This past Sunday was the day I attended the Milwaukee Florentine Opera for the world premiere of “Rio de Sangre,” composed by Don Davis (most famous for scoring “The Matrix” and its sequels) . . . but I wasn’t attending it just for my own sake, but so I could write a review of it for Opera News magazine. (Read my blog entry for Sept. 21st if you’re interested in the details of how I blundered into such an exciting opportunity.) Walking into that opera house with this secret responsibility felt so strange. . . I’m sure I had an odd “I’ve got a secret!” Cheshire Cat-like grin on my face the whole time. By the way, I had hoped that my second free ticket would be used by Marshall, who is the most astute opera & theater audience member I know, and who would have been especially perceptive in critiquing the theatrical production itself. But but he just had too much to do at school and needed to bow out- so I shared the second ticket with one of my voice students, Nick Sluss-Rodionov, who turned out to be quite astute in his own right.
I enjoyed a bit of unexpected excitement when I first got to the performing arts center about 1:30 (just in time for the pre- performance lecture.) Right after I got there, a tall distinguished man walked in who looked very familiar to me- and after a moment’s hesitation, I strode up to him and asked “do you happen to be Mr. Davis?” And indeed, it was Don Davis himself. (I recognized him from his photo on the Florentine’s website.) I introduced myself as the guy who had done a phone interview with him several days earlier – and nearly added that I was going to be reviewing his new opera for Opera news…. but managed to bite my tongue just in time. We had a nice little chat and he seemed fairly pleased with how things had gone thus far- although when I expressed some concern about the cast having to sing three performances in two and a half days (I was seeing the third and final performance of the three) he agreed that it was tremendously challenging for the singers, but added with a shrug “It’s not my problem.” And of course, he was right in that by now that problem was entirely out of his hands, even if he helped cause the problem by writing such difficult music. It was up to the cast (with some help from the conductor) to manage the last stage of the gauntlet, one way or another.
Nick and I attended the pre-performance lecture given by UW-Milwaukee Professor Philebaum – and it was SO strange to be on the receiving end of such a lecture rather than delivering it! He outlined the plot for us and played a number of excerpts from the score- but otherwise offered very little editorial comment of his own. Clearly, he wanted us to experience the opera on our own terms and not be unduly influenced by his own opinion of it, whatever that might have been. Nevertheless, I knew that the opera had earned a scathing review in the Chicago Tribune and a tepid review in the MIlwaukee Journal Sentinel- but I was bound and determined to be as open-minded about the opera as possible. And as we settled into our seats, which were in the center of the 12th row, I think both Nick and I were hoping for the best, prepared for the worst, and expecting something in the middle.
And that’s what we got- although I’m sad to say that we were closer to the Worst side of the spectrum. The opera had some intriguing musical moments, but dramatically it was an absolute mess. Both the librettist and the woman who translated the libretto into Spanish appeared to have much more Poetry than Theater in their respective resumes, and boy did that show! Honestly, I feel like I could have concocted a more effective, smoother-running storyline than those two managed to create. (One thing I said in my review is that it was ironic that an opera named after a river would have such a terrible sense of flow.)
The basic plot centers around a man who has just arisen to power in a mythical southern nation, the leader of a political coup. Through the course of the story, this idealistic man is undone by the treacherous acts of his most trusted aide- who by the end of the opera has inserted himself as the country’s new leader. Unfortunately, such a political story has to involve a fair amount of people standing around talking, and there was way too much of that- and a lot of the most important action actually occurs offstage and out of sight of the audience. Moreover, the story is relentlessly bleak…. with almost no glimmer of lightness or comedy to relieve the oppressiveness of the heavy drama. Maybe the worst thing is that we were given so little indication of the inner emotional lives of the characters; what we saw was their surface and nothing more. The most important example was the treacherous aide; never once did that character have the chance to express what was driving him to such destructive behavior. We are left on the outside looking in, forced to guess…. which is such a shame, considering the potential which opera has to illuminate the inner lives of its characters. This is what makes opera vibrant- and maybe the single biggest fault to find with “Rio de Sangre” is how this was so seriously lacking.
The score was better than the libretto, but it had its problems as well. One of the biggest was the outrageously difficult music which he wrote for the singers… music which sure made it sound like he didn’t have the foggiest notion of how the human voice works. Davis wrote great music for the orchestra and (especially) the chorus, and there were some exciting interludes played by an onstage Mariachi band. Unfortunately, aside from these brief and exciting passages, there was not so much as a single clue in the rest of the score’s music of where the piece was supposed to be set. For all that the music tells us, it might as well be set in Antarctica. There were some neat passages for the singers, and this cast contended well with all of the challenges….. and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (in the pit) and the Florentine Chorus covered themselves with glory. Unfortunately, it was all done for a threadbare libretto and a lumpy, inconsistent musical score which may grow better over time as Davis does some more polishing- but for now, this opera is a bit of a mess. Which is not to say that there aren’t some great passages. The young lovers in the cast are given an absolutely perfect love duet and sang the daylights out of it – and there were twin soliloquies at the top of the last act that were exquisite and moving. So there were glimpses of promise here.
Anyway, I could hardly sleep that night, already thinking of ways in which I might frame the review. . . plus I was also tossing and turning at the notion of trying to be a bit more positive than the other reviewers had been. Right before I went to bed, I sent off an email to F. Paul Driscoll – editor of Opera News – with a couple of simple questions involving length and format. I sent that about 10 p.m. Sunday evening, and then waited in vain through the next day – and the next evening – for a reply. I went to bed Monday night convinced that Opera News had forgotten all about me and perhaps already made other plans to use someone else’s review. (After all, one had appeared in the Chicago Tribune, written by the well-known John von Rhein, and maybe they had decided to use his review instead of this unknown rookie from Racine.) And in the throes of that uncertainty about whether or not my review was wanted after all, I found myself unable to type a single word- and I could hardly think about anything else except how incredibly embarrassed I would be if the whole Opera News thing went up in smoke. After all, I’d done everything short of hiring a sky writer to spread the news about it- and i couldn’t think of anything worse than to have to explain that I wouldn’t have my name in Opera News after all. It wasn’t until the middle of Tuesday afternoon that I finally saw an email from the aforementioned Mr. Driscoll, who apologized for being out of the office Monday and then affirming that they still very much wanted my review of RIo de Sangre. I was relived, thrilled, and more than a little embarrassed at how I’d jumped to conclusions, and immediately set to work. And by the time I had written and polished my 450 words, I actually felt a little bit grateful that the performance had so much wrong with it. . . . because there is something just a little bit more fun and stimulating about writing a negative review than a positive one. (In the former, you get to use terms like ‘cess pool‘ and ‘catastrophe’ rather fearlessly.) Nevertheless, as I wrote that review I bent over backwards to be positive- especially because there were some things about the opera which in fact showed us an opera composer of great promise, and I didn’t like the idea of that glimmer of hope being completely lost in the shuffle. And Lord knows that if someday a composition of mine were subject to this kind of editorial review (Perish the thought! I would be terrified!) I would hope that the critic was careful to highlight what was both right and wrong with what I’d written.
Anyway, I have sent my 450 words off to Opera News- and the brief reply from Editor-in-Chief Driscoll was positive- so it sounds like one of these days the review should be showing up on the Opera News website …. and sometime next year my review will show up in the actual magazine itself …. and all I can say is that I hope someone in my immediate vicinity will have smelling salts handy because I’m likely to faint the moment I see my name in the pages of that magazine.
pictured above: the curtain call for Rio de Sangre. Note the brightly colored set, which was one of the best things about the production.