Naxos to release Cecilia's recording of "The Construction of Boston."
The CD of Composer in Residence Scott Wheeler's opera will be released during 2008. The libretto, as well as program notes from the April 2007 concert performance, are available now.

"Teeters and his classy cast and players offered the first truly satisfying performance I’ve heard... If I ever forget what a superb programmer he's been over his 39 years of directing Boston Cecilia, remind me of this concert."

-Lloyd Schwartz, The Boston Phoenix, Apr. 5, 2007. Read the review!

Introducing New Music: Recent and Right Now, presenting the music of up-and-coming composers, in collaboration with Scott Wheeler. Annual series debuts in June 2008!

A note by Scott Wheeler

The Construction of Boston, like many operas and other works of musical theater, has changed its form several times. It began life in 1962, when the poet Kenneth Koch (1925-2002) wrote the text, in three inspired days, as a performance piece for the artists Robert Rauschenberg, Jean Tinguely and Niki de Saint-Phalle. This first version of The Construction of Boston received a single sold-out performance at the Maidman Theater on 42nd St. in New York.

I discovered the play in Koch's book A Change of Hearts. It seemed ideal for music—the verse was beautiful, the subject was funny and original, and the play had never been performed in Boston. Originally the chorus part was spoken by two men, but I was struck by its aptness for choral singing. So I asked for and received permission to adapt the text as a dramatic cantata for SATB chorus, soloists and an orchestra of 16 players.

In this form the work was premiered in January 1989, in a concert performance by the John Oliver Chorale. In January and February of 1990, the Charlestown Working Theater produced a staged version, in a much reduced version for 11 singers and two players, produced and directed by Ron Jenkins. For that production, I persuaded Kenneth to add some explanatory text. At first he balked at introducing a play he had written 27 years earlier, saying "It's like trying to think up an appetizer for my parents' wedding reception." When he was finally persuaded, we settled on the device of a Prologue, which begins with the lines "I am the Opera, here to explain myself./Operas don't usually do this, but it seemed a good idea." The music for this new Prologue was written during the first week of rehearsals in December of 1989.

In February 2002, Boston Conservatory produced the work for the first time with both full staging and orchestra—that is, as an opera, in a production directed by Patricia Weinmann. For this production, I restored most of the original overture and orchestrated the sung prologue. I consider this the final version of the piece, and that’s the version we are presenting at this Boston Cecilia concert performance.

When I began the piece in 1988, I phoned and met with Kenneth a number of times. My first question to him was what, in a sung version of the play, we could do about the three artist-builders. Could we change their names? Without hesitation, Kenneth said, "We could make them gods and goddesses." But he didn't actually suggest any names. After I had begun composing, I suggested substituting Boston historical names, if possible ones that would preserve the scansion that was already in both the poem and my vocal lines. My only concrete suggestion was that "Rauschenberg" be replaced by (architect H.H.) "Richardson". Koch rejected this as adding another and conflicting layer of fantasy. Finally we decided to treat the characters as gods but to keep the original names, which seemed to be burned into the text. Since that decision, the names have increasingly acquired their own historical resonance, that of the art world of New York in the 1960s.

With the addition of the Prologue, I think of The Construction of Boston as a one-act comic opera rather than a masque or dramatic cantata, but it has elements of all these. Kenneth referred to it as “a postmodern baroque opera.” I dedicated the work to my teacher Virgil Thomson; it takes some of its aesthetic from Thomson's Gertrude Stein operas Four Saints in Three Acts and The Mother of Us All. As in the Thomson-Stein works, aspects of nonsense and opacity of meaning are no obstacle to the most serious artistic intent. In Construction, there is also a political (or at least civic) message. In Koch's play, to build a city is noble, and it's hard work. It's also a little silly, and more than a little destructive of natural beauty. The city can no longer be a home for "pure nature". There is no way "to get back bubbling brooks." But the city redeems itself by becoming a center for art and beauty, here represented by Niki de St. Phalle and her magic gun. The moral of this little fable is always applicable, and Boston provides the ideal setting, both because of the fanciful facts of its construction and because of its history of hospitality to the arts.

The music of The Construction of Boston is eclectic in the manner of many stage works. Certain bright triadic choral moments are virtually quotations from Thomson’s Four Saints in Three Acts. The entrance of Rauschenberg is announced with Handelian choral counterpoint; that of Tinguely with a reference to chant (marked “Veni Tinguely Spiritus” in the score). The choral responses frequently recall Gilbert and Sullivan. The orchestral music for the building of the city refers to Brecht and Weill’s imaginary city of Mahagonny. Smaller roles are characterized by bits of marches, waltzes, or a hint of barbershop quartet. These varied references, inspired by the vivid language and imagery of Koch’s verse, culminate in a choral lullaby to the city whose tenderness, while perhaps unexpected, is not ironic.

The initial composition of The Construction of Boston was supported by a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation. A Margaret Jory grant from the American Music Center helped with the work’s copying costs; the Research Committee of Emerson College provided further support. Brad Ellis generously donated his time and expertise, first on the vocal score in 1988, then on the multi-keyboard re-orchestration in 1989.

- Scott Wheeler

The Boston Cecilia performed this work at New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall in Boston on April 1, 2007.

© 2007 Scott Wheeler. All rights reserved.

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