elaborated. “You have to know the basic repertory, all of the Italian tradition right through ‘bel canto,’ right through Verdi and Puccini, right through all the ‘verismo’ operas. You have to know Mozart and the German repertoire -- Wagner, Strauss, Weber. You have to see where Wagner came from and where he was leaving. You have to have knowledge of Baroque opera. You have to know the human voice and all its potential. You have to be able to coach singers. You have to love theater and text. In my opinion, you have to plunge and immerge yourself into the languages of those operas that you’re doing. If you do not have a full grasp of the entire phenomenon -- the music, drama, theater, text, poetry and language -- you are not fully equipped to be the music director of an opera company.”

Although at this moment he only has a three-year contract with L.A. Opera, he hopes to see the company climb to the No. 2 spot right under the Met, which is probable and possible, he said, if the Los Angeles community continues its ongoing support and commitment to the company.

“I think that L.A. Opera is a very exciting place to be right now because it’s the fastest growing company in the country,” he continued. “I believe that you can be innovative here because there is an openness to doing the standard repertory in a special way, and there is an openness to doing the works of composers that are rarely heard.”

CONTINUING THE THOUGHT: DIFFERENT OPERAS – SIMILAR THEMES

Clearly, he is very excited about conducting both Kurt Weill’s “Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny” and Wagner’s “Tannhäuser.” “The great thing about these masterpieces and wonderful music is that it is all terribly relevant now,” he said. “They are about two different subjects, but in some respects they have something to say that is similar.”

“Mahagonny,” he explained, which premiered in 1930 with a libretto by Bertolt Brecht, is about an imaginary town where the inhabitants neglect the societal pressures that determine right from wrong, and they break the rules. Mahagonny, the town, is described in L.A. Opera’s promotional brochure as “the city of loose women and ex-cons where pleasure is king, greed wins the day, and the only crime is to run out of cash.” But of course, the city is doomed.

In “Tannhäuser,” Wagner explores man’s desire to break the rules again. “‘Tannhäuser’ is the most extraordinary expression of the Faustian concept that two spirits burn in my breast – the spiritual and the physical,” Conlon said.

“It goes back to that understanding of humankind as split between the physical being and spiritual being -- the mystery and discomfort that was inherent in the Romantic era for the male vision of love, where sexuality on the one hand was compelling but suspect, and purity on the other hand was attractive and yet somehow unattainable. In ‘Tannhäuser,’ you have Venus as a representative of erotic love and Elisabeth as a pure expression of generous spiritual love divorced of sensuality. . . . Tannhäuser is torn from one side to the other.”

Conlon digressed briefly to discuss “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg,” which also explores the nature of man and is set to be performed by L.A. Opera in the near future.

“There is another important theme in ‘Tannhäuser’ that will be revisited again very importantly in ‘Meistersinger,’ which is the old art [of song] vs. the new,” he continued. Both story lines include song contests.

“Tannhäuser comes in and wrecks society with his revolutionary song. Why is he privileged to have this new music in him?” Conlon asked rhetorically, then answered: “Because he has gone outside of society to experience Venusberg, and he comes back with this extraordinary, powerful message, but it doesn’t fit into the rules and so he is punished. He is cast out of society because he has brought this into his art. Now later on in ‘Meistersinger,’ we will have Beckmesser who will be the protector of the rules, and Hans Sachs, who knew the rules but is the visionary, the father who has the generous view toward the future and will give way to the new music that comes out of the mouth of the young Walther, and Walther is, of course, the young Wagner.”