This post was updated Jan. 29 at 7:53 p.m.
A UCLA alumnus is bringing lesser-known stories to the opera stage, and the Grammys are noticing.
Jake Heggie, an American composer and UCLA alumnus, had his 2023 opera “Intelligence” nominated for Best Opera Recording at the 68th Grammy Awards this year. Known for his critically acclaimed operas – including the most widely performed contemporary opera of the past 25 years, “Dead Man Walking” – Heggie uses the “Intelligence” score to tell the true story of two female Union spies working in a Confederate White House during the Civil War. The opera premiered Oct. 20, 2023, at the Houston Grand Opera, and was the first album to be recorded on the Houston Grand Opera’s record label.
“You might be in a theater with two to 3,000 people you don’t know and probably a lot of them you don’t have a lot in common with,” Heggie said. “But because of the experience of this human drama and this music and this staging, now you have a basis for a conversation – and that can break down walls.”
Heggie said the idea to bring this story to the opera stage came from a docent who approached him at a Smithsonian Institution event in Washington, D.C. Getting suggestions from others is common for him and usually goes nowhere, but this time it stuck, he said. Once the story of Elizabeth Van Lew and Mary Jane Bowser was brought to his attention, Heggie said he began his research, and his “jaw was on the floor.”
Heggie’s three-to-five-year process from thought to realization begins with a pen and paper, as he emphasizes his physical process of writing by hand, he said. He added that he thinks about writing a card to a loved one versus sending a text or email, and how it reveals the unique form of emotion infused by the handwritten element.
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Heggie said the emotion in his scores is then carried out on stage by a cast consisting of some of the best opera performers in the industry, many of whom have worked with Heggie on previous projects. He said he will often write for roles in his operas with a specific performer in mind – “Intelligence” being no exception.
“I write for the character in the piece, but I know who I’m dressing that character on for the first time,” Heggie said. “And then if I do that well, then many, many different people start to show up who can do it and bring something different.”
Heggie said mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, who plays Elizabeth Van Lew, was someone he had enjoyed writing for in the past and knew would surprise him in this role. This Grammy nomination marks the second nomination the two have received for a collaboration together, Barton said.
“Jake and I have had a long relationship, and a lot of it through art song,” she said. “I fell in love with his music when I was in college. I got to meet him when I was a young artist at Houston Grand Opera.”
Barton said Heggie asked her to perform his piece, “The Work at Hand,” ultimately leading to the two creating a Grammy-nominated album together and going on a recital tour across the U.S. and Europe. She said after these shared experiences, the two are attached at the hip.
Baritone Michael Mayes, who plays Travis Briggs in “Intelligence,” said Heggie and his opera “Dead Man Walking” are the reasons he has the opera career he does today. Mayes said his love for music began in high school when his counselor had him choose between joining theater or choir after he abandoned typing following a football accident that broke four of his fingers. He said Heggie’s stories allow him to explore his range as a performer and inspire him to grow and develop as an artist.
“Jake likes to say that his music is musical theater for opera singers. For me, that means that we get the best parts of both worlds. We get the best parts of the music complexity and the intensity and the grandiosity of opera,” said Mayes. “For musical theater folks who want to understand opera, Jake’s a great gateway.”
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Mayes said the Grammy nomination for the live recording of the production can be attributed to not only the singers’ performance, but also Heggie’s score, which “does a lot of the work.” As his third nomination by the Recording Academy, Heggie said the nomination is a gratifying acknowledgement of the production team’s time and hard work developing the show. Receiving a nomination also draws more attention to the project, allowing the impact of the story to resonate with wider audiences, Heggie added.
Now, Heggie said he wants audiences to leave “Intelligence” feeling surprised and changed by the story of these two women, as he was. He said he hopes the production’s themes surrounding the ongoing deep-seated racism in America will open up dialogue between strangers. Barton said Heggie’s strengths are writing stories that reflect on humanity and capturing the psychology behind each story in his scores.
“Opera is essentially mythology, because you’re taking a story and you’re mining emotional truth,” Heggie said. “We don’t know all the facts of things that happened; we imagine what it felt like.”
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