"All in all, isn't life simply grand?"
an intro to jake heggie's three decembers, written by music director cody martin
I fell in love with Three Decembers when I first worked on a production in grad school at Florida State, and I’m incredibly excited to be a part of producing it here at Pensacola Opera this fall. Our audiences are in for something very special and unique! Read on to learn more about the piece, its origins, and what to expect when you see it on stage.
All About Three Decembers
Having premiered at Houston Grand Opera in 2008, Three Decembers is based on an unpublished play by Terrence McNally called Some Christmas Letters. Composer Jake Heggie wrote the piece alongside librettist Gene Scheer; the pair also collaborated in 2010 on a widely successful—and much larger-scale—operatic adaptation of Moby-Dick. Since its premiere, Three Decembers has found great success at opera companies around the world of varying sizes, owing to its adaptable format and ever poignant subject matter.
The story of the opera follows a renowned stage actress named Madeline Mitchell—better known by her family as “Maddy.” Her two adult children, Bea and her younger brother Charlie, live in Connecticut and San Francisco, respectively. We follow the family over the course of three decades: 1986, 1996, and 2006. Charlie is dealing with the sickness and eventual death of his partner, Burt, during the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and 90s. Bea has her own issues, namely an unfaithful husband and untreated alcoholism. And Maddy is at the peak of her career, while also grappling with family secrets that come to light in the midst of her success. Her relationship with her adult children has been strained for decades, and it all comes to a head as they’re getting ready for her to be honored at the Tonys.
Scenic design rendering by Connie Smith
What is “Chamber Opera”?
We all love the classic, large-scale operas by Puccini, Verdi, and Mozart. Large, opulent sets. Ornate costumes. A thirty-player orchestra in the pit. But there is a whole other world of operas meant to draw the audience closer, paring down everything but the essential elements to tell a deeply moving story. That world is called chamber opera. These pieces were written and designed to be performed by smaller casts, using fewer orchestral players, in smaller spaces.
Jake Heggie’s Three Decembers is perhaps one of the most effective—and definitely one of my favorite—chamber operas of the 21st century. This piece features a cast of just three characters, alongside an 11-player orchestra, with an easily digestible runtime of 90 minutes. The result is a heart-wrenching piece of theatre that uses this smaller format as its greatest storytelling asset.
Our production of this piece will push all three characters toward the front of the stage, amplifying the intimacy between them and the audience. The set, designed by Connie Smith, creates a unique world for each character: Charlie’s home in San Francisco, Bea’s in Hartford, and Maddy’s “front and center” world on the stage. This scenic design, combined with the intimate 400-seat Mainstage Theatre at UWF, will create a unique theatrical experience, different from any opera seen before in Pensacola.
The Music
Heggie uses a straightforward, tuneful, and clean musical language to tell the story of Three Decembers—almost a musical theatre style, paralleling Maddy’s world. His use of a chamber orchestra of eleven players clarifies the textures, putting the voices and text front and center through the piece. The vocal writing is always meant to serve the libretto, never getting in the way with superfluous high notes or coloratura.
One of Heggie’s biggest strengths is his melody writing. The melodies in Three Decembers are beautiful, lyrical lines that use Scheer’s text to tell the story in a clean and concise way. A great example of this is his duet between Charlie and Bea during Part One, when they visit the Golden Gate Bridge. The siblings are reminiscing about their limited memories of their father, who died when they were both quite young. Heggie sets this duet in A-flat, a very warm and wistful key. The main melody of the duet is very simple and stepwise, harkening back to Charlie and Bea as children, remembering their father—or, at least, parts of him.
Florentine Opera’s 2018 production of Three Decembers
Our Team
Kara Shay Thomson (Die Fledermaus, 2023; Tosca, 2013) headlines our three-person cast as Maddy. She’ll be joined by two of our 2025-26 Jan Miller Studio Artists, Denique Isaac as Bea and Jason Edelstein as Charlie.
Joshua Borths will direct, with Music Director Cody Martin conducting members of the Pensacola Symphony Orchestra. Sets & lighting design are by Connie Smith, with costumes by Kendall Dayton and hair & makeup design by Brittany Rappise. Nadine Andrews will stage manage.
Kara Shay Thomson
Madeline Mitchell
Denique Issac
Beatrice
Jason Edelstein
Charlie
Cody Martin
Conductor
