MY FRIEND FLICKA

Frederica von Stade (known to friends and fellow artists as “Flicka”) recently shared the stage of San Francisco’s Herbst Theater with a few of her performer pals in celebration of her “semi-retirement” from the opera stage.  The occasion was covered by David Littlejohn in his September 25, 2012 Wall Street Journal article entitled Singing Into Retirement http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203518404577096863265928578.html#articleTabs%3Darticle.

Littlejohn’s essay was a love letter embracing two sides of Ms. von Stade’s life: the well-known artist with unique and diverse talent and repertoire; and the mother, grandmother, wife, friend, mentor, and modern-day patron of the arts devoted to sustaining intergenerational love for opera and song.  The depth and perspective in Littlejohn’s approach to the article struck two chords in me:  First, for her healthy embracing of the melding of a robust professional career and a devoted personal life, as well as her grace and spirit in aging without allowing herself to become “old,” von Stade instantly became my friend;  Second, for his bonus to readers in the form of a thoughtful and empathic rendition of the attributes embodied in von Stade’s inner woman, along with his rendering of a professional summary which could only have been based on esoteric knowledge of the art world, Littlejohn became the object of intrigue for me.  Sure enough, my deep dive uncovered glittering treasures of correlation in the lives of these two artists.  

Like von Stade, Littlejohn has entered into what some may call “semi-retirement,” having rechanneled his life energy to writing now that he has closed the chapter on an illustrious 35-year career teaching English and journalism at the University of California at Berkeley.  The diversity of his career and work product parallel von Stade’s in many ways.  He has produced fifteen books, over 400 articles and 268 TV programs for PBS as their “Critic at Large.”  In that same three decade period, von Stade rose to worldwide prominence as a vocalist spanning classical to contemporary mastery. She has made over seventy recordings with every major label, including complete operas, aria albums, symphonic works, solo recital programs, and popular crossover albums, garnering six Grammy nominations, two Grand Prix du Disc awards, the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis, Italy’s Premio della Critica Discografica, and “Best of the Year” citations by Stereo Review and Opera News along the way.  http://www.fredericavonstade.com/biography.html. 

It is, in fact, awe-inspiring to compare diversity of accomplishment between von Stade and Littlejohn.  First wrap your mind around von Stade performing a serious, intimate duet from Claudio Monteverdi's "Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria" with Richard Stilwell, and then singing "Bosom Buddies," bawdy and bantering with Marilyn Horne.  Counter that image with Littlejohn’s range of authorship, from his comprehensive 16-essay survey of all things opera in The Ultimate Art: Essays Around and About Opera, to his intertwining of character, chaos and culture following 9 people affected by San Francisco’s greatest earthquake in The Big One).  von Stade’s talent has been proved in roles ranging from Rossini's The Barber of Seville and La Cenerentola, to Show Boat, The Sound of Music, and A Little Night Music. She has packed the house at 1991's A Carnegie Hall Christmas Concert, and has produced an LP album of Mahler songs praised as "cherishable" by Peter G. Davis of The New York Times http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederica_von_Stade.

Littlejohn’s books have heralded literature (Dr. Johnson: His Life in Letters, The André Gide Reader), culture, (Black on White: A Critical Survey of Writing by American Negroes and The Real Las Vegas) and fiction (The Man Who Killed Mick Jagger and Going to California), and he has been heralded with a Ph.D. from Harvard University, the prestigious Emeritus Professor from Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, and the 1985 Distinguished Teaching Award at University of California at Berkeley.

Finally, Littlejohn’s commitment mirrors von Stade’s as patron of the arts.  A step into her world reveals von Stade’s remarkable energy and enthusiastic support mentoring the range of students from kindergarten to conservatory; a turn into his and we see him relating as comfortably to the pathos of iconic opera characters as he does to the artists who portray them, writing opera reviews for lucky readers of the London Times and the Wall Street Journal.

On his Official Author’s Website, http://sbpra.com/davidlittlejohn/ Littlejohn’s introduction reads as follows:  “David Littlejohn was born in San Francisco, the descendant of 1850 gold-seekers.”  He seems to follow that familial pattern of finding treasure, sharing it with all who follow his work.  His is the compelling power of introduction which, when injected with the human touch, brings new friends into our world who in turn expand our universe.

And so I have two new friends whose work I will follow.  I see them as people and artists, living life to its fullest with the gifts they have been given.  And by the way, I see their pain.  In mid-life, von Stade suffered a long and arduous divorce which, she says, made her time onstage “the only time the lawyers could not get to me.”  Littlejohn, who lost his wife Sheila after 46 years of marriage (about which he has written another love letter, Poems for Sheila), is no stranger to adversity.  In his own words, http://redroom.com/member/david-littlejohn/bio “I broke my neck diving in a lake in the Sierra at 14, and walked around the world on crutches after that. Things took another dip later in life, and I’ve been using a wheelchair for the past ten years.”

Despite personal setbacks, both von Stade and Littlejohn have brought their lives to work every day, and lived them to the full.  As my research concludes, I take one more peek – this time into works that reveal something of each of their souls.  In What Good Teachers Say About Teaching (Distinguished Teaching Award in Journalism from UC Berkeley in 1985), David said, ”I believe that a teacher's own energy, dedication, and conviction can be the most effective means of engaging, persuading, and exciting students. I believe that every class, whether a 12-person seminar or a lecture to 500, should be a kind of theater, an intellectual scene more charged, more shapely, and more rewarding than most hours we spend in ‘real life.’"  He goes on to characterize the role of mentor as “the manner of friend to friend” and his dedication to high-standard writing as an homage to a now-deceased mentor of his own, “He's dead now, but I'm still writing for him, trying to make my words clearer and more honest, as if he were still reading everything I write. If I can convince my students that I care about them and their work, they may go on trying to be better writers (and perhaps better people) too." http://teaching.berkeley.edu/goodteachers/littlejohn.html

For her part, Flicka is devoted to her own legacy and to the formation and realization of the dreams of her children and her children's children.  In her April 2010 farewell recital at Carnegie Hall, she crowned a critically-acclaimed performance with a personal touch as her daughter Jenny Rebecca, pregnant with her granddaughter (now 20-month-old Charlotte Frederica), waddled onto the stage and sang with her Chris Brubeck’s “Across Your Dreams” in tribute to daughters. Foreshadowing her plans to make grandmother duties a retirement priority, Flicka joined her daughter as together they sang,

“Close your eyes, child; starry skies, child. Wish I could see where you go when you're fast asleep. Across your dreams, there is a still enchanted land, an unknown peace, I wish to understand. A moonlit shore, a crystal palace waiting there; which unseen hands have fashioned out of air….Close your eyes, child. Go to sleep. Our love follows you, across your dreams.”

Frederica von Stade and David Littlejohn are both actively engaged in arts pursuit, ironically in the same geographical circle.  She says she may accept a role or two, because “You've got something that's given pleasure to people, use it.”  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203518404577096863265928578.html#articleTabs%3Darticle.

He has a work-in-progress memoir of his life which he has entitled I Can’t Feel a Thing.”  Both are interested supporters who will no doubt find, introduce and inspire new artists and (to use Flicka’s term) “push them upstage.”

I’ll be watching.  I’m always looking for new friends.