Gene Scheer, the librettist, frequently collaborates with Jake Heggie, with four of their works premiering at Houston Grand Opera, and has also worked with composers like Tobias Picker and Jennifer Higdon.
Compositional Technique
The opera "Intelligence" incorporates dance and movement as essential to its storytelling, due to the unknown aspects of the historical figures' lives, with eight dancers from the Urban Bush Women company featured.
Composition History
The idea for "Intelligence" came to the creators after a docent at the Smithsonian Institution in 2015 directed them to a New York Times op-ed about a Black spy in the Confederate White House.
Composition History
The opera "Intelligence" was conceived by composer Jake Heggie, librettist Gene Scheer, and director/choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, and commissioned by Houston Grand Opera.
Composer's Artistic Vision
The creators of "Intelligence" describe it as an American story, based on a troubled shared history, rather than solely a white or Black story, inviting conversation about race relations and who has the right to tell the story.
Composer Biography
Jake Heggie, the composer, is known for "Dead Man Walking," the most widely performed new opera of the last 25 years, and has composed 10 full-length operas and over 300 art songs.
Historical Context
The opera "Intelligence" explores the story of two women spies, Elizabeth Van Lew and Mary Jane Bowser, in Richmond, Virginia, during the American Civil War, whose network contributed to Union victories.
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