CHICAGO — The couldn’t have known five years ago, when it started planning “Bel Canto,” that terrorism would be the hottest topic in America the very week the work would premiere.
But it happened. A bloody shocked the nation, commanding public dialogue just days before the opera’s opening night December 7. The real-life assault in California wasn’t so much like “Bel Canto’s” scene of a masked, rifle-baring guerilla group storming a reception of international diplomats in Peru. But near enough to make the work feel urgent and close to home.
And to test it in terms of both staging and enduring relevance. Does this high-art take on terror look like sopranos and countertenors playing make-believe ? Can it bring some sort of deeper understanding to the darkness hovering coast-to-coast?
That’s a lot of pressure for what is essentially a piece of musical theater. But “Bel Canto” holds its own. It’s a bleak outing and with just enough blood on stage to resonate, and it does impart a dose of humanity into the madness.
It’s still opera. Emotions run high and roll by quickly in this exaggerated tale of love and death set in 1996 and based on the novel by Ann Patchett. The American soprano Roxane Coss (sung by soprano ) has been hired to sing at a party for a Japanese business executive when the revolutionaries blaze in. The raid turns into a hostage situation which drags on for months,
In that long time, captors and captives mingle intimately (sometimes very) and power shifts among them, a sense of family emerges, until the inevitable government raid of the building which leaves one side of clan dead.
New operas need a staging or two to work out their kinks and that is the case here. The Lyric production lacks clarity, especially in the first half with nearly 50 people on stage, crammed on a single set, the entire time. Faces and voices are obscured. At times, it’s difficult to discern who is singing, making even Chicago’s 3,563-seat Civic Opera House feel claustrophobic.
But the second half is full of life and emotional precision, both framed strategically by , delivering his first opera. The Peruvian-born composer has a contemporary edge and a rich feel for the story at hand. Notes and phrases come in staunch opposition to one another, apt for the action on stage. The score pulses and swells appealingly.
Unfortunately, he doesn’t give the singers many opportunities for bel canto performances, opera’s “beautiful singing” style that relies on bending the corners of big, beautiful arias. Lopez is more a fan of the group chant, or the intimate song, and while both are amusing it feels like something is missing from the evening, especially when the plot turns on the idea that Coss beguiles her adversaries with her skills.
That said, there are beguiling musical turns in this work that make it a success, notably a pair of powerful, side-by-side duets near the close and a touching aria written for a rebel named Carmen, sung beautifully by mezzo J’Nai Bridges.
The libretto, by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright is robust and grounded in a revolutionary spirit, puffed up with slogans and diatribes and pledges of loyalty. Characters can be broadly drawn, the stuck-up soprano, the tough general, but there’s likability to the way the words flow.
And a clever trick in the way they are delivered. The hostages are from across the globe and sing in their native tongue – eight languages in all – including Spanish, English, French, German, Russian and Japanese. An indigenous militant sings her lines in , a priest prays in Latin. It all connects easily, and with helpful assistance from translations projected above the stage.
“Bel Canto” is the Lyric’s first major premiere in a decade and it assembled a top-notch team. Director Kevin Newbury sorts the crowd out as best he can and builds the necessary sympathy for the intruders. The sets and costumes, by David Korins and Constance Hoffman, stay true to time, place and personality.
The orchestra, with Sir Andrew Davis in front, makes the most of the large venue’s ability to showcase full-out playing and singing simultaneously. De Nieise rules the stage, but leaves room for others to shine, particularly countertenor , a busy utility player with companies across the country and possibly the most interesting opera singer in all of 2015.
There’s a lot of new opera out there these days and “Bel Canto” feels fresh. Lopez doesn’t sound like the other composers currently at work. His influences are broad, but he has a distinct voice and it is adventurous and winning. He’s making opera that sounds like him, rather than trying to emulate others. That’s how you push an art form forward.
Ray Mark Rinaldi: 303-954-1540, rrinaldi@denverpost.com or @rayrinaldi
