Wuthering Heights: the genesis of a new opera

We have been sent further information on Frédéric Chaslin's Wuthering Heights opera. This article comes from the October 2008 issue of La Scena Musicale.

WUTHERING HEIGHTS: THE GENESIS OF A NEW OPERA
French conductor/composer Frederic Chaslin has written a “cross-over opera”, Wuthering Heights, based on Emily Brontë’s eminent novel. The internationally ranked, Paris-born Chaslin is a frequent guest at major opera houses including Paris, Berlin, Munich, and the Met, working with singers like Rolando Villazón, Anna Netrebko and Natalie Dessay. In November, Chaslin will be in Montreal to conduct The Pearl Fishers. The new opera project is the brainchild of librettist Paula Heil Fisher, a noted American theatre and film writer/producer. Fisher has a particular affinity with the Brontë novel, and in Chaslin she has found the ideal collaborator. I was one of five international journalists invited to Valencia,Spain to cover the recording of this new opera which took place in mid-September.

As critics, we are used to the “finished product”, but rarely do we have the opportunity to witness the genesis of a new work. I attended the recording sessions and the press conference. The singers were uniformly excellent, led by American tenor Andrew Richards as Heathcliff and the beautiful Russian soprano Olga Peretyatko as Catherine. An interesting Canadian connection involves bass Wolfgang Rauball as Earnshaw. An exploration geologist, Rauball had a contract with New York City Opera years ago, but decided to leave the opera world when he struck gold! As befitting of a major recording project, the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valencia and the London Philharmonia Chorus were engaged for the recording. It was fascinating to see the project continuing to evolve during the recording sessions. Unlike other works based on the Brontë novel, this version deals with two generations and is thus truer to the original. At press time, the ending has yet to be finalized, and plans for a premiere will be announced in the near future. (JKS)

Categories: Music, Opera, Wuthering Heights