Reviews

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I cannot recall ever having a more intimate operatic experience than listening to Gordon Getty’s touching opera based on the acclaimed James Hilton novella. The scoring is for what sounds to me like a chamber orchestra with prominent keyboard, harp, and percussion parts. As befits the poignancy of Hilton’s story, Getty’s approach (he wrote the libretto as well) is all very lyrical. Rarely do the dynamics get as loud as forte, as in pastoral English music by the likes of, say, Delius, but for all that there is no monotony. There are, however, stylistic similarities to the vocal writing of Britain’s leading opera composer, Benjamin Britten (which should be taken as high praise). The style is tonal and traditionally melodic.

As the program notes inform us, the opera was not premiered live but was “reimagined” as a film, due to the privations visited upon the performing arts by the COVID-19 pandemic. I believe the cast is the same in the film as in this recent recording, but whether or not that is so, I would look forward to seeing the film and even more so to seeing this work staged live. Getty’s creative take on the storyline — for example, having Dr. Merrivale as the narrator — and its musical transformation is frequently quite affecting.

The singers­—and Melody Moore, in particular—are absolutely convincing in their roles and sing beautifully. The chorus, British public school boys singing hymns, but occasionally used to add additional color, also sings splendidly. Dennis Doubin at the podium is in complete command and moves the opera along briskly but in a manner that never seems rushed. One reason I would love to see this staged (whether on film or in the opera house) is to see what one can only imagine listening to the recording: how the flashbacks and flashforwards embedded into the libretto are managed.

The scene (which is reprised to great effect towards the end of the opera) where Chips’s wife Kathie, who will die in childbirth, says her farewell, is not at all maudlin but is nonetheless extraordinarily moving. Also striking is the use of Melody Moore to sing the role of a young schoolboy meeting the aged Chips for the first (and last) time, who intones the titular “Goodbye, Mr. Chips” in a manner reminiscent of how it was sung by the long-dead Kathie. Even more moving is Chips’s final soliloquy, voiced over a boys’ chorus background, in which he identifies individual former students, some of them among those who died in World War I, by name, and they respond, and this concludes with his emotion-laden final cry, “My boys.” Then there is silence. I’m not sure the abruptness of that ending works for me. I understand the dramatic effect Getty was seeking in illustrating Chips’s death with the absence of further sound, but I would have preferred even a few bars of instrumental epilogue.

This is a distinguished, and extremely listenable, addition to the escutcheon of American opera. Highly recommended.