The American composer is best known for his operas, which tackle painful and difficult topics – and his path to success has been anything but ordinary, writes Kate Wakeling
‘In myteens, I wrote a lot of songs for Barbra Streisand,’ says composer Jake Heggie with a smile. ‘This was the 1970s and she was a superstar. She never saw any of them but she was the voice that blew me away – voices have always been my inspiration.’ If Heggie wrote a song for Streisand today, it’s hard to imagine she wouldn’t leap at the chance to sing it. Heggie is now a superstar in his own right. The Wall Street Journal has declared him ‘arguably the most popular 21st-century opera and art song composer’ and he has achieved breathtaking success with his richly scored, emotionally charged vocal works for stage and concert hall.
This year has brought some especially glittering engagements: a new production of Heggie’s (2000) starring Joyce DiDonato, receives its world premiere at Houston Grand Opera this autumn, starring Jamie Barton and Janai Brugger as Civil War spies.
