by Lindsay Weiss
In this episode of "Conversations with the Composer" Montgomery breaks down the scene which inspired her to write the Opera.
Yes, it truly exists, and no, it is not an operatic reenactment of President Clinton's scandal-plagued White House years. The opera's real title is "Billy Blythe", a reference to President Clinton's father who passed away just months after he was born. The English-language opera, takes place in Hot Springs, Arkansas in the late 1950's, when the real Bill Clinton was a teenager. Bonnie Montgomery, a native Arkansan, was inspired to create the opera after reading Clinton's memoir, "My Life." "Billy Blythe" debuted in an Arkansas bar earlier this year, and a few days ago made its Big Apple debut in Hell's Kitchen.
When asked yesterday about what the future holds for the show, Montgomery told Thomas Roberts of MSNBC: "Well, I hope it has a really long life... we're looking forward to a much larger run- maybe in Arkansas, maybe here, maybe in Europe." She said that they have extended an invitation to President Clinton, but so far no response.
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Must have been before Virginia's famous "skunk stripe."
I think I've been to the White Water Tavern, but I was at a poetry reading in the late 80s, if it is the same place.
He actually used to babysit my ex, when he was about this age, in Hot Springs. Virginia worked with her mom in the hospital emergency room (before the scandal).
Is the comma between opera and takes "The English-language opera, takes" there from an earlier incarnation of the sentence, say "An English-language opera, it takes" or is there actually supposed to be a pause there? It's just that out-of-place commas can sometimes feel like speed bumps on the freeway. Not that I'm nitpicky at all...
interesting stuff. thanks.
And I thought that I was an opera lover! I still like Cecilia Bartoli though.