Carlisle Floyd (born June 11, 1926, in
Latta, South CarolinaLatta is a town in Dillon County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 1,410 at the 2000 census. The town is the birthplace of soul vocalist Chuck Jackson and opera composer Carlisle Floyd. It is also the hometown of NBA basketball player Raymond Felton, and Major League Soccer...
) is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
operaOpera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
composerA composer is a person who creates music, usually by musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of...
. The son of a Methodist minister, he based many of his works on themes from the South. His best known opera,
SusannahSusannah is an opera in two acts by American composer Carlisle Floyd, who wrote the libretto and music while a member of the piano faculty at Florida State University. Floyd adapted the story from the Apocryphal tale of Susannah and the Elders, though the latter story has a more positive ending...
(1955), is based on a story from the
ApocryphaApocrypha comes from the Greek word , which means those having been hidden away. The general term is usually applied to the books that were considered by the Church as useful, but not divinely inspired...
, transferred to contemporary, rural Tennessee, and is set in a Southern dialect.
In 1943, Floyd entered
Converse CollegeConverse College is a liberal arts women's college in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Its 750 undergraduates come from throughout the United States and the world for the challenging liberal arts curriculum, century-old honor tradition, and Daniels Center for Leadership and Service. As of 2008, Paul...
, in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and studied
pianoThe piano is a musical instrument which is played by means of a keyboard. Widely used in Western music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
under
Ernst BaconErnst Bacon was an American composer, pianist, and conductor. A prolific author, Bacon composed over 250 songs over his career. He was awarded three Guggenheim Fellowships and the Pulitzer Prize for his First Symphony....
.
Carlisle Floyd (born June 11, 1926, in
Latta, South CarolinaLatta is a town in Dillon County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 1,410 at the 2000 census. The town is the birthplace of soul vocalist Chuck Jackson and opera composer Carlisle Floyd. It is also the hometown of NBA basketball player Raymond Felton, and Major League Soccer...
) is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
operaOpera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
composerA composer is a person who creates music, usually by musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of...
. The son of a Methodist minister, he based many of his works on themes from the South. His best known opera,
SusannahSusannah is an opera in two acts by American composer Carlisle Floyd, who wrote the libretto and music while a member of the piano faculty at Florida State University. Floyd adapted the story from the Apocryphal tale of Susannah and the Elders, though the latter story has a more positive ending...
(1955), is based on a story from the
ApocryphaApocrypha comes from the Greek word , which means those having been hidden away. The general term is usually applied to the books that were considered by the Church as useful, but not divinely inspired...
, transferred to contemporary, rural Tennessee, and is set in a Southern dialect.
Career
In 1943, Floyd entered
Converse CollegeConverse College is a liberal arts women's college in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Its 750 undergraduates come from throughout the United States and the world for the challenging liberal arts curriculum, century-old honor tradition, and Daniels Center for Leadership and Service. As of 2008, Paul...
, in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and studied
pianoThe piano is a musical instrument which is played by means of a keyboard. Widely used in Western music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
under
Ernst BaconErnst Bacon was an American composer, pianist, and conductor. A prolific author, Bacon composed over 250 songs over his career. He was awarded three Guggenheim Fellowships and the Pulitzer Prize for his First Symphony....
. When Bacon accepted a position at
Syracuse UniversitySyracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, U.S.A.. It was founded as a university in 1870, but its roots can be traced back to a seminary founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832 which eventually became Genesee College...
, in New York, Floyd followed him there, where he received a Bachelor of Music in 1946. The following year, Floyd became part of the piano faculty at
Florida State UniversityFlorida State University is a space-grant and sea-grant public university located in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a comprehensive doctoral research university with medical programs and significant research activity as determined by the Carnegie Foundation...
, in Tallahassee. He was to remain there for thirty years, eventually becoming Professor of Composition. He received a master's degree at Syracuse, in 1949.
While at Florida State, Floyd gradually became interested in composition. His first opera was
Slow Dusk, to his own libretto (as was to remain his custom), and was produced at Syracuse in 1949. His next opera,
The Fugitives, was seen at Tallahassee in 1951, but was then withdrawn.
