Tirade

I bought a New York Times this morning and was annoyed to read Tommasini’s article on new operas. I couldn’t disagree more.

I thought that Doctor Atomic had not one minute of interesting vocal writing and even less of theatrical viability. Musically it was quite nice, though I might hear it differently today. I notice increasingly Adams’ minimalist tendencies, something I have no problem with. It’s the lack of a real libretto that I don’t like.

So why has Satyagraha not the same effect on me? It has a similar lack of theatrical viability and yet does not bother me at all. With Glass there is the expectation of boredom. One anticipates being numbed into submission. Adams has not created the same expectation. He began his operatic career with a highly viable theatrical vehicle--Nixon in China—with real dramatic tension and at least one real opera aria. Expectation undoubtedly plays a role. I was glad when he made a symphony of Doctor Atomic. Much more suitable.

So now Tommasini wants to attack my favorite thing about Bonesetter—the writing for female trio. He does this by pointing out how critical the trio in Rosenkavalier is to the plot. No it isn’t. It’s critical to the need for a big vocal moment. Strauss understood precisely what an opera was, how one worked dramatically, and most important of all how one worked musically. He understood the purpose of singing in the drama, where the arias went and why. The climax of Rosenkavalier involves 3 people, so all three have to sing.

I didn’t read Tam’s novel and am not sorry. I came to Bonesetter with no preconceived ideas. Do I think it’s as good as Rosenkavalier? Hell, no. Do I think anything is as good as Rosenkavalier? Hell, no. I thought the trios made the story about three characters, and that it needed that. I bought the theatrical solutions to the staging of the novel. For me it worked.

I don’t think Wallace is as good a composer as Adams. Tommasini was right in pointing out the flaw in Wallace not being able to imagine the sound for Bonesetter. Verdi didn’t sit around thinking of a sound. Wagner didn’t either—or if he did, he seems to have done it only once for his whole career. Strauss didn’t either. Mozart didn’t either. Any composer worth shit looks to their own sound for the musical materials, and they know what that sound is. The problem with most modern composers is that they have technique to burn but absolutely no characteristic sound. This is one of the reasons for the popularity of Philip Glass. He makes you crazy on occasion—though I seem to be getting over this reaction—but you always know who he is.

I think all three have to sing together in Bonesetter. It doesn’t work without it. For me it was vastly superior theatrically to Atomic, an opera about a bomb hanging in the air. Maybe the new production will help me change my mind, but for me Atomic lacked theatrical viability. At no time do any two characters actually talk to each other. The countdown that lasts through the whole last act completely did not work. I could go on and on.

Mrs Atomic asks over and over “Am I in your light?” Could he just turn around and say, “No, for god’s sake. The light is coming from the other side, as anyone can plainly see.”

Bonesetter

The Bonesetter’s Daughter, music by Stewart Wallace, libretto by Amy Tan, produced at the San Francisco Opera, is simply an extraordinary piece.

Its extra-ordinariness comes from its libretto. Amy Tan writes about what it means to be Chinese-American, and her libretto is very much a Chinese-American chick flick. (We are working the idea that opera is like a chick flick, an idea first proposed here.) Her heroine Ruth, who has a Caucasian husband, attempts to follow the ancient tradition of feasting on the Chinese New Year. To show her appreciation she gives her mother LuLing a fur coat. LuLing has an outburst where she retells the OJ Simpson murder as though she were an eyewitness. This is followed by a stroke.

The story is of three women: Ruth, her mother LuLing and LuLing's mother Precious Auntie. The only male role of significance is the villain Chang the coffin maker, sung by Hao Jiang Tian. Over the course of the story Ruth travels back in time, transforms into LuLing and alters the course of her mother’s life--something like a Star Trek episode.

The extraordinariness comes from the music which is made by a standard opera orchestra plus xylophones, Chinese drums and a pair of Chinese oboes which introduce the scenes in China. They serve as signals that we have entered another realm. The composer is to be congratulated for creating a characteristic musical language for this piece that is interesting to hear and expressive of the fairy tale story.

There is wisdom here. The story is about three generations of women, two of which have never met, but librettist and composer find ways for them to appear together, speak similar words and sing trios together. It is the most glorious sound in an opera since the trio from Rosenkavalier. It is the perfect antidote to Simon Boccanegra. It is an opera about singing.

The extraordinariness comes from the production. There are almost constant projections from the rear, but the stage is relatively austere. Acrobats fly in the air. There is dry ice. There is a pink mink. And there is a ghost.

The bonesetter’s daughter is Precious Auntie who appears as a mortal in the flashbacks, a mortal who immolates herself to prevent her daughter from marrying her own father, and as a ghost throughout the rest of the opera.

The extraordinariness comes from the performers. Zheng Cao as Ruth and young LuLing, and Ning Liang as old LuLing are traditional western opera singers. They sing well and move as traditional opera singers would be expected to move.

Qian Yi as Precious Auntie is from Chinese opera. Her portrayal is what raises this work to the truly extraordinary. When Auntie is a ghost, she appears with long, flowing white hair that sticks out from her back rather like wings. She moves as if floating across the stage by making very fast small steps. She flies on wires. Would one mind being haunted by this gorgeous ethereal being? Her singing is also quite extraordinary. In the trios she must surely sing like the western singers. She is miked throughout and when she sings alone, it resembles nothing so much as Christine Schaefer singing Pierre Lunaire. She slides constantly, hardly seeming to light on any specific note.

The loudest cheers were for Qian Yi and Amy Tan. It was a wonderful evening in the theater. All are to be congratulated.