Gene Scheer - Songwriter & Lyricist

The Seattle Times - September 14, 2006 > Seattle rates an exclusive sneak peek at Ken Burns' new film about WWII > By Judy Chia Hui Hsu > Seattle Times staff reporter > Jazz. The Civil War. Baseball. Lewis & Clark. > There's a Ken Burns documentary for almost every quintessentially American > topic. > And although his next project captures a global event - World War II - the > award-winning filmmaker has explored the tale through American > perspectives. > He chose four American towns "and just followed their sons into hell," > said Burns, who has been working on "The War" for nearly seven years. The > seven-part, 14-hour series will be broadcast on PBS in September 2007... > > ...Tom Hanks, Samuel L. Jackson, Josh Lucas and others bring to life diaries > and newspaper accounts from the period. > The musical track contains sound effects that rang true for select groups > of veterans and those at West Point who've heard it. Wynton Marsalis > composed several original tunes for "The War," and Norah Jones sings > "American Anthem." > "It's almost as good as the 'Battle Hymn of the Republic,' " Burns said of > the Gene Scheer song that he heard on the radio while driving home from > his father's funeral a few years ago. "I burst into tears."... > > ..."The animating question for me in all my work is just the question who are > we - and that same kind of curiosity about what makes us tick, that we > can't possibly know where we're going unless we know where we've been."

There is the family we wish for - and the family we end up with. Last Acts follows the life of an actress and mother named Madeline and her two grown children as they struggle to know and love one another. Commisioned by Houston Grand Opera, this new chamber opera by composer Jake Heggie (Dead Man Walking; The End of the Affair) and lyricist Gene Scheer is based on a play by Terrence McNally and has been created especially for mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade ("Von Stade can do no wrong" - New York Newsday). She will be joined by two artists making their HGO debuts, soprano Kristin Clayton ("a beautiful voice, expressively used" - San Francisco Classical Voice) and baritone Keith Phares ("an utter pleasure" - The New York Times).

American Anthem Words and Music by Gene Scheer//// All we’ve been given by those who came before, the dream of a nation where freedom would endure. The work and prayers of centuries have brought us to this day. What shall be our legacy? What will our children say?//// Let them say of me I was one who believed in sharing the blessings I received. Let me know in my heart when my days are through, America, America I gave my best to you.//// Each generation from the plains to distant shore, with the gifts that they were given were determined to leave more. Valiant battles fought together, acts of conscience fought alone, these are the seeds from which America has grown.//// Let them say of me I was one who believed in sharing the blessings I received. Let me know in my heart when my days are through, America, America I gave my best to you.//// For those who think they have nothing to share, who fear in their hearts there is no hero there, know each quiet act of dignity is that which fortifies the soul of a nation that never dies.//// Let them say of me I was one who believed in sharing the blessings I received. Let me know in my heart when my days are through, America, America I gave my best to you. © 1998 by Gene Scheer

Philharmonia Baroque's November programs in Palo Alto, San Francisco, and Berkeley, titled "Metamorphoses," will offer Locatelli's Concerto Grosso, Op. 7, No. 6 "Il pianto d'Arianna," Geminiani's The Inchanted Forrest, and the world premiere of Jake Heggie's To Hell and Back, with soloists Isabel Bayrakdarian and Patti LuPone. The short lyric drama, with libretto by Gene Scheer, is based on the legend of Persephone, queen of the Underworld.

Statuesque, ( Music by Jake Heggie Text by Gene Scheer) performed with a septet of winds and strings from the University of Kansas faculty, with Heggie at the piano. Scheer’s intelligent poetry succinctly dissected the art works at hand. His verses about Giaccometti were especially enlightening. .... The final movement “ We’re through” Winged Victory was a tour de force, a Weill inspired tango in which Castle took on the disgruntled voice of the sculpture. At the denouement she angrily dismissed an inattentive lover....Stauesque was an invigorating set, with Castle confidently conveying its sense of serious fun. OPERA NOW JAN 06

A new Musical collaboration in New Orleans involves jazz giant Wynton Marsalis and African drum master Yacub Addy that blended American jazz with intricate African rhythms.... One of the brightest highlights was Odadaa! vocalist Imani Gonzales, who delivered Billie Holiday-like heartbreak ("The pain I feel, it never goes away"--Words by Gene Scheer Music by Wynton Marsalis) in a torch song that was much deeper and resonant than just another love-gone-wrong ballad// Times Union April 24 2006

This opera, (AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY)at nearly three hours, holds your attention and conveys the story. Mr. Scheer's libretto must necessarily compress Dreiser's complex 900-page novel, with its long ruminations on status, envy and compulsion. But the essential elements are there…with an effective libretto by Gene Scheer based on Theodore Dreiser's landmark 1925 novel, "An American Tragedy" has its own kind of sweep and passion...Anthony Thommasini Dec 05

Opera-te - Thérèse Raquin ROH2 Production/Linbury Theater Tobias Picker EUROPEAN PREMIERE March 14, 2006 Thérèse Raquin is a red-blooded and sinister tale of adultery, murder, and remorse among the lower orders of Parisian Society. Zola's novel scandalised 19th Century France by presenting characters who transcended and broke the contemporary moral code. The plot charts Thérèse's journey as a young woman trapped by circumstance, driven to find escape and release through desperate action and fatal attraction, only to find that the noose has tightened even further. As its inaugural production opera-te is presenting the European premiere of Tobias Picker's gripping music drama. French mezzo-soprano Isabelle Cals makes her UK operatic debut in the title role, with Carole Wilson as her oppressive mother-in-law. Artistic Director Lee Blakeley, whose restagings of Die Zauberflöte and Faust on the ROH main stage received widespread critical acclaim last season, directs; Timothy Redmond conducts.

The world premiere of Tobias Picker's An American Tragedy, commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera and based on the 1925 novel of the same name by American writer Theodore Dreiser, is on December 2. The libretto is by Gene Scheer. James Conlon conducts, with Patricia Racette as Roberta Alden, Susan Graham as Sondra Finchley, and Nathan Gunn as Clyde Griffeths. The cast also includes Dolora Zajick as Elvira Griffeths, Jennifer Larmore as Elizabeth Griffeths, Kim Begley as Samuel Griffeths, William Burden as Gilbert Griffeths, and Richard Bernstein as Orville Mason. Francesca Zambello directs, with sets designed by Adrianne Lobel in her Met debut, costumes designed by Dunya Ramicova, lighting designed by James F. Ingalls, and choreography by Doug Varone.
Subsequent performances are on December 5, 8, 12, 16, 21, 24, and 28.

"In turning the novel into a libretto, my task was to imagine this material as an opera; that is to say, not to worry about changing things, adding things, even going in different directions if it seemed more operatic, but to leave the guts of the piece well represented. Tobias gave me an enormous amount of freedom to tell the story as I saw it and to come up with something that appealed to my own imagination. The point of departure was to be faithful to the spirit of the piece but not necessarily to the letter of it. I think you can get in trouble just cutting up a book and setting it to music. When I finally handed Tobias a version that sparked his imagination, the collaboration began."