His third opera was to be Floyd's greatest success:
SusannahSusannah is an opera in two acts by American composer Carlisle Floyd, who wrote the libretto and music while a member of the piano faculty at Florida State University. Floyd adapted the story from the Apocryphal tale of Susannah and the Elders, though the latter story has a more positive ending...
. It was first heard at Florida State, in February 1955, with
Phyllis CurtinPhyllis Curtin is an American classical soprano who had an active career in operas and concerts from the early 1950s through the 1980s. She was known for her creation of new roles such as the title role in the Carlisle Floyd opera Susannah, Catherine Earnshaw in Floyd's Wuthering Heights, and in...
in the title role, and
Mack HarrellMack Harrell was an American baritone and was regarded as one of the greatest concert baritones of his generation....
as the Reverend Olin Blitch. The following year, the opera was given at the
New York City OperaThe New York City Opera is an American opera company and the second largest opera company, after the Metropolitan Opera, in New York City. The company was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...
, with Curtin and
Norman TreigleNorman Treigle was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, the fifth and final child of a poor carpenter and his wife. Following his 1946 marriage to the former Loraine Siegel, the bass-baritone began vocal studies with the contralto Elisabeth Wood...
(in his first great success) as Blitch, with
Erich LeinsdorfErich Leinsdorf was an Austrian-born American conductor. He performed and recorded with leading orchestras and opera companies throughout the United States and Europe, earning a reputation for exacting standards as well as an acerbic personality...
conducting. After receiving much acclaim, a City Opera production (directed by
Frank CorsaroFrank Corsaro is one of America's foremost stage directors of opera and theatre. His Broadway productions include The Night of the Iguana ....
) was taken to the 1958 World's Fair in Brussels, with Curtin, Treigle and
Richard CassillyRichard Cassilly was an American operatic tenor who had a major international opera career between 1954 and 1990...
.
Later in 1958, Floyd's
Wuthering HeightsWuthering Heights is an opera in a prologue and three acts with music and a libretto by Carlisle Floyd. The work is adapted from Emily Brontë's novel of the same name. The opera premiered at the Santa Fe Opera on July 16, 1958 in a production directed by Irving Guttman...
(after
Emily BrontëEmily Jane Brontë was an English novelist and poet, now best remembered for her only novel Wuthering Heights, a classic of English literature. Emily was the second eldest of the three surviving Brontë sisters, between Charlotte and Anne...
) was premiered at the
Santa Fe OperaThe Santa Fe Opera is an American opera company, located north of Santa Fe in the U.S. state of New Mexico, headquartered on a former guest ranch of . John Crosby, a New York-based conductor, founded SFO in 1956, originally as the Opera Association of New Mexico...
, with Curtin as the heroine. In 1960, at Syracuse, his "solo cantata on biblical texts,"
Pilgrimage, was first heard with Treigle as soloist.
The Passion of Jonathan Wade was first seen at the City Opera, in 1962. Set in South Carolina during Reconstruction, the piece had
Theodor UppmanTheodor Uppman was an American operatic baritone. He is best known for his creation of the title role in Benjamin Britten's opera Billy Budd....
, Curtin, Treigle and
Harry TheyardHarry Theyard , tenor, is a native of New Orleans and is a 1957 graduate of Loyola University of the South, where he studied under Dorothy Hulse, who was also the teacher of Audrey Schuh and Charles Anthony...
in the large cast;
Julius RudelJulius Rudel is a major American opera and orchestra conductor who emigrated to the US from Austria at the age of 17 and studied conducting at the Mannes College of Music in New York City. He then forged a 35-year career with the New York City Opera, from 1944 to 1979, and was the Music Director...
conducted.
Floyd's next opera was
The Sojourner and Mollie Sinclair, which was a comedy regarding the Scottish settlers of the Carolinas.
