Six years after its world premiere at the Dallas Opera, Great Scott , by composer Jake Heggie and librettist Terrence McNally, was released on a beautifully produced DVD.

With all of its gags and allusions inside the opera, the work arguably tries to contain too many ideas, and it may be too smart for its own good. But in the intimacy of close-ups video, with a star-studded cast acting as vividly as it sings, the Dallas production touches deep emotions.

Ultimately, Big Scott draws on our own insecurities: fears of the passing of time, as the new generations hound us, and questions about our life choices. I was surprised to see some scenes move in a way that they weren’t at the Winspear Opera House.

Heggie’s operas – including Herman Melville’s operas Moby-dick , premiered by the Dallas Opera in 2010 – are decidedly populist. The same is true of 19th century operas, as are many American operas composed in the years following World War II.

McNally, who passed away in March 2020, was one of the most productive and successful playwrights, librettists and screenwriters of his time. An opera enthusiast himself – his play Master class , about the legendary soprano Maria Callas, won a Tony Award – he also had the common touch.

In the wake of many recent American operas inspired by literary works or recent historical figures, the characters and the story of Great Scott are original. Except they really aren’t. Like Strauss Ariane auf Naxos , this is an opera set on the staging of another opera, with comedic action behind the scenes. Like Strauss Der Rosenkavalier , it features a mature woman seeing herself overtaken by a younger one.

Opera-within-an-opera, sung in Italian, is the sending of a bel canto extravaganza of exaggerated dramas and vocal fireworks; there is even a scene of madness and a deus ex machina. In her prime, her heroine leaps into erupting Vesuvius in a life-saving self-sacrifice to Wagner’s Brünnhilde.

The core of Great Scott is it: Arden Scott returned to her midwestern hometown to star in the recently rediscovered Rosa Dolorosa, Figlia di Pompei. She reunited with the local business benefactor and her first mentor and supporter, Winnie Flato. (Flato’s money comes from her well-heeled husband, who owns the local football team, the Grizzlies, who will play in the Super Bowl on the same night as the opera’s late opening.)

Also appearing in Rosa Dolorosa is a fiercely ambitious Eastern European soprano, Tatyana Bakst, whom Scott considers to be beyond her own fame. Off the stage, Scott meets her former local boyfriend, architect Sid Taylor, with whom she broke a relationship to continue her travel career. Forgotten passions are rekindled.

Both dramatically and vocally, Joyce DiDonato embodies all the contrasting nuances of the title role. Indeed, Ailyn Pérez’s Tatyana threatens to steal the show, with dazzling vocalism and the ambition of a diva. A brilliant, soprano countertenor is a bit surprising in the role of stage manager Roane Heckle, but Anthony Roth Constanza plays it – and sings it – thoroughly.

In semi-retirement, beloved mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade has taken on a few older female roles, and here she is delightfully endearing as Winnie Flato. Baritone Nathan Gunn brings a warm ardor to the role of Sid Taylor. Kevin Burdette’s nervous intensity and brassy baritone ring true for conductor Eric Gold; he doubles as the ghost of Rosa Dolorosa the composer of Vittorio Bazzetti.

Two other singers vividly portray the clichés of opera: Rodell Rosel as a nervous and brilliant tenor and Michael Mayes as a baritone who loves to show off his muscular chest. (Opera regulars will recognize this latter role as a parody of Gunn, often so displayed in past productions.)

Apart from a scene where Tatyana sings the national anthem, Big Scott The Super Bowl counterpoint seems gratuitous and blurs dramatic attention. So, too, the scene with the ghost of Bazzetti, which lasts far too long. Otherwise, the opera combines wit and tenderness, and Heggie slips effortlessly among the pastiches of Strauss, Bellini and John Williams.

Director Jack O’Brien vividly brings every personality and interaction to life, with appropriate sets and costumes by Bob Crowley. Patrick Summers conducts with a sure and sensitive hand, and the Dallas Opera Orchestra responds with confidence. The Dallas Opera Chorus doesn’t have much to do, but it does it competently. Congratulations also to the video and audio teams who did an excellent job.

Details

Great Scott , by Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally. With Joyce DiDonato, Ailyn Pérez, Frederica von Stade, Nathan Gunn, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Dallas Opera Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Patrick Summers. (DVD Erato)