This authentic story, of a Black household whose son is killed by the police, has solely grown in urgency within the years since 2020 amidst the continuing reckoning with police violence in Black communities.
But the complete affect of this important and well timed material feels pissed off at instances by a libretto that doesn’t successfully tie the work’s episodes of cathartic emotion right into a cohesive complete.
The libretto opens on the pregnant Mom (the characters are left unnamed) and her three girlfriends, who discover out to their dismay that the kid’s father is a police officer, and that the kid is a boy, warning that he’s destined to a lifetime of persecution. Whereas this scene works nicely sufficient by itself, it quickly turns into clear that Act I is content material to relaxation on these broad details in regards to the characters for any sense of battle.
A lot of the Act I materials feels dramatically inert, with stretches dedicated to home scenes of the Father along with his personal group of three buddies, and the Father and Mom within the hospital. These scenes appear meant to extend our sympathy with the dad and mom prematurely of the approaching tragedy, however in apply they really feel aimless, a missed alternative to allow us to study in regards to the characters by way of particular moments of battle and rigidity, nevertheless small.
Act I’s remaining scene abruptly skips ahead from the Son’s start to his teenage years, dropping the viewers right into a bitter confrontation between the Son and the Father in regards to the Son’s involvements in protests and petty crimes.
The libretto offers us little assist in understanding the Son on this scene with thorny dialogue that largely consists of refined political evaluation or indictments of the Father’s position within the white energy construction, whereas the few private motivations we do hear ring false. (Would this rage-filled, politically activated teenager actually berate their father or mother for not having given them a little bit sister?)
Maybe if we had been proven a bit extra of the teenage Son’s life, this scene would have been a chilling climax for Act I, however as a substitute the libretto implies that is an inevitable results of the preliminary state of affairs that requires no additional clarification.
Act II opens after the son has been killed, by one of many Father’s white fellow cops. In maybe essentially the most intriguing and nuanced scene within the present, the Father reveals to the Reverend among the particulars of what has occurred, unburdening himself about his disaster of religion and his plans to actual vengeance on the white police officer, although this doubtlessly fascinating plot line is rarely pursued.
The stability of Act II, together with a scene for the mom and her girlfriends, and a protracted ensemble part on the Son’s funeral, operates at an agonizing emotional pitch, because the dad and mom come to phrases with the lack of their baby and the injustice of his demise.
Whereas the forged successfully pushes these sections to the bounds of despair, these expressions of grief really feel each overwhelming and but oddly hole within the absence of a well-developed story to deliver us so far, leaving one to wonder if a direct meditation on the tragedies that impressed the work may need served these themes extra successfully than a piece of fiction.
The ultimate scene of the opera offers us with a belated extra glimpse of the Son’s character, in a flashback to the moments after Act I’s confrontation, set amidst the funeral set piece that has simply concluded.
Moments after that bitter change, we see the household saying grace collectively and the Son beaming {that a} trainer has advised him his newest artwork venture will assist him get into the Rhode Island Faculty of Design, earlier than earnestly asking the Father for permission to attend one other upcoming protest, which the libretto and music intimates is the place the Son was killed.
This appears meant as a remaining coup to encourage the viewers’s pity, as we now study that the murdered Son was truly a tremendously sympathetic character. But it surely feels as if the libretto is once more searching for to stir our feelings with out having finished the more durable work of growing a believable character arc from the outset.
Extra mundane points within the libretto sap the work’s affect as nicely. A number of scenes linger too lengthy on formulaic beats that don’t advance the story, from the comedic bits across the Father’s reticence with the new child to the Fathers’ buddies’ obsession with soccer.
The textual content additionally steadily falls again on utilizing lists within the place of extra significant lyrics. Within the flashback within the closing moments of the present, simply as we expect we would lastly see a direct interplay between the Mom and the Son, the overwhelming majority of her closing aria is devoted to easily itemizing beloved dishes that she cooks for her household.
Sudden shifts between the characters’ plain-spoken dialogue and passages of high-flown poetry may also really feel pressured as a substitute of organically elevating the characters’ expression.
Tesori, greatest identified for her successes in musical theater, delivers an enticing rating wealthy in musical concepts for her first full-length opera. The vocal writing for the principals does a lot to create distinct impressions for every character, and passages for ensembles are notably positive, from the inventive dealing with of the 2 trios of associates to the memorable climactic refrain scene.
Orchestral colours typically deliver ahead winds and horns in layered textures calmly harking back to Aaron Copland, notably in numerous the compelling interludes between scenes. The rating additionally contains departures from its primary neo-romantic palette with jazzy interjections, the usage of a drum package so as to add a harder-edged, extra modern sound, and the unnerving percussive results that open the piece.
At instances, nevertheless, this surfeit of concepts made it troublesome to discover a musical by way of line to tie the piece collectively, each as an entire and on a scene-by-scene foundation. Whereas sequences persistently supplied thrilling musical depictions of emotional excessive factors, there was much less deal with constructing climaxes and growing musical concepts over longer stretches.
A dynamic forged of singers did a lot to deliver heat and pathos to Blue’s story and music. Kenneth Kellogg, a graduate of WNO’s younger artist program and frequent presence in D.C., introduced his distinctive, earthen bass and a commanding stage presence to the position of the Father, projecting willpower and barely managed anguish in his confrontation with the Son and confessional scene with the Reverend.
Because the Mom, mezzo-soprano Briana Hunter shone in a few of Tesori’s most lyrical vocal writing in Act I, extending an pressing, stable core of sound upward to thrilling impact in passages reflecting the Mom’s optimism about her baby. Her searing rendition of Tesori’s tour de pressure Act II aria for the Mom showcased a spread of strengths from a formidable chest voice to a blazing higher register.
Tenor Aaron Crouch introduced a shiny, incisive shade to the relentless spiky figures that Tesori makes use of to seize the Son’s anger in his main scene with the Father. Although initially coming off as a notch quieter than the remainder of the forged, he was capable of regulate to the suitable quantity for the extra intimate Eisenhower (the Kennedy Middle’s Broadway-style theater). Joshua Conyers’ mellow, sweet-sounding baritone made for an efficient vocal distinction with Kellogg’s acid portrayal of the Father in disaster.
The remainder of the forged performed the pal teams of the Mom and Father together with a number of twin roles. The ladies specifically, soprano Ariana Wehr, soprano Katerina Burton and mezzo Rehanna Thelwell made a lot of the 2 prolonged scenes for the trio of girlfriends, who act as a form of Greek refrain to the Mom, gamely dealing with comedic interactions in Act I and harrowing lamentations in Act II. Different notable turns included Wehr’s dazzling excessive notes as a nurse in Act I and tenor Cameron Grey’s pleasing sound as a soloist on the funeral.
Thompson’s route was pure and efficient within the largely simple scenes, although the manufacturing may need benefited from constructing on among the extra theatrical touches, just like the Father’s preliminary dressing in his police uniform amidst eerie blue lighting.
The primary gesture of the straightforward set presents a row of brownstones in reduction on an all-white backdrop which proved surprisingly versatile within the results it might convey to assist the motion, because of inventive lighting by Robert Wierzel.
Photographs by Scott Suchman
