"Art is saying more than one thing at the same time. There has to be layers of emotion that occur simultaneously, because that's what interests us, like joy with melancholy or tenderness with irony."

-Robert Aldridge

By William Valladares

Sinclair Lewis' novel, Elmer Gantry, a satiric indictment of fundamentalist religion, caused an uproar upon its publication in 1927. In 1960 Richard Brooks wrote a film adaptation in a controversial telling of Elmer Gantry starring Burt Lancaster. And next year Elmer Gantry will have its world premiere at the Nashville Opera Co. as an opera, written by Robert Aldridge.

Aldridge says there's a natural segue from text to music in Lewis' story, which he'll discuss when he delivers this year's Presidential Invited Faculty Address, "An Opera about Elmer Gantry?" in the Alexander Kasser Theater on Wednesday, March 23 at 3 p.m.

The lecture/presentation will include performances by several guests, including Montclair State Music faculty and students. This will truly be a multimedia event with Aldridge's seamless orchestration of song, dance and technology.

Aldridge began writing the opera in 1992, but it was another 10 years before he completed the full work with the aid of a Music Composition Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in 2002. Aldridge recently stepped away from his keyboards to talk about his opera and his upcoming lecture.

Q. What can we expect from this year's Presidential Invited Address?
A. The lecture will be a cross section of different parts of the opera. Guest performers will sing excerpts from the main roles of Elmer Gantry and Sharon Falconer; Steve Osteen, a professor of voice here, will sing the tenor aria; and a vocal quartet of students and the choir will sing gospel numbers from the show. I'll also demonstrate on screen how I compose on the computer and will show excerpts of the movie to bring in context.

Q. What did you accomplish on your sabbatical last year?
A. I finished the piano vocal score of the opera, and now I'm orchestrating it, arranging the score for the orchestra. That will be the final version when it's premiered in Nashville in fall 2006, and then in Tulsa in March and April 2007. I also wrote a clarinet concerto that Orpheus Chamber Orchestra will play with David Singer [of Music] in Kasser Theater in April.

Q. One reviewer who watched a workshop of "Elmer Gantry" in Boston in 1992 wrote that the material in your opera "speaks with an eloquence that is timeless." Why is it timeless?
A. Sinclair Lewis was talking about America at the turn of the century. So this is really the study of faith in America when mass-produced evangelism was just beginning. However, the same could be true at any time or place. When I began writing the music for librettist Herschel Garfein's words, there was no way we could have predicted that in a decade we would have an evangelist president who would be guided by the things that guide the characters in the story. And it turns out that a remarkable number of people in the United States today are evangelists. Pentecostal is the fastest-growing religion in the world. Lewis' novels are all about social issues.

Q. The reviewer also wrote, "Aldridge and Garfein have walked the line between satire and tragedy with perfect balance." How does your opera walk that line?
A. The novel is biting and satirical about religion and the way religion functions in American life in terms of the self-seriousness, the sanctimoniousness. One of the streams of the novel is that Elmer Gantry uses religion to become more and more successful and to get what he wants. Those moments can be quite funny and satirical, but along the way, those humorous moments lead to disaster. Religion leads to both great and awful places, so hopefully, in my presentation, the audience will see both the beauty and some of the real problematic aspects of faith.

Q. What is the unique spin opera puts on this story?
A. In an opera, we can have a revival meeting in evangelism and show the power of music, show the gospel singing and show the direct connection to God that people try to achieve. That's harder for a novel writer to do, because reading about it is not the same as actually experiencing it. So opera can show both the virtues of religion, and the excesses and problems at the same time. We'll know we were successful in the end if the people who are anti-religious say, "You weren't satirical enough," and the evangelists say, "You weren't positive enough about the faith." Art is saying more than one thing at the same time. There has to be layers of emotion that occur simultaneously, because that's what interests us, like joy with melancholy or tenderness with irony.