Shining Brow

Performance History

Premiere: April 21, 23, 25, and 27, 1993, by the Madison Opera, Madison, Wisconsin.

The production was broadcast live statewide and subsequently broadcast twice on NPR's World of Opera.

First staged revival: July 23, 25, 27, 31 and August 2, 1997, by the Chicago Opera Theater, Merle Reskin Theater, Chicago, Illinois.

First complete concert performance: February 19, 1994, Florida Southern College Chorus, members of the Florida Symphony Orchestra, Lakeland, Florida.

First concert performance under the composer's direction: February 11-24, 2002, at the UNLV Opera Theater, with members of the Nevada Opera, Ham Concert Hall, UNLV, Las Vegas, Nevada.

First semi-staged revival: November 4-5, 2006, by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus.

First performance of the chamber ("Fallingwater") version: June 7, 2013, by the Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, at Fallingwater, Mill Run, Pennsylvania.

Synopsis

The action takes place in Chicago, Illinois, at Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright's home and studio in Spring Green, Wisconsin, and in Berlin, Germany, between 1903 and 1914.

Prologue

The Cliff Dwellers Club, Chicago, 1903. Architect Louis Sullivan, mentor and friend of Frank Lloyd Wright, has been drinking all afternoon. He muses on his estrangement from Wright.

Act One

Wright's studio, Oak Park, Illinois, 1903. Wright pitches plans for a new house to wealthy Chicagoans Edwin and Mamah Cheney. He and Mamah flirt; her husband is concerned with costs. After they leave, Wright muses on Mamah; his wife Catherine overhears him and they quarrel.

The Cheney House construction site, six months later. Workmen sing, townswomen gossip; Wright and Mamah arrive to view the work as their liaison deepens. Edwin arrives and there is a showdown: Mamah tells Edwin she is leaving him for Wright. Afterwards, Edwin laments the fact that, while he has gained a house, he has lost his wife.

Mamah's apartment in Berlin, 1910. As Mamah translates some verses from German, she comes to terms with her strongly ambivalent feelings about her life with Wright, recognizing, despite her love for him, that her dream of an equal partnership with him is and will remain just that. Sullivan, in Chicago, echoes the sentiment.

Act Two

Taliesin, Spring Green, Christmas, 1911. Wright delivers a prepared statement attempting to explain his living out of wedlock with Mamah while still married to Catherine. Mamah, though at his side, is clearly disaffected.

Taliesin, Summer, 1914. During the course of a cocktail party, Wright pursues a new love interest as Mamah cannot help but observe; various clients, guests, colleagues, and employees — including an inebriated barbershop quartet of newspaper reporters — comment.

The Cliff Dwellers' Club, later that summer. Wright and Sullivan attempt a reconciliation, but are interrupted by Edwin Cheney, who delivers the news that Mamah's been murdered and Taliesin torched.

The ruins of Taliesin, later that night. The bodies of the dead are arrayed in the smoking remains of the house. A Maid explains that Julian Carleton, Wright's chef, has been found, his throat burned from drinking hydrochloric acid. Wright gropes for a way to go on, finds in the pocket of Mamah's coat a letter that gives him consolation of a sort. He vows to rebuild the house in her memory.

Recordings

Premiere Recording by the Buffalo Philharmonic