Powerhouse trio of Jake Heggie, Gene Scheer, and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar combine forces
for company’s 75th world premiere, produced in collaboration with Urban Bush Women
HOUSTON—Sept. 13, 2023—Houston Grand Opera (HGO), in collaboration with Urban Bush Women, will present the thrilling world-premiere opera Intelligence from Oct. 20 through Nov. 3 at the Wortham Theater Center. HGO’s 75th company-commissioned original opera, Intelligence will make history when it opens next month, becoming the first world-premiere work to launch a new season for the company. Tickets are available now at HGO.org.
Composer Jake Heggie, librettist Gene Scheer, and director/choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar are the renowned creators of this new American epic, a unique fusion of music, words, and dance. The opera, which draws upon ongoing historic scholarship, explores the riveting and little-known true story of two women spies in Richmond, Virginia during the Civil War: Elizabeth Van Lew, from a prominent Confederate family, and Mary Jane Bowser, who is born into slavery and becomes a hidden spy in Jefferson Davis’s Confederate White House.“Together, Jawole, Gene, and I have sought to move forward in this enormously flexible art form,” says Heggie. “We’re exploring a new possibility for opera where words, music, and movement are essential. In service of that concept, the score is fresh, rhythmic, and lyrical; the language is contemporary; and the movement and dance are bold, inhabiting every corner of the story.”
“This is my first opera, but not my last,” says Zollar, founder of renowned New York dance ensemble Urban Bush Women. “The art form provides an opportunity to go forward into these big, sustained emotional places, which is very exciting for me. I feel Jake’s music on a visceral level, in the heart and the gut and the mind. That is a match for the style that I create, the physicality that I bring, as we share this complex story, this American story, that must be told.”
“The real story behind Intelligence is one that scholars are continuing to uncover. In fact, we learned of the discovery of new source materials in the middle of writing the opera,” says Scheer. “As historians probe the details of what happened in the past, opera infuses it with life, providing a kind of emotional archeology that allows us to explore the human experience. What did it feel like for these two women to risk their lives to help the Union? And what might have been the nature of the relationship between these two women? This is something we all thought an opera could illuminate brilliantly.”
According to historic records, Elizabeth Van Lew became an abolitionist after going to Philadelphia to be educated. When she returned to Richmond, she pretended to support the Southern cause while gathering intelligence for the Union. Mary Jane Bowser, who used multiple names throughout her life, was born into slavery in the Van Lew household, baptized in the White Episcopal Church in Richmond, and sent north to be educated at age 10. She resided in Liberia for some years before returning to the Van Lew house as a young woman. Some theorize that Mary Jane received special treatment from the family because she and Elizabeth were, in fact, half-sisters.
Intelligence focuses on the moment in the war when Elizabeth sent Mary Jane to the White House of the Confederacy, where her ability to read and write, essential to her covert activities, would not have been suspected. The opera chronicles the thrilling and dangerous actions of both women, weaving together the gripping story of political and military intrigue with a very personal journey of discovery. As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that Mary Jane is unearthing not only secrets of the Confederacy but secrets of her own life—secrets kept by Elizabeth so she could avoid confronting her own responsibility for Mary Jane’s fate.
“When an opera is truly great—and undoubtedly Intelligence is a great work—it challenges our assumptions and demands we look in the mirror,” says HGO General Director and CEO Khori Dastoor. “Stories can be hidden or omitted, but that doesn’t make them any less true. Mary Jane may not have been told the truth about her origins, yet she knows and has always known somehow. As her story fully emerges, she gains the ability to harness her power in new ways. In similar fashion, as a society we find catharsis in the truths great art can bring to light. It helps us to discover not only ourselves, but one another. We at HGO simply cannot wait for audiences to experience Intelligence.”
Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, a 2021 MacArthur Fellow and 2022 Gish Award winner, founded New York-based dance ensemble Urban Bush Women—which weaves contemporary dance, music, and text with the history, culture, and spiritual traditions of the African Diaspora—in 1984. The celebrated company recently received a grant of $3 million from MacKenzie Scott.
Jake Heggie is America’s leading opera composer. His operas include Dead Man Walking, Moby-Dick, It’s a Wonderful Life, If I Were You, Great Scott, Three Decembers, and Two Remain, among others. Intelligence will be his fourth full-scale opera to receive its premiere at HGO.
Gene Scheer, a frequent collaborator with Heggie, has garnered acclaim throughout his career. Three of his works with Heggie made their world premieres at HGO: It’s a Wonderful Life, Three Decembers, and the song cycle Pieces of 9/11.
