“That’s helped me shake off some worries about the beauty of my voice.” “He writes great tunes, great melodies,” she says. Like Bridges, Bullock praises the singability of the Adams score. “She never has furious words, even when the temptation to violence, the temptation of not wanting to be human” lurks all around her, Bullock explains. It’s only when we do that honestly that real change can happen.”Īs the narrative observing eye, Dame Shirley has a certain equipoise.
“John and Peter (Sellars, the opera’s director) ask us to look at our own history, to examine the uncomfortable things. The speech also expresses some of the pent-up tension in the opera’s story, what Bullock calls “the misunderstood inner conflicts” that can lead to chaos and destruction. “She takes it on quite seriously,” notes Bullock.
At the start of the second act, Dame Shirley performs a Lady Macbeth soliloquy in an amateur production of the play. She demands me to be at my most conscious and aware.” But throughout there’s this clarity of mind. Later on, as “the gravity of circumstances hit her, she becomes more stark and straightforward. Musically it feels wonderful.”įor Bullock, Dame Shirley is all “light and effervescent” as she recounts her early impressions of her Gold Rush adventure. “John (Adams) writes so well for the voice. “I could cry,” the mezzo-soprano continues, about playing a woman who kills a predatory man and is lynched, “but I have to be able to sing.”Īt the same time, she adds, the pleasure of singing the role is palpable. “I’m a black woman in America.”įresh from a rehearsal of San Francisco Opera’s forthcoming “Girls of the Golden West,” the new John Adams-Peter Sellars opera in which she plays a violence-scarred Gold Rush barmaid, Bridges locates the hot-wired connection to her character. “I live this every day,” says J’Nai Bridges. Michael Short/Special to The Chronicle Show More Show Less Michael Short/Special to The Chronicle Show More Show Less 4 of4 Girls of the Golden West cast member J'Nai Bridges portrays character Josefa Segovia. Michael Short/Special to The Chronicle Show More Show Less 3 of4 Girls of the Golden West cast member Julia Bullock portrays character Dame Shirley. Michael Short/Special to The Chronicle Show More Show Less 2 of4 Girls of the Golden West cast member Hye Jung Lee portrays character Ah Sing. 1 of4 From left, Girls of the Golden West cast members Hye Jung Lee, Julia Bullock, and J�Nai Bridges, poses for a portrait in the Wilsey Center Taube Atrium Theater in San Francisco, CA, on Sunday October 29, 2017.
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