Prince Music Theater, Philadelphia
- Thursday, June 7, 2012 -8pm
- Saturday, June 9, 2012 -8pm
Academy of Vocal Arts, Philadelphia
- Thursday, June 14, 2012 - 8pm
- Saturday, June 16, 2012 - 8pm
- Sunday, June 17, 2012 - 2pm
Music by Michael Ching
Libretto by Ellen Frankel
Inspired by a true story.
Based on the book "Not By The Sword" by Kathryn Watterson
Plot
In the early 1990’s, Larry Trapp, Grand Dragon of the Nebraska Ku Klux Klan, conducted a hate campaign against minority groups in the predominantly white city of Lincoln. But when Cantor Michael and Julie Weisser reached out to this white supremacist, despite his anti-Semitic threats, Trapp turned his back on bigotry, converted to Judaism, and campaigned for tolerance until he died in the Weissers’ home from advanced diabetes at the age of 42. Trapp’s story has inspired several imagined and documentary works, most notably Kathryn Watterson’s 1995 journalistic account, Not By the Sword (which will be reissued by the University of Nebraska Press in 2012).
Drawing upon these events and accounts, Slaying the Dragon presents the fictional story of Jerry Krieg, Grand Dragon of the KKK, whose life is transformed when he meets Rabbi Nathan Goodman and his wife, Vera. After waging a hate campaign against Asian immigrants, African-Americans, and Jews in the city, Jerry is ultimately won over by the Goodmans’ compassion. As a consequence, he resigns from the Klan, foils the Klan’s plot to bomb the synagogue, and resolves to speak out for tolerance. Yet despite his well-intentioned declarations, Jerry’s public about-face is met with skepticism by those he has persecuted, especially Giet Long, the Vietnamese director of the Asian Center; Reverend Lincoln Masterson, an African-American preacher; and Esther Zikorn, a Holocaust survivor. In the opera’s climax, an interfaith celebration of Martin Luther King Day at Nathan’s synagogue, Jerry brings his request for forgiveness to the community, which offers him a mixed reception. However, when the rabbi unexpectedly discloses the dark secret of his own criminal past, the tide of public opinion turns in Jerry’s favor. Even so, the opera ends on a note of moral and dramatic ambiguity as we realize that Jerry’s quest for expiation has only just begun, and that the struggle against evil that he has foresworn is far from over.
In the end, this story is about two dragons—the twin serpents of bigotry and public indifference. It’s also about two men, both scarred by early abuse and the absence of love, who find redemption from the prisons of their past. Slaying the Dragon presents a powerful and timely portrait of repentance and forgiveness, and the possibility of authentic personal change.
Synopsis
Prologue: Vera Goodman introduces the story and setting.
ACT I
Scene 1. Dark interior. Jerry Krieg is sworn in as Grand Dragon of the state KKK.
Scene 2. Center of town. The town rallies to protest the recent bombing of the Asian Center. Jerry and his skinhead henchmen, Viper and Beast, come to heckle. Bud Connor, a right-wing radio show host, speaks eloquently about the dangers of immigration and multiculturalism.
Scene 3. Jerry’s apartment. Jerry calls members of the MLK Day Planning Committee, threatening to disrupt the upcoming program.
Scene 4. Outside Jerry’s apartment. Rabbi Nathan and Vera Goodman come to offer help to Jerry, who has become disabled and now walks with a cane, but are rebuffed.
Scene 5. Goodmans’ house. Meeting of the MLK Planning Committee. Committee members debate how to respond to Jerry’s threats, and decide to move ahead with the program. Vera urges Nathan to reach out to Jerry.
Scene 6. Jerry’s apartment. Klan members meet to plan the bombing of the synagogue during the MLK Day program. Viper and Beast mock Jerry’s physical disabilities. Bud delegates Viper—in place of Jerry--to pull off the synagogue attack. After they leave, Jerry calls Nathan to ask for help.
Intermission
ACT II
Scene 1. Jerry’s apartment. That night. When they first arrive, Nathan and Vera are initially threatened by Jerry but then engage him in conversation. Nathan shares the secret of his own dark past; Vera reveals her own struggles with faith. Jerry vows to renounce bigotry and to make amends to his victims. Nathan proposes that Jerry speak at the upcoming MLK Day event. Jerry tells them about the bomb, set to go off during the program, and Nathan calls the police to defuse it.
Scene 2. Nathan’s Study at Temple Emeth. The next day. Jerry asks forgiveness of three of his victims—Lincoln Masterson, Giet Long, and Esther Zikorn—but is met with skepticism and anger.
Scene 3. Sanctuary of Temple Emeth. Reverend Masterson leads the community in song. Nathan speaks about Martin Luther King’s message of love and tolerance. He also discloses his criminal past. Jerry Krieg offers a public apology. Some members of the community accept Jerry’s apology; others reject it. At the opera’s close, Viper is inducted as the next Grand Dragon as the rest of the ensemble sing of a hopeful future.
Creators
Michael Ching (composer)
Michael Ching has written a wide variety of theatrical projects, including full length operas, educational works, adaptations, arrangements, and incidental music.
