''Charlie Parker's Yardbird'' is an opera with music by Swiss composer

Daniel Schnyder Daniel Schnyder (born March 12, 1961 in Zurich) is a Swiss jazz reedist and composer of both jazz and classical music. Schnyder learned to play cello before saxophone. He attended Berklee College of Music and the Conservatory of Winterthur. H ...

and an English-language

libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...

by Bridgette A. Wimberly. It was co-commissioned by

Opera Philadelphia Opera Philadelphia (prior to 2013 Opera Company of Philadelphia (OCP)) is an American opera company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and is the city's only company producing grand opera. The organization produces one festival in September (Festival O ...

and

Gotham Chamber Opera Gotham Chamber Opera was a professional opera company located in New York City. The company was founded in 2000 under the name of the Henry Street Chamber Opera by Artistic Director Neal Goren and specialized in producing rarely performed chamber ...

. The opera concerns the jazz icon

Charlie Parker Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz saxophonist, band leader and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form ...

, his tumultuous life and his relationships; it is also about America, its music, its

opioid crisis The opioid epidemic, also referred to as the opioid crisis, is the rapid increase in the overuse, misuse/abuse, and overdose deaths attributed either in part or in whole to the class of drugs opiates/opioids since the 1990s. It includes the sign ...

, and its racial inequality.

Performance history

The world premiere took place at Philadelphia's Perelman Theater June 5, 2015, conducted by Corrado Rovaris. The original production featured direction by Ron Daniels, set design by Riccardo Hernandez, costume design by Emily Rebholz, lighting design by Scott Zielinski. It was performed the following April at Harlem's

Apollo Theater The Apollo Theater is a music hall at 253 West 125th Street between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard (Seventh Avenue) and Frederick Douglass Boulevard (Eighth Avenue) in the Harlem neighborhood of Upper Manhattan in New York City. It is a not ...

, a performance which was then broadcast nationally. It has also been performed at

Madison Opera Madison Opera is a regional opera company based in Madison, Wisconsin. It was founded in 1961 as an extension of thMadison Symphony Orchestraand came to national prominence in 1993 with the commissioning and premiering of ''Shining Brow'', the o ...

(February 2017),

Lyric Opera of Chicago Lyric Opera of Chicago is one of the leading opera companies in the United States. It was founded in Chicago in 1954, under the name 'Lyric Theatre of Chicago' by Carol Fox, Nicola Rescigno and Lawrence Kelly, with a season that included Maria ...

(March 2017),

Hackney Empire Hackney Empire is a theatre on Mare Street, in the London Borough of Hackney. Originally designed by Frank Matcham it was built in 1901 as a music hall, and expanded in 2001. Described by ''The Guardian'' as ‘the most beautiful theatre in Lon ...

and

English National Opera English National Opera (ENO) is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with The Royal Opera. ENO's productions are sung in English ...

(June 2017),

Atlanta Opera The Atlanta Opera is an opera company located in the Atlanta metropolitan area. Founded in 1979, it produces mainstage opera productions and arts education programs for Metropolitan Atlanta and the Southeast. In 2007, The Atlanta Opera moved into ...

(September 2018),

Arizona Opera Arizona Opera is an opera company which operates in both Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona. History Arizona Opera was established in 1971 as the Tucson Opera Company, under founding general director James P. Sullivan, and presented its first productio ...

(November 2018),

Seattle Opera Seattle Opera is an opera company based in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1963 by Glynn Ross, who served as its first general director until 1983. The company's season runs from August through late May, comprising five or six operas of ...

(February 2020),

Pittsburgh Opera Pittsburgh Opera is an American opera company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh Opera gives performances in several venues, primarily at the Benedum Center, with other performances at the Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts Sch ...

(April 2021),

Dayton Performing Arts Alliance The Dayton Performing Arts Alliance is a nonprofit performing arts association located in Dayton, Ohio and composed of three performing arts groups: the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, the Dayton Opera, and the Dayton Ballet and incorporated as a 501 ...

