Gordon Getty – Plump Jack (Concert Version)

The three plays of Henry the Fourth and  Fifth add literary invention to famous history. This rooting in fact, as with Julius Caesar, seems to give them a head start toward a story line more plausible and vital than what we expect from the time. I found them an easy choice when Sam Wannamaker suggested in 1982 that I should set something by Shakespeare. The opera grew by pieces. A part of what is now the Boar’s Head Inn scene was performed by John Del Carlo and Paul Sperry and the San Francisco Symphony in 1985. Within two years I had added Shallow’s Orchard, Banishment and Off to War, and all four scenes were performed by the same forces with added singers and chorus. I then filled out the story with spoken scenes, changing Shakespeare as little as possible, and gradually set those spoken scenes to music as I came to realize that I could not control moods and inflections in any other way.