'The Outlaw and the King' comes to life
Concert version of Act II of Roosevelt-made opera Dec. 1
BY JENNIFER KOHLHEPP Staff Writer

SCOTT FRIEDMAN Composer Mark Zuckerman, of Roosevelt, (far left, standing) likes what he hears during the rehearsal for "The Outlaw and the King," an opera he co-wrote with neighbor David Herrstrom.

When Mark Zuckerman's music married David Herrstrom's words, they bore "The Outlaw and the King."

The love story of the score and libretto of this new chamber opera began five years ago when Zuckerman, a composer with a doctorate in music composition from Princeton University, and Herrstrom, a poet with a doctorate in English literature from New York University, who live across the street from each other in Roosevelt, decided to challenge their artistic talents to create something unlike anything they had done before. The unlikely project has culminated in an admission-free concert version of Act II of "The Outlaw and the King" at 8 p.m. Dec. 1 at the Nicholas Music Center of Rutgers University, New Brunswick, and plans for a full-scale performance by a regional opera company.

Zuckerman actually approached Herrstrom in 2003 with "A Marriage Proposal." However, Herrstrom did not want to adapt Anton Chekhov's play and instead proposed writing a libretto based on one of his favorite stories from childhood — the story of King Saul and David.

SCOTT FRIEDMAN Composer Mark Zuckerman listens to professional singers practice solos from "The Outlaw and the King," an opera he co-wrote with neighbor David Herrstrom, at Rutgers University in New Brunswick.

"He used to enact it as a kid and is named for David," Zuckerman said. "David is one of the most fascinating people in the Bible. He is revered, and he wrote most of the psalms."

Herrstrom said, "I remember assigning roles to my friends and acting out the violent, and what has become for me the intensely psychological, biblical drama of King Saul, Jonathan and David."

Herrstrom wrote a scenario for a libretto called "David and Saul" in three acts, with a basic premise concerning David's growing love of himself as the chosen one and coming to identify his will with God's, which leads to the destruction of those who love him and whom he most loves.

For Herrstrom, the relevance of the late Bronze Age Israeli king's tale to today's society is that it concerns psychological conflict and incipient violence.

"The personal struggle for power only too often becomes a political struggle that affects us all," Herrstrom said. "Once power is gained, it becomes entitlement, as if granted by God or the fates themselves. And in our age we know well the dangers of identifying one's own will with God's."

Zuckerman embraced the idea and Herrstrom drafted Act I by April 2004. The neighbors often met nights over a bottle of wine to polish the act, soliciting comments from exneighbor and playwright Neil Selden and neighbor and writer Judith McNally. By September 2004, Herrstrom completed the first act and at his wife's suggestion called it "The Outlaw and the King." By the end of the year, he had Act II complete.

Before Zuckerman started setting the work to music, the duo enlisted the help of the Roosevelt Arts Project (RAP), a nonprofit organization in the borough dedicated to helping local artists. Herrstrom recruited neighbors and exneighbors like poets Rod Tulloss, David Keller and Scott Carpenter, actor Judith Goetzman, singer David Brahinsky and playwright-director Richard Lloyd to stage a dramatic reading of the libretto in the Borough Hall.

After the review, Herrstrom put the final touches on Act I and Zuckerman took to setting it to music, which took a little over a year. Then, Zuckerman worked to get support for a concert version of the first act, talking with the new chair of the Rutgers University Music Department, Antonius Bittmann, who enlisted the support of faculty member Pamela Gilmore. Gilmore accepted the opera in an Opera Workshop course in the Department of Music. The workshop culminated in a Dec. 15, 2006 performance in Schare Recital Hall on the Rutgers University campus that drew over 100 attendees.

Herrstrom and Zuckerman went on to completeAct II and garnered financial support from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and the Edward T. Cone Foundation for this coming winter's concert performance. The foundation support made it possible to have an entirely professional presentation, complete with instruments. Four male characters and a trio of women as the voice of God comprise the cast. The opera is scored for woodwind quintet, harp and percussion.

Nicosia, who is serving as the music coordinator for the production, said the vocals are very demanding.

"The female parts are not so demanding in the second act," she said. "They were more demanding in the first act but the male parts are tough."

She said Zuckerman has created a "wonderful collaborative spirit" around the production, enthusiastically working with the performers and rewriting parts for particular vocal styles.

Andrew Cyr will conduct the performance by professional singers, including former Rooseveltian David Arnold (Saul), Brian Vandenberge (David), Matthew Morris (Jonathan) and John-Andrew Fernandez (Zerubbabel), as well as Angela Bianca Beaton, Adrienne Alexander, and Barbara Mergelsberg (Hannagail chorus).

Arnold, who lived in Roosevelt for 13 years, said, "This is a very compelling piece. The words and the music are very married and the emotions, innuendo and calmness really come through."

Having the opera performed by professionals is "unbelievable" for Zuckerman.

"It was a tremendous amount of work," he said. "It's enormously gratifying to have such really talented musicians making this work their own."

Those who cannot make it to the Dec. 1 production have the option of attending the dress rehearsal the previous evening.

For more information, visit mazic music.com.