Opera review: ‘A Wedding’ an overall enjoyable venture at MAC
February 4, 2008
by Peter Jacobi
Composer William Bolcom, a presence in the Musical Arts Center on Friday and Saturday evenings as his comic opera, “A Wedding,” was unveiled, should have been more than pleased with the production and performance values given it.
The IU Opera Theater lavished loving attention on this 2004 adaptation of Robert Altman’s 1978 film, well aware that it had the honor of offering just the second production ever of the piece, following its premiere at Chicago’s Lyric Opera. That marks the third time a Bolcom opera, introduced in Chicago, moved directly to Bloomington for a collegiate premiere, the earlier ones being “McTeague” (1995) and “A View from the Bridge” (2006). In each case, the honor was not squandered.
The provider of scenes before and now was Robert O’Hearn, for whom “A Wedding” is his stated swansong, his last new production. The retiring designer has done himself proud, creating vivid environments: from church to mansion to ballroom within that mansion to master bedroom to powder room and bathroom and to a grotto, back and forth and back again. What’s more, the settings move in and out, up and down, back and forth smoothly enough to never cause the flow of the music to be interrupted.
That’s not to say the opera always moves flowingly. There are 21 scenes, after all, spread across two acts. One must say that Bolcom and his librettist, the late Arnold Weinstein, did considerably better at driving events forward than Altman did in his fractured film. Music has a calming effect on the pace of a story. And cutting the cast of characters from 48 to 18 helps.
Still, there’s much weaving and intertwining as this tale unfolds of two dysfunctional families, the first of old wealth from uppity Lake Forest, Ill., the other of new money from southern roots, and as these two contrasting clans come together for a wedding of their young ones. One wishes that a few scenes, too brief to be musically or dramatically rewarding, had been excised. It is in the longer scenes that Bolcom’s imaginative music-making triumphs.
Bolcom knows how to write fetchingly. In the pit, the IU Philharmonic — under the effective guidance of guest conductor David Agler — benefited from a wealth of harmonic and rhythmic touches. Melodies, yes, melodies, wafted into the auditorium from there and from the stage. This contemporary composer has no fear of lyricism, encouraging it to help tell the story. And if a romantic sweep suggestive of Puccini or a rollicking duet mimicking Rossini holds potential, Bolcom gives it a go, as, too, episodes suffused with the blues, an Elvis ballad, and the old soft-shoe. One accepts these as part of a Bolcom style, which comfortably blends the familiar and the original.
Vincent Liotta, the Opera Theater’s he-can-do-it-all stage director, has magically maneuvered two sizable casts into ensembles of characters. He has helped them capture their foibles and hurts, along with the poignancies that dominate their fictional lives.
To credit all who perform on stage is not possible; there are 36 names. But everyone contributes positively to the whole. Among them, in roles of somewhat greater consequence, one should mention Heather Youngquist (Friday) and Kathryn Leemhuis (Saturday) as the mother of the bride, stuck in a loveless marriage; Alan Dunbar and Ferris Allen as the man who almost tempts her to cheat; Cody Medina and Erik Anstine as her insensitive husband; Meredith Kiesgen and Courtney Crouse as the drug-dependent mother of the groom, and Jonathan Matthews and Anthony Webb as her husband, yearning to go back to his native Italy, away from Lake Forest and the matriarch of the groom’s family, who dies in the master bedroom while the wedding affair is under way. That role is sung skillfully by Lindsay Ammann and Audrey Snyder. Stephanie Washington and Jennifer Jakob made an impact as the busy and bossy wedding “directrix.”
Michael Schwandt’s lighting cast the right spell throughout. Michael Vernon’s wedding dances looked authentic. English subtitles used for this sung-in-English opera were helpful, even though diction was good and the composer obviously understands how not to cover up words with too much instrumental texture.
The venture, in total, is enjoyable, often laugh-aloud funny and with musical content one can relish.
If you go ...
WHAT: “A Wedding,” presented by IU Opera Theater
WHEN: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday
WHERE: Musical Arts Center
HOW MUCH: $15-$35 (general); $10-$20 (student)
INFO: 855-7433
WEB SITE: http://music.indiana.edu/opera
The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music would like
to thank the Herald Times for permission to republish this review.
