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Shining Brow
Opera by Daron Hagen
Daron Hagen, the opera's composer
Librettist	Paul Muldoon
Language	English
Premiere	April 21, 1993 (1993-04-21) Madison Opera, Madison, Wisconsin

Shining Brow is an English language opera by the American composer Daron Hagen, first performed by the Madison Opera in Madison, Wisconsin, April 21, 1993. The libretto is by Paul Muldoon, and is based on a treatment co-written with the composer. The story concerns events in the life of architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Hagen invited Muldoon to write the libretto while the two were both in residency at the MacDowell Colony, in Peterborough, New Hampshire during the summer of 1989.

Name

The opera's title, Shining Brow, comes from the Welsh Taliesin, the name of Wright's homes in Wisconsin and Arizona.

Performance history

The opera received its world premiere on 21 April 1993 from the Madison Opera, Wisconsin. The production was broadcast live statewide and subsequently broadcast twice on NPR's World of Opera.

A first chamber opera version ("Fallingwater") was premiered by the Opera Theater of Pittsburgh on 7 June 2013, at Fallingwater, Mill Run, Pennsylvania, and a second chamber version ("Usonian") on 14 October 2017 by UrbanArias in Arlington, DC. For Arizona Opera's commissioned "Taliesin West Version" in 2019, the composer streamlined the score and libretto, folding all of the secondary roles into the chorus, cutting twenty minutes of music, and eliminating the interval, resulting in a 90-minute run-time. In addition, at the suggestion of stage director Chas Rader-Shieber, Hagen eliminated the female choristers.

Roles

Synopsis

The action takes place in Chicago, Illinois, at Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright's home and studio in Spring Green, Wisconsin, and in Berlin, Germany, between 1903 and 1914.

Prologue

The Cliff Dwellers Club, Chicago, 1903. Architect Louis Sullivan, mentor and friend of Frank Lloyd Wright, has been drinking all afternoon. He muses on his estrangement from Wright.

Act One

Wright's studio, Oak Park, Illinois, 1903. Wright pitches plans for a new house to wealthy Chicagoans Edwin and Mamah Cheney. He and Mamah flirt; her husband is concerned with costs. After they leave, Wright muses on Mamah; his wife Catherine overhears him and they quarrel.

The Cheney House construction site, six months later. Workmen sing, townswomen gossip; Wright and Mamah arrive to view the work as their liaison deepens. Edwin arrives and there is a showdown: Mamah tells Edwin she is leaving him for Wright. Afterwards, Edwin laments the fact that, while he has gained a house, he has lost his wife.

Mamah's apartment in Berlin, 1910. As Mamah translates some verses from German, she comes to terms with her strongly ambivalent feelings about her life with Wright, recognizing, despite her love for him, that her dream of an equal partnership with him is and will remain just that. Sullivan, in Chicago, echoes the sentiment.

Act Two

Taliesin, Spring Green, Christmas, 1911. Wright delivers a prepared statement attempting to explain his living out of wedlock with Mamah while still married to Catherine. Mamah, though at his side, is clearly disaffected.

Taliesin, Summer, 1914. During the course of a cocktail party, Wright pursues a new love interest as Mamah cannot help but observe; various clients, guests, colleagues, and employees — including an inebriated barbershop quartet of newspaper reporters — comment.

The Cliff Dwellers' Club, later that summer. Wright and Sullivan attempt a reconciliation, but are interrupted by Edwin Cheney, who delivers the news that Mamah's been murdered and Taliesin torched.

The ruins of Taliesin, later that night. The bodies of the dead are arrayed in the smoking remains of the house. A Maid explains that Julian Carleton, Wright's chef, has been found, his throat burned from drinking hydrochloric acid. Wright gropes for a way to go on, finds in the pocket of Mamah's coat a letter that gives him consolation of a sort. He vows to rebuild the house in her memory.

Recordings

• Premiere Recording by the Buffalo Philharmonic

References

1. Madison Magazine 1992 -- Volume 34, Part 2 - Page 10 "The opera's title, Shining Brow, was Haller's idea too. The name is the translation of the Welsh Taliesin, the name of Wright's homes in Wisconsin and Arizona. Then, Marvin Woerpel, now chair of the Shining Brow Steering Committee, got into ..."

• Casaglia, Gherardo (2005). "Shining Brow". L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia (in Italian).

