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'Cousin' opera recounts Lincoln assassination
NORTHAMPTON - In opera, anything can happen as long as you sing about it.
In Eric Sawyer and John Shoptaw's new opera "Our American Cousin," the events immediately surrounding President Abraham Lincoln's assassination were examined operatically through the eyes of the actors in the play the president came to Ford's Theater to attend that fateful evening.
The opera premiered Friday evening at the Academy of Music Theater.
The production was superb, with excellent singing from the principals across the board, and an excellently prepared chorus (Mallorie Chernin, chorusmaster) that executed Sawyer's challenging ensemble composition, both accompanied and unaccompanied, with clarity and subtle expression. Carole Charnow's insightful stage direction, Nancy Leary's costumes and Christopher Ostrom's sets and lighting illuminated the drama in forthright and meaningful fashion.
The Rock of Gibraltar underpinning the entire event was the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and its conductor Gil Rose. New music is their business and they presented Sawyer's score in its best light, with comprehension and passion. Balance between the orchestra (conceived, according, to Sawyer to approximate the size of the pit orchestra at Ford's Theater) and singers was optimum at all times, a partial result of the company's experience gleaned from their concert performance and recording of the work in March 2007.
Soprano Janna Baty brought a poignant depth to her portayal of Laura Keene, the manager of the company that presented "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theater in 1865. Beyond her consistently beautiful and intentional singing, Baty's immersion in her character made the audience care about Keene. Prior to the performance Baty shared some of her research into Keene's history that informed her interpretation, revealing the scope of Keene's accomplishments in the development and advancement of American drama. Such thorough artistry enables such a transcendent performance as Baty gave.
Tenor Alan Schneider brought a similar blend of top-notch vocalism and characterization to the part of Harry Hawk, the actor playing the titular "Cousin," who regales his British hosts, and by extension, the president and Mrs. Lincoln and the assemble audience of soldiers, freedmen, nurses, wives and widows, etc. with a homespun tall tale of "Possum herdin'" worthy of Mark Twain, in what was the most memorable set piece of the evening. Through their solid, bel canto vocal approach, Schneider and Baty succeeded in softening the edges of Sawyer's often (and no doubt intentionally) angular and fidgety phrases, bringing them closer to the realm of singer-friendly opera whose lineage can be traced back through Barber, Moore, and Floyd, to Puccini and Verdi....