Opera Maine's Memorable Three Decembers

Just returned from OperaMaine's production of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer's chamber opera, "Three Decembers." As I wrote ten years ago of the broadcast premiere of the 2008 revision, the negative reviews of that event made little sense to me:

". . . ungrateful music that lies awkwardly" for the voice” . . . “a score that while threatening to break into melody - never really does."

The music sits in the "sweet spot" for many singers, so “ungrateful” and "awkward" seems odd word choices to describe it. As to melody(ies), the score is virtually bursting with so many lending more of a musical theatre feel to it than an opera. There are (intentional or not) moments that, while not derivative, recall Menotti's early efforts, Bernstein and Sondheim. This is a good thing.

As with the Houston premiere, Portland’ audience was engaged and responsive throughout.

Scheer’s libretto – drawn from an unpublished play, tells the story of a mother and her difficult relationship with her two adult children from 1986 through 2006. A daughter, trapped in a miserable marriage she’s emotionally unequipped to exit; and a gay son, whose partner is dying from complications from AIDS. While these three wrestle with enormous emotions and guilt, there is never any doubt of the love that exists between them, and that they yearn for throughout those years. What on paper sounds like a Lifetime movie, onstage transforms into a compelling, powerful and sometimes funny tale.

Set in intimacy of the St. Lawrence Arts Center, John Sundling's bare bones production – a few props and enormous marquee-style lit up numerals: "1986" "1996" and "2006" identifying and effectively shrinking the stage each scene was a terrific effect, pulling the audience right into the performance. There were moments I couldn’t help thinking of Sondheim’s “Follies.” Likewise, Richard Gammon's direction elicited direct, no-nonsense acting from his cast that breathed theatrical life into this small, high strung and emotionally damaged family making them, for 90 some minutes, real in every sense. It didn’t hurt that Gammon was blessed with a cast that made absolute magic with Heggie’s Broadway-esque score.

As acclaimed actress, Madeline Mitchell, mezzo-soprano Raehann Bryce-Davis gave a genuine, larger-than-life tour-de-force, her beautiful, expressive face lighting up with stage smiles belying the frightened, hard-as-nails mother, desperate for attention and torn apart by hiding a damaging secret from her children throughout their lives. Vocally, Bryce-Davis has a rich, warm, expressive voice, even throughout all registers top-to-bottom. This is a beautiful singer well on her way to an international career. (Note: following this run, Ms. Bryce-Davis jets back to Antwerp where she is a member of the Opera Vlaanderen, for role debuts in Glass's "Satyagraha" and Eboli in "Don Carlos"). She's also one hell of an actress.

Soprano Symone Harcum was daughter Beatrice, and soared through Heggie's higher-lying music with ease and beautiful, lustrous tone. She softened what I felt was (in the original performances) a difficult-to-love, emotionally character and had the audience's sympathies early on.

As son and brother Charlie, Yazid Gray was every bit the equal of his mom and sister. A beautifully produced baritone and touchingly effective actor, Gray brought Charlie's grief and resentment to life without presenting a character that could easily morph into the maudlin. That line was never crossed and Gray’s Charlie seemed to be both balance and anchor of the family.

Music Director Timothy Steele had the difficult task of playing a single piano reduction of the score which did not allow always for nuances that a full ensemble would have provided. But jeez, did he play it brilliantly, and held the entire work together in a most admirable performance.

Interestingly, surtitles were provided for the performance, but they were never needed because of the amazing clarity of diction from the cast, I'm not certain a single pair of eyes ever looked up. How could we? We couldn't take our eyes off the stage.

We don't get a lot of contemporary opera in Maine, so "Three Decembers" was a most welcome gift from Opera Maine. More please!

