A Door Into Opera

My friend Tony Plog writes operas. So do I.

Tony, known to the brass and music worlds as Anthony Plog, has enjoyed a remarkable career as orchestra musician, trumpet soloist, recording artist, masterclass teacher, and brass instructor. Somewhere early in his career he decided to try his hand as a composer, and the result has been hundreds of compositions for instruments and voices. 

A few years ago Tony decided to write an opera. Did I want to collaborate? 

Tony didn’t know it, but that was exactly what I wanted to do. I had left the world of music years earlier and ever since had longed to return, if only in some peripheral way. Here was a chance to combine music with writing. I had been a novelist and playwright; maybe, reaching back across my life, I could recapture some of my music skills and become a librettist.

Over the next several years we wrote, and are writing, two operas for children, How the Trumpet Got Its Toot (shown here) and A Letter to Santa; as well as two operas for general audiences, Sweeping the Stars and Theremin.  

We also composed cantatas on issues of social justice: God’s First Temples and Magdalene: A Thistle Farms Cantata.

Both Tony and I found the work to be immensely gratifying, and we enjoyed working together. What we lacked, it occurred to us, was a group to interact with—in other words, a door into opera. 

We found it, and next time I’ll tell you how.