Lizzie Borden: Open House

Saturday, November 23, 2013 | 11am – 3pm
The Castle at Park Plaza
130 Columbus Avenue, Boston
FREE for all ages!

Lead Sponsor:

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For the first time, Boston Lyric Opera hosts its free Open House with our Opera Annex production, Jack Beeson’s Lizzie Borden. Investigate the Borden murders, discover how an empty space is transformed into an opera space, and experience opera in a casual, exciting way.

Performances: Inspired by Lizzie Borden, see a selection of famous, musical murder scenes featuring BLO Artists.

Meet the real Lizzie Borden: Hear from Borden case expert Stefani Koorey, Ph.D., about the real woman suspected in one of America’s most infamous crimes.  Join the grand jury and explore case evidence and witness testimony in a special exhibit. Cast your vote of guilty or not guilty.

Backstage Tours: Get an inside look into the production with set models, costume displays, and make-up demonstrations.

Want to volunteer at BLO’s Open House?  Contact David Lucey at dlucey@blo.org for more information.

Boston Lyric Opera gratefully acknowledges funders who make our Education and Community Programs possible:

Lead Sponsor:

Wallace Minot Leonard Foundation

Amphion Foundation

Special thanks to Stefani Koorey, Ph.D., and the Fall River Historical Society.

Dr. von Lyric: Epic Lizzie

It seems a bit strange that the epically received and enduringly  notorious real life crime of Lizzie Borden has not had more  significant reverberations in the arts. No movies of any consequence (Hitchcock,  where were  you?) There is of course Jack Beeson's opera which BLO is about  to present in a new one act version.  Premiered at NYCO ( alas - of  fond memory - ) in 1965 (there is a CD of that production ) and was revived very successfully  in a completely different production  at Glimmerglass and then again at City Opera. It is that full length production that is linked below. The title role is portrayed by Phyllis Pancella ( in a decidedly  more malevolent mode than her crisp Despina in the recent  BLO COSI) . The set is by BLO's Artistic Adviser John Conklin  

 LIZZIE BORDEN NYCO 1999]

Perhaps the most famous of the Lizzie re-tellings is the Agnes de Mille ballet FALL RIVER LEGEND - first performed by Ballet Theater at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1948  The Youtube link below is to a performance by the Dance Theater of Harlem in 1989 (this also exist on a DVD) The score by Morton Gould suits the telling of the story  without having much personality of its own.  The de Mille version is to my taste a bit too full of jolly townspeople in hoedown mode (shades of last week) - de Mille had just done OKLAHOMA. Likewise the striking and very atmospheric sets  by Oliver Smith (based on the original designs) also seem more  redolent of the expansive west with their stormy skies and endless horizons rather than the claustrophobic atmosphere of a small  New England town. But the piece has moments of real power (as well as some excessive melodrama) and Virginia Johnson gives a powerful and eloquent  portrayal of Lizzie expressed in pure movement
DANSE THEATRE OF HARLEM "FALL RIVER LEGEND"

There are some quite interesting Youtube postings relating  to  aspects of the Lizzie legend

       a good  documentary

    LIZZIE BORDEN DOCUMENTARY 

         and two alternative theories as to the real killer

 LIZZIE BORDEN ED McBAINS THEORY]

           [ embedded YOUTUBE    ARNOLD BROWN'S THEORY OF THE LIZZIE BORDEN CASE]

Lizzie B: digging deeper

Not unexpectedly there is a  lot of material out there on this most  notorious, ambiguous, shocking (unsolved?)  crime . 
 a few choices:

   Websites  thelizziebordencollection.com                          
                    lizzieandandrew.com
                    lizzieborden.com

     Youtube      Lizzie Borden Documentary
                       Arnold Brown's Theory of the Lizzie Borden Case
                       Lizzie Borden - Ed McBain's theory

