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Photograph by George Sakkestad
Henry Mollicone of Saratoga is one of America's most influential opera composers. His works have been performed all over the country and throughout Europe, including 'The Face On the Barroom Floor,' which holds the record as the second most often performed one-act opera of the 20th century.
Mollicone a famed opera composer, and more
By Jennifer M. van der Kleut
The Washington Post calls him "one of the most distinctive American opera composers." Newsweek proclaims, "He can't seem to write a note that doesn't sing."
Saratoga resident Henry Mollicone is one of the most influential opera composers in America. However, Mollicone's success stretches beyond opera. His career has been long and varied, and is still growing.
As a young man, Mollicone attended the New England Conservatory.
"[After graduation], I lucked into a job," he says, remembering the day he joined the New York City Opera as a pianist, coach and assistant conductor. "I spent about five years [there]."
New York City is home to Broadway, and Mollicone's luck held when he was invited to serve as the music assistant to famed composer and conductor, Leonard Bernstein, in 1976. The production was 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, a bicentennial musical. As if the pot needed sweetening, Alan Jay Lerner served as the show's lyricist.
"The show was a really good musical, but ... it was only on Broadway for five or six nights," he recalls. However, that wasn't enough to dampen Mollicone's excitement. "Still, working with Leonard Bernstein was one of the high points of my life. Being in my 20s, it was a really wonderful thing for me."
Eventually, Mollicone moved to Los Angeles, where he began working in film and TV music as a conductor, composer and pianist. His credits are impressive; he has worked with such actors as Jean Stapleton, Charles Nelson Reilly and Angela Lansbury. He helped write music for episodes of such TV shows as Eight is Enough, Barnaby Jones and Fantasy Island, as well as a few films and TV movies.
Around this time, Mollicone began composing his own operas.
"I couldn't quite get opera out of my blood," he says.
One of his first works is one of his most successful. He was commissioned to write The Face on the Barroom Floor by the Central City Opera in Colorado in 1978. The show was a huge hit, and has been performed annually ever since, all over America and in several European countries. It was the recipient of the American Composers Recording Award, and holds the record for being the second most performed one-act American opera of the 20th century, behind Gian Carlo Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors.
"I feel very lucky and fortunate that happened," he said, musing over how many doors it opened. "After that, I got commissions to write several other operas, and then that led to commissions for bigger operas."
Mollicone has now penned countless operas, as well as works for ballets; choruses of all sizes; instruments such as piano, viola, cello and organ; theater, orchestras, symphonic bands, singers and more. He taught at Santa Clara University from 1985 to 1999, and currently teaches at Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont. He has also guest-conducted for companies all over the U.S., including San Jose Civic Light Opera, now known as American Musical Theater of San Jose.
These days, one of Mollicone's favorite gigs is serving as musical director and conductor of the Winchester Orchestra out of San Jose.
"It's a group of community musicians, and they're very dedicated," he says.
The Winchester Orchestra has a special event Dec. 9 in the West Valley College Theater--a performance of Amahl and the Night Visitors. The orchestra will perform together with the West Valley College Masterworks Chorale.
"We're very excited. This is one of the biggest things the orchestra has ever done," he says. "It's a very ambitious project."
Another one of his current passions is a mass he wrote recently, A Day of Beatitude.
"Last year, a friend suggested I write a piece to raise money for the homeless," he explains. "He gave me the idea of writing a mass, which is traditionally in Latin, but having sections in English, based on interviews we did with some homeless people."
Mollicone worked with a local shelter and his good friend William Luce. He interviewed several homeless people and Luce helped turn their words into text. He created two characters, a man and a woman, and wrote solos for them to sing in English, to be interspersed among the Latin mass. The solos are the testimonies of the homeless.
A Day of Beatitude was performed by the San Jose Symphonic Choir, backed by a full orchestra, at the St. Joseph's Cathedral in San Jose in March. Proceeds benefited the cathedral's Social Justice fund. On Dec. 3 it will be performed at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto to raise money for the Opportunity Center of Palo Alto, which provides housing and services for the homeless and those in risk of becoming homeless.
So, can one make a decent living being a composer?
"It is a struggle," Mollicone admits. "I've been working at it all my life. There are up times and down times, and you have to wear many hats, unless you have a full-time teaching job or play in a full-time orchestra. But when you freelance like I do, it can be hard sometimes."
However, Mollicone keeps his eye on the dream.
"I still spend time on my own compositions," he says. "I'm always working on something new."
Visit www.henrymollicone.com. 'Amahl and the Night Visitors' is presented at the West Valley College Theater on Dec. 9 at 2 and 7:30 p.m. and Dec. 10 at the Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in San Jose at 7 p.m. Tickets range from $5 to $25. For more information, call 408.269.1905. 'A Day of Beatitude' is presented at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto on Dec. 3 at 5 p.m. A donation of $10 to $15 is suggested. For more information, email music-info@uucpa.org.