Patricia NewayPatricia Neway is an American operatic soprano and musical theatre actress who had an active international career during the mid 1940s through the 1970s. She is particularly remember for creating roles in the world premieres of several contemporary American operas, most notably Magda Sorel in Gian...
and Treigle created the title roles, with Rudel conducting. The composer's
Markheim (after Robert Lewis Stevenson) was first shown at the
New Orleans OperaOpera has long been part of the musical culture of New Orleans, Louisiana. Operas have regularly been performed in the city since the 1790s, and for the majority of the city's history since the early 19th century, New Orleans has had a resident company regularly performing opera in addition to...
Association in 1966, with Treigle (to whom it was dedicated) and
Audrey SchuhAudrey Schuh was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on , and studied both music and medical technology at Loyola University of the South, where she studied with Dorothy Hulse, who was also the pedagogue of Harry Theyard and Charles Anthony...
heading the cast. Floyd himself served as stage director.
Of Mice and MenOf Mice and Men is an opera in three acts by the American composer Carlisle Floyd. The English libretto was written by Floyd and is based on the novella of the same name by John Steinbeck. The opera was composed in 1969.- History :...
(after
John SteinbeckJohn Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and the novella Of Mice and Men . He wrote a total of twenty-seven books, including sixteen novels, six non-fiction books and five collections of short stories...
), following a long gestation, was heard at the
Seattle OperaThe Seattle Opera is an opera company located in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1963 by Glynn Ross, who served as the company's first general director through 1983, Seattle Opera's season runs from August to late May, with five or six operas offered and with eight to ten performances each, often...
in 1970, in a staging by Corsaro. A monodrama on the royal subject of
Eleanor of AquitaineEleanor of Aquitaine was one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in Western Europe during the High Middle Ages...
,
Flower and Hawk, was premiered in Jacksonville, Florida, with Curtin directed by Corsaro. (The production was then seen at
Carnegie HallCarnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
.)
Bilby's Doll (after
Esther ForbesEsther Forbes was an American novelist and children's writer who received the Pulitzer Prize and the Newbery Medal....
) was first mounted at the
Houston Grand OperaHouston Grand Opera was founded in 1955 through the joint efforts of Maestro Walter Herbert and Houston cultural leaders Mrs. Louis G. Lobit and Edward Bing. With a current annual operating budget of $20 million, HGO has grown from a small regional company...
in 1976, with
Christopher KeeneChristopher Keene was an American conductor.Born in Berkeley, California, Keene studied at the University of California, Berkeley. Associated with the Spoleto Festival from 1968 , he was co-founder of the Spoleto Festival USA, where he was Music Director from 1977 to 1980...
conducting and
David PountneyDavid Pountney is a British theatre and opera director. He has a reputation for staging rarely-performed operas.- Biography :Pountney was born in Oxford and educated at St John's College, Cambridge...
producing. In 1976, Floyd co-founded, with
David GockleyDavid Gockley is an American opera company administrator. He served as general director of Houston Grand Opera from 1972 to 2005 and has been general director of San Francisco Opera since 2006.- Biography :...
, the Houston Opera Studio, a training program administered by the Houston Grand Opera for outstanding young professional singers and repertory coaches. Between 1976 and 1996, he held the M.D. Anderson Professorship at the
University of Houston School of MusicThe Rebecca and John J. Moores School of Music is the music school of the University of Houston in Houston, Texas. The Moores School offers the Bachelor of Music, Bachelor of Arts in Music, Master of Music, and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in music performance, conducting, theory and...
.
In Houston,
Willie Stark (after
Robert Penn WarrenRobert Penn Warren was an American poet, novelist, and literary critic and was one of the founders of New Criticism. He was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He received the 1947 Pulitzer Prize for the Novel for his novel All the King's Men and the Pulitzer Prize for...
) was also first heard, in 1981, in staging by Harold Prince. After an hiatus of almost twenty years, Floyd's latest opera was premiered in Houston:
Cold Sassy TreeCold Sassy Tree is an opera composed by Carlisle Floyd, based on the 1984 novel by Olive Ann Burns.Cold Sassy Tree was Floyd’s tenth opera and his first comic opera. It had its world premiere on April 14, 2000, at the Houston Grand Opera, with a production staged by Australian filmmaker Bruce...