       Another Lizzie   
            Agnes de Mille's ballet  FALL RIVER LEGEND  premiered in 1948. There is a DVD of a  1989 performance by The Dance Theater of Harlem with Virginia Johnson giving a powerful and eloquent portrayal of Lizzie expressed in pure movement.  The ballet with a somewhat generic score by Morton Gould is perhaps too often redolent of OKLAHOMA (choreographed by de Mille) with its jolly hoedowns and  at times a bit overly melodramatic  but  it has its strengths and it is definitely worth a look   This same performance turns up on Youtube  DANSE THEATRE OF HARLEM "FALL RIVER LEGEND"

      

Lizzie B: FACTOID 3

SNAPSHOTS of LIZZIE  ( truths ? rumors?  interpretations after the fact? )

"She was a very solid lady, short, heavily built...You wouldn't have thought twice about her except for her jaw. Enormous. The largest jaw I ever saw in a woman"

"Her expression was not a pleasant one. Not a face you would voluntarily address."

"She was always neat and plainly , but smartly dressed.  She favored blue. During the grand jury hearings she wore a tip-tilted hat with cherry- colored ribbons and when traveling a blue veil to conceal her face.. Her shoes were shined each morning"

"Her laugh (although rarely produced) was memorable - unexpected, mirthless and very loud"  

"It was only after the crimes that people began remarking on her oddities. At school she was a fair but not exceptional student, her chief interest, it was later recalled, in vivisection, preferably on live frogs."

" Ex-Governor Robinson of Massachusetts and one of her defense lawyers summed it up. ' Gentlemen to find Lizzie Borden guilty you must believe that she is a fiend. Does she look it? The prisoner at the bar is a woman, and a Christian woman, the equal of your wife and mine'  And  indeed there she sat in her neat blue dress, a little brooch in the shape of a pansy, Sunday School teacher, devoted worker for Temperance, Christian Aid and Foreign Missions, a small bouquet on the table befoire her brought by her minister." 

"Her eyes were huge and protruding, the irises an almost colorless ice-blue. They were strangely expressionless. I have heard many speak of them as dead eyes, but the eyes of the dead are dull; Lizzie's had the shine of beach pebbles newly bared by the outgoing tide" 

DR von LYRIC: Lizzie's new faces

 Well....BLO is in its second week of LIZZIE BORDEN rehearsals and things are getting pretty grim - so interject a note of humor (however dark) I propose the following

FALL RIVER HOEDOWN from NEW FACES 1954

   The   fabled review   NEW FACES OF 1952   opened on Broadway , ran for nearly and year and was made into a movie in 1954. It introduced such performers as Paul Lynde, Alice Ghostley,  Carol Lawrence, Ronny Graham  and Mel Brooks

   One of  the  hit numbes was "Monotonous" sung by Eartha Kitt (born in the year Lizzie Borden died
  EARTHA KITT -  MONOTONOUS - NEW FACES ( 1954)]

   and all you lively Bostonians .... who can forget  the incomparable Alice Ghostley?
   ALICE GHOSTLEY BOSTON BEGUINE 

Lizzie B: Factoid 2

   

  Fine Dining  with the Bordens (decline at your peril)

   For breakfast that fatal August morning  , the family had the remains of their  last night's dinner  mutton, hot mutton broth, bananas, johnnycake, bread, coffee, and cookies. The temperature outside was already 80 degrees by 7:30. All the windows were (as usual) tightly shut and locked. An  incipient taint  of corruption  (both metaphorical and literal) seems to  hangs heavy in the humid air . At the turn of the century  such a meal was considered  perhaps  "ample" but not particularly  unusual. To our sensibilities (and stomachs) it seems remarkable enough in itself but has been made immortal by the events of The Day - a kind of "gastronomical catalyst for whatever strange passionate killings were soon to take place."  

Lizzie B: a word from team stage management

Our fabulous stage management team on halloween

Lizzie Borden rehearsals are really starting to heat up as we dive into staging the final act of this hair-raising opera.  The tension is building and Lizzie is getting to her breaking point. History already tells us the horrific outcome, but what really was going through her mind on that bloody August morning? Seeing this story come to life each day has been quite the journey. So far we have had axes spilt into tables, singers rolling and crawling on the floor and Lizzie starting to lose herself in her own mind. Getting this glimpse into Lizzie’s world really helps you get to know this character a lot more than just the rhyme we all heard growing up. With a week left in the rehearsal hall before moving into tech, everyone is working very hard into developing their characters and learning this tricky but fascinating music. Looking forward to seeing what tomorrow holds.

