Sequenza21/The Contemporary Classical Music Weekly

Is This The End of the Affair?

The Seattle Opera will open its 2005-2006 season with the revised version of Jake Heggie�s adaptation of Graham Greene�s The End of the Affair, which debuted at the Houston Opera last March to enthusiastic yawns.

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The work seemed musically taut but dramatically flawed," Cynthia Greenwood wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle. �Heggie's adaptation, though it has an intriguing musical score that blends chromatic yearning and mellifluous lyricism, renders Greene's dark, psychological mystery into a banal morality play." Charles Ward, writing in the Houston Chronicle, said the opera "drifted to..a snoozy, indecisive end."

The End of the Affair is based on Greene's 1951 novel inspired by his illicit affair with a married woman, his own muse and mistress, Lady Catherine Walston. The plot hinges on a well-kept secret. Sarah Miles, an adulterous married woman, prays that God will revive her lover, Maurice Bendrix, when he nearly dies in explosion. Believing him to be dead, Sarah bargains with God that if he survives, she will give him up forever. Moments later Bendrix appears, and Sarah remembers her spiritual contract that she feels compelled to honor. Alas, she doesn�t tell Maurice about her bargain, she simply disappears from his life.

A couple of years later, her husband, Henry, notices the change in her, and voices suspicions to Maurice that she might be cheating on him. Out of jealousy, Bendrix, in turn, hires a detective, to follow her. The detective finds her diary and, of course, Maurice learns her secret�too late. On the surface, the story has a lot more potential for soap opera than high opera, but Heggie may have been attracted to some elements from his own life�at 21, and a closeted gay, he married his 71-year-old piano teacher, Johanna Harris.

For those of you who just can�t wait to see Heggie�s re-write in Seattle, the Madison Opera is doing the revised version from April 22, 2005 to April 24, 2005.

Heggie burst onto the operatic scene in October 2000 with his adaptation of Sister Helen Prejean�s novel, Dead Man Walking, which became the most praised�and reviled�new opera in many years. I must confess that I enjoyed it although I don�t think it�s in a league with Mark Adamo�s Little Women or Tobias Picker�s Emmeline or John Corligiano�s much underrated The Ghosts of Versailles. With a libretto by Heather McDonald, The End of the Affair is much smaller in scale. There are only six singing roles, no chorus and a 24-player chamber orchestra.

posted by Jerry Bowles 2/02/2005