(October 2022),

New Orleans Opera Association Opera has long been part of the musical culture of New Orleans, Louisiana. Operas have regularly been performed in the city since the 1790s, and since the early 19th century, New Orleans has had a resident company regularly performing opera in ad ...

(January 2023), upcoming productions include

Indianapolis Opera Indianapolis Opera is an opera company based in Indianapolis, Indiana. It is the only professional opera company in Indiana and hosts a number of fully staged productions each season. It also supports a Young Artist Program. The company is led ...

(March 2023).

Roles

Synopsis

This one-act opera features roles based on real-life figures

Dizzy Gillespie John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy Eldridge but addi ...

Pannonica de Koenigswarter Baroness Kathleen Annie Pannonica de Koenigswarter (''née'' Rothschild; 10 December 1913 – 30 November 1988) was a British-born jazz patron and writer. A leading patron of bebop, she was a member of the Rothschild family. Personal life Kath ...

Chan Parker Chan Woods (born Beverly Delores Berg, also known as Chan Richardson; 29 June 1925 – 9 September 1999), was a common-law wife of jazz musician Charlie Parker. She later married musician Phil Woods. She was born in New York City to an inter-r ...

, and Charlie Parker's wives and mother. The opera does not purport to depict actual events as they occurred or statements, beliefs, or opinions of the persons depicted. As the opera begins, Charlie Parker's spirit finds itself at Birdland, the jazz club named after him. He has just died; his body is still at the segregated hotel suite of Nica de Koenigswarter. Panicking about the scandal that will ensue when his body is found in her rooms, Nica finds his spirit at Birdland. She wants Chan, Charlie's wife, to identify his body; but Charlie begs Nica not to tell Chan where he is, to keep his secret for a while, until he has time to compose a masterpiece. Looking for inspiration, Charlie remembers growing up in Kansas City. His neighbors complain about all the noise he makes, learning to play saxophone—particularly the

tritone In music theory, the tritone is defined as a musical interval composed of three adjacent whole tones (six semitones). For instance, the interval from F up to the B above it (in short, F–B) is a tritone as it can be decomposed into the three a ...

, "the Devil's interval"—while his mother, Addie, worries about his lifestyle in the age of

Jim Crow laws The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...

. Rebecca, Charlie's first wife, joins Addie in a lament about the challenges of being a wife and mother to black males in the United States. Hoping to save his life, Addie tells Charlie he must leave Kansas City. He promises to make her proud one day, and asks her to take care of his wife and son. Charlie's third wife, Doris, tries to help him find peace; but there are still unanswered questions. Dizzy Gillespie, on the other hand, brings Charlie inspiration, and together the two musicians triumph as

Bebop Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early-to-mid-1940s in the United States. The style features compositions characterized by a fast tempo, complex chord progressions with rapid chord changes and numerous changes of key, instrumen ...

is born. Charlie then remembers how he met Chan and went off to conquer California with Dizzy, despite his heroin addiction. Meanwhile, Addie remembers her pride upon hearing Charlie play on the radio. In California, Charlie hears from Chan that their two-year-old daughter, Pree, is dead. Charlie breaks down and ends up in

Camarillo State Hospital Camarillo State Mental Hospital, also known as Camarillo State Hospital, was a public psychiatric hospital for patients with both developmental disabilities and mental illness in Camarillo, California. The hospital was in operation from 1936 to 1 ...

. Music facilitates his recovery. By now Charlie's body has been discovered. Addie wants him buried in Kansas City, but Chan wants to bury him in New York. Doris and Rebecca join the argument over where Charlie is to be buried while the world sings, "Bird lives!" Charlie realizes that playing the saxophone was his life's work, his masterpiece. He makes peace with himself, frees his soul, and sings lines from

Paul Laurence Dunbar Paul Laurence Dunbar (June 27, 1872 – February 9, 1906) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born in Dayton, Ohio, to parents who had been enslaved in Kentucky before the American C ...

's classic poem, "Sympathy".

Sources

External links

Musical highlights

SoundCloud SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform and music sharing website that enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is one of the largest music streaming se ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Charlie Parker's Yardbird 2016 operas English-language operas Operas Operas based on real people Operas set in the 20th century Operas set in the United States One-act operas