Carlisle Floyd

Anyone who creates something new or does something different artistically is going to be singled out - Carlisle Floyd

The American opera composer Carlisle Floyd was born June 11, 1926 in Latta, Dillon County, South Carolina. Drawing on his background as the son of a Methodist minister, he has based many of his works on themes from the South. His best known opera, Susannah (1955), is based on a story from the Biblical Apocrypha, transferred to contemporary, rural Tennessee, and is set in a Southern dialect.

His Welsh ancestry from his father, Carlisle Sessions Floyd Sr. coupled with his Irish ancestry from his mother, Ida Fenegan Floyd provided the roots of his musical and literary interests. (Holliday)

In 1943, Floyd entered Converse College, in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and studied piano under Ernst Bacon. When Bacon accepted a position at Syracuse University, in New York, Floyd followed him there, where he received a Bachelor of Music in 1946. The following year, Floyd became part of the piano faculty at Florida State University, in Tallahassee. He was to remain there for thirty years, eventually becoming Professor of Composition. He received a master's degree at Syracuse, in 1949.

While at FSU, Floyd gradually became interested in composition. His first opera was "Slow Dusk," to his own libretto (as was to remain his custom), and was produced at Syracuse in 1949. His next opera, "The Fugitives," was seen at Tallahassee in 1951, but was then withdrawn.

His third opera was to be Floyd's greatest success: "Susannah." It was first heard at Florida State, in February 1955, with Phyllis Curtin in the title role, and Mack Harrell as the Reverend Olin Blitch. The following year, the opera was given at the New York City Opera, with Curtin and Norman Treigle (in his first great success) as Blitch, with Erich Leinsdorf conducting. After receiving much acclaim, a City Opera production (directed by Frank Corsaro) was taken to the 1958 World's Fair in Brussels, with Curtin, Treigle and Richard Cassilly.

Later in 1958, Floyd's "Wuthering Heights" (after Emily Brontë) premiered at the Santa Fe Opera, with Curtin as the heroine. In 1960, at Syracuse, his "solo cantata on biblical texts," "Pilgrimage," was first heard with Treigle as soloist. "The Passion of Jonathan Wade" premiered at the City Opera, in 1962. Set in South Carolina during Reconstruction, the large cast included Theodor Uppman, Curtin, Treigle and Harry Theyard; Julius Rudel conducted.

Floyd's next opera was "The Sojourner" and Mollie Sinclair, which was a comedy regarding the Scottish settlers of the Carolinas. Patricia Neway and Treigle created the title roles, with Rudel conducting. The composer's Markheim (after Robert Louis Stevenson) was first shown at the New Orleans Opera Association in 1966, with Treigle (to whom it was dedicated) and Audrey Schuh heading the cast. Floyd himself served as stage director.

"Of Mice and Men" (after John Steinbeck), following a long gestation, premiered at the Seattle Opera in 1970, in a staging by Corsaro. A monodrama on the royal subject of Eleanor of Aquitaine, "Flower and Hawk," opened in Jacksonville, Florida, with Curtin directed by Corsaro. (The production was then seen at Carnegie Hall.)

"Bilby's Doll" (after Esther Forbes) was first mounted at the Houston Grand Opera in 1976, with Christopher Keene conducting and David Pountney producing. In 1976, Floyd co-founded, with David Gockley, the Houston Opera Studio, a training program administered by the Houston Grand Opera for outstanding young professional singers and repertory coaches. While there, his students included Michael Ching and Craig Bohmler. Between 1976 and 1996, he held the M.D. Anderson Professorship at the University of Houston School of Music.

In Houston, "Willie Stark" (after Robert Penn Warren) was premiered in 1981, staged by Harold Prince. After a hiatus of almost twenty years, another Floyd opera was premiered in Houston: "Cold Sassy Tree" (after Olive Ann Burns), in 2000. Patrick Summers conducted, Bruce Beresford directed, and Patricia Racette led the cast.

Floyd composed a Piano Sonata in the 1950s for Rudolf Firkušný, who played it at a Carnegie Hall recital, but it then languished until Daniell Revenaugh recorded it in 2009, at the age of 74. Revenaugh worked with the composer in learning the piece, and their rehearsal sessions and the live recording itself were filmed for posterity. The recording was made on the Alma-Tadema Steinway that graced the White House during the presidencies of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson.

The Houston Grand Opera produced a new opera by Floyd on March 5, 2016, "Prince of Players," about the 17th-century actor, Edward Kynaston, conducted by Summers.

Major works:

Slow Dusk (1949)

Susannah (1955)

Wuthering Heights (1958)

The Passion of Jonathan Wade (1962)

The Sojourner and Mollie Sinclair (1963)

Markheim (1966)

Of Mice and Men (1970)

Flower and Hawk (1972)

Bilby's Doll (1976)

Willie Stark (1981)

Cold Sassy Tree (2000)

Prince of Players (2016)

Awards and Nominations:

1956 Guggenheim Fellowship

1957 Citation of Merit from the National Association of American Conductors and Composers

1959 Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Nation Award from the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce

1964 Distinguished Professor of Florida State University Award

1972 Resolution of Appreciation by the State of Florida Legislature

1983 Honorary Doctorate from Dickinson College

1983 National Opera Institute's Award for Service to American Opera - the highest honor the institute bestows

1993 Brock Commission from the American Choral Directors Association.

2001 Inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters

2004 National Medal of Arts from the White House

2008 National Endowment for the Arts Opera Honoree for lifetime work

2010 Anton Coppola Excellence in the Arts Award from Opera Tampa

2011 Honorary Doctorate from Florida State University

2012 Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Man of Music - the highest honor for a member of the American music fraternity.

