Funding for this program is provided by Friends, the Iowa PBS Foundation.

The Daniel and Ann Krumm Charitable Trust, supporting programming for citizenship, education and the arts.

♪♪ Support for this program has been provided by Kathy Zehr, in loving memory of her mother Joan Gooch, to support programming that highlights performance arts on Iowa PBS.

♪♪ ♪ A puppy, some baby chicks and maybe even some ♪ ♪ rabbits.

♪ ♪ Really, Georgie, the rabbits.

♪ ♪ Oh, I like that, George, I like that.

♪ [Kristine McIntyre] I think Of Mice and Men is one of the best examples we have in the operatic repertoire of a successful translation from page to stage.

Carlisle Floyd was basically gifted a wonderful novella that had, by the author John Steinbeck, already been turned into a play.

So, he had an example of how it could translate to dialogue.

We often talk about Carlisle Floyd as the dean of American opera or the grandfather of American opera.

There were certainly composers before him who tried to turn American stories into operas, but Carlisle seems to be the one that taught us how it could be done and convinced us that the stories of ordinary people would be worthy of being an opera.

We get to know George and Lennie and their struggles.

They are outsiders and certainly they feel like they have been denied their little slice of heaven, their little piece of the American pie.

[Michael Egel] Carlisle Floyd wrote his own libretto for this opera, which is a rare thing in and of itself.

And the fact that he captured the essence of the book and the play in such a remarkable way and left room for music that evokes the landscape, that draws the characters out of the text musically, is really a remarkable feat and puts it up there, I would say, amongst one of the greatest of achievements in American opera.

David Neely is our music director and principal conductor.

He is conducting Of Mice and Men, which is a challenging piece to conduct, a very unusual and seldom performed piece.

[David Neely] This piece has the perfect ebb and flow of musical and dramatic tension.

There's not a moment that isn't absolutely necessary to the storytelling and absolutely compelling and every scene is beautifully written.

♪♪ [David Neely] I am exhausted when it's over, absolutely.

You strap yourself in.

My first thing is to cue a police siren off stage that our associate conductor is actually running backstage and then bring the orchestra in.

And from that very first measure it's like, okay, it's like jet fighter, go!

(siren sounding) [Michael Egel] John Moore is an Iowa native from Okoboji, and having come through the ranks of our company as well as Simpson College and now gone onto stages all over the world.

[John Moore] Singing George Milton has been a challenge.

The music that Carlisle Floyd composed is extraordinarily difficult.

My entrance is one in which we're being chased with a police siren going and floodlights.

I'm running for my life.

And like, well, strangely enough, that's what the whole opera is about is running for your life, trying to, like, get the life that you want.

[Michael Egel] The role of Lennie is a really hard role to cast.

We looked far and wide, I will tell you.

In fact, we went all the way to the UK to find John Findon to do this role, and I don't think we could have found a better Lennie anywhere in the world.

[John Findon] I think the George and Lennie relationship is obviously the life and soul of the novel and the opera.

They love each other.

They are fiercely protective of each other.

And they make each other better.

[Kevin Deas] Candy's story, like everyone on stage actually, is about survival and resilience.

Candy lost one of his hands in a farm equipment accident.

He is also described as being elderly.

To remain employed is quite remarkable and I think quite inspiring.

He's a good guy and I always like performing good guys.

♪♪ [Cadie J. Bryan] It is really good to be back after having been an apprentice here in a principal role like Curley's wife.

And I have really, really enjoyed this cast because it is a cast of storytellers and they immediately pull you in and they invite you to dream with them, which is the whole theme of the piece.

[David Neely] Floyd's influence on successive generations of American opera composers, it's indelible.

This year, 100th anniversary of the composer's birth, it has been taken up and we're co-producing it with other companies.

So, this is a special event and a special year.

♪♪ [Kristine McIntyre] Part of the American story is our story, the very pedestrian, ordinary, everyday struggles of working class people.

