Performances of Peer Gynt, Youth, and Golk Chernin Center for the Arts, Duncan YMCA, Chicago

Many composers in recent decades have turned to more intimate forms of theater than traditional grand opera, usually as much for economic reasons as for artistic ones. Concertgoers have also observed composers assembling their own troupes of performers who can be trained in the specific demands of their works over an extended period of time.

One happy confluence of these two trends is John Eaton's Pocket Opera Company of Chicago, which this week is presenting three short operas at the Chernin Center for the Arts at the Duncan YMCA.

Though these operas require minimal sets, props and lighting effects, there was nothing chintzy about the considerable musical and dramatic skills on display by these young performers.

Next up was the premier of "Youth," with libretto by Estella Eaton. Here the division of labor was more traditional, as the company's trained vocalists joined the mostly stationary instrumentalists. The plot was the most vague of the three operas, with various mythical characters superimposed onto a contemporary setting. Here, as elsewhere, the English supertitles were unnecessary, as the singers's diction was uniformly excellent. Eaton's highly disjunct vocal lines require great agility and control, and soprano Sharon Quattrin and baritone Jeffrey McCollum were up to the task. Mezzo Jean Marie Minton was excellent as the earth goddess and junkie Gaia.
>>>In both conception and execution, the third opera, Golk, was the most successful. In the libretto by Richard Stern, the title character is the host of a television show in which unsuspecting people are "golked," victimized somewhat in the manner of "Candid Camera," but with consequences more sinister and permanent. (Craig) Trompeter, as the dentist Poppa Hondorp, was again impressive in his mastery of multiple skills. Tenor Mark James Meier not only sang with consummate skill, but exhibited some of the evening's most impressive acting.

Here, as in "Youth," jazz singer Stacia Spenser provided a welcome foil to the heavier voices in the rest of the cast. Kudos also to conductor Carmen Tellez, who unobtrusively kept the operas moving through a variety of complex scenarios.