The inspiration for a memorable opera — be it a large-scale production or an intimate chamber opera — can come from anywhere.
Even from a television broadcast by the late Julia Child, famous as The French Chef on public TV.
Her show debuted in 1963 and continued until 1973, but reruns have been consistently programmed. Meryl Streep memorably played her in the 2009 film Julie & Julia.
In the case of Bon Appétit!, the one-woman chamber opera by Lee Hoiby that concert:nova will present Tuesday evening at the Midwest Culinary Institute at Cincinnati State, Child has supplied not just the work’s inspiration, but also its actual ingredients.
It is based on actual episodes of The French Chef in which Child talks as she prepares “Le Gateau au Chocolat l’Éminence Brune” (a recipe for a mouth-watering classic French chocolate cake that was in her book From Julia Child’s Kitchen).
As mezzo Ellen Graham sings, she actually prepares that cake. At the conclusion of the program — whose first half includes concert:nova performing several other short food-related works — the audience can have chocolate cake and coffee.
Bon Appétit! is a lighthearted, relatively short piece — about 20 minutes in length. The late Hoiby wrote it in 1985 for comic actress Jean Stapleton (All in the Family), who appeared in its Kennedy Center Opera House premiere, and it has had numerous performances since then.
But despite its brevity, for the solo performer it can be more challenging than four hours of Wagner. When was the last time you saw an opera singer beating egg whites?
Graham first performed Bon Appétit! in 2012. (Child died in 2004.) “It takes a lot of practice,” she says, and she’s referring to more than the music.
“I actually baked the cake four or five times before I first performed it. I made it a couple of months ago and I’ll probably do another one soon,” Graham says. “Although everything is pre-set as it would be for a cooking show, there’s not room for error. The score comes with an extensive prop and consumables list.
“There are 10 ingredients for the cake, from butter and sugar to the eggs and flour,” Graham continues. “And there are 25 props including a wire whisk, a stand mixer, a copper bowl and eight cake pans.”
As the recipe progresses, Graham’s Child sets up a competition between a wire whisk and the standing mixer for the best beaten egg whites. Some performers don’t actually use the mixers, but Graham will.
And she’ll put the batter into the heated oven, remove the baked layers, ice the cake and sign off with those famous closing words: “Bon appétit!”
Child was famous for dropping food and blithely adding whatever fell into the mix.
According to Graham, there is just such an incident written into this particular program.
“I just hope we don’t spill anything else,” she says, laughing.
Child’s unmistakable voice was frequently satirized, most famously by Dan Aykroyd’s Saturday Night Live sketch, but Graham says that Bon Appétit! captures Child’s inflections and musicality with no hint of caricature.
“Learning the notes and the rhythms was tricky the first time,” she says. “It became easier when I realized I should sing it as she spoke it. And since she speaks in what we call ‘head voice,’ that translates easily into singing.
“I try to capture that hooty timbre of her voice and to portray her as she was,” Graham continues. “The music is earnest and true and not meant to be a joke.”
As for the rest of concert:nova’s program at this performance, the menu looks pretty tasty.
It’s the season finale, and the chamber music group traditionally closes out the year with a food- and music-related event. So there’s something for every palate.
The proceedings begin with “La Bonne Cuisine,” Leonard Bernstein’s song settings of four recipes from Emile Dumont’s cookbook.
In less than five minutes, soprano Mary Elizabeth Southworth will sing recipes for plum pudding, ox tails, Turkish chicken and “Rabbit at Top Speed.”
“The rabbit doesn’t sound too good but I’m just sinking my teeth into it,” she says, followed by laughter.
Southworth will also perform Nat King Cole’s classic “The Frim-Fram Sauce,” which might be more familiar to some as a Diana Krall song from her version in the 1990s.
In this novelty song, a waiter is told to skip the more common menu items in favor of the unusual sauce “with chafafa on the side.”
Ellen Ruth Harrison’s “Salad Bar” for flute and viola was inspired by a lousy lunch on the Baltic Sea.
The first half ends with Aaron Jay Kernis’ “The Four Seasons of Futurist Cuisine” for piano, violin, cello and narrator, with texts by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti.
“They’re absolutely bizarre eating experiences, and it’s all very funny,” says Ted Nelson, concert:nova’s co-artistic director and cellist.
Nine years ago, concert:nova started when Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra clarinetist Ixi Chen created a chamber ensemble dedicated to performing work both familiar and obscure in collaboration with other arts organizations. Concert programs have ranged from John Adams to Frank Zappa in venues from a warehouse to Music Hall Ballroom to the Midwest Culinary Institute.
concert:nova’s performance of BON APPÉTIT! occurs 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Cincinnati State’s Midwest Culinary Institute’s auditorium in Clifton. More info/tickets: concertnova.com.
