She Lurks in Spiritual Darkness
By James L. Paulk
Deborah Drattell: Lilith. Libretto by David Steven
Cohen. George Manahan, Conductor; Anne Bogart, Director. With Lauren Flanigan
and Beth Clayton. New York City Opera, November 15, 2001. Staged Premiere of
Opera Version.
New York City Opera’s production of Deborah Drattell’s Lilith
is the third world premiere for this work, but that doesn’t count the two
that were scrapped. The Denver Symphony first commissioned it in the 1980’s
as an orchestral work but went broke before it was performed, so in 1990 the New
York Philharmonic gave the first Lilith premiere. Ms. Drattell then re-fashioned
it as a chamber opera, and Dicapo Opera was ready to give that premiere in 1997,
but those of us who showed up for the performance discovered that it had been
canceled at the last minute due to a labor dispute. Glimmerglass Opera came to
the rescue, commissioning a full-scale opera version, first performed as a concert
"reading" in the summer of 1998 (see review in NMC’s Fall-Winter
Issue of 1998). This, the staged premiere, opened November 11th and
was seen on November 15th. (Only three performances were scheduled,
two of them matinees.).
[The rest of the review will appear in the Spring 2002
issue of NMC.
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