The October 2023 world premiere of Intelligence will feature a sensational cast: mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton as Elizabeth, soprano Janai Brugger in her company debut as Mary Jane, mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges in her HGO mainstage debut as the mysterious Lucinda, soprano Caitlin Lynch as Elizabeth’s sister-in-law Callie, baritone Michael Mayes as the Confederate Home Guard Travis Briggs, bass-baritone Nicholas Newton as the Davises’ butler Henry, and tenor Joshua Blue as Mary Jane’s husband Wilson. Kwamé Ryan will take the podium in his HGO debut.
Eight incredible Urban Bush Women dancers—Courtney J. Cook, Loren Davidson, Kentoria Earle, Roobi Gaskins, Symara Johnson, Blanca Leticia Medina, Love Muwwakkil, and Mikaila Ware—will make their HGO debuts as the ancestral force called the Is-Was-Will.
The opera’s internationally acclaimed creative team includes set designer Mimi Lien, a 2015 MacArthur Fellow; costume designers Carlos J. Soto and Clair Hummel; lighting designer John Torres; projection designers Wendall K. Harrington and Rasean Davonté Johnson; and associate choreographer Vincent E. Thomas, a longtime collaborator with Zollar and the Urban Bush Women.
The yearslong process of creating the world-premiere opera Intelligence would not have been possible without the generosity of its funders, who include: Sara and Bill Morgan, Gordon Getty, John L. Nau III, Carol Franc Buck Foundation, The Edgar Foster Daniels Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Dede Wilsey, Margaret Alkek Williams, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Husseini, ConocoPhillips, Meg Boulware and Hartley Hampton / Boulware & Valoir, Mr. Jay Hiemenz, Terrylin G. Neale, Franci Neely, Allyson Pritchett, Kit Reynolds, M. David Lowe and Nana Booker/ Booker•Lowe Gallery, Helen Berggruen, Kiana Caleb, Sasha Davis, Elaine Decanio, Linda Hart, Marianne Kah, Michelle Klinger and Ruain Flanagan, Brenda Harvey-Traylor, OPERA America/The Opera Fund, Helen Wils and Leonard Goldstein, Mary and David Wolff, Glen Rosenbaum, and Ron Franklin and Janet Gurwitch.
Performances of world-premiere opera Intelligence run Oct. 20 through Nov. 3, with an invite-only High School Night performance on Oct. 30, at the Wortham Theater Center, 501 Texas Ave. Single tickets range from $25 to $210. HGO is offering a variety of ticket options, from flexible three-opera packages to the full six-opera season subscription, starting as low as $90. Single tickets and subscriptions are available now at HGO.org or by calling the HGO Box Office at 713-228-6737.
PHOTO: The artwork for Intelligence can be found here. Photo is courtesy of Houston Grand Opera.
About Houston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera (HGO) is one of the largest, most innovative, and most highly acclaimed opera companies in the United States. General Director and CEO Khori Dastoor assumed leadership of the organization and responsibility for its strategic vision in 2021. HGO was the only American finalist for Opera Company of the Year in the 2019 International Opera Awards, and the only American company to be nominated twice. In fulfilling its mission to advance the operatic art, to serve the Houston community, and to be a global leader in the future of opera, HGO has led the field in commissioning and producing new works (74 world premieres to date) and in training and nurturing promising young artists and administrators. The company contributes to the cultural enrichment of Houston and the nation through a diverse and innovative program of performances, community events, and education projects that reaches the widest possible public. HGO’s pioneering Community and Learning initiative has served as a model for other arts organizations. The company invites all Houstonians to experience superlative opera without the barrier of price through discounted single tickets and subscriptions, subsidized student performances, and free productions.
HGO has toured extensively and has won a Tony, two Grammy awards, and three Emmy awards. It is the only opera company to win all three honors.
About Urban Bush Women
Urban Bush Women (UBW) burst onto the dance scene in 1984, with bold, demanding, and exciting works that brought under-told stories to life through the art and vision of its award-winning founder, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar. The company weaves contemporary dance, music, and text with the history, culture, and spiritual traditions of the African Diaspora under the artistic direction of Chanon Judson and Mame Diarra Speis.
Off the concert stage, UBW has developed an extensive community engagement program, BOLD (Builders, Organizers, and Leaders through Dance). UBW’s largest community engagement project is its Summer Leadership Institute (SLI). This 10-day intensive training program connects dance professionals with community-based artists/activists in a learning experience to leverage the arts as a vehicle for civic engagement. UBW launched the Urban Bush Women Choreographic Center Initiative (CCI) in January 2016 and the Choreographic Center Initiative Producing Program (CCI 2.0) in 2022. The CCI and CCI 2.0 fellowships support the development of women choreographers and producers of color and other underheard voices. www.urbanbushwomen.org