This is what Steinbeck was obsessed with and spent his entire career writing about and I'm so happy that Carlisle Floyd picked this beautiful, taut, incredible little novella of Steinbeck's to make an opera out of because what it tells us is that everybody's story deserves to be told.

♪♪ And now, Des Moines Metro Opera presents Of Mice and Men.

Now, a special feature followed by the Of Mice and Men final act.

[Kristine McIntyre] Coming to this production of Of Mice and Men, I knew I wanted to do something that allowed for all the intimacy that the piece is known for, but also had a kind of cinematic backdrop.

Luke Cantarella, who designed both scenery and projections, actually went to California, he went to the Salinas Valley and filmed.

If you watch carefully, the projections in the production are also all from Lennie's point of view.

We had to always decide, what does Lennie see?

What does Lennie feel?

And what we discovered is that Lennie's world is a really beautiful one.

Kara Harmon, who did the clothes, these aren't costumes, they are clothes.

She did such amazing research.

All of the different kinds of denim, some of which we actually had to have made and reconstructed in order to do the production.

♪♪ [Kristine McIntyre] And then, of course, Kate Ashton doing the lighting.

Kate and I have worked together a lot.

It is always beautiful to look at.

There's no reason why even the harshest of storytelling cannot also be a treat for the eye.

♪♪ [Kristine McIntyre] So, for music director and conductor David Neely and I, this is opera number 17.

That is more than I have ever done with any other conductor in my career.

It's always a great delight to have David in the pit.

[David Neely] Of all of the amazing operas that Carlisle Floyd wrote, I feel Of Mice and Men is my personal favorite and is a masterpiece for the stage.

This piece has the perfect ebb and flow of musical and dramatic tension.

There's not a moment that isn't absolutely necessary to the storytelling and absolutely compelling.

[John Moore] Performing George is musically and dramatically difficult.

The moments that are uplifting, the dream of the farm and that music is melodic and beautiful, but there is so much anger that brews up in George.

And so, for me, I love the challenge of that.

The amount of emotional drain that I have is pretty potent.

The great joy of doing the job for me that I'm just playing in the NBA of opera.

So, I show up and it's just excellence all around.

♪♪ [John Findon] It's not just about the singing with Lennie, it's almost more to do with the acting.

I think it's not just a single talent artform.

It's singing, acting, musicianship, it's everything and it all has to be there.

And it helps when you have a role like this.

[Cadie J. Bryan] Every character has so much depth.

And Curley's wife is absolutely no exception.

♪♪ [Cadie J. Bryan] She is the only woman in the story in this bunk house where she never imagined she would be, just fighting for attention.

She is so desperate and I think it just creates this pressure cooker of a situation.

You walk a mile in every character's shoes and you learn just how important it is to be kind to your fellow man because we're all chasing some kind of dream.

[Kevin Deas] Candy's only goal is to keep his job.

He wants to own his own land.

He wants to have his own independent life.

And the likelihood of that when you have one hand is very slim.

I think that most people have experienced concerns about their survival, whether they can get past difficult challenges.

[Michael Egel] As this novella, this original story by John Steinbeck nears its 100th anniversary, it is remarkable how the plight of migrant farm workers, migrant ranch hands, is still with us today, is still relevant today.

[Kristine McIntyre] Steinbeck was always on the side of the common man.

I think it's one of the great themes of all of his work.

As we look at things like America 250 and we ask questions about what does it mean to be an American?

What is the American dream?

Is that still possible?

Does that still matter?

This is an opera that deals with all of those questions.

It's an opera about outsiders who think that they too should have a shot at the American dream.

♪ Our life will be good when we get us our farm ♪ ♪ Everything peaceful, nothing to fear ♪ Funding for this program is provided by Friends, the Iowa PBS Foundation.

The Daniel and Ann Krumm Charitable Trust, supporting programming for citizenship, education and the arts.

♪♪ Support for this program has been provided by Kathy Zehr, in loving memory of her mother Joan Gooch, to support programming that highlights performance arts on Iowa PBS.

♪♪