William Burden - Jake Heggie: It's a Wonderful Life (Live) (2017)

Composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer knew before they ever wrote a note or a line of It’s a Wonderful Life that there are challenges in adapting a treasured classic for the operatic stage. After all, Heggie and Scheer’s hit 2010 opera Moby-Dick raised the same challenges: how could they remain faithful to the source material and still create something new, which emphasized the story’s innate operatic qualities?

For It’s a Wonderful Life, Heggie and Scheer responded by keeping the basic plot and characters from the beloved Frank Capra film version but changing the perspective. But in a departure from the film, all the action takes place from Clara’s perspective and in her realm. Seventy mirrored doors represent portals in time and space, which Clara uses to piece together the events of George’s life in an effort to understand what has brought him to this moment of despair.

Critics said the “feel good” work (Opera Warhorses) “dispels any notion that you may have about expecting the opera to duplicate the film [and has a] crazy-quilt score that may be Heggie’s most delightful concoction” (Theater Jones). As the Houston Chronicle critic summed up, “George Bailey would be proud.”

TRACKLIST

CD1

01. It's a Wonderful Life: Prelude (Live)
02. It's a Wonderful Life, Act I: Clara in the Heavens (Live)
03. It's a Wonderful Life, Act I: George Bailey's Childhood (Live)
04. It's a Wonderful Life, Act I: Bedford Falls's Aladdin (Live)
05. It's a Wonderful Life, Act I: Goodbye Bedford Falls (Live)
06. It's a Wonderful Life, Act I: The High School Dance (Live)
07. It's a Wonderful Life, Act I: I'm Gonna See the World (Live)
08. It's a Wonderful Life, Act I: Wait and Save (Live)
09. It's a Wonderful Life, Act I: Four Years (Live)
10. It's a Wonderful Life, Act I: Harry's Homecoming (Live)
11. It's a Wonderful Life, Act I: A Rainbow at Midnight (Live)
12. It's a Wonderful Life, Act I: I'm Gonna Love You 'Til the Day I Die (Live)

CD2

01. It's a Wonderful Life, Act II: George and Mary's Wedding Day (Live)
02. It's a Wonderful Life, Act II: The Bank Run of 1929 (Live)
03. It's a Wonderful Life, Act II: Changes and Blessings (Live)
04. It's a Wonderful Life, Act II: Thank You, Mr. Bailey (Live)
05. It's a Wonderful Life, Act II: I Want to Hire You, George (Live)
06. It's a Wonderful Life, Act II: One Country, One Dream (Live)
07. It's a Wonderful Life, Act II: What a Day! (Live)
08. It's a Wonderful Life, Act II: Uncle Billy Loses the Bank Deposit (Live)
09. It's a Wonderful Life, Act II: Zuzu's Petals (Live)
10. It's a Wonderful Life, Act II: You're Worth More Dead Than Alive (Live)
11. It's a Wonderful Life, Act II: I Wish I'd Never Been Born (Live)
12. It's a Wonderful Life, Act II: The World Without George Bailey (Live)
13. It's a Wonderful Life, Act II: Christmas Morning (Live)
14. It's a Wonderful Life, Act II: A Wonderful Life (Live)
15. It's a Wonderful Life, Act II: Auld Lang Syne (Live)