KELLEY ROURKE 
What is your approach to writing text for opera, and is there a general style that you tend to lean towards?
I can't really speak in general terms about "My Approach" to writing text for opera. Every writing project has its own very specific set of concerns. For this particular story, I was most interested in keeping things slippery. Is Maurice a loving father? A mad scientist? A perpetrator of cruelty to animals? A sweet child of the 60s? A tireless truth-seeker? A cold-hearted cad? I think the answer is.... yes. And I hope that John and I can present this complicated personality in a way that allows our audience to identify with him, rather than simply judge him.
How has translating canon works such as L'Elisir d'Amore, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Orpheus in the Underworld, and others influenced your writing of new text for new operas, especially when contemporary literature has made a drastic and severe break from Romantic text and style?
I fell into translating opera by accident, and after my first couple of assignments fitting English words to music of dead composers, I began to think it might be fun to work with a living composer at some point.
Certainly familiarity with a wide range of opera libretti has given me some ideas about how a work might be structured. That said, Our Basic Nature has more in common with, say, "Diary of One Who Vanished" or "Winterreise" than a "The Elixir of Love" or "The Magic Flute."
The big difference with writing a libretto vs. a singing translation is that I am laying down the structure, rather than conforming to an existing structure. John's music, while very carefully structured in its own way, does not necessarily rely on the rhythms of the text to provide that structure. In the end, I'm not really thinking about contemporary vs. romantic style so much as telling the story and suggesting Maurice's voice in the most economical way possible.
What drew you to translating "Growing Up Human" into an opera? What qualities of the memoir attracted you to it?
We were introduced to Maurice Temerlin via an episode on RadioLab. We loved that the story is fascinating and funny... until it's not. Maurice Temerlin is at once analytical and ignorant, compassionate and cruel, groovily open and strangely bullheaded, and this complexity makes him perfect for musical/poetic exploration. Also, we wanted to hear Andy sing about Tarzan fantasies and defecation.
How has collaborating with John Glover been in terms of marrying the text and the music? Have there been any spats? Brawls? Violent creative scream fests between composer and librettist?
No brawls or scream fests--sorry to disappoint you. Our most contentious discussion was actually a three-way.... John, Andy and I went round and round about the title for the piece. We were all pretty happy with the final result, until we got this suggestion.
What sets this work apart from other contemporary works?
I'll get back to you in a couple of years.... if that soon....
Kelley Rourke
New York, NY
November, 2010
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Our Basic Nature is currently in development at American Opera Projects. Scenes will be presented at WNYC's Greene Space on December 10, 2010. See the AOP Events page for details.
