- Gordon Getty (b. 1933): Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Act 1:
- 1 Getty: Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Act 1: Alma Mater, amnis pratum... 01:27
- 2 Getty: Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Act 1: Chips was the soul of Brookfield. 02:27
- 3 Getty: Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Act 1: Chips, my good fellow... 05:03
- 4 Getty: Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Act 1: ...there was Kathie 05:10
- 5 Getty: Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Act 1: Kathie, Kathie... 05:43
- 6 Getty: Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Act 1: Chips, darling, it's started. 04:41
- 7 Getty: Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Act 1: Somehow I walked the three miles back to campus… 03:00
- 8 Getty: Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Act 1: I suppose I was the first... 04:14
- 9 Getty: Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Act 1: Call-over: Wayne, Weaver, Webb... 04:34
- 10 Getty: Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Act 1: Sometimes the mood was somber... 02:25
- 11 Getty: Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Act 1: There had been talk... 06:46
- 12 Getty: Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Act 1: Poor Ralston! 03:24
- 13 Getty: Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Act 1: Kathie, you won't remember... 03:09
- Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Act 2:
- 14 Getty: Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Act 2: Intermezzo 06:26
- 15 Getty: Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Act 2: Ralston soon went on to better things. 06:28
- 16 Getty: Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Act 2: Sir, my father was… (Dream sequence) 08:48
- 17 Getty: Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Act 2: Chips caught bronchitis… 07:45
- 18 Getty: Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Act 2: Chips had retired from teaching… 09:04
- 19 Getty: Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Act 2: When the Armistice came in nineteen-eighteen… 08:44
- 20 Getty: Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Act 2: Mrs. Wickett also told me… 05:50
- 21 Getty: Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Act 2: Thank you, Miss Bridges. 03:07
- 22 Getty: Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Act 2: Well, you old ruffian… 04:07
- 23 Getty: Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Act 2: Alma mater - I thought I heard you... 02:00
Info zu Getty: Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Based on the beloved 1934 novella Goodbye, Mr. Chips and other stories by James Hilton, the opera tells the heart-warming story of a teacher at Brookfield, an English boarding school for boys, to which “Chips” devotes most of his adult life. The opera chronicles Chips’ story of love, loss and learning over his decades-long tenure at Brookfield. We are reminded of the influence a dedicated teacher can have as we witness Chips and his “children”—“thousands of them, and all boys”—enrich each other’s lives.
Goodbye, Mr. Chips, a studio recording, features Nathan Granner, Melody Moore, Lester Lynch, and Kevin Short, as well as the San Francisco Boys Chorus (Ian Robertson, artistic director) and Barbary Coast Orchestra, conducted by Dennis Doubin.
As both composer and librettist, Getty has shaped Hilton’s cherished story into a memory play in which the protagonist looks back on important episodes of his life. The opera uncovers the rich interior lives of the characters, rendering their personal journeys with great sensitivity. Just like Chips, Getty treats each personality with a profound understanding of—and regard for—the human spirit, with all its strengths and flaws. For Getty, after decades of fascination with the character and story of “Mr. Chips,” the completion of this opera is the realization of a long-held dream.
Hilton’s masterpiece is largely a series of vignettes where few characters, Chips and Kathie aside, appear or are mentioned in more than one scene. Opera and the spoken stage tend to work best when we follow a few characters over time. Thus Doctor Merrivale, who is found only in the opening scene of the book, becomes the narrator who guides us through the opera. Likewise, Kathie reappears in flashbacks long after her early death in childbirth.
One of the recurring themes in the book is the loss of Chips’ old students, one after another, in the Great War. I express this powerful idea by making sure that all three students whom we meet by name before the war die in it, and are seen again in ghostly presence as Chips reports their loss to the student body in chapel, and once more in his deathbed delirium.
Chips’ antagonist is the overbearing new headmaster Ralston, who sees Chips’ ways as slack and old-fashioned, and demands that Chips retire. Ralston gets his comeuppance when the school backs Chips. He moves on, and does not reappear in the novel. I adapt one of Hilton’s short stories about Chips to bring Ralston back at the end. In that story, an old student faces twelve years in prison for grand larceny, worries that the scandal will ruin the chances of his son’s admission to Brookfield, and asks and receives Chips’ promise to help. I make the son a grandson, and turn the old student into Ralston.
These retouches to expand the roles of Merrivale, Kathie, the three students and Ralston allow the audience to see familiar faces and hear familiar voices from scene to scene. That somehow seemed right to me, and offered the practical advantages of role consolidation without much changing of Hilton’s beautiful design.
One problem in staging the opera is Chips’ quick changes in age from 85 to 48, and then back again, in the scenes of Kathie’s first appearance in Act I, and her last near the end of Act 2. One nice solution is for an actor to mime the few lines of the 48-year-old Chips while the real Chips sings them, just as they do in the scene of Chips’ vigil, in Act 2, where Chips prays for the rescue of Grayson’s father.
Another issue in staging concerns the Linford scene near the end of Act 2. Kathie, on her deathbed, had promised Chips, “I will knock on your door, and take your hand, and help you down the mountain one more time.” My idea, and Hilton’s too, I think, is that Kathie is somehow keeping her word through Linford. I make this point clear to the audience by requiring the soprano who sings Kathie to sing Linford also.