        - Taylor Ruge -

Lizzie B: Factoid #1

We'll be running a series of "Lizzie Bordon Factoids" over the next weeks as we get ready for her scary and eagerly awaited  in-person  arrival at the Castle on November 20th .  

Here's # 1  "The Elegance and Mystery  of Chronological Congruence "  

Is it just coincidence or some greater cosmic manifestation  that James M Barrie, Anton Chekov, Gustav Mahler , Grandma Moses and Lizzie Borden were all born in 1860. 

To say nothing of the possibly more apt Annie Oakley (both she and Lizzie were, after all , good with weapons) and the decisively less apt Juliette Low (founder of the Girl Scouts - although  in some ways  Lizzie appeared  as a   kind of  ideal Girl Scout type - kind to animals, charity work, churchgoer  etc ) 

Low also died the same year as Lizzie ...and Annie the year before  And what of the fact that Isadora Duncan died in year of Lizzie"s death - 1927 

And who was born that year? Sidney Poitier, Eartha Kitt , Gina Lollobrigida, Patty Page and Caesar Chavez

Lizzie B: costume sketches

Lizzie Borden

Margaret Borden

Here are the costumes sketches by our designer Terese Wadden. Pay attention to what period and color palette they are set in. 

Reverend Harrington

Captain McFarlane

Abigail Borden

Andrew Borden

Children

In other news, have you heard LIZZIE BORDEN is on Facebook... are you friends with her?

Lizzie: first rehearsal and Facebook

Today is the first rehearsal for BLO's production of LIZZIE BORDEN - a newly commissioned  one act version of Jack Beeson's dramatic opera that in its original  three act version enjoyed  great success at New York City  Opera and at Glimmerglass. With the newly realized  chamber orchestration  that reveals anew  the inherent power of the score, performed in the appropriately Gothic ambiance of the Castle and directed by one of America's boldest and incisive directors, Christopher Alden, this promises to be  crucial  and unmissable part of BLO's season. To celebrate this important launching  , we today start features on Facebook and Twitter. We have been extremely fortunate to engage an intriguing  guest to help us here. The volatile , misunderstood  heroine (or murderess ?) Lizzie herself  a Facebook page - a   forum to present her  uncensored, possibly  revelatory , perhaps controversial  thoughts and musings - and a place where you can interact  (if you dare) with this most notorious, ambiguous and fascinating celebrity . 

Lizzie: Signature Series and John Conklin

I go up to Boston next week to rehearse and then present BLO's  Signature Series  "Lizzie Borden took an axe"  at the Museum of Fine Arts on Sunday November 3 . This is the newest entry in a series that I have been creating over the past 4 years that deals with each of our operas in the repertory for that season but in a varied and wide range of contexts. Rather than a direct analysis of the music or a discussion of BLO's specific approach we explore how ideas or characters  derived from the opera might stretch out into novels, poetry, painting,cinema, history, popular culture. Also rather than  a lecture, we create mini -dramas, theater pieces of about an hour in length. We are lucky to be able to use the elegant and comfortable Remis auditorium at the MFA. For our LIZZIE program I am creating  a collage as it were of various views of the fascinatingly complex Lizzie herself, newspaper accounts of the murders and  excerpts from the sensational trial that transfixed the country. Mixed in with this will be the compelling  music from Jack Beeson's opera we will be presenting in the unique atmosphere of the Castle  opening November  20 (check out our Website for details ). We welcome to the Sunday afternoon event the well known Boston actress Celeste Oliva  and the dynamic  Heather Johnson who sings the title role with BLO . Together they will take  us into the tortured, ambiguous  ( still we ask...did she do it...or not?) and  highly  dramatic  excitement of the   world of Lizzie Borden . Join us
                                                                                                                                  John Conklin