Supporting the Operatic Arts in the Bay Area
SJOG Travelers
A visit inside the brain for tender, powerful dramas
By Mort Levine
Composer Jonathan Berger and Poet Dan O’Brien brought together an innovative work titled Visitations for the initial foray into the world of opera at the brand new Bing concert hall on the Stanford campus April 12-13. The world premiere performances of Theotokia and the War Reporter were done in the round with the audience surrounded by 26 speakers and a dazzling variety of projected imagery to mimic auditory hallucinations.
The live musical forces included the St. Lawrence Quartet augmented by bass, flute, clarinet and percussion all conducted by Christopher Rountree. They were further augmented by electronic pre-recorded soundscapes created at Stanford’s Center for Computer Research in Music (which Berger also heads up).
The vocal array came from four voices comprising the all male New York Polyphony plus versatile soprano Heather Buck, who takes three diverse roles in Theotokia and a pivotal role in the War Reporter.
The first opera is about an institutionalized schizophrenic named Leon who was sung by the quartet’s countertenor, Geoffrey Williams. He conjures, over eight scenes, visits from Mother Anne, leader of the Shakers; a Yeti mother who calls to him from her cave in the Himalayas; his biological mother who exclaims; “how could he do this to me?”; the Yeti mother who intones a dirge to dung; and the Shaker mother who imparts secret knowledge. The self-tortured Leon finally has a lucid moment and realizes he alone must deal with his mental illness.
The second one act is likewise an internal dialogue but this time it is based on the true story of a Canadian war photographer, Paul Watson, sung by baritone Christopher Dylan Herbert. The second opera opens with a scene in Mogadishu, Somalia, where Watson is about to take a picture of the mutilated corpse of an American, Sgt. William Cleveland, whose ghost taunts him with: “if you do this, I will own you forever”. He takes the photo.
The second scene is at Columbia University where Watson is being awarded the Pulitzer Prize. He is increasingly distracted re-imagining the violence, the brutality of Cleveland’s death. His boss reminds him of an another war photographer in Sudan who took a photo of a starving child and a waiting vulture in a nearby tree. That photographer committed suicide later. Watson’s response: “The ghosts are getting closer”. But still Watson signs up to go back to the war zone.
Watson reflects on on the guilt of his own father’s wartime years and later goes to find the family of the dead soldier. He is rebuffed by the brother who accuses him of “stirring up the ghosts”.
Later while on an assignment in the Arctic, he contacts his friend, Dan, (possibly the librettist) saying he has decided to go back to the war in Afghanistan even though he feels Cleveland’s ghost will be waiting for him there. On impulse, he invites Dan (and by implication, the audience) to come along admitting “of course, nobody knows what might happen out there”.
The passionate voices and the high tech musical forms heightened the impact of the two dramas. Cutting edge director Rinde Eckert gave the two works a dramatic action that was compelling. Beth Morrison did the scenic projections along with Mark DeChiazza’s video work. Bass Craig Phillips and tenor Steven Caldicott Wilson, other members of the New York Polyphony each took on several roles.
The new concert hall has no proscenium or curtain and it becomes a special test for the creative team. That was met admirably.
(SJOG Newsletter May, 2013 Issue)