‘The Blizzard Voices’

They made for the unlikeliest of couples, but there they were together on the tiny stage of Mick’s Music and Bar in Benson last Wednesday night. The emcee for the evening wore Converse All-Stars and she breathlessly introduced the evening as “fantabulous.” He wore a folksy Indian blanket-patterned sport coat, spoke in even, measured tones and was old enough to be her grandfather.

A study in contrasts, it was poetry – and Opera Omaha’s outreach programs associated with “The Blizzard Voices” – that brought together this oddly paired duo.

“He” was Ted Kooser, two-time United States Poet Laureate. “She” was the enigmatic Katie F-S, queen of the local slam poetry scene and former finalist at a national slam competition. They met at a packed-to-the-rafters Mick’s to talk poetry before indie bands replaced them on stage in a room that had me resisting the temptation to wend my way through the tightly bunched tables labeling each group, “duck-duck-goose” fashion, as (head tap) “poetry” (head tap) “slammers” (head tap) “opera people” and (head tap) “indie music aficionados.”

And that was the whole idea. “It is the human voice that makes opera an irresistible force,” said John Wehrle, Opera Omaha’s general director. “And celebrating the voices in our community, poets and rockers, feels like a perfect way to reach out to new people.”

Katie F-S was clearly on a high after sharing a stage with Kooser. “Emceeing a discussion with Ted Kooser about the state of poetry in our lives and world today was one of the raddest opportunities I’ve been offered yet, she beamed. “While our work almost couldn’t be more disparate, we shared a spectacular rapport. Every time I get to engage with someone who’s so enthusiastic about poetry, I walk away invigorated.”

“The Blizzard Voices,” the eighth world premiere in the storied history of the 51-year old opera company, opens Friday at the Holland Performing Arts Center before traveling across the river for Saturday’s performance at Iowa Western Community College.

The oratorio (no sets, no costumes) tells the story of The Great Blizzard of 1888 where hundreds perished across the Midwest when a sudden storm whipped through the plains. Often called “The Children’s Blizzard” because so many school children faced a perilous journey to safety, the cataclysmic event lived on in oral histories that became Kooser’s book of poetry of the same name as the oratorio.

As if the words of a now legendary poet weren’t enough, Opera Omaha commissioned Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Paul Moravec to create the score. Moravec, whose career has spanned over 90 orchestral, chamber, choral, lyric and film compositions, spoke to The City Weekly from his home in New York.

“An oratorio, because it is un-staged, must have a particularly strong narrative,” said the composer. “The extra-musical elements of an opera – the props, sets and costumes – help tell the story. With an oratorio, we are left with just the musical elements themselves – the score, voices and orchestra.”

Opera Omaha’s reputation as an innovative company shines through once again with “The Blizzard Voices,” Moravec explained. “I don’t know of any other projects quite like this. Oratorios are normally religious works – think of Handel’s ‘Messiah.’ This is a secular oratorio about plain-speaking folks who have never had anything really unusual occur in their lives and the blizzard changes all that. I slipped in a couple Biblical quotes because I thought they fit, but that was me – not Ted. A full, evening length oratorio setting the text of ordinary American voices, that’s very different. It’s also site-specific in that it tells the story of Nebraskans by a Nebraskan poet.”

Also commissioned for “The Blizzard Voices” is visual artist Watie White, the director of the Omaha Printmaker’s Guild. The artist who maintains a studio on 13th Street just south of downtown has contributed 60 drawings that will help tell the story of the day that all the world went white.

“I moved to Omaha a couple years ago from Chicago and was kind of nervous about the relative size of the art community here,” White explained. “One of the first people I got to know was Catherine Ferguson while she was working on ‘Aida’ and it sounded like the most fascinating and fun project.” Ferguson designed those memorable sets and costumes for last season’s production of the Egyptian epic. “But I didn’t think much about it again for a long time, until I was approached by Rachel Ziegler at the Bemis Center” (Opera Omaha enlisted the aid of staff there to scout artists).

“John (Opera Omaha general director John Wehrle) wanted me to think in terms of Rembrandt or Leonardo (Da Vinci, not DiCaprio) being dropped in the middle of the blizzard and I took it from there. Hearing the music – at least piano interpretations of the score – helped me formulate a narrative,” he said of the creative process.

White already has at least one new fan even before the curtain goes up on opening night. “I’ve seen some of the drawings and thought they were just marvelous,” Kooser said (see related story for more on Ted Kooser).

“I just love the story. It’s so moving and so sad,” the artist continued. “I pictured people whose lives would never be the same, so the emotional tone of the portraits are rather pensive and quiet.”

The sad stories told in Opera Omaha’s “The Blizzard Voices” won’t be the only melancholy aspects of a gala opera weekend. The production will be the last for artistic director and principal conductor Stewart Robertson. He’ll depart Omaha for a globetrotting itinerary of baton-waving and recording sessions that include a gig with the Wexford Festival in Ireland, where he’ll conduct Sir Richard Rodney Bennett’s opera “The Mines of Sulphur.” Bennett, you recall, is the composer of “All the King’s Men” (Opera Omaha - 2007) and the two are long-time friends and collaborators. Robertson’s recording of “The Mines of Sulphur” garnered a Grammy nomination and is considered the seminal work on that piece.

“I’d like to be remembered as the guy who tried to create the model for how a regional American opera company might operate and retain a distinctive, individual personality,” Robertson said. “I think that ‘Blizzard Voices’ is an excellent example of what can be achieved by taking the best of the region’s talent in a story of profound local historical importance and universal emotional significance.”

“Stewart’s departure is bittersweet,” said Wehrle. “I had worked with Stewart earlier in my career and looked forward to partnering with him in Omaha, but his talent and service to this business has created the kinds of opportunities – especially internationally – that simply can’t be denied. Much as we’ll miss him, we wish Stewart and (wife) Meryl our absolute best, our congratulations on his well-deserved success, and our gratitude for their time and creativity invested with Opera Omaha.”