Literary Event #1: From Lyric Novel to Lyric Stage: The Golden Gate

For my first* literary event, I attended “From Lyric Novel to Lyric Stage: The Golden Gate: A Multimedia Presentation,” which was held in Bing Concert Hall Studio on May 30^th. The presentation interwove Stegner Fellows’ readings of passages from the original novel-in-verse, The Golden Gate, corresponding scenes from the new opera adaptation, and live commentary from the composer, Conrad Cummings, on the adaptation process. Though I hadn’t heard of Stanford alum Vikram Seth’s novel-in-verse before the event, my cello professor had mentioned that he and Conrad Cummings were neighbors as children, and that he was an excellent composer.

The event opened with a video welcome by Vikram Seth, who had been pursuing a master’s degree in economics at Stanford in the early 80s when he came across his first novel-in-verse, Alexander Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin, at the Stanford bookstore. The novel not only inspired him to begin writing his own novel-in-verse, The Golden Gate, but also led to his taking a break from pursuing economics and becoming a Stegner Fellow instead. The Golden Gate was published in 1986, and describes the lives of both impassioned and emotionally detached 20-something San Franciscans in verse that is funny yet painful. There are break-ups, first dates, first-time homosexual encounters. (Spoiler alert summary: when Janet, the protagonist John’s former and current girlfriend, dies unexpectedly, the successful, stoic engineer finally realizes the importance of genuine friendship and human connection.)

I truly enjoyed Vikram Seth’s writing, and found Cummings’s composer commentary quite interesting (when John and Liz have their first kiss, for example, the music deliberately changes from 5 beats to 6 beats per measure), but what disappointed me was that the opera scenes weren’t live. We watched clips from a workshop (which meant minimal props and scenery) on a screen instead. I should have known from the subtitle “A Multimedia Presentation,” and the singing and acting were nonetheless impressive (plus it was my first time watching an opera in English), but it would have been more engrossing to see the opera singers right next to the readers on stage. (They also mentioned that the event was being filmed, which meant they were filming a filming…)

Still, The Golden Gate was an enlightening performance, and I particularly enjoyed Cummings’s explanations of his alterations when it came to adapting “lyric novel” for the “lyric stage.” Comes summer, I plan to read The Golden Gate.

*Technically, this was my second event, but I had to leave in the middle of the Creative Writing Undergraduate Awards reading (I did like the excerpt on twelve-year-old Holly and her crown molding-shopping, though).