Heggie: Great Scott (DVD) – Joyce DiDonato

Composers: Jake Heggie, Terence McNally
Artists: Joyce DiDonato, Ailyn Pérez, Frederica von Stade, Nathan Gunn, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Kevin Burdette, Rodell Rosel, Michael Mayes, Dallas Opera Orchestra & Chorus
Conductor: Patrick Summers
Director: Jack O’Brien
Format: NTSC
Language: English
Region: All Regions
Number of Discs: 1
Studio: Erato
DVD Release Date: April 23, 2021
Run Time: 156 minutes

This is the world premiere production of American composer Jake Heggie’s 2015 comic opera, Great Scott, in his third collaboration with librettist and preeminent American playwright Terence McNally.

Opera star Arden Scott (DiDonato) returns to her hometown to save the struggling company that launched her career. Unfortunately, the opening night performance of the long-lost opera she discovered falls on the same night as the home football team’s first National Championship game (Go, Grizzlies!). The fate of the company hangs in the balance as Arden discovers that greatness is truly a matter of heart.

Heggie and McNally previously collaborated on the gripping Dead Man Walking, which has become something of a modern classic since its premiere in 2000. Joyce DiDonato first performed its central role, Sister Helen Prejean, at New York City Opera in 2002.

Fred Plotkin of WQXR, the USA’s leading classical music radio station, welcomed Great Scott as a “deeply moving and musically brilliant work” that “should enter the standard repertory just as Heggie’s two previous masterpieces – Dead Man Walking and Moby-Dick – already have.”

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