“It’s a Wonderful Life” just might be the opera we need right now.
After a year of devastating fires, mass shootings, political turmoil and paralyzing uncertainty, Jake Heggie’s opera has arrived at the War Memorial Opera House with a simple, uplifting message: “no one is a failure who has friends.”
Based in part on Frank Capra’s 1946 film and Philip Van Doren Stern’s 1943 short story “The Greatest Gift,” the opera is making its West Coast premiere in a beautifully staged co-production between San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. As a holiday offering, with performances scheduled through Dec. 9, it couldn’t be more timely, or more heartfelt.
With alert musical direction by Patrick Summers, who conducted the opera’s 2016 world premiere in Houston as well as its subsequent performances in Indiana, and an enchanting staging directed by Leonard Foglia, Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer, the opera emphasizes the story’s central message that second chances are always possible.
“It’s a Wonderful Life” is the story of George Bailey, an optimist who starts his life in small-town Bedford Falls. The world deals him several harsh turns — the opera’s subplot about predatory lending is just one of the twists that make the story feel current — until George winds up contemplating suicide on a cold Christmas Eve.
It’s left to an angel watching over George — Heggie and Scheer make Clarence, the angel in Capra’s film, into the sweetly empathetic female Clara — to make him see that his life is far too precious to waste.
Heggie, who has revised the opera since its outings in Houston and Indiana, delivers a score filled with exuberance and longing. It’s a shapely mix of arias, duets, and ensembles, with outstanding writing for chorus and many highlights throughout: character-defining numbers for George, a vibrant quartet in Act I, and a beautiful Act II duet for Clara and George’s wife, Mary Heath, and a big, show-stopping finale.
With its mix of music and dialogue, and its fleet sense of pacing, “It’s a Wonderful Life” may be the score that brings Heggie closest to the line between opera and musical theater. His earlier works, such as “Dead Man Walking” and “Moby Dick,” both of which were produced at San Francisco Opera in previous seasons, are unmistakably operatic; here, the impulse seems to be more about moving the action forward than pausing to reveal inner thoughts and feelings.
Still, there’s a cumulative effect that emerged at Saturday’s opening, as the opera’s smart blend of humor and romance, despair and redemption built to a bracing conclusion.
The performances were first-rate. American tenor William Burden is ideally cast as George Bailey. Burden, who made his San Francisco debut as a participant in the Merola Opera program during the 1989-90 season, and has sung numerous roles in S.F. Opera mainstage productions, returned to give an urgent, fully committed performance, creating an affable character and singing Heggie’s music with effortless appeal.
In two company debuts, soprano Golda Schultz sang expressively as Clara, who goes the extra mile to help George and earn her long-awaited set of wings; Andriana Chuchman produced pure, silvery streams of sound as Mary. Rod Gilfry, who created the role of the heartless Mr. Potter in Houston, returned to the part with a sturdy, dark-hued tone, and tenor Keith Jameson made a characterful company debut as Uncle Billy Bailey. Joshua Hopkins (Harry) and Catherine Cook (Mother Bailey) made fine contributions, as did Pablo Gracia, Violet Pasmooij, and Cadence Goblirsch as the Bailey children. Sarah Cambidge, Amitai Pati, Ashley Dixon, and Christian Pursell blended nicely as the quartet of Angels, and Broadway legend Patti LuPone was the pre-recorded voice of Clara’s Angel Superior.
Foglia’s production featured a collection of reflective panels and backdrops (sets by Robert Brill, with lighting by Brian Nason and projections by Elaine J. McCarthy), yielding a series of magical tableaux. David C. Woolard’s costumes, and Keturah Stickann’s choreography, were outstanding, especially in the Act I High School Dance, done in fruit-salad colors. Summers, whose affinity for Heggie’s music has yielded great performances in previous productions, returned to lead the San Francisco Opera orchestra with a wonderful combination of precision and style, capping the performance with an audience sing-along to “Auld Lang Syne.”
‘IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE’
By Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer, presented by San Francisco Opera
Through: Dec. 9
Where: War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco
Tickets: $26-$398; 415-864-3330; sfopera.com
