Mozart composed his opera The Magic Flute in his native tongue, German, rather than the customary Italian so that a broader audience could enjoy what he had written for their entertainment.
There is a long tradition of writing or performing operas in a language accessible to the audience, removing the language barrier to unlock the beauty, drama and comedy of these works of art for listeners who may have previously dismissed it.
That spirit makes Peabody Opera Workshop's three one-act operas, which are sung in English, an excellent and exciting contributions to Free Fall Baltimore, a city-wide program designed to open up Baltimore's cultural venues and events to new and broader audiences.
Monday evening's Peabody performance included Ralph Vaughn Williams's musical setting of John Millington Synge's play "Riders to the Sea," contemporary composer Seymour Barab's comic allegory "A Game of Chance" and a playful, traditional operetta in one act by Jacques Offenbach, "Marriage by Lanternlight," the only opera of the evening not originally written in English. All roles were performed by current undergraduate and graduate singers from the Peabody Conservatory of Music.
"Riders to the Sea," an early 20th-century play, takes place on a desolate Irish island where fishing families face the continual threat of nature. The story centers on Maurya, a woman who has just lost her husband, her father-in-law and four of her six sons in a storm; the clothes of her fifth son have just been retrieved from a drowned body and sent to her home to be identified, and her two daughters attempt to hide the package from her as her only remaining son, Bartley, prepares to depart into the storm to sell a horse at a fair.
Ralph Vaughn Williams set the play to music in 1937, without altering the original script. Vaugh Williams is known for his fascination with English folksong and his graceful but simple, modern style - he is often described as a quintessentially English composer. His setting of "Riders to the Sea" feels less like a typical opera and more like one long, nearly unbroken art song.
While this makes it a little more difficult to engage with than the other more kinetic, madcap pieces presented later, it is nonetheless a mesmerizing musical experience. Vaughn Williams's susurrant composition musically illustrates the textured language that the characters use to speak of the sea and death. This performance featured a reduced orchestra which captured the tension and mysticism of the musical themes without sounding oversimplified.
Jennifer Hamilton as Maurya, the bereaved mother, was captivating. Her singing embodied the intensity of her character's sorrow, and her physical dissociation with her daughters highlighted her desolation. The song featuring her most famous line, "They are all gone now, and there isn't anything more the sea can do to me," was an especially strong performance. It was interwoven with the wordless keening of a chorus of village women who begin to sing offstage, enter the cottage set and then finish their song after reaching the other side of the stage.
While the musical performances were excellent, the staging was a bit clumsy; the set was created from plywood cut-outs hung from frames that were supposed to represent the cottage in a minimalist manner but instead were distracting and awkward. Since some objects, like the door, were mimed anyway, it would have been less distracting to perform the opera on a mostly empty stage with only chairs and a table.
After the somber opening opera, the rest of the evening was a riot. The next piece, "A Game of Chance," is the diametric opposite of its predecessor; it's a light-hearted allegory with music and lyrics as bright and playful as the primary colors the characters wear. Seymour Barab is a living composer who has written many works to be performed for or by children, and this one-act opera has a youthful, boisterous spirit. The story features three knitters who each have a different wish: one to be rich, another to be famous, the third simply to be with the man she loves. A representative of fate visits them individually and grants their wishes, but in the end each knitter realizes she's made a mistake - she should have asked for more.
Each of the three knitters expresses herself in a different style of music, branching out from what some would associate with the "traditional" opera style to sing jazzy riffs or a sweet, simple love song. Jeremy Osborne shone as the representative of fate; he not only created a solid, convincing and entertaining character but also modulated that character for each appearance of the representative, first as an advertising agent, then as a publishing house messenger and then a telegraph delivery boy. Osborne used his singing style as well as body language and minimal but clever use of props to articulate each variation on his Puck-like character, and it was delightful just to see him walk on stage.
The final one-act opera, Jacques Offenbach's "Marriage by Lanternlight," was the real show-stealer, though. Throughout, the acting and the singing were professionally executed, articulate and entertaining. The 19th-century tale was updated to a vaguely contemporary pub, and the set was simple and unobtrusive, as were the costumes. This allowed the performances to shine most, and the entire cast of four were hilarious and inventive in their respective roles. Solen Mainguené and Stephanie Miller are uproarious as two widows vying for the hand of Leroy, proprietor of the pub and ward of a wealthy man. Leroy, played by Peter Drackley, is really in love with Denise, Marisa del Campo, and she returns his affection, but both are too timid to express it. Drackley and del Campo are as sweet and sincere as Mainguené and Miller are sultry and conniving, and when they all join in a chorus praising liquor, each displays the trademarks of their characters in comical interaction.
Marriage by Lanternlight was a thoroughly professional and entertaining experience, and the perfect light touch, "light as a feather" as the author put it, to end the evening.
