Favorite holiday classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” has been transformed from screen to the opera stage. Following a three year tour from Texas to Indiana, and California, acclaimed composer Jake Heggie and renowned librettist Gene Scheer’s musical creation returns home to Boulder’s Eklund Opera Program.
Heggie first brought the opera to be workshopped at CU New Opera Workshop (CU NOW) during the summer of 2016. He and Scheer spent three weeks with the Eklund Opera Program students working and revising the piece readying it for its first performance.
“’It’s a Wonderful Life’ is a story about hope and about community. It touched everybody that was part of the workshop that year,” reminisced Leigh Holman, Eklund Opera Program director.
Photo by Glenn Asakawa, CU Boulder
The opera features the familiar and widely loved story of George Bailey in the small town of Bedford Falls. Although Bailey dreamed of leaving town to explore the world, his visions nearly elude how wonderful his life really is.
“In the movie, it’s Clarence, but in the opera it is (guardian angel) Clara,” Heggie noted. “She walks with him step-by-step through the most important events of his life where his presence changed the course of other people’s lives. It’s then that he recognizes his value as a human being and as a person.” Leaving Boulder, “It’s a Wonderful Life” debuted in December 2016 at the Houston Grand Opera. After Heggie rewrote, cut and added portions to the opera, it had a run at Indiana University.
The opera was reshaped further before its 2017 fall performance at San Francisco Opera. Heggie and Scheer cut out a character, expanded areas to showcase vocal moments while adding two duets. Their goal was to provided audience members with a more in depth understanding of the characters.
“It’s a beautify story with a big message,” Haggie said. “The film captures it indelibly in this one way, but it lends itself well to telling on the stage as well. I’m very excited about it.”
“It’s a Wonderful Life” runs from November 15 through 17 in Macky Auditorium on CU’s Boulder campus.
Tickets: cupresents.org
Image Credit: cupresents.org