External links

• Shining Brow official website

v t e Frank Lloyd Wright
List of works
Private houses	Adams, M. Adams, W. and J. Adelman Affleck Allen–Lambe Alsop Arnold Bach Bachman–Wilson Baird Baker Balch Baldwin Barton Bazett Beachy Becker Blair Blossom Bogk Boulter Boynton Bradley Brandes Broad Margin Brown Buehler Bulbulian Charnley Cheney Christie Cooke Coonley Copeland Crimson Beech Dana–Thomas Davidson Davis DeRhodes Dobkins Ennis Fabyan Fallingwater Fawcett Forest Foster Fountainhead Freeman Fredrick Fricke Friedman Fukuhara G. Furbeck R. Furbeck Gale, L. Gale, T. Gale, W. Gerts Gilmore Gillin Glasner Goetsch–Winckler Gordon Grant Graycliff Gridley Hanna–Honeycomb Hardy Haynes Heath Heller Henderson Heurtley Hickox Hills Hoffman Hollyhock Jacobs I Jacobs II Johnson Jones Kalil Keland Kentuck Knob Keys Kinney Kraus Lamberson Lamp Laurent Levin Lewis Lewis, L. Manson Marden D. D. Martin W. E. Martin May McBean McCarthy Millard Miller Millard, G. Moore Mosher Mossberg Murphy Neils Olfelt Palmer Pappas Parker Pauson Penfield Peterson Cottage Pew Pope–Leighey Rayward Rebhuhn Reisley Richardson Roberts Robie Roloson Rosenbaum Rudin Samara Sander Schaberg Schwartz Serlin Shavin Smith, G. W. Smith, M. Smith, R. Sondem Spencer Staley Stockman Storer Stromquist Sturges Sullivan Sunday Sutton Sweeton Tan-Y-Deri Thaxton Thomas Tomek Tonkens Tracy Trier Turkel Wall Walker Walser Walter Westcott Westhope Weltzheimer Willey Williams Willits Wingspread Winslow Woolley Wright, D. and G. Wright, D. and J. Wright, R. Wynant Yamamura Young Zeigler Zimmerman
Housing systems	American System-Built Homes Erdman Prefab Houses Fireproof House for $5000 Galesburg Country Homes Ravine Bluffs Development Suntop Homes Usonia Homes Textile block house
Other	Anderton Court Shops Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church Arizona Biltmore Hotel Auldbrass Plantation Banff National Park Pavilion Beth Sholom Synagogue Child of the Sun at Florida Southern College Community Christian Church Como Orchard Summer Colony Coonley School Playhouse E-Z Polish Factory Eddie's House Fasbender Medical Clinic German Warehouse Guggenheim Museum Hillside Home School I Hillside Home School II Hoffman Auto Showroom Horse Show Fountain Humphreys Theater Imperial Hotel Jiyu Gakuen Girls' School Johnson Wax Headquarters Kundert Medical Clinic Lake Mendota Boathouse Lamp Cottage Larkin Administration Building Lawrence Memorial Library (Springfield, Illinois) Lindholm Service Station Lockridge Medical Clinic Marin County Civic Center Midway Barn Midway Gardens Riverview Terrace Restaurant Roberts Stable Rookery Building Romeo and Juliet Windmill Park Inn Hotel Pettit Chapel Pilgrim Congregational Church Price Tower Frank L. Smith Bank Teater Studio Unitarian Society Meeting House Unity Chapel Unity Temple V. C. Morris Gift Shop Waller Apartments Wyoming Valley School
Posthumous	Blue Sky Mausoleum Gammage Memorial Auditorium King Kamehameha Golf Course Clubhouse Massaro House Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center Sharp Family Tourism and Education Center
Unbuilt	Broadacre City Crystal Heights Gordon Strong Automobile Objective The Illinois Plan for Greater Baghdad Point Park Civic Center
Personal homes	Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio Taliesin Taliesin West
Related	Taliesin Associated Architects Wasmuth Portfolio Prairie School Wright Building Conservancy Wright–Prairie School of Architecture Historic District UNESCO World Heritage Site Usonia
People	Olgivanna Lloyd Wright (3rd wife) Lloyd Wright (son) John Lloyd Wright (son) Anne Baxter (granddaughter) Eric Lloyd Wright (grandson) Maginel Wright Enright (sister) Richard Bock (associate) Mamah Borthwick (client and lover) Marion Griffin (associate) Walter Burley Griffin (associate) George Mann Niedecken Jaroslav Josef Polívka (associate)
Popular culture	The Last Wright: Frank Lloyd Wright and the Park Inn Hotel Shining Brow Loving Frank "So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright" Work Song: Three Views of Frank Lloyd Wright The Women The Wright 3
Commons Wikinews Wikiquote

• English-language operas
• Operas by Daron Hagen
• Operas
• 1993 operas
• Operas set in the United States
• Operas set in the 20th century
• Operas based on real people
• Cultural depictions of Frank Lloyd Wright