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OPERA REVIEW
Well-Told Tale of Treachery
August 10, 2002
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By Michael Zwiebach
Carlisle Floyd is one of those lucky composers who has lived to see his
operas enter the standard repertory of opera houses around the world. And
while his masterpiece, Susannah, is receiving another high-profile revival in Chicago this fall, he surely would be ecstatic with the riveting production
it received from Festival Opera on Saturday at the Dean Lesher Center for the
Arts, in Walnut Creek. The show benefitted from excellent direction and
flawless conducting and a strong cast; but in the end, it was the inspired
performance of Cynthia Clayton as the complicated heroine that made this a
special evening in the theater.
Floyd's opera is based on the story of the heroine of Old Testament
apocrypha, which inspired a number of important paintings and Handel's
oratorio. In this version, set in an Evangelical community in the South,
Susannah is ostracized by the members of her church for being too light and
free and because the church elders spy her bathing nude in a creek. She is
falsely accused of sexual misconduct and when the newly-arrived preacher,
Olin Blitch, comes to remonstrate with her, he takes advantage of her
emotional exhaustion and beds her. Can Susannah be healed of the wounds of her
experience? Will she be able to love and trust people again? The opera's
ending is ambivalent on these questions as it is unequivocal in its
denunciation of hypocrisy.
As a librettist, Floyd has sensitively imagined the characters and their
world, even if he is sometimes a little melodramatic. (But then the people he
depicts are given to melodrama.) The music still has freshness and verve and
Floyd's hymn style, folksong and square dance tunes are masterfully woven
into the largely through-composed score. Floyd also displays a marvelous
melodic gift indispensable to a composer for voices, especially in Susannah's
two arias.
Josemaria Condemi's production, abetted by Cameron Anderson's imaginatively spare set, built on Floyd's taut pacing. Condemi has a marvelously cinematic eye, especially useful in crowd scenes, and his use of slow-motion movement to shift focus between groups is effective and wholly in keeping with the music, especially in the first scene. He also has done excellent work with the actors in the production: the singers are emotionally committed and clearly thinking about what's going on and they actually listen to each other. There are several moments of great theater, such as the pause when Blitch (Hector Vasquez) turns a considering eye on Susannah just before his seduction arioso. We watch him turn the idea over in his mind. Given the force with which the drama is played, the final image, of Susannah staring accusingly at the audience over the barrel of a gun, seems superfluous. We get hit over the head with the point: hypocrisy is still with us. On the other hand, given recent political events, could the director be asking whether McCarthyism, which was part of the American landscape when the opera was conceived, has come again? The production's greatest asset is its heroine, Cynthia Clayton, whose performance was simply shattering, both vocally and dramatically. Her interpretation of the opera's best-known number, "Ain't it a pretty night" in Scene Two moved from the gentle lyricism of a summer evening, full of rapt, floating pianissimos, to a splendid full-voiced climax that disclosed Susannah's strength of will before it was tried. Here was a soprano in complete artistic command of her instrument, who held audience attention by her sheer concentration. She acted with her voice, imbuing the character's different moods with varied vocal colors and gave equally convincing readings of the spoken lines. At the end of the seduction scene, when we are sure that she will round on Blitch, her unemotional voice as she sang the line "I'm so tired" was shocking, but telling. Baritone Hector Vasquez was a terrific Olin Blitch, giving a titanic, bravura performance of the preacher's fire-and-brimstone sermon. In a part that requires power and magnetism, he delivered and was a good match for Ms. Clayton in their duets. The supporting roles were all well served. Wayne J. Davis, as Little Bat McLean, the slow-witted lovesick boy who turns informer, sang crisply and evenly. Sam, Susannah's brother, was sung by Brandon Jovanovich, a strong-voiced, masculine tenor, whose good looks are sure to win him admirers. Darla Wigginton, as the ferocious Mrs. McLean, leader of the disapproving wives of the church elders, was appropriately witchy in the opera's least complicated role. Conductor Michael Morgan inspired his players in the pit to their best. The prelude was tense, with flawless contributions from the brass, the string tone was full, and the orchestra nimbly negotiated the tricky rhythmic passages. Mr. Morgan showed again that he is an excellent match with singers, guiding them without pushing too much. He obviously knows and loves this music and is an excellent advocate for it. The Festival Opera is lucky to have him. (Michael Zwiebach holds a Ph.D. in musicology from the University of California in Berkeley and teaches music history at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.) ©2002 Michael Zwiebach, all rights reserved |
