Vera of Las Vegas

Hagen and Muldoon, after the 1993 success of their first opera Shining Brow, determined to create a three-act opera called Grand Concourse. Although the opera Vera of Las Vegas is published separately and may be performed as a freestanding work, the three-act opera is still considered a "work in progress" by the authors. The first act (in 2010 still awaiting adaptation by Hagen) was to be based on Muldoon's pre-existing play (originally commissioned and produced by McCarter Theatre, Princeton) Six Honest Serving Men. The second act was to be Vera of Las Vegas, with a co-written treatment by Muldoon and Hagen based on characters introduced in the first act. Hagen and Muldoon co-wrote a detailed treatment for Grand Concourse. The final act was set to take place on 9-11. In 2010, it awaits a libretto by Muldoon and musical completion by Hagen.

The School of Music at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (as a showcase for its faculty and opera program) commissioned Vera of Las Vegas in 1995. Since the work was to be the centerpiece of a trilogy, Hagen elected to make a live recording rather than authorize a staged premiere. It was recorded to 24 tracks in March 1996 at the Artemus W. Ham Concert Hall in Las Vegas. Hagen, at the Bard College Electronic Music Studio in April–May 1996, oversaw post-production mixing, editing and recording of extensive overdubs, performing many of them. After final mastering in New York in June 2003, the opera gained the distinction of being the final release of Composers Recordings, Inc. As such, it received no publicity, was not shipped to stores, and was not reviewed. Nevertheless, the first pressing sold out within nine months, partly due to the fact that Carl Fischer Music, the publisher of the music, included the recording as part of the published vocal score. Although available as part of the Database of Recorded American Music and as a print-to-order item in the New World Records catalogue, physical copies of the actual release are extremely rare.

Hagen conceived of the title role specifically for countertenor Charles Maxwell, who recorded it. American drag artist and playwright Shequida performed the role for its world premiere. The first non-African-American to sing the role was Jonathan Peter Kenny, in Opera Theatre Company's European premiere and Irish tour during November–December 2006.[2]

Originally scored by Hagen for 22-player "big band plus strings" and recorded in that version, Hagen reduced the instrumentation to quartet (piano / synthesizer; reeds; bass; drums) for its New York production, cut some of the "Wedding Chapel Chorus", added minimal underscoring, and bows music. It is in this version that the opera is most frequently revived. In 2011, Hagen made a Kleine Mahagonny (10 player, similar to Weill/Brechts Little Mahagonny / Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny) version for the West Coast premiere by Berkely West Edge Opera.[3]

"On one level, the opera ... concerns a journey to the center of modern America ("center" is a word that gets bandied about a lot in Vera, and undermined). It is a place of materialism, greed, mechanical pleasures and phony appearances, an alienating labyrinth in which the Irish travelers become lost and transformed. To this extent, the book hints at allegiance with Hunter S. Thompson's nightmare novel, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, another phantasmagoric journey to the heart of darkness. Early on, in reply to Dumdum's remark "the heart of America", Taco responds, "built of sand". Yet, the opera announces its origins in the nightmare of Northern Ireland's Troubles by repeated references to Ulster place names, horrid flashbacks to obscure scenes of murder. The flashbacks revolve around the brutal killing of Dessie Gillespie, to which Taco confesses towards the close,[4] writes Jonathan Allison. "This 'nightmare cabaret opera' extends Six Honest Serving Men and implies a way, through conscience and 'something like a confession', to a point where things might begin to become more clear."[5] reads the dust jacket of the libretto.

In an interview with John Clare, Hagen described the opera's score as "[Walking] the fine line between pastiche and inspiration. It is meant to sound as though the music is wildly postmodern, even self-indulgently "out of control." This effect could only be achieved through painstaking technical procedures that are, if anything, distinctly modernist."[6] In the liner notes to the recording, Russell Platt describes the authors' creative chemistry: "When joined, each artist's singular complexity complements the other's. If Muldoon's tone can seem cool, then Hagen's music can turn up the heat; if Muldoon's words sometimes distract us with their dazzle, Hagen's passionate sounds magnify the human element."[7] In a preface to the vocal score, Hagen writes, "The musical score shifts style from moment to moment while, at a deeper level, the entire affair unfolds from a single D–A–B-flat melodic motive grafted to a rhythmic cell. The intentionally Technicolor, superficially-tawdry, seemingly raw, decadent musical eclecticism runs in febrile counterpoint to the libretto's verbal flights."[8] In the same preface, Muldoon responds, "What has made working with Daron Hagen such a pleasure is the extent to which he understands the possibilities for tripping the light fantastic on the coal-carriage of a runaway train. Or, again, what seems to be a runaway train."[8]