It is also possible for her to act the part herself, or for a child actor to mime it while she is seen or projected singing from behind or outside.
Nathan Granner, tenor
Melody Moore, soprano
Lester Lynch, baritone
Kevin Short, bass-baritone
Michael Jankosky, tenor
Bruce Rameker, baritone
Kevin Korth, baritone
Samuel Faustine, tenor
Barbary Coast Orchestra
Dennis Doubin, conductor
San Francisco Boys Choir
Ian Robertson, artistic director
Nathan Granner
is a world-renowned leading tenor, headliner, solo, and collaborative artist specializing in Contemporary Opera and late Bel-Canto repertoire.
The San Francisco Chronicle recently described Mr. Granner’s singing as possessing a "sinewy, ringing tone; splendidly flexible," and the San Francisco Classical Voice extolled "tons of squillo on his top notes, his honeyed tone, and his sensitive dynamic choices..."
Nathan has created numerous characters in world premiere operas, including the role of Korey Wise in Anthony Davis' 2020 Pulitzer Prize-winning "The Central Park Five," the title character in Gordon Getty's "Goodbye, Mr. Chips," Stewart Copeland’s "The Invention of Morel" for Chicago Opera Theater and Long Beach Opera and the role of Aubrey Wells in Laura Kaminsky (Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed librettists) newest opera "Today it Rains" with Opera Paralléle.
Granner's work as a recording artist (with Sony Classical, as a founding member of The American Tenors) netted top five on the Billboard Classical-Crossover charts, and as a headliner, has sent him touring across the nation and into the EU and Russia.
As an award-winning producing artist, Nathan Granner has been instrumental in crafting a wide array of shows, installations, and productions. His innovative work with “Sing Out Loud,” a web series for LA Opera’s Connects division, created in partnership with his wife, soprano Jamie Chamberlin, has attracted a diverse audience. He also played a key role in transforming Music Theater Heritage from a longstanding radio program into a dynamic production company. His entrepreneurial spirit led to the founding of KCMetropolis.org, an arts publication that became a staple of Kansas City’s cultural scene for a decade.
In 2020, Granner expanded his artistic reach by launching A Lab Studios, a full-service production house specializing in visceral storytelling and the radical re-imagining of operatic form1. A Lab Studios is committed to championing new voices, ideas, and stories that resonate with today’s diverse audiences. With a focus on both live and virtual stages, A Lab Studios reflects life through traditional and contemporary stories, creating more repertoire experiences by more people, for more people1. This venture exemplifies Granner’s dedication to fostering greater aspirations through opera, from the composer’s desk to the audience’s ears and beyond.
Melody Moore
is enjoying a thriving career on the world’s leading stages, prompting Opera News to label her “a revelation,” and of her sold-out appearance at Carnegie Hall to rave, “As I left the auditorium, I could only think: more of Moore, please.”
Ms. Moore enjoyed a triumphant return to LA Opera during the 2021-2022 season, repeating her tremendous success in the role of Amneris in Verdi’s Aida opposite Latonia Moore in the title role and tenor Russell Thomas as Radames. Concert highlights of the season included Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Minnesota Orchestra under the baton of Juraj Valčuha and the Mother in Hansel and Gretel with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, with Sir Donald Runnicles at the helm. The season also saw the release of Moore’s interpretation of the title role in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (available on Pentatone), and the recording of a critically acclaimed concert of Puccini’s Tosca, captured live in Berlin, Germany. Ms. Moore continues to remain active in the recording studio throughout the season, marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of legendary soprano Renata Tebaldi with an album featuring selections from the Italian repertoire for which she was most famous (to be released in 2023), and singing Kathie/Linford in the world premiere recording of Gordon Getty’s opera, Goodbye, Mr. Chips. In the fall of 2022, Moore will make a much-anticipated return to San Francisco Opera as Mère Marie in the Olivier Py production of Dialogues des Carmélites.
Despite a number of postponements and cancelled productions due to COVID closures, the 2020-2021 season offered Ms. Moore an opportunity to focus on recording projects, and that season’s resulting releases of Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West (both released on the Pentatone label) have been widely praised by reviewers and consumers alike.
Highlights of the 2019-2020 season included her debut as Amneris in a new production of Aida at the Houston Grand Opera. Concert highlights included her debut with the Houston Symphony Orchestra in Mahler’s Das klagende Lied under the baton of Music Director Andrés Orozco-Estrada.
