Elmer Gantry, evangelism and opera

[D. Allan]

The new American opera, Elmer Gantry, by composer Robert Aldridge and librettist Herschel Garfein had a successful premier Friday night in Nashville. "The opera itself was an intoxicating experience: a new American work that set out to honor both its source material (the great Sinclair Lewis satire of evangelism) and its new medium," writes Jesse Green in his review,today, in the New York Times. .

A synopsis of the the book, Elmer Gantry from wikipedia:

Quote:

Elmer Gantry is a novel written by Sinclair Lewis in 1926 and published by Harcourt in March 1927. It tells the story of a young, narcissistic, womanizing college athlete who, upon realizing the power, prestige, and easy money that being an evangelical preacher can bring, pursues his "religious" ambitions with relish, contributing to the downfall, even death, of key people around him as the years pass. Although he continues to womanize, is often exposed as a fraud, and frequently faces a complete downfall, Gantry is never fully discredited and always manages to emerge triumphant and to reach ever greater heights of social status. The novel ends as the Rev. Gantry prays for the USA to be a "moral nation" and simultaneously admires the legs of a new choir singer.

and

Quote:

Lewis did research for the novel by observing the work of preacher Burris Jenkins, pastor in the Linwood Boulevard Methodist Episcopal Church in Kansas City, Missouri. Jenkins introduced Lewis to many other clergymen, among them the Reverend L.M. Birkhead, a Unitarian and an agnostic. Schorer says that both of these associations, as well as others, influenced characters in the novel. There's no record of the character of Elmer Gantry or any other characters as being fictionalizations of the careers of Billy Sunday or Aimee Semple McPherson. Schorer also says that, while researching the book, that Lewis attended two or three church services every Sunday while in Kansas City, and that "he took advantage of every possible tangential experience in the religious community." The result is a novel that represents the religious activity of America in evangelistic circles and the attitudes of the 1920s toward it.

The Opera must be quite interesting. Look at this from the NYTs review:

Quote:

Like many artists associated with the Composers in Red Sneakers collective, they disliked the academic bent of recent music, with its emotional parsimony and off-putting airs. Opera especially had lost its ability to speak to Americans with American diction, and “most of it wouldn’t pass muster dramatically in a fourth-grade play,” Mr. Garfein said. Bursting with opportunities for hymns, barroom choruses and gospel clap-alongs, “Elmer Gantry” could be a corrective to all that: an accessible song-based score but with the big plot and un-self-conscious emotion of grand opera.

There are two more performances in Nashville then on Wednesday it will be in Montclair for four more. Oh how I would love to hear it!

[David Koot]

My dear Allan,

One of my new contacts in city evangelism is the grandson of the real-life Elmer Gantry (slightly different name). I invited him to church this past Sabbath, which he really enjoyed, and he was at our communication workshop this afternoon. I will be seeing him again on Wednesday. Apparently, Mr. Gantry was a Nazarene evangelist, and his grandson remembers quite a bit about him. Extraordinary how this is a small world.

Dave

[D. Allan]

Wow! How very interesting. Thanks, Dave!

I wonder if the grandson has heard about the opera.

[aldona]

Interesting. I'm an opera lover myself. I'll have to look out for any recordings of that one.

I'm just waiting for the Ellen White quotes about the evils of opera...

aldona

[cardw]

Robert Tilton

This is a link to a rather comedic look at Robert Tilton a re-occurring tele-evangelist who just keeps coming back no matter what scheme he creates or new wife he finds to sign on to his "new" approach. He is certainly cut from the same cloth as the fictional Elmer Gantry.

He is certainly entertaining...

[D. Allan]

Interesting. I'm an opera lover myself. I'll have to look out for any recordings of that one.

I'm just waiting for the Ellen White quotes about the evils of opera...

aldona

[D. Allan]

From http://www.tagnet.org/dvm/EGWdrama.html :A statement by Arthur L. White:

Quote:

A survey of these counsels fails to reveal an across-the-board condemnation of all dramatic productions. In other words, Ellen White does not condemn a program just because it may be dramatized. In this respect, counsels touching dramatic productions are much like those pertaining to sports. Interestingly, both subjects are treated in two statements of caution. Mrs. White did not condemn the "simple exercise of playing ball" (AH 499), but as she enumerated the principles involved, she pointed out the grave perils that usually accompany sports activities.

This should also apply to Opera, a dramatic and musical production.

And latter on in the article:

Quote:

As is so often the case, something that may be effective for good when rightly used can also, if wrongly employed, be effective for evil, even to the point where the rightful use may have to be curtailed. Note in the description of Satan's work in the world generally that drama is listed first among the "amusements" that Satan uses to destroy souls.

"Many of the amusements popular in the world today, even with those who claim to be Christians, tend to the same end as did those of the heathen. There are indeed few among them that Satan does not turn to account in destroying souls. Through the drama he has worked for ages to excite passion and glorify vice. The opera, with its fascinating display and bewildering music, the masquerade, the dance, the card table, Satan employs to break down the barriers of principle and open the door to sensual indulgence. In every gathering for pleasure where pride is fostered or appetite indulged, where one is led to forget God and lose sight of eternal interests, there Satan is binding his chains about the soul." (PP 459; Published in 1890; AH 515)

How did that green dancing apples get up there, at top!!?? I just noticed it. rofl

No doubt the apple is singing an aria!

Well, anyway, I only post these quotes from curiosity about her stance on opera. (I never ask for her advice, since I can think for myself.) Seems she found opera facinating and its music bewildering . I wonder what opera she may have attended. No doubt her musical appreciation was very underdeveloped.

The opera Elmer Gantry should be, i guess, " effective for good," ( Arthur Whites phrase. )

[D. Allan]

The American opera singer Shirley Verrett (born May 31, 1931) is a mezzo-soprano and a soprano who has enjoyed great fame since the late 1960s, much admired for her radiant voice, beauty, and great versatility.

Born into an African-American family of devout Seventh-day Adventists in New Orleans, Louisiana, Verrett showed early musical abilities, but initially a singing career was frowned upon by her family. Later Verrett went on to study in Los Angeles, California and at the Juilliard School in New York. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Verrett

[D. Allan]

There is a great web-site for the opera at http://elmergantryopera.com/site/index.php

Go HERE to see a video and listen to some of the music.

The Elmer Gantry coctail please don't try this at home.

4 ozs. Woodford Reserve bourbon

ice

Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker. Shake with conviction. Serve in a chilled martini glass. (When shaken sufficiently, the drink should have a thin layer of foam at the top.) Consume immediately.