A Review by Marek Zebrowski
Christopher Isherwood’s A Single Man, first published in the mid-1960s, has returned to the public eye and ear in recent years. A film adaptation of this celebrated novel by Tom Ford (who also helmed the film project) appeared on screens in 2009, and this spring an opera based on Isherwood’s roman à clef was premiered at a workshop reading in Los Angeles.
The author of this new opera is Wojciech Stępień—Polish composer and musicologist, born in 1977 and currently professor at the Katowice Music Academy in Poland. Stępień’s Fulbright Scholarship in Los Angeles about two years ago spurred his interest in turning Isherwood’s semi-autobiographical novel into a stage work. Working with librettist Amanda Hollander and supported by a Christopher Isherwood Foundation grant, Stępień also collaborated with Don Bachardy, a noted painter and Isherwood’s life partner for over thirty years, on the project. After returning to Poland from his Fulbright research Stępień began to work on the score, and his latest opus was presented to the California public on 27 April 2025 at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre.
Stępień’s ninety-minute composition for six singers (baritone, soprano, mezzo-soprano, alto, tenor, and bass) is scored for a chamber ensemble including piano, percussion, string quartet and a pair of winds. Arranged in twelve scenes with some purely instrumental interludes, the libretto by Hollander, closely follows Isherwood’s story of a mid-life crisis experienced by a gay academic following the death of his lover. The intensity and directness of Isherwood’s prose indubitably comes from personal experience, and his most famous novels—Mr. Norris Changes Trains, Goodbye to Berlin, A Single Man, and Christopher and His Kind—are all strongly autobiographical. Set in Los Angeles in the early 1960s, A Single Man is a study of one day in the life of George, an expat Englishman professor at one of the local colleges, just like Isherwood who was on the faculty at Cal State LA for several years. That fateful day, after his lecture, George chats with one of his students and, deus ex machina, encounters him later at a local watering hole. They go skinny dipping at night and the aftermath of this encounter brings to George’s troubled conscience the ghost of his partner, Jim, who died in a car accident. Echoes of Isherwood’s meeting Don Bachardy on Santa Monica beach are easily discerned in this episode of A Single Man, alongside many other significant details from the celebrated author’s life that permeate his poignant narrative and reflection on aging.
Following the tone of the novel and its faithful stage adaptation, Stępień’s music closely reflects the inner drama of this captivating story. Although presented with the accompaniment of piano and clarinet only on this occasion of a preliminary workshop performance, the audience assembled at the Wilshire Ebell nonetheless had an ample opportunity to experience the intense feelings of the protagonist, George, and meet several friends he encounters on this one-day journey through life. Lyrical and dramatic in turns, Stępień’s engaging, colorful and evocative score provides great vocal and acting opportunities for the lead character, George, splendidly personified in this performance by baritone Jared Jones (pictured with the composer and Juliana Gondek, vocal professor at UCLA and PMC supporter). Likewise, George’s dying friend, Doris, was convincingly portrayed by mezzo Peabody Southwell, while Kenny—the flirtatious student in George’s class—was affably represented by tenor Andres Delgado. Other members of this cast for this premiere included James Hayden, Leela Subramaniam, Meagan Martin, and Kevin Williamson. The entire cast with the musicians (pianist Miloš Veljković and clarinetist Sierra Allen) was conducted by Chris Rountree and directed by Peter Kazaras (musicians and guests are pictured in the photo at the top of the article).
Stępień’s music and the fine acting of the assembled artists in the elegant yet bareboned Ebell space resonated well beyond this first performance of the work. One can hope that institutional courage and adequate funds can be assembled to mount a full-scale production of this fine edition to the operatic repertoire in Los Angeles, a city where Isherwood settled in 1939 and died in 1986.
[Photo credits: JC Olivera (top) and Marek Zebrowski (in text). Used by permission, all rights reserved]