A Note from the Composer
Matthew Recio
We share life experiences across generations. “The Puppy Episode” highlights a milestone for many queer people, depicting the shared moment of self-discovery that allows us to feel seen. When Ellen DeGeneres came out on television in the 90’s her career was terminated. I was struck by the notice used before her episode, “parental discretion is advised.” There was no physical contact in the episode, nothing lude, just a simple coming out statement for the character that was deemed inappropriate content. We would now consider that discretionary warning as something archaic because it dehumanizes an individual’s heartfelt personal narrative. I find it crucial to remember that this took place in the recent past, nearly thirty years ago, especially as we continue to fight for human rights from the queer community.
Working on the staged version with Oberlin has provided a new insight into the work and the importance of telling this story. I have been so impressed and moved by how the students have invested themselves into the characters. They are allowing themselves to create authentic confrontations and reactions that the opera encounters, which is a testament to Royce's libretto. Multiple students have told me that they can see themselves in these characters, which was my hope in creating this work from the beginning.
As a bisexual man I have had to unlearn a lot of what society presents about gender roles and sexual identity, and I wanted to create an opera that embodies the queer experience. I wanted to represent stories from my queer community and show the audience the perspective from across generations. Everyone’s path is different, and Royce and I wanted to tell authentic stories that revolve around the coming out experience we share as a community. This story has a surrealist sense, where the comedian stands as an ethereal thread, weaving in and out of each of the principal characters’ lives. Most importantly, this opera deals with nuanced characters in experiences with which we can all relate: the vulnerability of first crushes and love, caring for a family member that suffers from chronic illness, and marriages and relationships that encounter heartbreak.
A Note from the Librettist
Royce Vavrek
The Puppy Episode is by far the most autobiographical of the librettos I’ve written thus far. I was fourteen years old when Ellen DeGeneres’s coming out episode aired, an episode that I, like the character Gil, taped onto VHS after my father forbade me from watching it. Imagining fictional characters whose lives are changed on the evening of the broadcast was a way for me to celebrate Ellen’s bravery, and to reflect on a night in my childhood that remains one of the most inspiring artistic achievements that I’ve encountered.
Ellen’s sitcom would be cancelled just the next year, lobbed with criticism that the show had become “too gay.” It completely terrified me: one minute a cultural hero, the next moment everything is silent. That Ellen has since transcended that mistreatment to become one of the most famous celebrities on the planet must be seen as poetic justice.
I still have the VHS tape with “The Puppy Episode,” a portal back to that night and to the source of the seismic reverberations that are still felt. I am so grateful that 14-year-old me had Ellen to idolize. And I’ve never stopped.