Thomas Pasatieri - The Seagull

(2007)
Opera in three acts; libretto by Frank Corsaro, based on his original play Lyric Suite.

Premiere

June 2, 2007, Fort Worth Opera

Original Cast

Joseph Illick, conductor
Frank Corsaro, director
Alison Nalder, set designer
Steven Bryant, costume designer

Synopsis

The great composer Erich Künstler leaves an unfinished opera behind at his death. The world is eager to see the score, but his widow, Frau Margot, guards the manuscript jealously.

Act I: It is the spring of 1938 in Amsterdam. Ted Steinert, a gifted young American composer and conductor, is being interrogated by a police inspector about a murder in which he has been implicated. The scene flashes back to Ted's first meeting with Frau Margot, a former opera diva. Ted has come to approach her about having access to her husband's opera so that he can finish the piece. Kara Sondstrom, Frau Margot’s friend and companion, is more encouraging to Ted than Frau Margot herself. After Ted leaves, Margot, with the help of laudanum, holds a séance with her dead husband, Erich Künstler, to ask whether Ted is the person to complete the opera. The séance is disturbed when Margot shows Erich a pen which she suspects he received from a mistress.

Kara joins Ted for dinner after a concert he has conducted. During dinner Ted receives a phone call from Frau Margot, telling him that Künstler has given permission for him to complete the opera.

Act II: Frau Margot begins to see Ted as a replacement for her husband. Meanwhile Ted and Kara are having an affair. Margot tells Ted how the opera must end, and Ted leaves the house in a rage.

Walter Engelmann, Künstler’s publisher, has always tried to get Margot to part with the manuscript of the opera, but the true reason that he remains near her is that he has always been in love with her. She has never returned his love.

Kara confronts Margot about the opera's ending, revealing that she herself is the woman in the story. Margot realizes that Kara was Künstler’s mistress, and suggests that Kara join her in a séance to ask Künstler which ending of the opera he chooses.

Act III: Ted asks Kara to marry him. She says she will suspend her decision until after the evening's séance.

At the séance, Margot introduces Kara to Künstler, forcing him to recognize her as his mistress. She reminds him of his many other affairs in front of Kara, who thought she was the only one. Margot announces that the opera's original ending will be restored, and in celebration she drinks a glass of wine and offers a glass to Kara. Within seconds, Kara collapses at Margot's feet.

Back in the Inspector's office, Margot, accompanied by a nurse, reveals that she was responsible for Kara's death by introducing 60 drops of laudanum into the wine. She adds that she tidied up by collecting some of her husband's things and burning them. "The unfinished opera!" Walter exclaims. "It is finished now," Margot answers. The nurse leads her off to the sanitarium.

Walter laments the loss of the opera, but Ted tells him that every word and note in the opera is engraved in his memory. He adds that now Walter can take care of Margot every day. The opera closes as we hear the music which Ted now understands is the true conclusion to Künstler's opera.