Opera Gets Overhaul in Dresher’s ‘Power Failure’

There was a time on the American musical scene when the adjective “avant-garde” never modified the noun “opera.”

Contemporary opera composers like Gian Carlo Menotti still had Puccini melodies and inoffensive harmonies ringing in their ears, and the dramatic conventions of the last century still ruled the stage. Along came Philip Glass and John Adams, and, all of a sudden, opera became the medium of choice for the young Turks. Even performance artists took a second look at opera and began to see new possibilities.

Composer Paul Dresher, whose avant-garde opera “Power Failure” makes its Southern California debut at the Spreckels Theatre Friday night (repeating Saturday), described the forces that converged in the 1980s to account for this unexpected turn of events.

“There were a couple of things,” Dresher said. “In the late ‘40s through the mid-1970s, composers--the serialists, minimalists and indeterminists--were intrigued with purely musical ideas, sound for its own sake. Then they began to realize that there was a broader world in which other artists in different media were developing and experimenting.”

As Dresher sees it, cooperation came slowly to these ivory tower types.

“Except for (choreographer) Merce Cunningham and (composer) John Cage, there was not much collaboration; most pursued their disciplines in isolation. Then Robert Wilson added music to his vision of theater, and opera became the new way to utilize many disciplines in a single medium.”

If that progression sounds a bit like the reinvention of the wheel, Dresher nevertheless sees it as a healthy sign.

“Even if the operatic world came to this experimentation quite late, it reimbued the discipline with a much-needed vigor. And it restored opera to the vital role it played in the 18th and 19th centuries.”

Collaboration comes naturally to Dresher, whose Berkeley-based Paul Dresher Ensemble provides the crucible for developing his stage works. And writer/actor Rinde Eckert, librettist for “Power Failure,” has been Dresher’s artistic accomplice since before the ensemble’s founding in 1984.

“Eckert is a fine actor and a fine opera singer--the two rarely come together. In his capacity as writer, his collaborative way of creating is the perfect complement. I’m methodical, concerned with large-scale form, and he is skillful at imagining scenes. He can come up with zillions of ideas.”

Another collaborator is tenor John Duykers, who plays the protagonist in “Power Failure” and won acclaim as Chairman Mao in Adams’ opera “Nixon in China.” In 1983, as co-founder of the George Coates Performance Work ensemble, Duykers asked Eckert and Dresher to work on a theater project called “The Way of Hell,” a title that might apply generically to most performance art of that era.

Dresher has several Southern California connections. He was born and raised in Los Angeles, where he freely acknowledges playing rock ‘n’ roll as well as electronic music. In his student years at UC San Diego’s music department, he was a protege of composer Robert Erickson.

“As a student, I found his ideas congenial, although my music today doesn’t resemble his. I think in the period after I finished UCSD (in 1979), my work showed more of his influence.”

Dresher was quick to point out that, unlike the German composer-pedagogue Arnold Schoenberg, Erickson’s goal was not to produce musical offspring who would perpetuate the mentor’s technique.

“The first thing Erickson told me was, ‘I can’t teach anybody how to compose.’ He took people who already were composers and would have considered it a failure if they wrote music like his.”

Still, Erickson’s influence remains a part of Dresher’s musical outlook.

“Bob embodied a particular approach to composing. ‘Here’s an idea,’ he’d say. ‘Let’s see how it sounds.’ He was fascinated with exploring sound. Some experiments succeeded, some failed, and he was always willing to admit both his successes and failings.”

“Power Failure,” a kind of sung morality play about the ethics of genetic engineering, was first performed in Philadelphia in May, 1989. Although it played to generally favorable reviews there, Dresher took it back to his workshop to revise it for its San Francisco debut last month.

“The first act didn’t hold together dramatically; it was too episodic, so we rewrote it significantly. We also reconceived the character of Judith Niles, who was a nurse (to the drug research company CEO, Duykers’ role) and now is the biographer of the CEO.”

When asked if “Power Failure” is a minimalist opera, he eschewed the label.

“It’s not worth using the term,” he said. “It applies to a type of surface repetition but not to the music’s harmonic content. I would say that both John Adams and I have moved beyond minimalism to a more personal idiom.”

If Dresher does not want to be shut up in the minimalist box, he still embraces the minimalist goal of producing an easily comprehended idiom.

“My music does not have a surface that puts you off. You don’t have to be an aficionado, to be a specialist--as 1950s post-Webern serialism demanded--to have access to my music.”

“Power Failure” is the second opera in Dresher’s trilogy, which began with the 1985 opera “Slow Fire.” The final opera, “Pioneers” is slated to be completed later this year.