The Summer King – An Interview with Composer Daniel Sonenberg

A couple of weeks ago here on Umpbump, I wrote about a new opera called “The Summer King“. Written by a composer named Daniel Sonenberg, it tells the story of Josh Gibson, perhaps the most prolific hitter to have ever played in the Negro Leagues. And I’m not going to beat around the bush here. I was a total jerk for what I wrote. Without catching a glimpse, without hearing one note, I passed immediate judgment, which is obviously very unfair. But I didn’t for a second think that my post could possibly do any harm.

And then it happened.

Somehow, Daniel himself found the post. And read it. And commented it on it (check out the original post linked above to read it)…

Suddenly, I felt smaller than Eddie Gaedel (does this joke PROVE I’m a jerk? Very possibly). But after an e-mail discussion among us Umpbump writers, I was given a chance to repent. I was to ask Daniel for an interview. This was my quest. This was my journey. It was a task as arduous as Frodo Baggins’ trip to Mount Doom – if Frodo had access to e-mail and could just attach the Ring and send it to FiresofMtDm@aol.com.

So I e-mailed him, and he was very kind enough to not only respond accepting my interview request, but he took the time to answer each and every question I had in a very thoughtful manner. We talked about his love of both baseball and opera and his rationale for writing an opera about Josh Gibson. I hope you all enjoy it. And to Daniel, thank you for your participation and for not giving me a brutal beating.

What’s your earliest memory as a baseball fan? Your favorite?

When I was eight years old a business partner of my dad’s took me to see a World Series game between the Yankees and the Dodgers. But to be honest, I don’t remember it too well. I like to think that I remember watching Bucky Dent’s homer against the Red Sox in the one game playoff in 1978, but I may have just absorbed it over the years. What I do remember is walking out of Yankee stadium amidst funereal silence after the Royals swept the Yankees in the 1980 playoffs. That was the year George Brett creamed my idol, and still favorite player of all time, Goose Gossage. When I was 11, shortly after my father died, I had the opportunity to visit the Boston Red Sox clubhouse thanks to an old friend of my dad’s who was athletic director at MIT. I got a few autographs, but most memorably had the opportunity to chat briefly, one on one, with Carl Yastrzemski. He offered some consoling words, and I’ll never forget it, even though I didn’t realize to whom I was talking until someone deciphered the autograph for me later that day!

How did you come upon opera, which is an art form that, despite its successes in the English language, literally seems foreign to most young Americans? What are some of the misconceptions that people have regarding it?

It’s a great question. My background is in rock and popular music, and for years I was a singer songwriter. I did not grow up an opera fan. I think it was in college, when a girlfriend of mine convinced me of opera’s potential to offer an all-encompassing dramatic/ emotional experience. It still took me a while to be convinced, and more often than not I don’t have that all-encompassing experience at the opera. But when I do, nothing compares. I think most people’s trouble with opera is the style of trained singing, which we call “bel canto.” It’s so full of artifice, and so different from the more naturalistic sounds of folk and popular music. Yet – as Pavarotti demonstrated so well, it still can be rather thrilling, and appeal to a pretty large public. Many modern operas are written for different kinds of voices, and incorporate less foreign styles. My own opera is conceived, to be fair, in the traditional, grand opera tradition. But it incorporates elements of jazz (such as drum set and saxophone in the ensemble) and other contemporary sounds that I hope would be intriguing to music fans across genres. I think also the fact that many older operas deal with subject matter that is so far removed from every day life (kingdoms and mythology) make it feel completely irrelevant. I don’t think my opera has that problem.

What is it about Josh Gibson that convinced you that he would make a great subject for an opera?

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