BWW Interview, Part II: Composer Kevin Puts, Soprano Renee Fleming and Developing LETTERS FROM GEORGIA

Before writing his first opera, SILENT NIGHT--the 2012 Pulitzer Prize winner for Music--with librettist Mark Campbell, composer Kevin Puts was known mainly for his orchestral and chamber music. Since then, he has done two more operas--also with Campbell--the latest, ELIZABETH CREE, opening next fall. Now he has a different collaborator: famed American artist Georgia O'Keeffe, whose correspondence provides the text of his song cycle, LETTERS FROM GEORGIA, commissioned by the Eastman School of Music for opera superstar Renee Fleming.

The new work will have its New York City premiere at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall by the school's most prestigious orchestra, the Eastman Philharmonia, on November 14, following its first performance in Rochester two nights earlier. It's the ensemble's first performance in New York City in 25 years.

"There was a kind of secretive vibe when they first came to me with the project," says Puts, a noted alumnus of Eastman (with two degrees), "but I had the feeling it was for Renee--since she's definitely the most famous alumna they've had. I accepted, she went for it, and we got together to talk about what kind of piece it would be.

"I think that the original plan was for a 10-12 minute work and then Renee would sing some Gershwin or something like that around it," says Puts. "But the first time I met with her she said, 'Oh, if we're going to do this, let's make it a substantial piece.' I agreed, of course. After all, if I was going to write for Renee Fleming, I wanted to make the most of the opportunity.

"We talked about what it would be about, because Renee really likes to think about character--she's an opera singer at heart, after all--and she wanted it to be about an American woman, a significant American woman. The two of us went through a few ideas and did some thinking on our own.

"During my research, I found a quote, a line from O'Keeffe that starts the piece: 'My first memory is of the brightness of light, light all around.' That's the kind of thing that immediately inspired music for me.

"Then I found that she had written volumes of letters to Alfred Stieglitz [her husband-to-be, the noted photographer and modern art promoter] and he back to her, which are in a volume called 'My Faraway One,' published by Yale University Press. Actually, three of the five letters we're using were written to a friend of hers, a fellow artist and suffragette, Anita Pollitzer. [NB: Their correspondence is collected in "Lovingly, Georgia" from Touchstone Books.] What I found in all those letters was that there are moments that are very poetic and sing well, the kinds of things I like to set to music." He used them to create an imaginary narrative, suggesting the chronology of O'Keeffe's life.

"Faraway" was only Volume I of her correspondence with Stieglitz, up to 1933, by the way. (There's another four-inch volume coming up.) Says Puts, "I spent months reading through those letters and making some choices. I found that they reveal aspects of her personality that one doesn't usually associate with her--great passion, humor, but also great sadness. When I told Renee about what I was thinking, she immediately said 'Yes, I love it.' Then she became quite invested in it, too. She started looking into O'Keeffe herself, researching her life, even going out to the O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe."

What kind of music can we expect from Puts in LETTERS FROM GEORGIA? He hedged a bit, but after speaking to him, he's clearly a man who doesn't equivocate about being true to his own voice as a composer. What does that mean exactly? "It's really more of a state of mind for me than a specific: Not avoiding things that you think will be frowned upon by whomever--that's what it comes down to. If I feel that something needs to be a certain way, I'm not going to worry that it's too simple, too sentimental, too neo-romantic," he explains.

"Some composers are afraid to do things, even if a story needs it, but I think you have to just go there and do it. There are those who want to write incredibly abstract music, but they're afraid to do that because they're afraid no one will like it...or their mothers won't like it. What I mean is: 'Go for it,' because if you try to water it down, nothing will happen. It won't appeal to anybody; it won't appeal to you. I think it's worth it to take the flack and just do it. If it's the most powerful expression that comes to you at that moment, I think it's worth doing."

As for working with Fleming, whom he has long admired, "There's something about her that responds to the kind of integrity and strength and boldness of Georgia O'Keeffe's work and personality and she finds that inspiring. It'll be interesting to see how she appears on stage. After all, O'Keeffe dressed very monk-like," says Puts.

Even with the premiere still to come, Puts and Fleming are already looking ahead: "We're thinking about a bigger piece, which will be a little more staged, with the addition of a baritone as Stieglitz. It'll be an expansion, though at this point I'm not sure how the larger version will compare to this piece. But it will be exciting."

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LETTERS FROM GEORGIA headlines Eastman Philharmonia's program in both Rochester and New York City, conducted by Neil Varon. It also includes Ravel's "Rapsodie espagnole" and Prokofiev's Symphony No. 5.

The commission is co-sponsored by Joseph and Bette Hirsch of Palo Alto, California, and the Howard Hanson Institute for American Music. Hanson, one-time Director of the Eastman School and a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer himself, founded the Eastman Philharmonia in 1958.

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