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August 27, 2013

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? She's coming to SFO.


General Director of San Francisco Opera David Gockley and composer Tobias Picker announced today the company will present the world premiere of Picker's’s next opera, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? during the company’s 2015-2016 season.  Based on the novel by American pulp novelist Henry Farrell and the enormously successful 1962 film adaptation by Robert Aldrich starring Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane tells the story of the once-famous Hudson sisters during their final days together as the bitter and unstable Jane torments the wheelchair-bound Blanche with increasingly dangerous mind games. Picker announced the libretto is being written by Margaret Atwood, marking a new artistic partnership for the pair which he said he hoped was just the beginning of a long collaboration. This will be Atwood’s second operatic commission, following her work with composer Tobin Stokes on Pauline, which will have its world premiere during City Opera of Vancouver’s  2014 season.

Gockley declined to offer little more than “Trust me- this is going to be the greatest production San Francisco Opera has ever seen. I’ve commissioned a lot of operas during my career, and I have never been more excited to bring a new work to the stage as I am with Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?- it has all the elements needed to make grand opera a truly grand experience- jealousy, betrayal, murder, lust, elder abuse and inappropriate behavior with animals.”

As for the casting, Gockley announced house-favorite Patricia Racette will sing the part of Jane, and Dolora Zajick will take on the role of Blanche. The two A-listers appeared together previously at the Metropolitan Opera in the composer's adaptation of the classic Theodore Dreiser novel An American Tragedy, and they have recently crossed paths on another of Picker's operas, Dolores Claiborne, an adaptation of the Stephen King novel, which was conceived with Racette in mind, written for Zajick, rehearsed with Catherine Cook, and is now going to feature Racette as the title character when the opera has its world premiere this season in San Francisco.

Gockley said, “This cast is really a dream come true for me. I’ve been trying to get these two women onstage together for the longest time and when Tobias suggested we do Baby Jane, I said only if we can do it with Pat and Dolora.” The role of Edwin Flagg, portrayed by Victor Buono in the film, will be sung by Johan Botha. Donald Runnicles will conduct and the production will be helmed by the popular Spanish theater Calixto Bieito in his North American debut.

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