Arin Arbus Discusses Houston Grand Opera's New Lucretia 2/3-11

The young American theater director Arin Arbus will direct an opera for the first time when she leads a new production of Benjamin Britten's intimate but intensely gripping chamber opera The Rape of Lucretia at Houston Grand Opera, on February 3–11, 2012. Arbus is the associate artistic director of Theatre for a New Audience, a classical off-Broadway company. She has made headlines in past seasons with her compelling direction of three Shakespeare productions, including her 2009 Othello, which received six Lortel nominations, and returns to direct the Taming of the Shrew for the company in March. In recent seasons she has also gained attention for her work leading a theater company of inmates at the Woodbourne Correctional Facility, a medium-security prison in upstate New York; according to Arbus, it was her work there that re-ignited her passion for directing and storytelling.

In her notes for the new production, Arbus observes:

"Lucretia was first performed in 1946 – after World War II, after the Blitz, after over 300,000 Britons had died. As his homeland was reeling from this devastation, Britten was working on Lucretia – which attempts to harness song to human tragedy. Undoubtedly, as he wrote this opera about personal sacrifice and grief which gives way to political development, Britten was thinking of England's own attempts to grapple with those very issues."

She continues,

"On one level, the opera is deeply political. Lucretia's rape and subsequent death are widely known as the events that provoked the Romans to revolt against the occupying Etruscan forces, which ultimately led to the establishment of the Roman Republic. The story is both mythic and intimate. I hope to preserve these inherent ambiguities. We will set the action in Rome in the historical period, but we won't be literal or historical in the design."

In the brief conversation that follows, Arbus discusses her feelings as she takes on her first opera production.

A brief conversation with Arin Arbus:

Q: How did the opportunity to direct Britten's Rape of Lucretia at Houston Grand Opera – your debut opera production – come about?

AA: HGO's previous General Director, Anthony Freud, contacted me. He came to New York City and saw my production of Othello at the Theatre for a New Audience, and later he came and saw my production there of Measure for Measure. He called and suggested I consider doing Britten's Rape of Lucretia in Houston, knowing that I had never directed an opera before. I listened to the music, which I was hearing for the first time, and quickly came to love it. Lucretia has a reputation for being a problematic piece dramaturgically. Some people find the ending unsatisfying. After Measure for Measure, which is commonly thought as one of Shakespeare's "problematic" works, perhaps he thought I was a good match for the piece.

Q: What about the opera first struck you and made you decide to accept the invitation?

AA: I responded to the music and to the characters of course. I also responded to the male/female conflict in it – that's of great interest to me. Anthony convinced me that directing an opera wouldn't be as terrifying as it first seemed.

Q: What kind of background did you have in music? Did you ever direct a work of musical theater, or any other works with a strong musical component?

A: I sang in a choir for eight years, and all of the straight plays I've done always have music in them. But I've never done an opera or musical, so this is totally new to me.

Q: Did you have classical music in your background?

AA: Well, I sang in high school and college choirs. I went to an all-girls' Catholic high school and would go to an all-boys' school to sing because they needed girls for their productions. I went to Bates College in Maine and was in a choir there as well. In both choirs we did mostly religious music. (After that I went to the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture in Greenwich Village, which was in Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney's original studio on West 8th Street.)

Q: And was classical music something you heard in your household growing up?

AA: Well, my dad used to play the piano and his room was underneath mine, so I grew up listening to him play many different things. I loved being in a choir and wish I had time to sing in one now. There's something about choral music that really touches me. It's like the most civilized activity that man is capable of: it has tremendous beauty, coordination, discipline, and the need for people to be unified. Singing Mozart's Requiem, one of my favorite works, was an unforgettable experience, but in no way at all am I an expert on classical music.

Q: New York Times critic Anthony Tommasini recently wrote that even the most accomplished theater directors sometimes get intimidated when working in the realm of opera, thus blunting the impact of their productions. Do you find yourself feeling any more trepidation, or special anxiety, preparing for your work on your first opera than you might be feeling if you were getting ready for some other theater project?

AA: Well, I feel nervous about everything – so I'm used to that! Sure, doing an opera makes me nervous because I've never worked in this form before. But there's no doubt something very daunting about doing Shakespeare's plays! Those works have been interpreted many, many times by great people, so I guess there's actually a similar level of intimidation for me in taking on an opera.

Q: Your work with a theater company of inmates at Woodbourne Correctional Facility – a medium security prison in upstate New York – has gotten some attention. In a feature by Kate Taylor in the New York Times, you said, "It's while making theater with this group of prisoners that I feel the most free." How might your work in a prison impact this Britten project?

AA: I just finished a workshop on King Lear in Woodbourne, so I'm not currently working on a project there, but there's more of this kind of work for me in the future. I've learned a lot about Shakespeare from the men in prison, and while that work might not specifically relate to this Britten work, to me it's all the same sort of thing: I like going into new places and working with people that I don't usually come in contact with. So I feel very lucky to work with prisoners, and then to come in touch with classical actors, and now with opera singers. In each place I learn a great deal from the people I meet, and all of that goes into my work.

About the director:

Arin Arbus is associate artistic director of Theatre for a New Audience, a classical off-Broadway company, where she directed Macbeth, Measure for Measure (nominated for the Lortel Award for Best Revival), and Othello (which scored six further Lortel nominations). In 2009, the New York Times described Arbus as "the most gifted new director to emerge this year." She was a Playwrights Horizons directing resident, a Williamstown Workshop Directing Corps member, a member of the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, and is a Drama League directing fellow and a 2008 Princess Grace Award recipient. Arbus has directed at the Intiman, Hangar, and Storm Theatres; the Working Theater; Theatre Outlet; FringeNYC; HERE Arts Center; the Juilliard School; the New School for Drama; and Williamstown Theatre Festival Workshop. In association with Rehabilitation Through the Arts, she also leads a theater company of inmates at Woodbourne Correctional Facility, a medium-security prison in upstate New York. In spring 2012, Arbus will direct The Taming of the Shrew for Theatre for a New Audience. A New York Times feature on the director, from February 2010, is available here.

Houston Grand Opera presents Britten's The Rape of Lucretia (new production)

February 3–11, 2012

Michelle DeYoung: Lucretia
Anthony Dean Griffey: Male Chorus
Leah Crocetto (HGO debut): Female Chorus
Jacques Imbrailo: Tarquinius
Ryan McKinny (Former HGO Studio Artist): Collatinus
Joshua Hopkins (Former HGO Studio Artist): Junius
Judith Forst: Bianca

Rory Macdonald, conductor
Arin Arbus, director