VOODOO

Steve Wallace, JoAnna Marie Ford, and Janinah Burnett (photo by Regina Fleming)

Harry Lawrence Freeman surely cast a posthumous spell on Planet Opera this weekend.  In spite of a driving rain, hopeful opera lovers snaked up Broadway from the Miller Theater trying to cop tickets to Voodoo, his forgotten masterpiece. We lucky ones who gained admission experienced an unforgettable evening of music, marked by originality, beauty, and spirit. 

The presentation of Mr. Freeman's opera was initiated some years back with the scholarship of producer Annie Holt who discovered the manuscript, donated to the Columbia library by Mr. Freeman's family. Ms. Holt was determined to bring it to life and now serves as Executive Artistic Director of Morningside Opera, which partnered with Harlem Opera Theater and The Harlem Chamber Players to offer New York City a concert version of Voodoo.  It was a perfect storm of creativity, easily outdoing the storm outside the theater.

Mr. Freeman composed the eclectic score which seamlessly integrated classical music, jazz, folk tunes and spirituals. The orchestration had many original touches and made generous use of percussion, lower strings, and tuba to foreshadow tragedy as well as the banjo for more joyful moments, and the harp for romantic ones. The Harlem Chamber Players, guided by Maestro Gregory Hopkins (also Artistic Director of The Harlem Opera Theater), tackled the score with gusto and fine musicianship.

Mr. Freeman also wrote the libretto which seemed stilted in places and given over to dialect in other places. After the work's premiere in 1928 it lay dormant until just now and we are delighted over its second life. The story also ends with an attempted resurrection, but let's begin at the beginning.

The tale begins just after the Civil War, a period known as Reconstruction. In this case, it seems as if the former slaves are still picking cotton on a plantation in Louisiana. A stunning chorus opens the work and Maestro Hopkins pulled a moving performance from the well-rehearsed chorus.  Diction could not be faulted.

Voodoo Queen Lolo (sung by the compelling soprano Janinah Burnett) is friends from childhood with the beautiful Cleota (sung by the sparkly-voiced soprano JoAnna Marie Ford). They have a lovely duet. Mando (sung by the fine tenor Steve Wallace) is Cleota's lover but a tragic triangle is forming because whatever Lolo wants, Lolo takes--and what she wants is Mando. 

When Mando purchases a protective amulet from Fojo, the voodoo priest (sung by powerful baritone Barry L. Robinson), Lolo snatches it away from Cleota. Mr. Wallace sings a winning serenade to Cleota but Lolo threatens their happiness. They laugh at her but they don't get the last laugh.

Act II involves the celebration of a festival and rare archival footage of dances of that period is projected on a screen; the banjo plucks a merry tune.  The community seems to have two forms of religious expression. Lolo's Christian parents attempt to pull her away from the practice of voodoo without success. Mama Chloe (the generous voiced mezzo Crystal Charles) has a moving aria in the form of a vocalise.  Father Ephraham (baritone Darian Worrell) likewise laments for his unrepentant daughter. Zeke (tenor James R. Hopkins III) makes a play for Lolo but she rejects him.

Act III was the most compelling part of the evening. The chorus entered in feathered headdresses while Lolo was decked out in turban and face paint, looking just as one would imagine a voodoo queen to look. Fogo's face was scarily painted black and white and the two invoked magic spirits and the Snake God. Cleota has been abducted and given the choice of death or giving up Mando;she will not relent. She is apparently killed by Lolo's voodoo magic but Mando shoots the snake and Chloe resurrects Cleota with holy water. But Lolo kills her again with voodoo magic and Mando shoots Lolo.

By this time, there is onstage pandemonium with wild orchestral textures and choral shrieking. One could be forgiven for forgetting that one was sitting in a theater in 2015. We were completely taken up by the onstage drama--good opera will do that! People kill for love and die for love! This is not the Age of Irony.

The singers were all superb and transcended the use of music stands to achieve dramatic validity; Melissa Crespo did a fine job directing. Rear projections by Caite Hevner Kemp suggested various scenes around the plantation and by some kind of modern magic, layered on a steamboat chugging on the Mississippi and scary flashes of lightning in the voodoo ritual. The outstanding make-up and third act costumes were by Everett Suttle.

