Carlisle Floyd: Artists Share Memories of a Composer


In the late 1960s, my wife, then a soprano named Patricia Wise, had sheet music for two arias from “Susannah.” I’m really impressed: here’s a beautiful, poignant and – I hate to say it – listenable modern opera.

Shortly after I got the job in Houston and went to the Cincinnati Opera soon after to listen to “Of Mice and Men,” when I first met Carlisle. After hearing about this opera, I said I would program it in Houston for my first season as general director, and offered to order a job that turned out to be “Bilby’s Baby,” the start of a series of new operas. did it there. He was also offered a position at the University of Houston, so he and his wife Kay got into the act. Our relationship began to blossom and we became tennis buddies. Looking back, he was my best friend.

I left the subject of his operas to him, but almost all his ideas were brought to life. I think my favorites would be “Susannah”, “Of Mice and Men” and “Cold Brash Tree”. He brought that book to me as an idea; I read it and thought it was fascinating and mundane, bringing out familiar characters from his previous works but taking them further. He came out of a period of severe depression in his life. He always had his demons, but he said that promoting “Cold Sassy Tree” got him through a really scary time and brought him to the other side. Frankly, I was happy to play this role.

We rarely clashed. I felt it was my job to make it easy for him to carry the operas from the beginning to the stage and to involve the co-producers. This meant that the artifacts would automatically come to life in different cities. It was a great formula.

He and I developed the Houston Grand Opera Studio in the late ’70s because we were both very interested in providing opportunities for young artists. Americans rising in the 50s had to go to Europe, so this was an alternative. We wanted to take the opportunity of Carlisle’s appointment to the University of Houston to partner the University with us. And they spent a lot of money providing scholarships to keep the faculty engaged, and we had studio productions delivered on campus.

I think his legacy is probably six important works worthy of the repertoire. I think if you talk to someone like Jake Heggie, there’s a generation of composers who treat Carlisle as godfather. He and his work gave them the confidence to have a voice of their own and to be loved by contemporary audiences.



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