Pandemic or no pandemic, Opera Memphis is on the move. As we recently reported, the 65-year-old institution has received a $500,000 grant from The Assisi Foundation of Memphis Inc. and a matching gift from Miriam and Charles Handorf, endowing the Handorf Company Artist Program. This is prompting the group to move from Clark Opera Memphis Center to a smaller space closer to the city’s center, but it will have aesthetic consequences as well.
According to General Director Ned Canty, “With this move, we’re freeing up some money so when we do a big show, we’re able to put that money not into HVAC for a building that is larger than we need, but into hiring a larger chorus.” As Canty describes it, the new headquarters will allow Opera Memphis to focus both on the shows themselves, and how Opera Memphis relates to its hometown.
“The pandemic forced us to take an innovative approach that we never would have had the courage to do otherwise,” says Canty. “It caused the board to say, ‘Let’s think about the role of our location in what we do.’ Where we do performances will not change with the move from our building. That building is just our office space, rehearsal space, and costume shop. So the pandemic opened up this new point of conversation.”
At the heart of that conversation is how Opera Memphis, and opera as an art form, can engage with the community. “We’re really trying to become a company where the ‘Memphis’ part of our name is at the center of what we do, rather than the ‘Opera’ part of our name,” explains Canty. “How can we engage with the city in a way that’s more thoughtful and intentional? We started actively experimenting eight years ago when we launched 30 Days of Opera [recurring months of free shows throughout the city]. Now, that work has grown a lot, and no longer takes place just during 30 Days of Opera.”
Ironically, one way to engage with the local community has been with out-of-town artists that the Handorf Company Artist Program helps to recruit. “A lot of artists are coming here from singing at Carnegie Hall or the San Francisco Opera or Chicago. These are folks who do not need to sing with us to pay their rent, but sing with us because they love art, and they know they’re going to be treated like long-lost relatives and friends. For a company that’s pretty far removed from places where a lot of opera singers live, it’s important that we create an experience that people want to come back to.”
A work now in progress epitomizes these strengths. “In 2018, we did a 20-minute version of Pretty Little Room, with music by Robert Patterson, a Memphis-based composer and musician. It’s based on the story of Alice and Freda, two young women in the 1890s who went to school together and fell in love. It was a time before the word ‘lesbian’ even existed. Alice was judged insane for believing that two women could live together as spouses, and was sent to the Bolivar asylum. Now, the two of them are buried near each other in Elmwood Cemetery. It’s a story that actually happened, that still resonates today.” Immediately after the short version premiered, they received funding to expand it.
Bringing it all back home, Opera Memphis is exploring connections with the Edge District as it develops Pretty Little Room. “In September of this year, we’re doing an orchestra workshop of this full-length opera. That will be in the Edge, no matter where the building we end up inhabiting will be. One thing that appeals to me about the Edge is the fact that so much new music was created there. It is the cradle of so much American music. The idea of working on this new opera, that will be exported to other cities and go out into the world, near where Elvis and others created this world-altering music, is incredible. So that is something we’re considering as we look at spaces in the Edge and in other neighborhoods. Either it will be a way of starting to build community in our new neighborhood, or it will be a way of building community there in addition to wherever our new neighborhood is going to be.”