American composer John Harbison grew up listening to the Saturday afternoon broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera, so on today’s date in 1999 it must have been gratifying to celebrate his 61st birthday taking curtain calls there when his opera The Great Gatsby premiered at the Met.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, a devastating evocation of America’s Roaring 20s, is a regular contender for the title of the “Great American Novel,” but Harbison says when he told his mother he was writing an opera based on it she wasn’t very enthusiastic, arguing that the novel’s characters were an unsympathetic bunch. Gatsby, the novel’s anti-hero is a both a fraud and a crook. Daisy, Gatsby’s lost love and the object of his obsessive desire, is selfish, spoiled and shallow.

But Harbison saw it differently: “Yearning and despair are very big operatic themes,” he said. “As for the character of Gatsby, he takes a lot of risks and is steadfast and loyal to some vision that is not realistically possible. The opera provides many opportunities to look at to what degree he's an impostor, and to what degree his story is real, which is a big American theme in general.”

John Harbison (b. 1938): Remembering Gatsby; Minnesota Orchestra; Edo de Waart, conductor; Vol. 11, from Minnesota Orchestra at 100 special edition boxed CD set