In this Sonatas & Soundscapes interview that aired Thursday, June 11th—the hundredth anniversary of the composer's birth—host Bradley Fuller hears from conductor Christopher James Ray, Executive Director of the Carlisle Floyd Centennial. The two discuss Floyd's influence on Ray, an upcoming concert of his works at Carnegie Hall, and the composer's legacy.
TRANSCRIPT:
FULLER: Christopher, thanks for joining.
RAY: Thank you for having me, Bradley.
FULLER: As a conductor, you are not only well acquainted with Floyd's music—the scores to his operas—but you personally knew and worked with Floyd the man as well. How did that relationship come about?
RAY: Well, I started graduate school at Florida State, and Carlisle was living in Tallahassee at the time. We were doing a celebration of his works at the University, and so I met him in the rehearsal process. And, long story short, he offered to teach me piano lessons. Then, you know, once I started taking piano lessons, I had to ask him about his operas and if he would work through them with me, and then his niece Jane Matheny sort of suggested that I should be his assistant, and we went from there.
FULLER: How big was Floyd's influence on you personally in your own career as an opera conductor and all-around musician?
RAY: I mean, it was a huge influence. When it comes to the career, I think he pretty much gave me the foundation of my entire network, because in those early years traveling with him, we went all over the country. We met directors, conductors.
An example for right now is that I'm conducting Of Mice and Men at the Des Moines Metro Opera, and I first met the music director here at Sarasota Opera conducting Of Mice and Men when I went with Carlisle. And I first met the director that I'm working with here at Utah Opera when she was doing Of Mice and Men—and I met her with Carlisle. So, my career is full of people that I connected to through Carlisle over a decade ago.
FULLER: Reading your own bio, you grew up in Mississippi and now reside in New Orleans. There seems to be some resonance there with Floyd himself, who, though his career was one of national and international significance, chose to live in the South his whole life. Do you plan to follow that example?
RAY: Yeah, I think it's just natural in us. I mean, small town boys—you know, we grew up both conservative, religious. And you have to go away at some point. I've only just moved back to the South because my previous jobs were in San Francisco and San Jose and I lived in New York before that. But I always wanted to move home.
And it finally became possible. I have a great airport there and I can just be wherever I need to be, much like Carlisle. I mean, Houston wasn't a small town—it just happened to be in the South. But, when he had the choice at retirement, he went back to Tallahassee.
FULLER: From your own experience working with him and also spending a lot of time in his scores, are there any themes, archetypes, or subjects in which he seemed especially interested—those topics that seem to be conveyed time and again through his work?
RAY: Absolutely. The one that comes to mind immediately is the sort of outsider-against- society. Susannah is the one people know most, where there’s a mob mentality, really, against one person in a community. And the ripple effects of that throughout the community, the lives that are damaged—that shows up over and over again through his repertoire.
Perhaps the most American thing is that he taught other people to speak as individuals—that he gave them a freedom to write in whatever style was their own.
FULLER: Floyd has also been called the “Father of American Opera.” Would you say that this is a father with a uniquely Southern accent, for the most part?
RAY: Maybe, yeah. He definitely focused on Southern stories. He said he was taught to write what you know, and he also felt that he should use what he knew about that society and that culture and put it on the stage, because it would be a very honest portrayal that people could relate to.
That said, it's not only a Southern accent. It really is more. I mean, he has one opera set in Restoration England, and of course there's Wuthering Heights. The rest tend to be American. So it’s more of an American accent. And perhaps the most American thing is that he taught other people to speak as individuals—that he gave them a freedom to write in whatever style was their own. Not in some, you know, either academic or in his style. He just said, whatever you are, you're free to write that. And that's going to be your most successful.
FULLER: Floyd’s own writing—his own creative process—often had him writing both the text—the libretto—and the music of his operas, which is the genre he's most famous for. Beyond the topical side of things—the narrative elements, say, the subject of human nature and how people relate—have you found any musical elements that immediately strike you as uniquely Floydsian, shall we say?
RAY: That's a good question. One that’s a little too specific is that he loves to circle around the note he's going to, which, at first, singers find very difficult, because you think the note that's in the chord is, say, a B-flat. But he makes you sing an A or a C first, and so it's very hard to hear. He'll loop around the note we're going to. But he does it so often in the orchestra and in the singers parts. It's something I think of as a real characteristic of his.
He really had a heart for education and giving the next generation opportunities to find their place in the musical world.
One that is shared by some others—especially Puccini and, in a way, Wagner—are these motifs that he gives each character or situation, and it allows the audience to connect this tune with this person. It can develop and come in different forms and shapes. But, whether the audience knows it or not, they're kind of taking this information in.
FULLER: You know, the circling around a note in particular strikes me as so very Southern—you know, our kind of indirect way of sometimes saying things and communicating and beating around the bush. So I love that you found that a hallmark of his music!
RAY: It’s also funny because Carlisle had a great way of…well, for example, if he heard a performance that he didn't think was particularly good, he had a little saying—something like “You know, well I've never heard it done that way before.” People would take it as a compliment no matter what you meant!
FULLER: That is a very South Carolinian—recognizable fellow South Carolinian thing. I've often said that, from a Southerner, an insult may sound like a compliment, and, often from Northerners, a compliment may sound like an insult.
[laughter]
RAY: Exactly.
FULLER: Well, on Saturday, June 20th, Carlisle Floyd will be celebrated in a renowned venue: Carnegie Hall (in New York City, of course) with you on the podium. Certainly, his output of a dozen operas and other works for stage and concert hall couldn't all fit in one concert. So what was top of mind for you when kind of building this program, putting it all together?
RAY: Well, you're right—we couldn't just throw all the operas up there, but we wanted to give a sort of sampler. It's not unlike the program we were doing at Florida State when I first met Carlisle. It was “Well, you know Susannah and you probably know Of Mice and Men. So we don't necessarily need to play that for you.” Of course, we're giving people what they want. There is the orchestral suite from Susannah and “Ain't it a Pretty Night,” so you're going to hear all those famous tunes that you know.
But we also wanted to share with people excepts from other operas that they might not have heard before or had the chance to hear before. And, perhaps with our friends from the industry who will be there, they might say “Oh, you know, I didn't even know Carlisle wrote this. Maybe we should we should produce this so people can hear the whole thing.”
So that was top of mind, and then I just went through the catalog and picked the most beautiful pieces, so that we knew we’d have two hours of Carlisle’s best.
FULLER: What do you hope those in attendance will take away from this performance?
RAY: Well, luckily, Carlisle's music is pretty singable, so I'm hoping they might leave with a few tunes in their head. But also to recognize that Carlisle’s influence was much larger than just his music—that he really helped build the infrastructure of American opera today through his work at the National Endowment for the Arts, and with Opera America.
And in Houston he founded the Houston Grand Opera Studio—now the Butler Studio—that trains young singers. He really had a heart for education and giving the next generation opportunities to find their place in the musical world.
FULLER: It's a legacy that clearly lives on in you and your own work as a conductor as well. Christopher, thanks so much for sharing just a bit. I know we could talk a lot more about Carlisle Floyd—the man and the music—but I really appreciate you taking the time and all best on the 20th at Carnegie!
RAY: Thank you, Bradley!
More information about the Carlisle Floyd Centennial and concert at Carnegie Hall can be found on the organization's website.
