Critics don't get much respect. (Pause here for raucous laughter.) If you doubt it, look up the word "critic" in any book of quotations and see what you find.
H.L. Mencken's "New Dictionary of Quotations" is full of zinger after zinger, most of which revolve around a single theme: Those who cannot do, review. I especially like this sulfurous couplet by John Dryden: "They who write ill, and they who ne'er durst write / Turn critics out of mere revenge and spite."
Is that true? Not really -- yet there's some truth in it, especially when it comes to my particular line of work. While a fair number of playwrights and directors have written criticism on the side, very few drama critics have changed directions in midcareer and written for the stage, and fewer still have had any luck at it.
I'm trying to beat those odds. On Saturday, the Santa Fe Opera will present the world premiere of "The Letter," an opera by the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Paul Moravec for which I wrote the libretto. It's based on the 1927 play by W. Somerset Maugham, the British novelist who wrote "Of Human Bondage" and "The Razor's Edge."
You probably know "The Letter" from William Wyler's 1940 film, in which Bette Davis played a pistol-packing adulteress. While the plot is mostly Maugham's, our musical version is otherwise very different from the play. We've turned it into what Paul calls an "opera noir," a fast-moving thriller that plays for 90 intermission-free minutes. (Imagine a cross between "Tosca" and "Double Indemnity" and you'll get the idea.)
In case you're wondering, I haven't spent my whole life dreaming of writing an opera libretto. The thought of doing so never entered my mind until Paul invited me to collaborate with him. Nor am I a frustrated playwright: I love reviewing shows and writing biographies on the side. But now that I've got the bit between my teeth, I admit to being thrilled by the prospect of hearing my words sung on stage.
I also admit to having been both amused and touched by the words of an actress I know whom I ran into last summer in a theater lobby. She introduced me to her boyfriend as follows: "Terry isn't just a writer and a critic -- he's an artist too. He's writing an opera!"
