Articulations
The passing of a longtime professor of music and the birth of a new opera by Austin Lyric Opera.
By Robert Faires, Fri., Sept. 17, 1999
In Memoriam
The UT School of Music has suffered its second great loss in four months. In June, longtime Professor of Piano William Race died. Now, Douglass M. Green, professor of music theory, has also slipped away. Two weeks ago, on September 1, after a valiant struggle, Green succumbed to cancer. A member of the UT music faculty for 22 years, Green was esteemed as a specialist in musical structure, most notably counterpoint. He had written the books Form in Tonal Music and Harmony Through Counterpoint, and at the time of his death was working on the second volume of Principles and Practice of Counterpoint and a CD-ROM version of Harmony Through Counterpoint. Though he was most widely known for his scholarship in the music of Claude Debussy and Anton Berg -- he won the ASCAP Award for an article he wrote about his discovery of the vocal version of the finale of Berg's Lyric Suite -- Green's love of music encompassed many forms, a fact perhaps best illustrated by his long service in Austin as a church choirmaster and organist, first at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd (1978-91), then at St. Mark's Episcopal (1991-96). As with his colleague, Dr. Race, Green's legacy is bound up in the students he taught. His devotion to those under his tutelage earned him widespread admiration and ensured that his loss will be felt not only on campus but across the globe. Green is survived by Marquita Dubach, his wife of 47 years; his daughters, Jessica Salinas of Austin and Marcia Santore of Plymouth, New Hampshire; and his son Antony of Berlin, Germany. A Douglass M. Green Memorial Scholarship Fund has been established at the School of Music. Donations may be sent to the school, UT Austin, Austin, TX 78712.
Seeds of a New Opera
In this town, new theatrical works emerge so frequently nowadays that they hardly qualify as news -- unless it's an opera, that is. Until this year, the grand music drama produced locally has been almost totally well-established material. Now, that's changing; earlier this year, the UT Opera Theatre premiered the new opera Bandanna, by Daron Aric Hagen. Now, Austin Lyric Opera is joining in an effort to bring forth a new opera by an American master -- some would say the American master. This week, ALO announced that it was one of four companies jointly commissioning a new work by Carlisle Floyd, the composer whose opera Susannah is the most performed American opera in the world. Led by Houston Grand Opera, which will stage the first production of the work next spring, the consortium will sponsor the creation of Cold Sassy Tree, Floyd's adaptation of the novel by Olive Ann Burns.
If this strikes you as atypical material for the same stage that brings you Otello and Madama Butterfly, well ... you're a little bit right. Burns' tale is a "small" story, set in a Southern hamlet, where a storekeeper's marriage to a younger woman -- and a Yankee -- just weeks after the passing of his first wife, sets the town on its ear. On the other hand, this is much the same soil that Floyd tilled in Susannah and brought forth a memorable opera. Moreover, ALO has proven it can stage American works -- e.g., Douglas Moore's The Ballad of Baby Doe -- that make them as electric as the most venerable classics. So the results are worth anticipating. Cold Sassy Tree premieres locally in 2001.
