UW News

November 3, 2005

Opera composer on hand for opening of UW’s “Tartuffe”

When the UW School of Music opens the comic opera Tartuffe on Friday, Nov. 4, there will be a very special guest in the audience. Kirke Mechem, the opera’s composer, will cap off his work with the opera’s cast by witnessing their first performance.


Mechem, who makes his home in San Francisco, has been in residence at the UW this week, watching dress rehearsals of the opera and answering questions.


“I imagine my role in the production will be limited,” Mechem said before his trip here. “By the time you get to dress rehearsal it’s pretty hard to make changes. But I’ll offer small suggestions, maybe check for the balance of voices in the hall.”


The play version of Tartuffe has been a hit with audiences ever since it was written by Moliere in 1664. So it’s no surprise that someone would want to turn it into an opera. Perhaps the only question is, why did it take so long?


Mechem said he was introduced to Tartuffe when he was 16 by his father, who was a playwright. He immediately loved the play, but it was seeing a production in the 1970s by San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theatre that pushed him to write the opera.


“It was a wonderful production, and so topical,” Mechem recalled. “And I thought, ‘This is really a comic opera without the music,’ so I set out to write it.”


Although Mechem had written choral music before, Tartuffe was his first opera, and it proved to be a popular one. With 300 performances in 70 productions in six countries since its 1980 premiere, Mechem’s version of the comedy has become one of the most popular operas ever written by an American.


The story concerns a religious charlatan named Tartuffe who moves into the home of a wealthy but foolish gentleman, Orgon, and turns his life upside down. Everyone sees through Tartuffe very quickly — that is, everyone except Orgon.


“Orgon both uses and is exploited by Tartuffe, creating a comic reign of terror in his family,” said Claudia Zahn, the School of Music’s director of opera programs, who is directing the production. “He cannot and will not see the truth until it is almost too late.”


Zahn met Mechem back in 1989 when she was working in San Francisco. Since then she’s done some scenes from Tartuffe in opera workshops, and this year thought it would be an interesting choice for her students.


“It’s fresh for them,” she said. “There are no recordings of it; they probably haven’t seen it before, so they can’t draw on how others have done it.”


The music is challenging, she added, a sentiment that Mechem echoed. He said it was written for a professional company and that he never dreamed that students would be doing it. But as it turns out, it has been popular with university programs.


“When I called to ask if he would be interested in coming up during the production, he was very excited and very willing to do it,” Zahn said.


Of course, Mechem has some personal reasons for coming to Seattle. His sister lives here and so does his daughter, who is married to Law School Professor Paul Miller. Besides, he said, “I haven’t taught in a long time and I miss the interaction with students.”


This isn’t the only time Mechem has turned to a classic text for a new opera. His comic opera, The Newport Rivals, an American update of Sheridan’s 18th century play The Rivals, will premiere in 2007 at Lyric Opera San Diego, followed by performances by a consortium of other companies. Mechem is currently composing an opera based on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.


Mechem has also written an opera about the abolitionist John Brown, as well as extensive choral music. While at the UW, he’s also been working with Music Professor Geoffrey Boers’ choral groups and choral conducting students.


The UW production of Tartuffe will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 4, 9, 11 and 13 and at 3 p.m. Nov. 6, in Meany Studio Theater. Tickets are $20, $15 for students and seniors, and are available at the Arts Ticket Office or at the door.