To a distinguished list of world premieres, Santa Fe Opera has now added “Oscar.” Composer Theodore Morrison and co-librettist John Cox have created a biographical opera that takes a very different approach to Oscar Wilde, the literary lion we thought we knew.
“Oscar” may allude to Wilde’s brilliant career, but it foregrounds his imprisonment for homosexuality, viewed by British society in the late 19th century as criminal. Act I begins after the first of three trials resulting from his affair with Lord Alfred Douglas (“Bosie”). Eventually found guilty of gross indecency, Wilde was sentenced to two years at hard labor and solitary confinement. His health forever compromised, he died in French exile at age 46.
If you expect the salon dandy who said witty things such as “When good Americans die, they go to Paris,” you may get a brief glimpse. Not that quip, but his famous remark about absinthe features prominently in Act I. One other surfaces – tossed like a little crisp into the overheated stew of a finale.
Neither the witty bit nor the finale will be given away here. What matters is a new concept that portrays a Wilde we haven’t seen. Like his famous novel, The Portrait of Dorian Gray, a heretofore hidden Wilde emerges. He’s not Dorian’s closet monster. In the opera, Britain’s literary aesthete is revealed as troubled, sensitive and kind.
In program notes, librettist Cox forthrightly states the creators’ intention: to recast Wilde as a tragic hero. “The greatness required to qualify for such an upgrade is evident in his brilliant career,” Cox writes.
The key word is “upgrade.”
Act I begins with a humiliated Wilde unable to even rent a hotel room. In what is referred to as “the inn scene,” he’s turned down three times. Recognize “no room at the inn?” The hero immediately placed on a Christlike platform.
With one dramatic exception, the theme of martyrdom threads through scenes woven densely with exposition. On the plus side, counter tenor David Daniels pitch-perfectly evokes the sad and desperate Wilde with a full and resonant voice. The opera has been written for and dedicated to Daniels.
Unfortunately, Act I is weighed down by expository chattiness. Add an unnecessary narrator, American poet Walt Whitman (Dwayne Croft), and description all but sinks the music. Apparently, Wilde met Whitman while on tour in America. That’s not sufficient reason to frame the opera with his ghost and set up a highly problematic finale. The concept borders on hagiography.
That said, Act I ends in an imaginative mock trial that is pure invention. It saves an otherwise disconnected first act. Another inspiration is the through-line characterization of Bosie, Wilde’s beloved. Brilliantly conceived as a dancer (Reed Luplau), Bosie never speaks or sings, but often appears as if in Wilde’s imagination. It’s a device that magically conveys the mystery of blind devotion.
Act II as a whole coheres. Set in Reading Gaol, the drama proceeds as a portrait of Wilde’s interactions with authorities and prisoners, ending in his freedom as a ruined man. If good Americans die and go to Paris, why didn’t the creative team let Wilde do the same?
Morrison’s music is eclectic with a range of techniques to suggest tension, suffering, disaster and ethereal beauty. Brief lyrical motifs emerge when Wilde remembers love or sings of dreams or nature. If only those brief passages could have spun into something like an old-fashioned aria.
A world premiere is exciting because it is a new, not a fixed entity. “Oscar” may have a superfluous narrator, a questionable character makeover, a confusing first act and an embarrassing finale. But Act I has a powerhouse ending and Act II is simply spellbinding.
Wilde himself said: “Experience is merely the name men give to their mistakes.”
jreynolds@durangoherald.com. Judith Reynolds is a Durango writer, artist and critic.
But wait – there’s more at the opera
Given the intense interest in “Oscar,” it would be easy to gloss over the rest of the 2013 season at Santa Fe Opera. One couldn’t, because the other productions are glittering successes.
“La Traviata,” Verdi’s tightly written tragedy of an ill-matched love affair, demonstrates SFO’s willingness to embrace contemporary stagecraft. Created by the French director Laurent Pelly, “Traviata” plays on a modernist, multi-level stage with couture costuming. Everything works toward one goal, the story of Violetta (brilliantly captured by soprano Brenda Rae) and Alfredo (sung with lovesick intensity by Michael Fabiano). The story moves quickly; Verdi shows, he doesn’t tell and balances intimate scenes with some of the best parties in opera.
“La Donna del Lago” may be the sleeper of the season. Rossini’s extravagant display of bel canto singing is a co-production with The Metropolitan Opera. Mezzo Joyce DiDonato carries a high torch as Elena, the lady of the lake. She’s surrounded by equally gifted singers. And while Sir Walter Scott’s story is melodramatic and predictable, musical virtuosity lifts “Lago” into the stratosphere. If you have trouble getting tickets, SFO has added a performance Aug. 19.
“The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein,” a basket of pure Offenbachian fluff, is a satire on European aristocracy and the idea that war is a game. That it was written in 1867 gives it a bitter aftertaste. But Offenbach’s kinship to Gilbert and Sullivan cannot be missed as the Duchess (winningly portrayed by Susan Graham) arrives at a military academy and urges her “boys” to rush off to war, win the day, and come home and party. Yes, that’s the tone, and you have to be there to get the satire. The SFO production spares nothing to point up privilege, frivolity and excess.
“The Marriage of Figaro” adds more lace and fluff, but it’s also one of Mozart’s finest comic operas. Santa Fe first programmed “Figaro” in 1960 and has staged it 16 times, more than any other opera in the repertoire. Mounted in period dress with elegant staging and spectacular singing, “Figaro” is a classic to be seen and seen again. This time Zachery Nelson and Lisette Oropesa create the endearing lovers who finally overcome all those pesky obstacles.
If you go
The Santa Fe Opera presents “Oscar” by Theodore Morrison and John Cox, Aug. 9, 12, 17; ”La Donna del Lago” by Rossini, Aug. 6 and 14, with an added performance Aug. 19; “Grand Duchess of Gerolstein” by Offenbach, Aug. 7, 15, 21, 24; “La Traviata” by Verdi, Aug. 10, 16, 22; “The Marriage of Figaro” by Mozart, Aug. 8, 13, 20, 23. For tickets and information, call (800) 280-4654 or visit www.SantaFeOpera.org.
