Do Worry, Be unHappy

Bobby McFerrin was supposed to write an opera. His song “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” had made him a household name by the late 1980s, but at that time he also seemed to be excelling at everything, from arranging to conducting. In the early 1990s I launched an ambitious commissioning program for San Francisco Opera, one that would result in new works by John Adams, André Previn, Jake Heggie, Conrad Susa, and Stewart Wallace. McFerrin was also on that list — for a long, long time. He responded with nary a note of music. This, in spite of the fact that I had not one, not two, but three different librettos written for him.

Tony Kushner, who was riding a wave of acclaim for his Angels in America, was my initial choice as librettist, with Peter Sellars as dramaturge. For his subject matter Tony chose Saint Cecilia, or The Power of Music, a short story by Heinrich von Kleist. It was an inspired idea. When I received Tony’s finished work, I read it from beginning to end in one sitting. Poetic, powerful, and Wagnerian in scope, it was quite simply brilliant. I had tears in my eyes when I was done, and I could not wait to hear how McFerrin would set it. As it turned out, I had to wait. And wait. And wait. When it became clear that McFerrin could do nothing with Saint Cecilia, Tony generously offered to write something else that would perhaps be more suited to McFerrin’s talents. This second libretto was based on Tony’s personal childhood experiences growing up in the south during the civil rights movement. Charming, sweet, and simple, I thought. This is going to be right up McFerrin’s alley! It wasn’t. At this point, Tony was understandably disinclined to go any further.

Next I turned to Ishmael Reed, who came up with a promising libretto titled Gethsemane Park. Drawing on Biblical parables, it was perhaps more of an oratorio than an opera, but at this point I would have settled for a semi-staged program of choruses and improvised songs from McFerrin. While he talked endlessly of this idea and that, he delivered nothing. I did worry and I wasn’t happy. Years passed with nothing to show for our efforts but a lot of wasted time and money. McFerrin talked a good game but he simply didn’t have an opera in him.

We still had the three librettos. What a shame it would have been to let them gather dust. Despite the fact that we had paid for them, we released all rights. Gethsemane Park became a gospel opera with music by Carman Moore produced by the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre. Saint Cecilia, sadly, remains a great “what if.” It is my profound hope that Tony might yet find the right composer and the right company. If that happens, I am convinced that the opera world will see something extraordinary.

As for Kushner’s second libretto, it was picked up by the Public Theater in New York City, which delivered it into the capable hands of composer Jeanine Tesori. It became a Tony award-winning hit on Broadway with the name of Caroline, or Change.