(after
Olive Ann BurnsOlive Ann Burns was an American writer from Georgia best known for her single completed novel, Cold Sassy Tree, published in 1984.-Background:...
), in 2000. Patrick Summers conducted,
Bruce BeresfordBruce Beresford is an Australian film director, writer, and producer of such films as Breaker Morant, Tender Mercies and Driving Miss Daisy.-Career:...
directed, and
Patricia RacettePatricia Lynn Racette is an American operatic soprano. A winner of the Richard Tucker Award in 1998, she has been a regular presence at major opera houses internationally. Racette has enjoyed long-term partnerships with the San Francisco Opera, where she has been a regular performer since 1989,...
led the cast.
Major works
- Slow Dusk (1949)
- Susannah
Susannah is an opera in two acts by American composer Carlisle Floyd, who wrote the libretto and music while a member of the piano faculty at Florida State University. Floyd adapted the story from the Apocryphal tale of Susannah and the Elders, though the latter story has a more positive ending...
(1955)
- Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights is an opera in a prologue and three acts with music and a libretto by Carlisle Floyd. The work is adapted from Emily Brontë's novel of the same name. The opera premiered at the Santa Fe Opera on July 16, 1958 in a production directed by Irving Guttman...
(1958)
- The Passion of Jonathan Wade (1962)
- The Sojourner and Mollie Sinclair (1963)
- Markheim (1966)
- Of Mice and Men
Of Mice and Men is an opera in three acts by the American composer Carlisle Floyd. The English libretto was written by Floyd and is based on the novella of the same name by John Steinbeck. The opera was composed in 1969.- History :...
(1970)
- Flower and Hawk (1972)
- Bilby's Doll (1976)
- Willie Stark (1981)
- Cold Sassy Tree
Cold Sassy Tree is an opera composed by Carlisle Floyd, based on the 1984 novel by Olive Ann Burns.Cold Sassy Tree was Floyd’s tenth opera and his first comic opera. It had its world premiere on April 14, 2000, at the Houston Grand Opera, with a production staged by Australian filmmaker Bruce...
(2000)
Awards and nominations
- 1956 Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
- 1957 Citation of Merit from the National Association of American Conductors and Composers
- 1959 Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Nation Award from the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce
- 1964 Distinguished Professor of Florida State University
Florida State University is a space-grant and sea-grant public university located in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a comprehensive doctoral research university with medical programs and significant research activity as determined by the Carnegie Foundation...
Award
- 1972 Resolution of Appreciation by the State of Florida Legislature
- 1983 Honorary Doctorate from Dickinson College
Dickinson College is a private, residential liberal arts college in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Originally established as a Grammar School in 1773, Dickinson was chartered September 9, 1783, five days after the signing of the Treaty of Paris, making it the first college to be founded in the...
- 1983 National Opera Institute's Award for Service to American Opera - the highest honor the institute bestows
- 2001 Inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters
- 2004 National Medal of Arts
The National Medal of Arts is an award and title created by the Congress of the United States in 1984, for the purpose of honoring artists and patrons of the arts. It is the highest honor conferred to an individual artist on behalf of the people...
from the White HouseThe White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., it was built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the late Georgian style and has been the residence of every...
Discography
- Susannah (Studer, Hadley, Ramey; Nagano, 1993-94) Virgin Classics
- Susannah (Curtin, Cassilly, Treigle; Andersson, 1962) [live] VAI
- Pilgrimage: excerpts (Treigle; Torkanowsky, 1971) Orion
- The Sojourner and Mollie Sinclair (Neway, Treigle; Rudel, 1963) VAI
- Markheim (Schuh, Treigle; Andersson, 1966) [live] VAI
- Of Mice and Men (Futral, Griffey, Hawkins; Summers, 2002) [live] Albany Records
- Cold Sassy Tree (Racette; Summers, 2000) [live] Albany Records
Videography
- Susannah: Revival Scene (Treigle; Yestadt, Treigle, 1958) [live] Bel Canto Society
- Willie Stark (Jesse; J.Keene, McDonough, 2007) [live] Newport Classic
External links