Between Baz Luhrmann’s recent film The Great Gatsby, Northern Ballet’s The Great Gatsby currently at Sadler’s Wells, and Elevator Repair Service’s circulation-testing, eight-hour Gatz at the Noël Coward Theatre last year, Londoners such as myself could be forgiven for feeling all Gatsbied out (in truth, Gatz could probably have achieved that by itself). This perfect storm of Gatsbys seems to be pure coincidence – neither 2012 nor 2013 is a significant anniversary, either for the novel or Fitzgerald himself – so anyone asking why no major opera houses joined the party by staging John Harbison’s operatic treatment of the story could be answered that there was no reason for there to be a party in the first place. Still, if you can’t have an extravagant and unnecessary party in celebration of Gatsby, then when can you?
When Harbison’s The Great Gatsby was first performed at New York’s Metropolitan Opera House in 1999, having been commissioned by them to celebrate James Levine’s 25th anniversary with the company, Harbison overheard an audience member saying he wished the composer could write “tunes as beautiful as those old songs he quotes”. This was both an unintentional compliment to Harbison, who had of course written the 1920s-style jazz songs himself, and an unfair slur on the rest of the work – whilst undeniably modern, showing influences of Berg and Britten (the latter especially in the way the popular songs are incorporated into the score, reminiscent of Act III of Peter Grimes), the music is always approachable, never harsh just for the sake of burnishing its modernist credentials. Harbison describes himself primarily as a “jazzologist” and his influences, especially (though not only) in this piece, are as much Gershwin, Cole Porter and Irving Berlin as your actual classical composers. The libretto, also by Harbison (apart from the words to the songs, supplied by Murray Horwitz), distils Fitzgerald’s story with economy and skill, focusing more on the love story than social commentary – Tom Buchanan’s being a white supremacist, for example, is dealt with in a single (and not very explicit) line.
If the orchestra and chorus of Emmanuel Music were stepping into big shoes in taking this on, giving a concert performance of the work at the New England Conservatory, Boston, they approached it with confidence that proved more than justified. Harbison supplements the orchestra with a banjo, tuba, piano and “trap” (i.e. percussion) set. This group, presented as an onstage band for staged performances, are occasionally given the floor, usually when one of the characters supposedly turns on the radio – in an ingenious touch, the vocalist sings (or rather croons) through a megaphone to provide suitable distortion.