THREE QUESTIONS: Gary Thor Wedow

Anthony Roth Costanzo takes readers into the world of rehearsing an opera, BLO's upcoming Agrippina.

Our brilliant conductor Gary Thor Wedow is unique in his sensitivity, skill, and knowledge of early music. He also has a seemingly bottomless treasure trove of wonderful historical anecdotes that inform the way he crafts opera. Gary went to graduate school here in Boston at the New England Conservatory of Music where he studied with John Moriarty. Later, he was the Associate Conductor of the Handel & Haydn Society. He has conducted an enormous amount of early music: Cavalli, Monteverdi and of course Handel -- no less than 9 Handel operas for New York City Opera, Juilliard, Seattle, and Miami, among others. Next, Gary returns to Seattle to conduct Magic Flute, and then goes to Wolf Trap for Wolff Ferrari's Le Donne Curiose. Gary began our interview with his characteristic exuberance saying that, “It's terrific to come back to Boston where I got a great beginning to a very happy life and I’m so glad to be working with such a dynamite cast in this beautiful and genuinely funny production.”

ARC

Can you explain the fabrication, function, and feeling behind the ornamentation in Boston Lyric Opera's production of Agrippina?

GTW

Ideally the ornamentation comes from the emotional heart of the drama, outlining and embroidering the line both dramatically and melodically.  The character, during the course of the aria goes through an emotional journey and upon the return to the beginning of the aria, their inner life is transformed, so the ornaments reflect the transition or intensification of their emotional life through melody.  There are the 'essential' ornaments: the appoggiatura or leaning note, the messa di voce or spinning out of the note and the trill or warbling, shaking of the voice. Then there are the 'divisions' which divide up one note into many.  Handel's singers (as today's) spent hours training and practicing patterns. As you know, the ornamentation should come from the singer and our beautiful cast has all shaped their own ornamentation.

ARC

We were talking the other day about Handel's life and how it had an impact on his music. Can you speak to the intersection of life and art in Handel's oeuvre as well as in any musician's life?

GTW

Handel for a long time was deified with the virginal morality of the saint. Though he was certainly the composer of heavenly music, his personal life seems very human and emotional. Here is an immensely talented young composer who gets into a quarrel with a fellow composer (Matheson) over who should play the harpsichord in an opera and challenges him to a duel. Later, he becomes the center of a group of wealthy patrons in Italy who were probably gay and where he was known as the Saxon bear; the same circle of intellectual artists surrounded him in London. I feel the evidence points to him being gay and he had a passionate nature and knew well the value of his great gift. I feel an intense responsibility to infuse this music with deep emotion, plugging into primitive and deep wells of primal feelings. Handel felt these emotions first and we recreate and experience these passions ourselves, along with the audience. That's music.

ARC

How do you balance the exigencies of the director, singers, orchestra and administration while trying to craft your take on an opera?

GTW

Bernard Shaw said that opera was an art form which tried to combine five art forms, which is four art forms too many. Everyone feels that their corner of the opera is the most important, and of course they are right because opera needs all of these elements. Music is the heart of opera and if you take good care of your heart, the body is healthy. Opera is all about people; I love people and love working with them, learning from them.  Everyone wants to perform at their optimum, so if you enable people to do their best work, you can fulfill your vision of the opera at the same time.  I'm incredibly grateful and excited to be working on this beautiful opera.