San Francisco Classical Voice

Imagine Offenbach's opera The Tales of Hoffman subjected to outrageous parody, with a lurid, surrealistic treatment of the plot and characters. That is what British composer Judith Weir has done in her hour-long opera Heaven Ablaze In His Breast, based on the E.T.A. Hoffman story which was Offenbach's source.

Heaven Ablaze is the second half of a double bill presented by the College of Marin's Summer Opera '99 in its Fine Arts Theater in Kentfield, and seen last Sunday.

In this opera, just as in the Offenbach, the young poet Nicholas, well sung and acted by tenor Mark Mueler, falls under the sway of evil Dr. Coppelius. Later, Nicholas becomes infatuated with Olympia, the mechanical singing doll. But Weir has made Coppelius a truly over-the-top mad scientist (tellingly performed by actor Dan Carbone) who may have experimented on Nicholas' own father, this version suggests. Nicholas himself is a completely self-centered romantic idealist for whom fantasy and reality are in constant collision.

The composer plays upon the bizarre excesses of her characters by immersing them in comic and grotesque musical parodies" echooes from the ballet Coppelia, a mock Donizetti opera scene arising from a melodramatic confrontation, the funeral of Nicholas' father accompnied by a robotic chorus singing Dona nobis pacem (at the end of which the father is transformed into Coppelius).

Then there is the crazy and mechanical coloratura of Olympia, sung and acted by Linda Noble in an outstanding comic performance. When Coppelius and Spallanzani pull Olympia to pieces before our eyes, Nicholas falls into a grief-induced fit which ends the opera. The chorus contributes throughout the proceedings--sometimes humming, or singing sweeping glissandos, or representing townsfolk--and in general enhancing the hallucinatory effect. The result is like a playful nightmare drawn from the darker elements of German romanticism.

The cast of six singers, three speaking roles and chorus and the accompanists at two pianos were under the strong musical leadership of Paul Smith. Aided by John Sowle's imaginative sets and direction, the performance brought out the work's unusual gothic sensibility.

For the past few years, Judith Weir's musical stage works have been featured in the College of Marin's summer and winter opera series. Next January, Weir will be in residence at the college for a festival of her theatrical and chamber works.

As for the other opera on the current double bill, not too much can be said of a positive nature. Sister Aimee, An American Legend by Odaline de la Martinez is overlong, repetitive, static, didactic and undramatic. Based on the scandal-tinged life of the noted evangelist of the early part of the century, Aimee Semple Macpherson, the opera perhaps has some contemporary resonance but no fresh insights into the subject.

(Jules Langert is a composer and teacher who resides in the East Bay.)

©1999 Jules Langert, all rights reserved