United States Varied, 5 Methods to Die: Soloists, Musicians / Dmitry Glivinskiy (conductor). Experiments in Opera, HERE, New York, 29.6.2024. (RP)
Operas:
‘Serials Killers and The Metropolis’ – Del’Shawn Taylor (composer) / Joanie Brittingham (libretto)
‘Mischief (or Rathattan)’ – Jesse Gelaznik (composer) / Britt Hewitt (libretto)\
‘Water Prayer’ – Seong Ae Kim (composer) / Marcella Murray (libretto)
‘Valhalla Valley Mall’ – Jason Cady (composer & libretto)
Manufacturing:
Stage route – Shannon Sindelar
Units – Efren Delgadillo
Costumes – Normandy Sherwood
Lighting – Christina Tang
Technical director – Sarah Schetter
Sound – Nathaniel Butler
Solid:
Alize Francheska Rozsnyai, Rose Hegele (sopranos)
Melisa Bonetti Luna, Lisa Neher (mezzo-sopranos)
Kannan Vasudevan (tenor)
Seth Gilman (baritone)
Musicians:
Eileen Mack – Clarinet/Bass clarinet
James Moore – Electrical guitar
Tristan Kastin-Krause – Acoustic/Electrical bass
Joe Bergen – Vibraphone/Percussion
Matt Evans – Drum set
What’s the distinction between 4 breezy fashionistas who lunch or rats with regards to homicide? Plainly a minimum of some rats have a conscience.
That’s hardly the weightiest notion posed in 5 Methods to Die, the most recent providing from Experiments in Opera, but it surely does give one pause. The ladies homicide for sport. The homicidal rats are attempting to guard themselves, pals and households from dying by the hands of people. The rodents garner some sympathy.
5 Methods to Die was created by artists in Experiments in Opera’s critically acclaimed Writers Room, a program for composers and librettists. The Writers Room challenges the precedent of single authorship and embraces a mannequin the place a number of composers and librettists create a large-scale work that embodies the spirit of an inclusive and collaborative group.
Demise programs via the brief, interconnected operas that comprise 5 Methods to Die. There’s a heavy dollop of humor, wit and irony which the titles in and of themselves point out with references to Intercourse within the Metropolis and the invocation of Wagner’s Götterdämmerung in ‘Valhalla Valley Mall’. The women are pure enjoyable, whereas the lure of an deserted mall to flee from the current delves into extra complicated points.
Del’Shawn Taylor’s ‘Serials Killers and The Metropolis’ spoofs homicide mysteries with 4 ladies in fantastic, whimsical hats eating on lettuce wedges (really cabbage, which had the plus of lasting your complete run with out wilting) and dishing in regards to the newest sufferer. Issues get a bit nasty when one activates her pals by lacing a charcuterie platter with poison. She is in cahoots with the waiter, who could also be subsequent on the gleeful girl’s checklist.
The battle between man and nature is on the core of each Jesse Gelaznik and Britt Hewitt’s ‘Mischief (or Rathattan)’ and Seong Ae Kim and Marcella Murray’s ‘Water Prayer’. The latter is comical and the previous provocative.
Rats aren’t a phenomenon distinctive to New York Metropolis, however the creation of the place of director of rodent mitigation (or ‘rat czar’) absolutely impressed ‘Mischief (or Rathattan)’. It’s a duel between vengeful rodent technocrats and their extra compassionate brethren aka ‘Sapiens Sympathizers’. A sentimental rat remembers fondly her days as a beloved pet.
A special mild is solid upon people and the atmosphere in ‘Water Prayer’. The ability of nature is solid as regenerative in distinction with the human need to easily management and exploit. A water spirit sings of her forces being contained by dams somewhat than flowing freely as supposed. A venerable tree asks solely of the spirit to depend the rings when she is felled by the mixed forces of wind and water. The tree doesn’t mourn her destiny, however she finds consolation that the saplings residing in her shade will be capable of develop and attain towards the skies.
Extra tears, maybe, have been shed over the demise of the good department shops than the procuring malls that changed them. For greater than 60 years, nevertheless, the shops have been the bedrock of many communities. ‘Valhalla Valley Mall’ pays homage to their passing by recalling such defunct manufacturers as Waldenbooks in addition to these nonetheless thriving, together with Orange Julius and The Cheesecake Manufacturing unit. It additionally poses an actual concern for many individuals of the place to go for a stroll when the mall is gone?
Such musings are the backdrop for a ceremony of passage for a lot of who left suburbia for the massive metropolis. A Brooklynite has returned to her childhood residence to wash it out and put up for sale. Within the course of, she confronts the ghost of her mom and actuality. There can be no proceeds from the sale of the home as her mom had a reverse mortgage on it. With out it, the daughter can’t afford to reside in Brooklyn, or anyplace for that matter. The mall beckons to her as a long-forgotten paradise with its cornucopia of products and recollections of a carefree youth.
The operas have been all scored for a similar devices – clarinet/bass clarinet, electrical guitar, acoustic/electrical bass, vibraphone and percussion – and there was a sure homogeneity to them when it comes to sound. The devices have been amplified, as have been the voices. No hurt, no foul, however one puzzled what particulars could be revealed with a distinct orchestration or solely a piano for accompaniment.
The 4 composers’ kinds have been nothing if not eclectic. Taylor couldn’t resist quoting Chopin’s ‘Funeral March’ (‘Pray for the useless, and the useless will pray for you’) in ‘Serials Killers and The Metropolis’. Gelaznik and Kim crafted some magical, stunning music with lighter textures and inventive use of percussion. Kim additionally wrote significantly transferring passages for bass clarinet. Cady’s catchy tunes had some within the viewers swaying to his beat, however there was actual drama within the music he composed for mom and daughter to sing.
This was opera, nevertheless, so voices mattered, and Experiments in Opera delivered. The main target was totally on the 4 ladies – sopranos Rose Hegele Alize Francheska Rozsnyai and mezzo-sopranos Melisa Bonetti Luna and Lisa Neher. They delighted within the zaniness of murderous ladies and rats whereas delving into the heartfelt feelings of the opposite characters’ losses with equal aplomb. Rounding out the solid have been tenor Kannan Vasudevan and baritone Seth Gilman, each of whom appeared recreation for something.
And for these curious in regards to the disconnect between the title and the variety of works, there appears to have as soon as been a fifth opera within the combine, ‘Household Heirloom’, with a libretto by Melisa Tien and music by Anthony Gatto. Is it a piece in progress or one other whodunit story?
Rick Perdian
