MOT and Quasimondo Attempt the Impossible Through Opera
In a college playwriting class, my instructor blithely told us that if we ever wrote a play with more than five characters and two sets, it would never make it to Broadway. Not only was this stunningly dumb advice (and easily disproved), it runs counter to the basic reason we love theater – because it starts as a blank page and a blank stage and transforms into a space where literally anything can happen. A celebration of the exuberance and absurdity of imagination, theater – especially opera – is a medium where magic is made. This is the truism that composers and librettists have known from the beginning; if you can dream it, dramatize it, and come up with a score to put under it, no story is too outlandish.
Of course, some scenarios are more challenging to stage than others. . . and it’s those infrequently attempted fantasias that Milwaukee Opera Theatre has chosen to highlight in an evening of Impossible Operas. Running through May 28 in the Studio Theatre at the Broadway Theatre Center, the production is a collaboration with Quasimondo, a company that specializes in creative movement and devised pieces. It also features an enormous catalog of handmade shadow puppets, designed and manipulated by Anja Notanja Sieger.
A pair of narrators from Bartók’s opera Bluebeard’s Castle leads the audience through scenes from Prokofiev’s The Love for Three Oranges, Handel’s Alcina, Bellini’s The Sleepwalker, and Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta, among others. A modern, tongue-in-cheek version of the murderous Bluebeard (Kirk Thomsen, wearing a blue goatee) brings his new bride Judith home to his castle (Jessi Miller, sporting a blue flower in her hair), where she insists on opening all the closed doors to let in light. In this conceit, behind each shadow-projected door is a section of a different, daunting opera. They are performed by seven exceptional vocalists at music stands who flank the stage, all dressed in black. A large screen creates the set’s back wall, with puppets, gels, and other props projected from both in front, and behind the scrim.
Suddenly there is little that is “impossible” to dramatize on stage. In the world of 2D projections, a giant chef armed with a huge whisk is easily subdued with ribbons, princesses emerge from oranges, and hippogriffs and dragons terrorize heroes. Witches, fires, and cactus-filled deserts appear and disappear in an instant. A woman even cuts off her breasts to turn into a man, while her husband gives birth to thousands of babies, leading to a dire overpopulation problem.
Freed from technical quandaries, the music from these operas can simply be enjoyed by the ensemble of singers and the audience – both of whom reveled in the pieces on opening night. Sung in German, French, Italian and Russian without the benefit of supertitles, the lyrics remain opaque but the emotional tone of each piece is clear. Listeners are asked to let the musical and visual elements wash over them without worrying too much about plot. Those who need more narrative guidance can read short synopses of the operas in the program before the performance.
Unsurprisingly, MOT’s vocalists easily fill the small theater with their glorious voices. Sopranos Cecilia Davis and Kathy Pyeatt are particularly impressive as ingenues who suffer from some terrible disorder – either sleepwalking or blindness. In two excerpts from Wagner’s The Ring Cycle, David Guzmán’s expressive bass booms through “Wotan's Farewell,” while Nathan Wesselowski’s warm tenor ably reforges Siegfried’s shattered sword. Comic elements are sprinkled throughout the works just for fun.
Under the joint direction of Jill Anna Ponasik, Jeffrey Mosser and Brian Rott, with music direction by Janna Ernst, Impossible Operas contains a lot of talent, clever concepts, and innovative ideas. As a workshop production, it succeeds in trying out many approaches to the diverse material to see what works and what gets in the way of the storytelling – this will undoubtedly be helpful in future iterations of the show.
But in the present version, some of the off-the-wall ideas overwhelm the engaging musical moments. The narration and puppetry feel under-developed and under-rehearsed. Stage pictures are complicated by actors, singers, and an overhead projector literally getting in the way of the images on the screen, while unsteady and frequently blurry shadow puppets are also difficult to watch. Finally, there simply isn’t enough room on the Studio Theatre stage to accommodate the clowning and modest dance routines that are attempted. Often these elements distract from, instead of enhance the stories.
Ultimately, the fearless exuberance and artistic risk-taking that is evident in Impossible Operas is a perfect fit for the state-wide festival of new work, World Premiere Wisconsin. Attempting the impossible is a glorious goal for the performing arts.