Although the African-American experience has a great effect in our own time on the worlds of art, music and fashion, we have difficulty naming operas that dealt with the African-American experience. Scott Joplin's Treemonisha lay dormant from 1910 until it received a production in 1972!  Porgy and Bess was not to come along until 1936 but that was composed by Gershwin, a Caucasian man. Voodoo was part of the Harlem Renaissance. Perhaps it's time for a Second Renaissance.  We wonder whether there are any more undiscovered masterpieces waiting to be discovered.

(c) meche kroop

S&M OPERA???

Brett Umlauf and Amber Youell

If we were asked to consider sadomasochism in connection with the opera, our first thought would be sitting through Moses und Aron (with apologies to you Schoenberg fans).  But now there is a new point of reference.  The highly original Morningside Opera Company presented an evening of Pergolesi in which there was a serious consideration of the validity of taking pleasure in another's pain.  Serious, but filled with humor, just like Pergolesi's music.

The poor fellow died of tuberculosis at the age of 26 but managed to produce a considerable amount of delightful music, bridging the Baroque and the Classical. Shortly before his death in a monastery, he composed the gorgeous Stabat Mater about the indescribable pain of Mary watching her son's agony on the cross.  The music is nearly frivolous--melodic and lighthearted while the words are excruciatingly painful.  Dare we enjoy it?

The evening took place in a so-called black box theater which was....WHITE!  Just another disjunction. The performing area was situated between the two sections of seats occupying the long walls of the space, giving everyone a good view.  The two superb performers were just as adept in acting as they were in singing.  Soprano Brett Umlauf and alto Amber Youell entered in their undies with their hair compressed by stocking caps.  For awhile they faced each other and mirrored each other's actions.

As the piece progressed, they donned and doffed various articles of clothing--purple tights, black pumps, a black leather corset, opulent 18th c. gowns and white wigs topped by little bird cages.  They enacted various scenarios of power--dominance and submission.  Periodic hand-washing movements reminded one of Lady Macbeth and the interactions suggested Jean Genet's The Maids.  Other images suggested Michelangelo's Pietà.  Choreography was by Laura Careless .

Both women have highly expressive voices and the harmonies were incredibly pleasing to the ear. Musical accompaniment was provided by the superb all-female Siren Baroque, comprising violinists Claire Bermingham and Antonia Light Nelson, cellist Anneke Schaul-Yoder, with harpsichordist Kelly Savage providing the continuo and serving as Musical Director.

The second piece on the program was a short opera buffa composed by Pergolesi a few years earlier--La Serva Padrona.  Initially intended as an intermezzo for an opera seria, it was so beloved that its fame far outlived the opera seria.  It's a simple story of a female servant who blackmails her elderly master into marrying her.

But, in the hands of Morningside Opera it became something completely different. The servant Serpina, addressed as "Mistress", is now a professional dominatrix and Uberto is her client.  He is quite fond of her and can't quite detach himself. She is costumed in a black corset and boots and comes equipped with whip and ball gag.

Although we generally want our opera sung in the original language, there was a very important reason to sing this one in English.  It was astonishing to see how the very 18th c. language which suited the power dynamics of a master and his servant worked so well to limn the power dynamics of a dom and her client.  It is generally understood that the member of an S&M duo that holds the power is the masochist.

Baritone Michael Shaw made an excellent Uberto who rails against his servant but has strong needs for what she has to offer.  As the servant/dom Serpina, soprano Brittany Palmer was effectively winsome. Several modern references were interpolated, such as eHarmony and Face Time.  The music handily depicts the beating of hearts when such is called for.

Stage direction and costume design for both pieces was by Annie Holt (Executive Artistic Director of Morningside Opera) and the Production Design was by Dante Olivia Smith.

Morningside Opera has been delighting audiences since 2008 and we were thrilled to have discovered such a creative group of performers and designers; we hope to review more of their work in the future.

© meche kroop