Des Moines Metro Opera Announces Expanded Commission Of AMERICAN APOLLO

Des Moines Metro Opera announced today the commission of an expanded version of an American opera entitled American Apollo, with music by Damien Geter and libretto by Lila Palmer. The organization will partner with Pyramid Theatre Company and the Des Moines Art Center to mount the original twenty-minute version of the opera, originally commissioned by Washington National Opera, as part of its 50th Anniversary Season in 2022 and will present the world-premiere of the full-length version of American Apollo during the 2024 Festival Season.

American Apollo gives voice to a pivotal figure in American art that had been largely forgotten until a recent discovery and exhibit at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: Thomas Eugene McKeller, a Black model who served as inspiration for iconic portrait painter John Singer Sargent. In 1916, John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) met Thomas Eugene McKeller (1890-1962), a young Black elevator attendant at Boston's Hotel Vendome. McKeller posed for most of the figures-both male and female-in Sargent's murals in the Museum of Fine Arts. The painter transformed McKeller into white gods and goddesses, creating soaring allegories of the liberal arts that celebrated the recent expansion of that city's premier civic museum. "American Apollo is a piece that delves into issues related to race, class, and sexuality, which were glossed over during Thomas McKeller's lifetime," said composer Damien Geter. "Given the climate and conversations happening today, it is our hope that we might give the characters in this opera the opportunity to reckon with these issues, even if only in spirit. The opportunity to revisit and expand this work allows us to more deeply consider their situations with the hope that we will be able to express that which makes us more alike than different, more human than not."

Themes of erasure, the white gaze, and the nature of the relationship between the two men are explored. "When we learned the story of model Thomas McKeller and artist John Singer Sargent, it seemed such a vast story that we didn't know how we would ever squeeze it into a micro work. But we knew we had to try because the story deserved to be heard," said Lila Palmer, librettist. "Long erased from the great works to which he gave his body and spirit, we're thrilled and grateful to have a truly appropriate canvas for a full portrait of McKeller and his complex, often difficult, but radiantly beautiful life."

"This production inaugurates a new chapter for DMMO. It will be the first to focus on the experiences of a Black man and one that addresses the story of a mostly forgotten figure. We believe our organization can play an important role in exploring the neglected stories of the past, shed light on our equally complex present, and be inclusive of marginalized individuals whose stories have not been reflected in standard operatic repertory," said Michael Egel, General and Artistic Director. "The opportunity to invest in the next life cycle of this piece is a clear imperative. Certainly the story itself provides fertile ground for exploration through music and words. But the initial work by composer Damien Geter and librettist Lila Palmer added to the story in a way that grabbed our attention from the first and from there was simply too stunning to resist. Their vision for telling the story of Thomas McKellar and John Singer Sargent is thrilling." The production will be led by Marshall and Judy Flapan Music Director and Principal Conductor David Neely.

A twenty-minute version of the opera was originally commissioned and first produced by the Washington National Opera at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts during the 2020/21 season. In Iowa, as an introduction to this story, DMMO will partner with Pyramid Theatre Company and the Des Moines Art Center in July 2022 when the twenty-minute original miniature version will serve as the centerpiece of an activated, experiential salon evening during which attendees will come to imagine the experiences of Thomas McKeller. Curator Nathaniel Silver of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, who rediscovered the lost sketches and organized their exhibit at the museum in 2017 under the title "Boston's Apollo," will be part of the event in Des Moines.

In 2024, Des Moines Metro Opera will present the world premiere of the full-length version of American Apollo. In support of the expanded commission, the company has received a $100,000 leadership gift from Harry Bookey and Pamela Bass-Bookey in anticipation of the organization's upcoming 50th anniversary campaign.

For more information about American Apollo, the organization's 50th Anniversary Season in 2022, or the upcoming 49th Festival Season, please visit www.desmoinesmetroopera.org or call 515-961-6221.

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