REVIEW
SEQUENZA21 Review, May 27-June3
(Go to Sequenza21 website)
Caught
in the Act
John Eaton's "...inasmuch"
Marks Pocket Opera NY Debut
by Jerry
Bowles
In a time and
place where people with more money than sense are willing to shell out
$2500 a ticket to scalpers on the off chance that a sickly, overweight
and over-the-hill Italian tenor might actually show up for his farewell
performance, the debut of composer John Eaton’s formerly Chicago-based
“pocket opera” company is a welcome dose of reality. Too much of
New York’s music scene is about big, expensive “events” and celebrity ego-stroking
which has more news value than artistic merit. The Metropolitan Opera,
which is rolling in cash but still feels obligated to have its professional
almspeople phone me three nights a week begging for more, is the worst
offender but it is hardly alone.
Fortunately,
there are a handful of genuine music lovers who want to make opera and
classical music more accessible and egalitarian. A University of
Chicago Professor of Music and composer, Eaton calls his company a “pocket
opera,” which is just about right. There are other pocket opera companies,
of course. San Francisco has had one for 25 years. England
has one. Scandinavia has many. What they have in common is that they tend
to stage their shows with a handful of instrumentalists, a few vocalists
and creative lighting, rather than with the elaborate sets, full orchestra
and dozens of cast members. Rather than being hidden away in
the orchestra pit, the instrumentalists are on often stage during the entire
production–and they wear modest or partial costumes, sing, move and speak,
in addition to playing their instruments. Many of these operas can
be performed by amateur groups and Eaton, as a composer, often encourages
performers to make do with whatever resources they have on hand.
Eaton has written
at least 14 such operas, the first of which was the critically acclaimed
Peer Gynt, based on the play by Ibsen and originally performed in 1993
by the New York New Music Ensemble. In the program notes for Tuesday
night’s performance at the newly refurbished “Peter Norton” Symphony Space,
Eaton writes that they (the instrumentalists) are “not expected to be experienced,
professional actors, singers or dancers…In all cases, the stage directions
are to be interpreted freely, enhanced if they can be or simplified in
situations where they can not be realized as given.”
Obviously, having
amateur actors clomping around the stage in silly hats works best if it
is supposed to be funny and Eaton has taken some of Ibsen’s heavier Freudian
swords and bent them into genuinely amusing Classic Comicbook plowshares.
Clarinetist Jean Kopperud, as the intrepid Peer Gynt captures just the
right mix of swaggering spoiled male bravado and thickheadedness to keep
the character honest. Played by a man, Peer might have been more
real but he certainly wouldn’t have been as funny. Ted Mook, the
cellist, was lovely as the raped bride. Listened to casually, Eaton’s
score sounds deceptively simple but when you pay more attention you realize
that much of the dialogue, and most of the mood, is being carried by the
music—not the words. Conductor James Baker did a great job of keeping
his musicians from running over each other.
The second
half of Tuesday’s program was devoted to the premiere of Eaton’s
latest pocket opera called “…inasmuch,” a whimsical fantasy
based on an idea of Eugene Walter and brought to life by the composer’s
daughter, librettist Estela Eaton. Written for three coloratura sopranos,
mezzo-soprano, tenor, baritone, jazz singer and seven instrumentalists,
the plot is about as dense as a Moliere farce or, perhaps a year’s worth
of “One Life to Live.” Esperanto (Jeffrey McCollum) is
in love with Mediana (Sharon Quattrin) who is in love with Tense-Marker
(Atoninette Arnold) who finds shipwrecked Adam (Mark J. Meier) washed up
on their Caribbean Island. Soon, Adam discovers and falls in
love with the beautiful Zamala (Hyoun-soo Sohn) who can only communicate
through three parrots (Quattrin, Arnold and Bridget Wintermann-Parker)
who speak a lost Aztec language. She falls for Adam and they plan to marry.
But, alas, with the help of Schwa (Stacia Spencer), Esperanto kidnaps the
birds and plans to commercialize them by having them perform in an infomercial
for a cruise line.
Adam and
Mediana rescue them and Adam returns the parrots to Zamala. Happy
ending? No way. This is opera, after all, and it ends with
Zamala singing a lament to her lost love.
Eaton’s
music is bright and engaging throughout and, unlike Peer Gynt,
which makes few tough vocal demands, ‘…inasmuch” required some real stretching
on the part of the singers, especially Mark J. Meier in Adam’s opening
prologue number and the exquisite Hyoun-soo Sohn in a couple of Zamala’s
arias. Indeed, everyone in the cast was superb which, of course,
is something one can rarely say about a production at some better-known
local venues. The piece was conducted by the sure-handed Carmen
Helena Tellez, one of the quiet forces behind the promotion of contemporary
music in America today.
All in
all, an auspicious beginning for what we hope will become a New York institution.
So, it wasn’t Pavarotti but the singers not only showed up but sang their
hearts out and it was only twenty bucks.
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