July 5, 1976
TRIAL AND TRIUMPH
Alan Rich, New York Magazine
Supposing I were to tell you that a New York judge had composed an opera on a Bicentennial theme, with a juicy soprano role for his wife. And then, supposing I told you that the opera in question, Mary Dyer, by the Honorable Richard Owen of the U.S. District Court (Southern District) turns out to be a work of remarkable merit, and that, at it’s premiere, Judge Owen’s wife (Met soprano Lynn Owen) sang beautifully. Wouldn't you be surprised?
Mary Dyer has been knocking around for a few years; it was supposed to have been done in Boston last season, but money could not be raised. It was finally given a couple of weeks ago at Rockland Community College in Suffern, New York, outdoors on a chill and windy Saturday night. I thought I’d drop in out of neighborliness for a few moments, but stayed through the whole thing with pleasure.
Mary Dyer concerns a historical character, a Quaker hanged in Boston around 1660 for defying the puritanical Governor Endicott. Judge Owen wrote his own libretto. His musical style falls under that all-purpose term “conservative,” which means in this case the use of clear tonalities, and of rather old-fashioned operating writing. The piece uses a large cast, a sizeable orchestra and a big choral ensemble.