In the eight year of Washington National Opera’s American Opera Initiative, the three engaging twenty-minute operas premiered on January 10, 2020 at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater all had an educational theme. All three also feature music that provides tonal access. Conductor Anne Manson did a seamless job in coordinating the musicians and Domingo-Cafritz Young Artists who make up the singing casts. These are collaborating teams of composers and librettists worthy of being watched.
Woman of Letters by composer Liliya Ugay and
librettist Sokunthary Svay depicts a father-daughter relationship that is on
the verge of changing. As an immigrant, Sam, (sung by bass baritone Samuel J.
Weiser) who works at a Manhattan university, constantly brings home books to
his daughter Sonya (soprano Marlen Nahhas) to give her the advantage he didn’t
have himself and to keep her busy and safe at home. She is an excellent student
and loves these books. Consequently, she is accepted on full scholarship to a
university in England. This upsets Sam who still hasn’t made peace with the
death of his wife and mother of Sonya. Complicating this event is a visit by
Sonya’s friend Dara (soprano Alexandra Nowakowski) who extols the benefits of
going away to study.
The
opening music of Woman of Letters appropriately
strikes a soundscape of Sonya’s yearning. Dara who is studying opera provides
the giddy excitement of a teenage girl with her bel canto singing. While the Dresser
liked this piece, she questions the wisdom of making Sam a bass baritone. His heavy
voice tended to drag down the energy of the overall work in an exaggerated way.
Admissions by composer Michael Lanci and librettist
Kim Davies addresses a real day scandal in the arena of college admissions.
Mother (mezzo-soprano Amanda Lynn Bottoms) has paid off various people to get
her daughter (soprano Marlen Nahhas) and son (tenor Matthew Pearce) into
schools of their choice. As the opera opens, Father (bass baritone William
Meinert) and Mother are driving home from court while their kids are discussing
where their absent parents are.
The
repartee in the libretto is cleverly written and ably delivered by this
outstanding cast. Moreover the ensemble work
provides a wonderfully layered counterpoint of voices and concerns.
In the
category of “school of hard knocks,” Night
Trip, by composer Carlos Simon and librettist Sandra Seaton, features two
black WWII veterans—Uncle Wesley (baritone Joshua Conyers) and Uncle Mack (tenor
Joshua Blue)—who arrive at the home of their sister in Chicago to pick up their
niece teenage Conchetta (mezzo-soprano Rehanna Thelwell) who is unschooled in
the ways of the world. The uncles drive Conchitta to see her grandmother and
aunts who live in a small town in Tennessee. Set in the summer of 1958, things turn
very racist when they ask to use a gas station restroom in the south. They angrily
leave the gas station without paying and are quickly overtaken by a police officer
and the accusing gas station attendant. Conchetta is manhandled and in danger
of more egregious assault so Uncle Wesley offers to pay off the two men with
money being sent from Conchetta’s hard-working mother to her Tennessee family.
The music
beginning with the overture is jazz inflected. Rehanna Thelwell infuses her
role as an innocent, unworldly teen with joyful enthusiasm, making for a memorable
evening of new operatic work.
To the
Dresser, Truth Thomas’ poem “Papa’s Got a Brand New Pen” evokes the adage that
the pen, an implement of learning and wisdom, is mightier than the sword.
Thomas directs his message to “children of wooden bellies” (Thomas says wooden bellies refer to the holds of
wooden ships that brought Africans as slaves to America and that his poem “attempts
to encourage people of color to boldly esteem themselves…in a country that has
taught…black folks to hate themselves”) and to “children of Cinque’s sword”
(possibly old methods as summoned by a cinqueda which is a short sword of the
Italian Renaissance that is five fingers wide). Written as a Skinny (eleven
lines where lines one and eleven have the same words and in between the other
lines feature one word with a prescribed repetition), this is a form invented
by Truth Thomas. The Dresser finds this poem a perfect final word on WNO’s AOI
festival of three new operas, all of which deal with issues of speaking truth
and overcoming the obstacles of learning. Additionally, Thomas’ title “Papa’s
Got a Brand New Pen” suggests the James Brown song “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag.”
Thomas demonstrates (as if he is standing on one foot), as do the collaborators
of these new short operas, that a lot can be communicated in a short space of
creative work in which many limitations are set.
PAPA’S GOT
A BRAND NEW PEN
Speak
truth on the good foot—say it loud
children
of
wooden
bellies,
children
of
Cinque’s
sword.
Children
speak
truth on the good foot—say it loud.
by Truth
Thomas
Photo
credit: Scott Suchman
My sister Nancy Williamson of Weslaco, Texas told me that children of wooden bellies made her think of the Trojan Horse. There in the dark belly clutching their swords and in crowded conditions maybe standing on one foot. That's a kind of pen that encloses!
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