NEWS: ‘MARGARET GARNER’ BUILDS A BRIDGE BETWEEN OPERA, BLACKS
By Mark Stryker, stryker@freepress.com
Detroit Free Press
October 16, 2008
United States
When "Margaret Garner" receives its world premiere next week at the
Detroit Opera House, African Americans will have the rare chance
to see an opera forged from the marrow of their history, minus the
racial stereotypes that remain the Achilles’ heel of George Gershwin’s
"Porgy and Bess."
Inspired by a true story, composer Richard Danielpour and Nobel
Prize-winning author Toni Morrison tell the tale of a fugitive
slave who kills her children in order to save them from a return to
bondage. The A-list creative team and cast, including mezzo-soprano
Denyce Graves, has the opera world buzzing. But the opera is also
galvanizing newcomers and financial supporters within Detroit’s
black community.
Critics will debate the artistic success of "Margaret Garner" beginning
on opening night, but in terms of outreach and bridge-building,
the opera is already a hit.
"We’re in a city that’s more than 80 percent African American, so
if we’re going to be an opera company in this metropolitan area,
we have to do things that invites that community to be involved with
the art form," says David DiChiera, general director of the Michigan
Opera Theatre.
DiChiera says he has always believed that a night at the opera can
celebrate the ethnic and cultural diversity of a city and build bridges
into the community out of the scaffolding of art. "Margaret Garner"
stands as a monument to his vision.
"Opera is a perfect vehicle to involve people in something that
reflects their culture because it combines music, narrative, theater
and visuals," he says. "So many operas in so many countries have been
based on historical or mythological subjects and styles that reflect
those cultures."
Despite a history of world-class African-American opera stars, opera
audiences remain overwhelmingly white. Economic and cultural factors
and the historical shadows of elitism and racism are blamed for the
low attendance.
A 1999 study said MOT’s audience was 8 percent black. Company officials
estimate the number has increased to 12 percent today – three times
the national average of 4 percent measured by a 2002 study by the
National Endowment for the Arts.
Strong anecdotal evidence suggests MOT’s audiences are more diverse
ethnically than those in most opera companies. Experts cite 30 years
of outreach – from casting minority singers to producing rare operas
like the Armenian national opera "Anoush" and Scott Joplin’s ragtime
opera "Treemonisha"- as a reason for MOT’s relative success.
"MOT has done as much as any opera company in serving its entire
community and involving leaders from various communities in Detroit to
participate in the life of the company," says Marc Scorca, president
of Opera America, a service group in Washington, D.C.
In honor of "Margaret Garner," Opera America’s annual national
conference will be in Detroit next week. The theme is diversity.
MOT has partnered with more than a dozen African-American churches,
fraternities, sororities and service groups to raise awareness of
and sell hundreds of tickets to "Margaret Garner." Meanwhile, a
fund-raising committee, chaired by MOT board member Betty Brooks, an
African American, has raised nearly $1.2 million of the production’s
$2-million budget.
Much of the money has come from large corporations, but MOT has
raised tens of thousands of dollars from black-owned businesses and
African Americans like Odell Jones III, who owns Jomar Building Co. in
Detroit. Jones donated $25,000 to underwrite a school curriculum
guide about the opera.
Jones was struck by the parallel between Margaret Garner’s
doomed aspirations for her children and the despair felt by some
poverty-stricken mothers in Detroit. "I think this will be a true
and moving story, and I think it was important to be a part of it,"
he says.
On another front, the Detroit chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, an
African-American service sorority, bought 105 discounted tickets to
resell to members to raise money for scholarships. Many of these will
go to people attending their first opera, including teenagers.
"We want to promote our history and understanding of our own stories,"
says sorority member Marcia Jackson.
If "Margaret Garner" allows African Americans to see themselves on
stage, the opera will offer others a window into their neighbors’
cultural heritage. Still, while the story is rooted in slavery,
Danielpour and Morrison have tried to avoid a civics lesson set to
music, aiming instead for universal themes of freedom, a mother’s
love and familial conflict. The creators see the opera as a vessel
for healing.
Strengthening community ties Diversity has been a way of life at MOT
since its founding in 1971. To deepen ties with local ethnic groups,
DiChiera has programmed 19th- and 20th-Century European nationalist
operas, including the American premieres of "Anoush" and the Polish
opera "Haunted Castle." Each time, DiChiera turned to the Armenian
and Polish communities to drive fund-raising.
MOT has always championed African-American singers. Kathleen Battle
made her professional operatic debut in Detroit in 1975, and DiChiera
says that if he has a choice between two equally qualified singers
and one is an African American, that’s who he casts.
MOT has staged four productions of "Porgy and Bess" as well as
"Treemonisha," but the American canon is woefully lacking in operas
rooted in the black experience. DiChiera wanted to fill the void.
"Margaret Garner" came to his attention when Graves told him about the
project in 1999. DiChiera was intrigued, especially by the marriage
of Danielpour – a lyrical, singer-friendly composer – and Morrison,
a world-class novelist graced by celebrity glitter. But when an
African-American friend expressed concern about a work mired in the
ugliness of slavery, DiChiera grew worried.
He did not want to be viewed as a patronizing white knight, and vowed
not to produce the opera without broad support. DiChiera convened a
retreat, inviting three dozen community leaders, most of them black,
as well as Danielpour.
Planting a seed "Some people didn’t want to open up the wounds,"
remembers Brooks, head of the fund-raising committee. But in the end,
the group reached a consensus that the opera told an important story
about history, survival, cultural memory and love.
MOT still faces the post-"Margaret Garner" challenge of luring
first-time black patrons back for standard fare. Brooks insists
that if "Margaret Garner" is effective musically and dramatically,
newcomers will return for operas without specifically black themes.
Once the seed is planted, anything can happen. Remember Jones, who
donated $25,000 for a "Margaret Garner" curriculum guide? He met
DiChiera as a 14-year-old in the lobby of Music Hall, where DiChiera
had booked jazz singer Cleo Laine. DiChiera noticed the star-struck
Jones after the show and took him backstage to meet Laine.
Jones never forgot the gesture and kept tabs on DiChiera as he built
MOT. Jones sprouted a fondness for opera and began attending MOT
productions. Now at 50, he has the means to donate $25,000.
When MOT builds bridges to the opera house, it’s people like Jones
who walk across the expanse.