Enrico Garzilli is an accomplished composer, pianist, organist, author, and poet who has written the music, libretti, and lyrics to four musicals.
By Jennifer Sherwood ’89Photo by Nora Lewis
Enrico Garzilli knows real passion. Not the insipid emotion we are barraged with by reality TV and its like. He is interested in the kind of passion that can survive despite such overwhelming obstacles as personal violence, political oppression, and mental illness.
He is an accomplished composer, pianist, organist, author, and poet who has written the music, libretti, and lyrics to four musicals. His subjects include the tormented yet steadfast medieval lovers Héloïse and Abelard; the author F. Scott Fitzgerald and his volatile wife, Zelda; and a pair of lovers on opposite sides of the Berlin Wall.
Rage of the Heart, set in the Middle Ages, is Garzilli's most acclaimed work. It was produced by First Night Records in London and released on Virgin/EMI. The recording features Michael Ball, Britain’s leading musical star, as Abelard. It was orchestrated by David Cullen (a renowned musical orchestrator who often works with Andrew Lloyd Webber) and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra. It was also presented in concert at URI’s Fine Arts Center Recital Hall several years ago.
The story of Rage of the Heart is dramatic, riveting, and historically true. Abelard was a revered teacher and philosopher in the early 1100s. Fatefully, he became the teacher of Héloïse, a young Parisian woman of unusual intelligence and beauty. They secretly married after she became pregnant. In retaliation, her enraged uncle had Abelard castrated. Although Héloïse retreated to a convent in Argenteuil, she and Abelard remained devoted to one another to the end of their days.
Garzilli’s musical setting of this story has breathed new life into these lovers and illuminated an interesting piece of history. On hearing a selection from the recording, one is struck by the melodic beauty of Garzilli’s writing. The song “Dear Husband, Dear Wife,” expresses Héloïse’s continuing love for Abelard despite his castration—“I loved the person, not merely the man.”
Enrico Garzilli, who received a URI Alumni Award for Achievement in the Arts at Winter Homecoming in January 2004, is a fascinating man. He is a gracious host, a careful listener, and a passionately devoted musician. His excitement about literature, philosophy, and music is infectious, and his conversation touches on a broad range of topics. As you listen, you become aware that he holds multiple degrees from institutions of higher learning, reads Latin and several other languages, plays the piano and organ professionally, composes instrumental works, is a published author, and has a deep understanding of comparative literature. Yet, in spite of his many accomplishments, he remains a modest man.
Perhaps his modesty arises from the fact that he is not product oriented. As Garzilli explains, “I’m detached from the outcome of my work. What’s most important to me is the process and the journey of creation. That is the real reward.” He is just as comfortable setting psalms to music in his work as the music director of Kingston Congregational Church as he is writing a musical commissioned for a nine-part German television series.
Garzilli began studying music at a very young age. He was composing by age 12 and as a teenager performed regularly on radio and TV. Interestingly, none of his degrees have been in music. “I’ve had the luxury of picking out the best musical mentors for myself,” Garzilli notes. One important mentor was Dr. C. Alexander Peloquin, the music director of the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul in Providence and a resident composer at Boston College. Dr. Peloquin was a noted religious music composer with more than 150 works to his name. Especially known for bringing new excitement to liturgical music, he was influenced by the jazz rhythms and harmonies of such composers as George Gershwin, Aaron Copland, and Leonard Bernstein.
Garzilli shares his mentor’s open-minded attitude. “I am influenced by everybody,” he says. “I listen to jazz, country, classical, pop—everything interests me.” This comes through in the breadth of subjects he has used for his musicals. Rage of the Heart is set in the Middle Ages; Save Me the Waltz is set in the roaring ’20s; and Shadow of the Wall is set in Germany during the fall of the Berlin Wall.
His style is flexible enough to make each musical setting distinctive. “When you are writing text and character,” Garzilli explains, “each person has his or her own voice. The same is true for music. F. Scott Fitzgerald will not sound like Abelard. And Berlin in the 1990s has an entirely different sound again.”
Garzilli comes by his subject matter naturally. He holds an M.A. in English literature from URI and a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Brown. His book on literary criticism, Circles Without Center: Paths to the Discovery and Creation of Self in Modern Literature, was published by Harvard University Press. He has successfully melded his two loves—music and literature—in his musical theater work. It is not an easy path—the world of musical theater is a notoriously difficult and competitive.
Garzilli relates a story from Save Me the Waltz that summarizes his approach to art—and perhaps life. “In Save Me the Waltz, Fitzgerald is having trouble with Tender is the Night. He is drinking heavily and gets extremely drunk at Gerald Murphy’s party. After Fitzgerald is thrown out of the house, Hemingway tells him to ‘stop worrying about the fate of your work. You’re a writer and what a writer has to do is write.’
“You have to love what you’re doing,” Garzilli continues. “It is so easy to be discouraged, and to continue you must have a real belief in yourself.” His life is a reflection of his philosophy. Whether he is teaching, composing, writing, cooking or gardening, he radiates a sense of calm purpose. And the results are truly dramatic.
Jennifer Sherwood is the director of development and marketing for Turtle Bay Music School in New York City.
