Elmer Gantry: A New American Opera

Bob Aldridge and I heard the octet rehearsed by the cast a week ago in Nashville, and even then (on the 2nd day of rehearsal) it was absolutely solid and rhythmically right in the groove. It had never sounded better. The form of the octet is our take on something called "backfire gospel" which I heard on an old 78 in the record collection of The Southern Folklife Center at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. I was there doing research for the libretto, but when I chanced on that recording I listened to it a dozen times and excitedly called Bob that night -- no cell phones at the time (remember when?) -- and sang the song from the record for him over the phone. I had never heard of "backfire" before, and I've never heard of it since, but it hinged on a very rhythmically tight, syncopated vocal imitation of the main melodic line -- quite simple in the original, startlingly complex in Bob's version. The octet has always been one of our favorite numbers from the opera, and one of my wife, Vicki's, favorites as well. Whenever Bob and I, over the years, were in one of our periods of making cuts and revisions to the opera and I would report on these to Vicki, she would always want to make sure that we weren't tampering with the octet. In fact, we have trimmed it slightly, but we never dreamed of doing away with it; it always seemed to us absolutely essential to the show. The words are a theological confrontation between the old-time Baptist religion as practiced by Rev. Baines, Mrs. Baines, Eddie, and Lulu, and the new mass-marketed evangelism of Elmer, Sharon, TJ Rigg and Frank. The whole thing proceeds with personal asides from Lulu (who is dismayed by the "lovey-dovey" looks Elmer is bestowing on Sharon) and Frank (who is dismayed by Elmer's capitulation to the lure of big business.) Enjoy!