Keith R. Fisher: GORDON GETTY Goodbye, Mr. Chips
I cannot recall ever having a more intimate operatic experience than listening to Gordon Getty’s touching opera based on the acclaimed James Hilton novella. The scoring is for what sounds to me like a chamber orchestra with prominent keyboard, harp, and percussion parts. As befits the poignancy of Hilton’s story, Getty’s approach (he wrote the libretto as well) is all very lyrical. Rarely do the dynamics get as loud as forte, as in pastoral English music by the likes of, say, Delius, but for all that there is no monotony. There are, however, stylistic similarities to the vocal writing of Britain’s leading opera composer, Benjamin Britten (which should be taken as high praise). The style is tonal and traditionally melodic.
Kevin Filipski: CD Releases of the Week: Getty—Goodbye, Mister Chips
Getty also penned the libretto, and his music is accomplished and, by its end, quite moving (Chipping’s wife Kathie has a couple of emotionally climactic appearances). This excellent recording, by the Barbary Coast Orchestra and San Francisco Boys Chorus under conductor Dennis Doubin, highlights wonderful vocal performances by soprano Melody Moore as Kathie; bass-baritone Kevin Short in several smaller roles; and tenor Nathan Granner as Mr. Chips himself, a man whose personal tragedies color his natural optimism for his students.
Read more: Kevin Filipski: CD Releases of the Week: Getty—Goodbye, Mister Chips
Colin Clarke: Gordon Getty- Goodbye, Mr. Chips
But it is Chips’s final monolog, interspersed with responses from the boys he “calls on” and sonically backlit by the chorus, that is so beautiful. Getty just avoids the saccharine here in his melodic writing. “My boys” is Chips’s final cry, and the opera’s end, cutting to the quick.
All the roles here are more than creditably taken, and the orchestra and chorus are beyond criticism; all of Getty’s tighter corners are negotiated with ease. Conductor Dennis Doubin paces the flow superbly, ensuring a sense of cohesion throughout the many time shuffles. The booklet includes a full libretto, plus a brief essay by Getty himself and program notes by James M. Keller. As “an opera re-imagined for film,” due to COVID restrictions, Goodbye, Mr. Chips received its premiere in November 2021 at a screening in San Rafael, CA. With his most recent opera, Gordon Getty takes his place in the pantheon of significant American opera composers.
Ken Meltzer: Interview with Composer Gordon Getty “Our journey in search of the beauty that holds.”
A new Pentatone recording presents Gordon Getty’s operatic adaptation of James Hilton’s Goodbye, Mr. Chips. The composer reflects on Hilton’s novella and his opera, and their beloved hero.
Chips is your operatic setting of James Hilton’s 1933 novella. When did you first read Hilton’s book? What aspects of the work inspired you to create an operatic version?
I think I first read Goodbye, Mr. Chips seven or eight years ago, having seen the 1939 movie on television decades before. The movie had already given me ideas for an opera, and the book convinced me, gosh knows why. It just seemed right.
Göran Forsling: Getty- Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Getty has treated the original with a great deal of freedom, adding things from another story by Hilton and also structuring the opera differently from the original – to the advantage of the understanding. He explains this in some detail in the foreword. It is worth noting that Doctor Merrivale, who in the novella is a minor role, only appearing once, has been promoted to the all-important role of Narrator.
The orchestral contributions are generally rather recessed and chamber-music-like. Solo instruments and groups of woodwind are the order of the day, and rarely is the full orchestra employed for dramatic point-making – but then with stunning effect. The San Francisco Boys Chorus do a good job and brings the opera to a spectacular start with Alma mater …, which returns as finale, tying together all the threads to a unit.
Goodbye, Mr. Chips is a touching opera, excellently sung and permeated by deep humanity.