JFK (opera)

JFK is an opera in three acts by American composer David T. Little, with an English-language libretto by Royce Vavrek. The opera's story is based on the final night of American president John F. Kennedy's life that was spent in at the Hotel Texas in Fort Worth, prior to his assassination in Dallas, on November 22, 1963.

The opera was commissioned by Fort Worth Opera, Opéra de Montréal and American Lyric Theater, and received its premiere at Fort Worth Opera on April 23, 2016{{cite web|url=http://www.star-telegram.com/entertainment/performing-arts/article73662672.html|title=Review: JFK opera engrossing, sometimes puzzling|author=Olin Chism|date=April 24, 2016|work=Fort Worth Star-Telegram|accessdate=9 June 2016}} in a production directed by Thaddeus Strassberger.

Roles

class="wikitable" \|+{{sronly\|Roles, voice types, premiere cast}} !Role !Voice type[https://www.boosey.com/pages/opera/moredetails?musicid=101867 JFK, stage work details], Boosey & Hawkes !Premiere cast, April 23, 2016 (Conductor: Steven Osgood)[https://www.operawarhorses.com/2016/04/26/world-premiere-review-jfk-a-fort-worth-fantasy-april-23-2016/ "World Premiere Review: JFK, a Fort Worth Fantasy – April 23, 2016"] by William Burnett, operawarhorses.com, April 26, 2016
John F. "Jack" Kennedy \|baritone \|Matthew Worth
Jacqueline "Jackie" Bouvier Kennedy \|mezzo-soprano \|Daniela Mack
Reporter \|tenor \|Brian Wallin
Clara Harris / Fate 1 (Clotho) \|soprano \|Talise Trevigne
Henry Rathbone / Fate 2 (Lachesis) \|tenor \|Sean Panikkar
Fate 3 (Atropos) \|silent role \|
Rosemary Kennedy \|soprano \|Cree Carrico
Nikita Khrushchev \|tenor \|Casey Finnigan
Jackie Onassis \|mezzo-soprano \|Katharine Goeldner
Lyndon B. Johnson \|bass-baritone \|Daniel Okulitch
Billie Sol Estes	tenor	Jared Welch
Ralph Yarborough	baritone	Christopher Leach
John Connally	baritone	Brett Bode
Raymond J. Buck	baritone	Clay Thompson
Jim Wright	bass	Johnny Salvesen

Many critics wrote about a disorienting dream that Jackie experiences involving the historical figures Clara Harris and Henry Rathbone.{{cite web|url=http://www.operanews.com/Opera_News_Magazine/2016/5/Reviews/FORT_WORTH__JFK.html|work=Opera News|title=JFK|accessdate=9 June 2016}}{{cite web|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/jfk-review-on-the-eve-of-assassination-1461618933|title=JFK Review: On the Eve of Assassination|first=Heidi|last=Waleson|date=25 April 2016|publisher=|accessdate=9 June 2016|work=The Wall Street Journal}} In his preview for The New York Times, David Allen explained that the opera "layers time most obviously in two 'characters in triplicate,' as Mr. Little puts it. Superficially, they are Henry and Clara, a secret service agent and a maid. In another guise, they inhabit Greek mythology as Lachesis and Clotho, the fates who spin and measure the thread of life. In still a third, they are a couple who attended Ford's Theatre with Abraham Lincoln: Henry, who was stabbed by John Wilkes Booth, was later driven mad and killed Clara while attacking their children."{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/17/arts/music/jfk-envisionsan-operatic-ending-forcamelot.html|title=JFK Envisions an Operatic Ending for Camelot|author=David Allen|date=13 April 2016|work=The New York Times|accessdate=2 February 2019}}

Reception

The world premiere received positive reviews, including a rave from Henry Stewart in Opera News who called the work a "ravishing grand opera", "a triumphant work", and suggested that "JFK isn't history or even biography—it's a love story, a very sad one about growing old but not getting to grow old enough."

Another rave was published in The Wall Street Journal by Heidi Waleson who compared the work to Little and Vavrek's groundbreaking previous opera by saying "Mr. Little's score juxtaposes the insistent, propulsive cacophony of Dog Days with expressive melody", and celebrating "Mr. Vavrek's surreally layered, poetic and theatrically well-paced libretto".

Yet another rave was found in Dallas Observer by Wayne Lee Gay who commented that "the drama and ideas flowed seamlessly, thanks not only to a beautifully structured libretto that pulls these ideas together, but a score in which a smooth quasi-minimalism provides a foundation for frequent journeys into radiant neo-romanticism."{{cite news|url=http://www.dallasobserver.com/arts/hallucination-assassination-and-orchestration-jfk-the-opera-comes-to-fort-worth-8244801|title=Hallucination, Assassination and Orchestration: JFK the Opera Comes to Fort Worth|first=Wayne Lee|last=Gay|work=Dallas Observer|date=25 April 2016|accessdate=2 February 2019}}

Mark Swed, in the Los Angeles Times called it "[a]n opera operating on many levels, it has something for everyone." He continued to rave that "Little's score has flashes of his brilliant, hard-driving percussive style. His music theater is often haunted by ghosts, and some of the most effective moments in JFK are found in the otherworldliness of the orchestral colors. Add to that his talent for songful melody and weakness for instrumental shock, and you have a fine cocktail for modern grand opera."{{cite web|url=http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-jfk-opera-review-20160426-column.html|title=JFK is a surreal spin on president's last night in Texas|work=Los Angeles Times|date=26 April 2016|accessdate=9 June 2016}}

The most controversial scene proved to be a dream sequence in which Lyndon B. Johnson appears as an exaggerated cowboy, a moment that a number of critics took issue with, including Scott Cantrell of The Dallas Morning News who called it "acutely offensive",{{cite web|url=http://artsblog.dallasnews.com/2016/04/opera.html/|title=Opera: Fort Worth Opera premieres vivid, overdone JFK|first=Scott|last=Cantrell|work=Dallas News|publisher=|accessdate=9 June 2016|archive-date=29 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160529081209/http://artsblog.dallasnews.com/2016/04/opera.html/|url-status=dead}} and James L. Paulk suggesting it was "vulgar" in Classical Voice America,{{cite web|url=http://classicalvoiceamerica.org/2016/04/26/jfk-in-ft-worth-borrowed-styles-dash-of-vulgarity/|title=JFK In Ft. Worth: An Opera As Big, Brash As Texas|work=Classical Voice North America|date=27 April 2016|accessdate=9 June 2016}} but Olin Chism in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram noted that the "low comedy" received "the biggest laughs of the evening." Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times called it "comic crudity",[https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/25/arts/music/review-jfk-puts-a-very-dark-day-in-an-operatic-light.html "Review: JFK Puts a Very Dark Day in an Operatic Light"] by Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times, 24 April 2016 though Waleson, in her review for The Wall Street Journal, praised the scene and the depiction of Johnson "who sings a swaggering rockabilly anthem and calls [Kennedy] a 'pussy' [providing] comedic chaos with appropriate hints of nastiness."