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OPERA REVIEW
Four Saints: A Romp in a Spirited Production December 7, 2001
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By Benjamin Frandzel
When Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson created Four
Saints in Three Acts nearly seventy years ago, they
may not have realized their work, with its sheer and deliberate
lack of gravity, would prove epecially enduring. There being no overt meaning or message in Stein's playful, repetitive libretto, a choice of
interpretation is wide open. And Thomson's sweetly
simple settings have a folksy sturdiness that helps
the piece remain available to almost any capable
treatment. Whether it all adds up to a sublime flight
of imagination or just plain silliness depends largely
on the performance and the audience members'
willingness to go along for the ride.
In front of a small but engaged crowd at the new Oakland Metro
theater Friday, Oakland Opera Theater's new production
suggested both conclusions at times, in a production
marked by energy, budding talents but also inconsistency. Many aspects of the performance — the close proximity of
performers and audience, the multimedia additions, the
energy and humor of the mostly young cast, the
creativity behind the sets and direction with a
limited budget — are signs of a developing, adventurous
company. Being in the growth stages doesn't make it
easy to pull off the demands of this opera, though,
and several of the company's voices are simply too
young to carry this piece.
Certain indiviual performances were effective in context, such as Cynthia Taylor's sassy
Commère and Michael Mohammed's fiery St. Ignatius, but
their voices, if not their spirits, are more aligned
with the world of musical theater and wouldn't have
worked in a more conventional opera. Then again,
conventional operas aren't what this experimental
company does.
Among other cast members, several voices stood out for their excellence. As St. Thérèse, Jennifer Boesing carried her role with a convincing, heartfelt sincerity both vocally and theatrically. Ken Berry made a delightfully impish St. Chavez and was especially valuable in enriching many of the quartets and ensembles. Also the fine work of John Minagro, bass, lent a satirical authority to Compère, Commère's crony in guiding the proceedings. Musical Director Deirdre McClure deserves a hand for her sure sense of the work's ebb and flow and for marshalling a coherent ensemble performance from a cast of such varied ability. The only live instruments were accordion and trumpet, against a recording of the remaining ensemble. While live musicians would have been the more welcome choice, Mark Schleunes' excellent recording and sound design made up for the full chamber orchestra's absence as well as possible. The looseness of Stein's text allows for any number of staging approaches, and its silliness also let the cast have plenty of fun. Director Tom Dean's treatment had many amusing touches. Some of them could have dated from the work's earliest productions, such as the games of patty cake and the square dancing and backwoods accents that accompanied the musical question "how many windows and how many doors?" Others were more contemporary, like high fives, the brief morphing of the cast into the Jets and Sharks, and the hilarious self-flagellation of St. Ignatius.
OOT added a multimedia element, projections of digital video by Ethan Hoerneman, which consisted of portions of the text set in one side of an illuminated manuscript, with live footage on the other page. The video also included some self-referential touches, with images of Stein and Thomson collaborating at the moment when, onstage, Boesing switched to the role of Stein struggling to complete the text. Although the lightness of the text doesn't really require that we read it, its projected appearance did make up for some occasionally slippery diction, as well as unmatched attacks and releases by the larger ensemble. On the facing page of the book, we saw footage framed in a deliberately overdone style you might call 'gothic camp,' with characters frolicking outdoors, saints or deities engaged in cosmic travel, or simply close-ups of cast members singing simultaneously with their live counterparts. Although this dimension of the production didn't strike me as essential, it added interest to a work whose primary challenge in staging is its lack of a traditional storyline. Oakland Opera Theater comes across as a company growing into itself, and its new venue is an exciting part of this. Newly unveiled, Oakland Metro has intimate atmosphere which made the production probably much more appealing than it would have been in a larger theatre. It was also a reminder that Four Saints is, in its origins, an “outsider” opera, which had its premiere in an art gallery's theater, not an opera house. The Metro's apparent past life as a club also allowed for a cute staging touch, with Commère and Compère, attired in formal wear, making much of their commentary while relaxing at the bar. Located at the heavily-trafficked corner of 2nd and Broadway, this theater also helps fill a serious void of smaller performance spaces in Oakland, especially downtown. OOT plans to begin sharing the space with other performing arts groups beginning early next year. (Benjamin Frandzel is a Bay Area musician and writer. In addition to writing concert music, he has collaborated with dance, theater, and visual artists, and has written about music for many publications and musical organizations. He is currently a graduate student in composition at San Francisco State University. ) ©2001 Benjamin Frandzel, all rights reserved |