Pierangelo Valtinoni is a highly distinguished Italian composer, who has earned a reputation for crafting some whimsical and beautiful adaptations of some of the world's more loved stories into operas. These works include Pinocchio, The Snow Queen, Alice in Wonderland, and of course The Wizard of Ozwhich Victorian Opera is delighted to present the Australian premiere in August.
What drew you to adapting “The Wizard of Oz” as an opera?
It was a suggestion that came from my friend and Head Promoter of Boosey & Hawkes in Berlin, Frank Harders, and the Zurich Operhaus who commissioned it from me. I accepted this suggestion, set about rereading Lyman Frank Baum's book and studying everything that this beautiful American fairy tale with its profound contents generated, including the famous film/musical starring Judy Garland as Dorothy.
The Wizard of Oz, in fact, is a Dorothy’s oneiri intimate journey that she carries out with the company of three emblematical characters, who symbolize certain feelings (brain, heart and bravery) which are, unbeknownst to her, part of her own personality. This is what the journey is meant for: making Dorothy aware of having them in herself. In this sense the journey to Emerald City is the journey of initiation.
At the end of the trip, Dorothy comes back to Kansas to face her real life with full maturity. The Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion are real characters that symbolize the feelings that Dorothy has finally discovered in herself.
There is another meaning about her return. It is not nostalgia for a world made of poverty and hardships typical of the American society of the end of the nineteenth century, but rather the sense of responsibility of the destiny of the people, especially her beloved aunt and uncle who replace the missing parents.
During the development of the Opera, each character realizes they already possess what they would like to ask the Wizard: the Cowardly Lion demonstrates his bravery when he builds a bridge out of himself to allow his friends to go from one side of the cliff to the other; the Scarecrow demonstrates his intelligence realizing for the first time the Tin Woodman and him, “not being made of flesh”, can save Dorothy and the Lion being immune to the soporific effect of poisonous poppies; the Tin Woodman demonstrates he has a heart because, with compassion, he frees the Mouse Queen from the death trap.
There are so many adaptations of these brilliant stories, what sort of influence, if any, did other adaptations have on yours?
I have listened to and seen many adaptations on the subject, but I have tried to find my own personal key, trying not to be influenced by other types of realization. Basically, what I try to do is to continue the European operatic tradition, especially the Italian one.
The sound world of this piece is incredibly colorful and whimsical. It wanders through many colors and styles. Tell us about your approach to capturing this world in sound.
I have always listened with the same attention to any musical genre and style, sorting it exclusively by degree of complexity and not by social origin. As a boy, I loved both so-called “cultured music”, which I studied at the Conservatory, as well as “folk music” and “popular music”, especially “progressive rock”. I think that in my musical language all these influences have found their place, giving rise to what you describe as a sound world “incredibly colorful and whimsical”. Of course, everything is kept in balance by the use of a strict compositional system that is rooted in the tonal system but uses it in a personal way.
This will be the Australian premiere of this work. Tell us about your relationship with Australia, and have you had works performed here before?
I know very little about Australia, and that little I have learned from the books I have read and the films I have seen. What really attracts me is the beauty of nature, especially the colors. Of course, I am also fascinated by the big cities like Sydney and Melbourne. As for the second part of the question, I think it is the first time that a work of such large proportions as The Wizard of Oz has been performed on this continent. I am indeed very much happy about that.
Can you name some musical influences on this work?
I could recommend, from the point of view of the use of rhythm, some music by Igor Stravinsky, such as the opera/suite L'Historie du Soldat; or, from the point of view of melodic and harmonic variety and the use of dance rhythms, some compositions by Leonard Bernstein, such as the musical West Side Story or the opera Candide.
We’re incredibly excited to be performing this work with many of Victoria’s finest young performers. Tell us about your approach to writing music for young people to perform and how it may change or inform your decision-making.
I too am very excited about this premiere.
The Wizard of Oz is an Opera for children, but not only for children. In fact, there is not a big difference between composing music for a young or an adult audience. because, in both cases, the composer must be able to connect with the listener in order to communicate an emotion to them, and therefore, in addition to having something to say, he or she must possess the necessary technique to do so.
When the audience consists of children, however, one must also take into account that their attention span is shorter than that of adults. A child needs constant stimulation to keep his or her concentration, whereas an adult can also afford to be bored. Hence, paying attention to narrative tension, resorting to continuous stratagems to keep it from dropping, becomes strategically crucial when dealing with young audiences.
Through your various collaborations with writer and journalist Paolo Madron you’ve explored musical settings of some of the world’s most beloved stories. Tell us about your working relationship, and how you go about creating such fun and rich worlds in your work.
Generally, after deciding on the subject of a work, we sit down to discuss what we want to tell through words and music. For The Wizard of Oz, for example, we decided that the reason Dorothy travels all the way to the Emerald City to meet Oz is to find the intelligence, heart, and courage, feelings that will be indispensable for her to help her aunt and uncle, to whom she owes everything, when she returns to Kansas. Once the contents have been established, I begin to write an initial script, which I then discuss with the librettist and the editor. Once the script is agreed upon, I try to define the nature/personality of each character and ask the librettist to start writing the libretto, perhaps recommending a particular verse metric. Then everything becomes easier because the suggestions of the written music influence the librettist by telling them how to proceed, while the rhythm of the words, conversely, suggests me how to develop the musical structure