Discography:

Susannah (Studer, Hadley, Ramey; Nagano, 1993–94) Virgin Classics

Susannah (Curtin, Cassilly, Treigle; Andersson, 1962) [live] VAI

Wuthering Heights (Jarman, Mentzer, Markgraf; Mechavich, 2015) [live] Reference Recordings

Pilgrimage: excerpts (Treigle; Torkanowsky, 1971) Orion

The Sojourner and Mollie Sinclair (Neway, Treigle; Rudel, 1963) VAI

Markheim (Schuh, Treigle; Andersson, 1966) [live] VAI

Of Mice and Men (Futral, Griffey, Hawkins; Summers, 2002) [live] Albany Records

Cold Sassy Tree (Racette; Summers, 2000) [live] Albany Records

Videography:

Susannah: Revival Scene (Treigle; Yestadt, Treigle, 1958) [live] Bel Canto Society

Willie Stark (Jesse; J.Keene, McDonough, 2007) [live] Newport Classic

Susannah (Hellman Spatafora, Wright Webb, Donovan; Sforzini, Unger, 2014) [live] Naxos

References:

"Career Guide: Latest Additions & Changes". Central Opera Service Bulletin. Vol. 22, No. 4., Winter/Spring 1981. p. 34.

Ching, Michael. "Carlisle Floyd". Opera and Beyond. September 28, 2011.

"Tallahassee Magazine: Events, Food, Culture, Home and Style coverage for the Tallahassee Area". Archived from the original on 30 November 2010. Retrieved 27 December 2015.

"Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-03-08. Retrieved 2016-03-27., Retrieved March 2016

"Carlisle Floyd Biography". Boosey & Hawkes, Inc. Retrieved 2008-08-13.

“The Fifteenth Year - Opera Tampa”. Tampa Bay Magazine. September 2009, pg 194. Retrieved February 28, 2013.

"Carlisle Floyd's Operatic Southland," liner notes by Brian Morgan, The Sojourner and Mollie Sinclair, VAI, 1999.

"Falling Up: The Days and Nights of Carlisle Floyd." The Authorized Biography, by Thomas Holliday, Syracuse University Press, 2013.

https://web.archive.org/web/20150214103741/http://www.houstongrando...

Article above sourced from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlisle_Floyd

From the National Endowment for the Arts 2008 Opera Honors: https://www.arts.gov/honors/carlisle-floyd

"When I received the call from Chairman Gioia, I was a little stunned. My feeling was not so much that I felt undeserving, but that there were other composers also deserving. I am less stunned now, but no less deeply grateful for being selected for this unique honor."

One of the most admired opera composers and librettists of the last half century, Carlisle Floyd speaks in a uniquely American voice, capturing both the cadences and the mores of our society. Born in Latta, South Carolina in 1926, Floyd studied both composition and piano. He taught at Florida State University from 1947 to 1976, all the while actively composing, and in 1976 became the M. D. Anderson Professor of Music at the University of Houston. In Houston, he and David Gockley established the important Opera Studio, which for more than three decades has helped train young artists in the full spectrum of opera. (Graduates include Erie Mills, Denyce Graves and Joyce Di Donato.)

Floyd's operas are rooted in America, both in subject and in style, and are widely performed in the United States and abroad. They include "Susannah" (1955), "The Passion of Jonathan Wade" (1962; revised, 1990), "Of Mice and Men" (1970), "Bilby's Doll" (1976), "Willie Stark" (1981) and "Cold Sassy Tree" (2000). A 2001 inductee of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Floyd has received numerous honors, such as a Guggenheim Fellowship and the National Opera Institute's Award for Service to American Opera. He was the first chairman of the NEA's Opera/Musical Theater Panel, which the agency created in 1976. In 2004, he received a National Medal of Arts.

Floyd was married to the late Margery Kay Reeder Floyd. The wed on November 28, 1957 (Holliday).

Additional sources:

Interview - Conversation with Bruce Duffie https://www.arts.gov/honors/carlisle-floyd

South Carolina Hall of Fame http://www.theofficialschalloffame.com/directlink.html?id=25

Youtube interview with Carlisle Floyd on "Susannah" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlcFY5xoQI8

Youtube interview with Carlisle Floyd at time of NEA Opera Honors https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlcFY5xoQI8

Youtube interview with Phyllis Curtin on Carlisle Floyd https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL8qTF4arvM

I know that it is typical for the curator rather than the manager to thank key persons in the construction of master profiles; however, I was fortunate to reach out and have two excellent curators to assist. Many thanks to Jeroen van Dijk, who answered my call so quickly to "MP" this profile and special thanks to Erica Howton, who has shepherded me through the process in my attempts to do justice to the genius of Carlisle Floyd. My research in family history led me to Thomas Holliday's excellent biography of the maestro. As I researched and realized he was not profiled in the World Tree, I found not one, but three lines of rather close blood kinship. My connection as a professor at Converse University makes the development of this profile and profiles of his relations even more special as Carlisle and his sister Ermine attended the institution. I hope I have "done the family proud," as we say in the Pee Dee.