PROGRAM NOTES UNDERWRITTEN BY THOMAS WARD

Controversial or difficult topics are not always the best source for opera libretti. When much of a story’s emotional power dwells inside the mental life of the leading characters, it can be a challenge to bring the requisite dramatic tension to the surface. And yet there are composers, directors and writers who gravitate to precisely that challenge, for these are stories less-often told and too often passed over. Mina Miller is one such figure. Professionally trained as a concert pianist, Miller founded Music of Remembrance (MOR) to bring to light musical works written by victims of the Nazi camps. The topic hits a vital nerve for Miller herself, who had many of her Lithuanian family members murdered during the Holocaust.

When Miller and MOR approached Jake Heggie in 2006 with a proposal for three related chamber operas, he was already one of the country’s leading dramatic composers. Born in West Palm Beach, Florida, in 1961, Heggie’s childhood was spent in Columbus, Ohio. He studied piano from an early age, but it was not until after his father’s tragic death by suicide that Jake began to seriously compose original works. Heggie continued his musical training at UCLA, where he befriended pianist Johana Harris, the widow of composer Roy Harris. Heggie and Harris developed a deeply committed relationship that – despite the nearly 50-year age difference – led to partnership as piano duo and eventually marriage.

A neurological issue forced Heggie to step away from a performing career for several years. During that time, he met several important people in the opera world through working as a publicist. He continued to compose on the side, and these sketches were impactful enough to work their way back into the spotlight. In particular, soprano Frederica von Stade championed Heggie’s songs. In the late 1990s – without any existing full-length operas in his portfolio – he was engaged to be composer-in-residence for the San Francisco Opera. That invitation was linked to a commission for Heggie to compose Dead Man Walking, based on Terrence McNally’s libretto. The end result succeeded beyond expectations, and Heggie’s reputation exploded. Following the premiere of Dead Man Walking in late 2000, additional commissions followed on a regular basis: The End of the Affair with Houston Grand Opera (2003), At the Statue of Venus for Opera Colorado (2005), To Hell and Back for Philharmonia Baroque (2006), and then Moby Dick in 2010.

In 2007 Heggie completed the first of the trilogy commissioned by Music of Remembrance. For A Look Or A Touch centers on the persecution of gay men during the Holocaust. Heggie has written about his role in the project:

"When she [Mina Miller] called and asked me to create a new chamber music composition on this subject, I was deeply moved — and hugely challenged. How on earth could we do honor and justice to this subject? As an opera composer — a theater man — I told Mina I'd want to include a singer and find a narrative of some kind. But when I looked for poetry or stories from the era, I was deeply upset to discover a vast silence. Because homosexuality was against the law in Germany until 1970 — even after the camps were closed, the war over — gays stayed in hiding or got married, fled or tried to blend in . . . Even in 2005, when the European Union's Parliament drafted a resolution regarding the Holocaust, any mention of the persecution of gays was removed."

Heggie had already worked with librettist Gene Scheer prior to their collaboration on For A Look Or A Touch. Scheer based his libretto on primary sources, including narrative accounts by camp survivors that appeared in Paragraph 175 (2000), a documentary film produced by HBO. Scheer also consulted the journal of Manfred Lewin, a teenage victim of Auschwitz. Manfred’s lover, a German Jew named Gad Beck, once impersonated a Nazi Youth in order to access the camp and seek Lewin’s release. Although the ploy worked momentarily, Manfred actually refused to leave his family behind, parted from Gad, and the entire Lewin family died in Auschwitz. As Heggie elaborates,

"In their love affair, we found our story: an actor would play Gad in the present day, while the baritone would sing the role of Manfred, appearing one night to Gad as a ghost. Through the two of them, we'd be able to share Manfred's poetry and the stories from Paragraph 175. Manfred's question, 'Do you remember?' established the work's tone. In our story, Gad wants only to forget the horrors he lived through; Manfred's ghost wants only to be remembered, for Gad to treasure their powerful, timeless love. The play between past and present was, musically, filled with rich possibilities. The tune for 'Do you remember?' serves as the anchor of the piece; most of the other material in the piece is connected to it. I chose the instruments in the ensemble for a variety of color (so I could include elements of jazz and swing), for a lyrical as well as gritty instrumentation, and for the percussive possibilities of the piano."

Jason Stell, © 2026