SLAYING THE DRAGON is composer Michael Ching’s third full length opera. His most recent work is A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, opera acappella, which was premiered by Opera Memphis, Playhouse on the Square, and Deltacappella in January 2011. The world’s first full length acappella opera, an original cast recording of DREAM will be released in the Spring of 2012. The opera’s second production will be this June at Opera Hub in Boston.
Mr. Ching’s 2003 opera, CORPS OF DISCOVERY, was commissioned by the University of Missouri for the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Premiered by Mizzou, the opera was also performed by Opera Memphis, Washington State University, and toured throughout North Dakota by Fargo Moorhead Opera. Excerpts from the opera were performed at Lewis and Clark Bicentennial commemorations, at the Kennedy Center, and by the U.S. Army Field Band and Soldiers Chorus.
Michael Ching’s best known opera is BUOSO’S GHOST. A sequel to GIANNI SCHICCHI, it has been performed by companies in cities such as Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and New York.
In the Philadelphia area, OperaDelaware commissioned and premiered Mr. Ching’s one act opera, OUT OF THE RAIN. OUT OF THE RAIN and its companion piece, KING OF THE CLOUDS were cowritten with librettist Hugh Moffatt. Moffatt is an accomplished country songwriter, whose song “Rose of My Heart” is on Johnny Cash’s last album. Opera New Jersey has performed Michael's BUOSO’S GHOST.
From 1992-2010, Michael Ching was Artistic Director of Opera Memphis. While at Opera Memphis, Pennsylvania audiences will be interested to know that he helped develop, co-commission and premiere an opera, DIFFERENT FIELDS, by songwriter and composer Mike Reid, the former Penn State All American.
Michael has conducted with a variety of companies, including Hawaii Opera, Opera New Jersey and Nashville Opera. His non-operatic compositions include a Piano Concerto recorded and premiered by the San Jose Chamber Orchestra and PSYCHE AND EROS. Written with storyteller Margaret Wolfson, this retelling of the classic myth recently received its international premiere as part of the Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Festival. Michael Ching studied composition with Robert Ward at Duke University with further study with Carlisle Floyd at the Houston Opera Studio.
Read Michael Ching’s Blog, Click Here!
Ellen Frankel (librettist)
Dr. Ellen Frankel served for eighteen years as the Editor in Chief and CEO of The Jewish Publication Society, the oldest and only nondenominational, non-profit publisher of Jewish works in English, and was named its first Editor Emerita upon her retirement in 2009. She is the author of ten published books, including The Classic Tales, The Encyclopedia of Jewish Symbols, The Five Books of Miriam, and The JPS Illustrated Children’s Bible, which won the 2009 National Jewish Book Award. She received her B.A. from the University of Michigan and her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Princeton.
For the past twelve years, Frankel has been writing libretti, working primarily with Philadelphia composer Andrea Clearfield. In May 2000, the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony premiered Clearfield’s cantata, Women of Valor, which included two pieces by Frankel, “Sarah” and “Hannah.” In 2005, Philadelphia’s prestigious Mendelssohn Club Choir commissioned Ms. Clearfield to write a new oratorio; Frankel wrote the libretto.
The resulting work, “The Golem Psalms,” inspired by the ancient Jewish legend of the Golem, premiered at the University of Pennsylvania in May 2006, performed by the Mendelssohn Club and the Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra, with Sanford Sylvan as baritone soloist. Since its premiere, the oratorio has also been performed at Haverford College by the Bryn Mawr/Haverford Choir and Orchestra (April 2007); Indiana University, performed by the Contemporary Vocal Ensemble and the Conductor’s Orchestra, under conductor John Leonard, with Kenneth Pereira as baritone soloist (February 2009); and at Verizon Hall in the Kimmel Center, performed by the Temple University Symphony Orchestra and Combined Choirs, conducted by Alan Harler, with Sanford Sylvan again as baritone soloist (March 2010).
Following the success of “The Golem Psalms,” Frankel expanded her libretto into a full two-act opera, The Golem, retaining several pieces from the initial oratorio. Philadelphia’s Center City Opera Theater (CCOT), under artistic director Andrew Kurtz, has signed agreements with Frankel and Clearfield to help develop the work. A staged reading of a full draft of the opera libretto was held on May 17, 2009, under the direction of Charles Gilbert, artistic director of the Ira Brind Theater School at the University of the Arts. As work progresses, CCOT will schedule other staged readings as well as composition workshops, will spearhead fundraising efforts, and will offer expert consultation.
CCOT recently commissioned Frankel to write the libretto for another new opera, Slaying the Dragon, a two-act work inspired by actual events that took place in Lincoln, Nebraska, in the early 1990’s. In this true story, Larry Trapp, Grand Dragon of the Nebraska Ku Klux Klan, renounced a lifetime of hatred and violence after being befriended by a Jewish cantor and his wife. The opera will premiere in Philadelphia in June 2012.
Dr. Frankel lives in Philadelphia with her husband. She has two grown children and three grandchildren.
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