New Opera Focuses on Bill Clinton's Life

If any recent president's life is the stuff of operas, it's Bill Clinton's. There's been comedy, drama, back-stabbing, shouting, crying, death, and many miraculous comebacks. But that's real life. Now art will be imitating life in a project coming together in Little Rock and meant to show how his struggles as a kid raised by a fun-loving mother influenced the making of the 42nd president.

Billy Blythe features "a snapshot of a day of his life in Hot Springs in the 1950s," says the opera's producer, Bonnie Montgomery to our Suzi Parker. "Clinton's life is very operatic, over the top, the perfect operatic vision," says the classically trained musician whose goal is making opera "hip."

The opera's title comes from Bubba's birth name, William Jefferson Blythe III. His dad died before his birth and his mom, Virginia, married Roger Clinton when Bill was four (though he didn't take the family name until high school). Clinton's recent autobiography colors Montgomery's opera. "He paints this myth, it's storytelling, beautiful, and imaginative writing," says Montgomery. And Clinton's mother, she adds, "is guiding me inspirationally."

So what's it all mean? The day-in-the-life of Bill Clinton "shows a pivotal moment in Billy Blythe's coming of age because he has to stand up to his step-father, Roger Clinton, in a life-changing domestic conflict," Montgomery says in a reference to a oft-told story about how Bill challenged his physically abusive stepdad. "The day will also show his relationship to his family and community, and the internal struggles and inspirations within himself that became themes throughout his life and presidency," she says.

Montgomery, who came up with the idea, is writing the music and created the storyline. Poet Britt Barber is writing the words. Montgomery is in negotiations with theaters in Little Rock to begin work this fall. She says Clinton supports her effort.

Illustration by Ed Wexler for USN&WR.

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