Heggie's "Three Decembers" with Frederica von Stade

I don't know what I was expecting, but the reviews were almost uniformly horrible for Heggie’s latest opera – horrible in nearly way: staging, music, libretto, etc. I became somewhat suspicious, however, when I read how Heggie was writing "ungrateful" music that lies "awkwardly" for the voice; and how his score while "threatening to break into melody - never really does." Funny, what I listened to this past Saturday was the complete opposite; vocal writing that was gracious and filled with melody with words sung nearly as naturally as speech. It’s a bit of a “fluffy” score (“fluffy” in a positive way) score - more Broadway musical (think "The Light in the Piazza" or "A Little Night Music") than “standard” operatic. Even more so, it also reminded me (enormously so) of Menotti's early hits - "The Telephone", "The Old Maid and the Thief" and "Amelia Goes to the Ball." In fact, though I don’t recall reading this in a single review of the piece, I felt Menotti's presence throughout the work . Audience response was positive, and strong with audible laughter in all the right places and a hearty applause after each of the "numbers."

Honestly, the score bursts with beautiful melodies that almost belie the sparseness of the orchestration. Composed for 11 instruments – a string quintet, some wind players doubling on instruments, percussion and two pianos (played by conductor, Patrick Summers and composer, Mr. Heggie himself), the show could easily (with the right talent) be mounted virtually anywhere.

So frequently today's composers of operas are criticized for always tackling BIG subjects, yet when a composer tackles a "lighter" (even if only deceptively so) subject such as Heggie’s work on Terrence McNally’s intimate family drama of both laughter and tears, the subject matter is dismissed as "trite" or "sentimental."

The tale it takes place over three Decembers: 1986, 1996 and 2006, and centers around Madeline ("Maddy") an aging actress (von Stade) and the uncomfortable relationship she enjoys with two adult children. There is Charlie, her son, gay and whose lover is dying of complications from AIDS; and daughter Bea, married to a very successful businessman who cheats on her - something Maddy relates to. In '86 the kids meet Maddy as she's in rehearsals for her first Broadway musical. The kids do rattle on a bit much feeling sorry for themselves about how Maddy was an "absentee mom" always on the road. Maddy's defense was she was a young widow and only did what she could to assure there was food on the table and shoes on their feet. She's also keeping a dark secret about the kids' father's death (the children were 7 and 5 at his passing) - whom they always sing well of.

In the second act, the siblings go after mama with such a vengeance that Maddy is practically broadsided by their efforts. Bea, in particular, neither disguises nor let’s up her hostility, provoking her mother to blurt out the ugly truth about their late father, a man they have until now revered as a near saint. Maddy’s coming clean with the truth elicits only anger from both children, each inferring how different their lives would be if Maddy had given them the truth.

Her defense is heartrending “How could I look in your eyes and tell you . . . I had to find a version of life that we could all live with. I did it to protect you.” Von Stade simply shines here and one sees – if only through her own eyes – how she viewed her actions as selfless – as a sacrifice.

In fact, Frederica von Stade sounded absolutely stunning from start to finish. The voice no longer possesses that crisp, gossamer, reedy tone so many of us fell under the spell of decades ago, but nonetheless uniquely stamped with von Stade’s individual stamp. The youthfulness has been replaced by a richness and maturity (without once sounding “old”) that only age – and its wisdom can bring out in a singer. It’s a voice with decidedly more cream than muscle and quite honestly hearing of her desire to do The Marschallin, all I cab say is “go for it, Flicka!” Quite simply, von Stade’s was a tour de force performance, hilarious, touching, vain - it was clearly tailor made for her (but should transfer well) and she did not disappoint.

Keith Phares was touching as Charlie, and his singing at the end of Act I - (with the fog rolling in around them on the Golden Gate Bridge) was particularly beautiful. Kristin Clayton's Bea was lovely, though the character is a difficult one to warm up do: a joyless alcoholic, she finds anyone to blame for life’s one I have a tough time feeling complete sympathy for. That said, she sang with great emotion and entirely believable.

It isn't Elektra. It isn't Butterfly. It sure ain't Norma - but what I heard was a charming, thoughtful work I'd love the chance to see and hear in the theatre. It really is a lovely piece.

p.
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