In the 2018-2019 season, Ms. Moore returned to Houston Grand Opera to reprise the roles of Senta in the season opening production of Die fliegende Holländer led by Music Director Patrick Summers, and Donna Elvira in Mozart’s Don Giovanni in a new production by Kasper Holten, and returned to LA Opera for a role debut as Gertrude in Hänsel and Gretel under the baton of Music Director James Conlon. On the concert stage, she debuted with the Dresdner Philharmonie in the roles of Giorgetta in Puccini’s Il Tabarro and Santuzza in Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana, both of which were recorded for commercial release by Pentatone. Ms. Moore also sang Senta with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Music Director Edo de Waart, enjoyed a debut with the Grant Park Music Festival for Delius’ A Mass of Life, and sang the title role in Salome in Daegu, South Korea. In the 2017-2018 season, Moore made three major role debuts: Elisabetta in Don Carlo at Washington National Opera; the title role in Salome at Florida Grand Opera; and Tatyana in Eugene Onegin at Hawaii Opera Theatre, as well as singing her signature roles of Tosca in a return to Opéra de Montréal and Senta in Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer in a new production by Tomer Zvulun at The Atlanta Opera. Her portrayal of Desdemona in a full recording of Verdi’s Otello was also released by Pentatone.
Other recent career highlights include a house and role debut at Seattle Opera in the title role of Janáček’s Kátya Kabanová; appearances with San Francisco Opera in the title role of Tosca, Susan Rescorla in Heart of a Soldier, Mimì in La bohème, and the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro; Houston Grand Opera as Julie in Show Boat, Marta in the American premiere of Weinberg’s The Passenger, the title role in Carmen, Dorabella in Così fan tutte; Washington National Opera as the title role of Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas, Phillip Glass’ Appomatox, and in Francesca Zambello’s highly acclaimed production of Wagner’s full Ring cycle; LA Opera as Tosca, the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro and in productions of Der Zwerg and Der Zerbrochene Krug; Opéra de Montréal as Cio-Cio San in Madama Butterfly; Glimmerglass Festival as Lady Macbeth in Verdi’s Macbeth and Senta in Der fliegende Holländer; Lincoln Center Festival in The Passenger; English National Opera as Mimi and as Marguerite in Faust; New York City Opera as Rita Clayton in the New York premiere of Stephen Schwartz’s Séance on a Wet Afternoon and as Regine St. Laurent in Rufus Wainwright’s Prima Donna; and Austin Lyric Opera as Senta in Der fliegende Holländer. Additional performances include the title roles of Manon Lescaut at New Orleans Opera, Tosca with the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte at Opéra de Bordeaux; and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni with The Atlanta Opera and Opera Colorado.
On the concert stage, Ms. Moore has appeared with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra for Bruckner’s Te Deum led by Music Director Donald Runnicles; Bard SummerScape Festival as the title role in Turandot; Bavarian Radio Symphony in performances and a recording of excerpts of Gordon Getty’s opera, Plump Jack, conducted by Ulf Shirmer and with the New Century Chamber Orchestra conducted by Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg. She has joined Rufus Wainwright for gala concerts at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia and at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto.
A Masters of Music graduate of the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Melody Moore is a former Adler Fellow of San Francisco Opera and an alumni of the prestigious Merola program.
The Barbary Coast Recorder Orchestra (BCRO)
is the only local adult amateur recorder orchestra in the San Francisco Bay Area. Founded in 2011, BCRO is a democratic orchestra in which all its invited members participate equally from soprano to bass. BCRO meets monthly for rehearsals and performs annually for the public in March.
BCRO’s name references historic 19th-century San Francisco, evoking a flavor of diversity and imparts one of its objectives: to perform unconventional works for recorder orchestra, including contemporary repertoire, pop and jazz arrangements, and newly-commissioned works. The recorder orchestra also plays earlier repertoire from the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque in arrangements that give voice to the unique sounds of the recorder orchestra.
Dennis Doubin
Grammy Award winning pianist and conductor Dennis Doubin was to makes his conducting debut with Vegas City Opera in 2019-2020 season with Donizetti's "La Fille du Regiment" which was postponed until March of 2021 due to COVID-19. A Henderson resident, Maestro Doubin has led Henderson Symphony orchestra in several performances. A full-time member of San Francisco Opera music staff, Dennis has been asked to prepare every facet of the opera production. He can be found coaching singers, prompting performances, and conducting backstage banda. Mo Doubin made his SFO debut conducting Puccini's "La Bohème" at the War Memorial Opera House in 2014. He also appeared leading Verdi's "La Traviata" and Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" at Opera San José in recent seasons. Dennis began his musical journey in Moscow, Russia at the Moscow Boys Chorus and Choral Academy, where he also excelled as a pianist. After immigrating to the United States, he was a student at Idyllwild Arts Academy and would go on to study piano with Vitaly Margulis in Los Angeles. He became assistant conductor at Los Angeles Opera and subsequently assisted with vocal projects for Los Angeles Philharmonic. Other professional engagements include, Seattle Opera, San Diego opera and Sacramento Opera. Mo Doubin further honed his skills in the SFO's Merola and Adler programs. A sought-after coach, Dennis has coached and collaborated with some of today's most important vocalists that include Renee Fleming, Diana Damrau, Leah Crocetto, Dolora Zajick, Ramon Vargas, Brandon Jovanovich, Michael Fabiano, Stephen Costello, Bryn Terfel, George Gagnidze, Ildar Abdrazakov and others.
Booklet für Getty: Goodbye, Mr. Chips