J. Smith-Cameron & Joe Morton Join MasterVoices' THE GRAPES OF WRATH At Carnegie Hall

Two distinguished actors, Emmy-nominee J. Smith-Cameron and Emmy Award-winner Joe Morton will co-narrate MasterVoices' revised concert version of The Grapes of Wrath, the 2007 “great American opera” by composer Ricky Ian Gordon and librettist Michael Korie based on John Steinbeck's landmark novel, on April 17 at Carnegie Hall. 

Set in the Great Depression of the 1930s, it tells the story of the Joad family, Oklahoma sharecroppers who, along with thousands of others, become refugees in their own country. As they migrate to find work in the would-be Promised Land of California, they face hardship, resentment, and violence. 

In addition to revisions in the orchestration, Gordon and Korie have added a new scene. Says MasterVoices Artistic Director Ted Sperling, “People Again shows the Joad family settling into a government camp where they can actually sleep in a bed, take a shower, use a toilet for the first time in their lives, and start feeling like people again. It's quite a powerful scene. Additionally, I'll Be There has been revised as a duet for Tom and Ma.”

The Grapes of Wrath was given its New York City premiere by MasterVoices in 2010 and was the first work Ted Sperling brought to the group. This revival, presented as part of Mr. Sperling's tenth season anniversary as Artistic Director with MasterVoices, features new revisions and music exclusive to this performance, with a keen focus on choral elements.

Ted Sperling conducts the 120–member MasterVoices chorus, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, and an all-star cast including soprano Mikaela Bennett, last seen as Micaëla in MasterVoices' 2022 staging of Carmen; baritone John Brancy, praised in the New York Times for “his vibrant, resonant presence” as Escamillo in the same production; “one of America's great modern-day baritones” (OperaWire), Nathan Gunn, who sang the role of Tom Joad in the 2010 MasterVoices Carnegie Hall concert version premiere and who returns as Pa Joad; Grammy-nominated mezzo-soprano Margaret Lattimore; baritone Malcolm MacKenzie, praised for his “rich, warm and dark tone” (Opera News); Broadway's Bryonha Marie (“her silvery soprano was utterly spellbinding,” The Boston Globe); the “velvet-sounding” (Woman Around Town) baritone Kyle Oliver; bass-baritone Christian Pursell in his Carnegie Hall debut; tenor Victor Starsky, who sang Roméo in New York City Opera's recent Roméo et Juliette; and “powerful baritone” (Washington Post) Schyler Vargas, who sang the role of Strephon in MasterVoices' 2023 production of Iolanthe.

The sound design is by Scott Lehrer. Tracy Christensen is the costume designer, and the lighting design is by Brian Tovar. The performance features projections by Wendall K. Harrington, who created the projections for the Minnesota Opera premiere as well as the MasterVoices 2010 concert, and stage management by Ira Mont.

Aside from its standalone significance, MasterVoices' The Grapes of Wrath production will also mark the inauguration of the company's Three in Six program, an ambitious new series committed to producing three contemporary American operas over the next six years. Three in Six builds on the group's signature style, recently characterized by The New York Times as “smart modest stagings with strong musical values,” and is driven by the desire to give New York audiences more opportunities to hear outstanding 20th and 21st-century operas in lush musical environments. “The major opera companies have so few slots available,” says Ted Sperling, “and while there are innovative groups doing wonderful chamber stagings, there is little in between. So many worthy works – by some of our country's greatest contemporary composers – have yet to be produced in New York for precisely this reason, and we look forward to opening up those vistas.”

Tickets

Tickets priced from $30-$155, may be purchased online at carnegiehall.org, by calling CarnegieCharge at 212.247.7800 or in person at Carnegie Hall's box office at 57th and Seventh Avenue. Details of MasterVoices' 2023-24 season can be found at mastervoices.org.  

More about The Grapes of Wrath

Ricky Ian Gordon and Michael Korie's opera The Grapes of Wrath premiered at Minnesota Opera in 2007. It was Gordon's first large-scale work, written in three acts and 33 scenes, with thirteen principal and 50 featured roles. The score was laced with banjo, guitar, harmonica, saxophone, and barroom piano. Writing in Opera Today, Wes Blomster placed The Grapes of Wrath in the company of Janáček and Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, continuing, “almost a century after Mahler's quintessential score, Gordon and Korie have created a new—and American— song of the earth.” In the Los Angeles Times, critic Mark Swed wrote that: “…the greatest glory of the opera is Gordon's ability to musically flesh out the entire 11-member Joad clan…Gordon's other great achievement is to merge Broadway and opera… greatly enhanced by his firm control over ensembles and his sheer love for the operatic voice.”

In 2010 MasterVoices, then known as The Collegiate Chorale, premiered the concert version at Carnegie Hall with Ted Sperling conducting. It was directed by Eric Simonson, who had staged the opera's premiere. Narrated by Jane Fonda, the cast included Victoria Clark, Nathan Gunn, Christine Ebersole, Elizabeth Futral, Matthew Worth, Sean Panikkar, Stephen Powell, Steven Pasquale, Peter Halverson, Andrew Wilkowske, Madelyn Gunn, and Alex Schwartz. The projections were by Wendall K. Harrington and the lighting by Francis Aronson. Reviewing the concert version with its trimmed score, Anthony Tommasini wrote in The New York Times, “Mr. Gordon's music combines his deep sympathy for musical theater with his devotion to American song…It must be said that The Grapes of Wrath certainly reached the audience on Monday night. The hall was packed and the ovation tumultuous.” Said Eric Myers, Opera Magazine, “…a stirring, crowd-pleasing work that left the Carnegie Hall audience cheering on its feet…on the whole Gordon and his librettist Michael Korie have created a major new American opera, one that is likely to stand the test of time.”

In writing a series of articles for the San Francisco News, Salinas, California native John Steinbeck, who had witnessed and chronicled labor riots and strikes in the Salinas Valley, visited the migrant camps and tent cities of the workers, seeing firsthand the horrible living conditions of the migrant families. He famously said, “I'm trying to write history while it is happening, and I don't want it to be wrong.” His book In Dubious Battle, about the fruit pickers strike against the regions' big landowners, preceded The Grapes of Wrath, as did his break-out book, Tortilla Flat, and Of Mice and Men. Of The Grapes of Wrath, which was published in 1939, winning a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, he said, “It is a mean, nasty book and if I could make it nastier I would … the book has a definite job to do … I want to put a tag of shame on the greedy bastards who are responsible for this.” In 1940 the book was made into a film directed by John Ford starring Henry Fonda as Tom Joad. It won two Academy Awards.