It’s interesting. Some things work really well and others not so much. The singing is top drawer. It’s a great cast; Danika Lorèn, Miriam Khalil, David Trudgen, Asitha Tennekoon, Victoria Marshall, Michael Uloth and Justin Welsh. They can all sing Handel. Miriam goes further and adds some melismatic elements to great effect. The challenge perhaps is to find more ways of elaborating like that without falling into a bunch of clichés. The final ensemble number works really well. But, there’s the usual Handel problem of too many solo arias and not enough structural variation. Topher Mokrzewski directs from the piano and he is, of course, excellent but I will be intrigued to see what happens when the piece is scored for a small ensemble.
Finally there’s the central dramatic problem. I think we all know that the State abuses its powers and does terrible things to innocent people in the name of Security. Anybody who doesn’t know that isn’t likely to be at an opera performance by Against the Grain at least. So 90 minutes of dismal stories feels a bit like preaching to the choir. I feel, it needs more. A resolution? A way forward? A statement of resistance? Maybe just more interaction? I don’t know but, for me, something is missing. I should add that this was not the universal reaction in the post show discussion but it was shared by at least some others.
It’s a first workshop and it’s promising. With some musical elaboration and “plot” tweaks this could be a very interesting piece. I look forward to the next iteration.
This entry was posted in Performance review - miscellaneous and tagged against the grain, burns, handel, ivany, khalil, lore, marshall, mokrzewski, tennekoon, trudgen, uloth, welsh by operaramblings. Bookmark the permalink.