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Tobias Picker’s An American Tragedy Acclaimed in New York

Jan. 01, 2006

Based on the Theodore Dreiser novel of the same name, An American Tragedy saw its world premiere on December 2, 2005 at The Metropolitan Opera in New York kicking off a spectacular first run of eight performances. The star-studded cast included Nathan Gunn, Patricia Racette, Susan Graham, Dolora Zajick, Jennifer Larmore, Kim Begley, William Burden, Richard Bernstein, and Anna Christy.  This is Picker’s fourth opera, following on the great success of his first opera Emmeline at the Santa Fe and New York City Operas as well as his Thérèse Raquin, a setting of the Zola novel (Dallas and San Diego Operas, L’Opera de Montreal), and Fantastic Mr. Fox, an operatic treatment of the beloved Roald Dahl children’s story (Los Angeles Opera).

Critical Acclaim for An American Tragedy:

The opera is accomplished [and] dramatically effective. …Many composers…could learn from Mr. Picker's know-how about the theater. An American Tragedy…works as an opera. The cast seemed to relish singing Mr. Picker's opera... and whole stretches of Mr. Picker's score would not be out of place in a Broadway theater...[C]ritics and opera buffs who want the Met to do its part to make opera a living art form have to be heartened that it presented this work, and that an audience on Friday gave a prolonged ovation to a living composer.
–Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times 

[An American Tragedy] hits the mark....There are vernacular songs and religious hymns to establish the all-American scene, lush verismo textures for the lovemaking, suave Gershwinesque tunes to convey upper classes at play, distorted genre pieces à la Shostakovich and Britten for public confrontations, and, at moments of maximum fright, bursts of Berg. There's also much that's individual; Picker's harmony flirts with traditional tonality without falling prey to cliché, his orchestration achieves both transparency and power, and his crowd scenes skillfully set solo voices against a booming chorus and a churning orchestra. It's a pleasure to listen to him put one idea in front of another; a twelve-tone composer in his youth, he retains the serialist's habit of working obsessively with a tight array of notes.
–Alex Ross, The New Yorker

…the hero here is composer Picker.  He knows how to write emotionally searching arias constructed with lyrically declaimed lines and phrases that echo popular song. The orchestration is full of psychologically penetrating effects. …The score's theatrical good sense is remarkable…. Few modern operas are paced as effectively as this. 
–David Patrick Stearns, The Philadelphia Inquirer  

Picker's score contains lush, singable, flowing music. …Gene Scheer's libretto is, to a fault, literate and considerate of composer, singer and audience. …The opera does a strong job of setting the scene.  Picker's inexorable stream of lyric music acts like a society.  It has a mind of its own and can't be stopped. [A]rias, duets, trios and ensemble numbers…seamlessly connect to a thread of arioso.
–Mark Swed, Los AngelesTimes 

The music is tonal andaccessible, with lots of big arias to show off its principal characters, choral numbers for contrast, even dance music. …Mr. Picker’s deft musical scene changes gave the piece a cinematic flow.
–Heidi Waleson, Wall Street Journal

For further information about An American Tragedy and Tobias Picker please visit www.schott-music.com  and www.anamericantragedy-theopera.org

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