Looking Back on In the Penal Colony: Feedback and Reviews

As we approach the holiday season, let's take a moment to look back on our seventh Opera Annex production, In the Penal Colony by Philip Glass. Staged in the historic Cyclorama at the Boston Center for the Arts, this unique, dark, and unsettling production left an indelible mark on critics, students, and audience members alike.

“The stage pictures and imagery of every moment [were] astounding and heart-clenching.”
– A. Alexander, MIT student

“Excellent performances … this newest production will be counted as another in [BLO’s] column of successes.”
– Boston Globe

“I was struck by the powerful string instruments and by the poignant theme. I am a new convert now against the death penalty. It's hard to explain, but this opera has broadened my views on that subject.  Thanks for giving the opportunity to expand my mind. I hope I can do the same for my students.”
– Boston Public Schools educator

“As part of its imaginative Opera Annex program, Boston Lyric Opera upended convention even further by putting the piece on in the Boston Cyclorama ... [T]his cavernous space, cleverly treated with absorptive materials as part of the set design, proved ideally resonant for voices and instruments, luring the audience into the opera’s ghoulish spell.”
– Wall Street Journal

“I really enjoyed the opera and it really was unforgettable. I wasn't expecting it to be an opera so I was really surprised when the actors started singing. The lyrics on the screen was a great way to keep the audience focused. It also worked well when the Officer was struggling with his emotions inside him and the machine breaking down. I first thought the screen itself was not functioning well but soon realized that it was part of the theater. It was amazing.”
– M. Saito, Boston College student

“Captivating … very well presented, very well sung.”
– WGBH

“Unforgettable … a true triumph in the company’s history.”
– South Shore Critic



All photos by T. Charles Erickson for Boston Lyric Opera.

In the Penal Colony: A Sneak Peek!

Check out this special SNEAK PEEK from Monday evening's Dress Rehearsal for In the Penal Colony! This Season's Opera Annex production, staged in the Cyclorama at the Boston Center for the Arts, is pitch-black fable about crime … and a very unusual punishment.

IN THE PENAL COLONY
November 11–15 | 2015
The Cyclorama at the Boston Center for the Arts
BLO.ORG

Boston Lyric Opera’s new “Opera Annex” production of Philip Glass’s dystopian In the Penal Colony, based on the Franz Kafka short story, has transformed the historic Cyclorama at the Boston Center for the Arts into a terrifying torture machine at the heart of the drama. Pictured (l.r.) are David McFerrin as The Officer and Neal Ferreira as The Visitor. Photo: T. Charles Erickson.

Neal Ferreira as The Visitor faces the terrifying presence of The Officer. Photo: T. Charles Erickson.

David McFerrin as The Officer threatens Yury Yanowsky as the Man.
Photo: T. Charles Erickson.

Yury Yanowsky as the Man, Neal Ferreira as The Visitor, and David McFerrin as The Officer.
Photo: T. Charles Erickson.

Math, Magic, and Music: An Interview with Carl Rosenberg, Acoustician

We sat down recently with Carl Rosenberg, an acoustician with Acentech, Inc. who consults with BLO on Opera Annex productions, including the upcoming In the Penal Colony at the Cyclorama at Boston Center for the Arts. A fascinating mix of math, music, and magic, read on for his insights about what makes a site-specific work sound glorious!


BLO: How did you get into this field?
Carl Rosenberg: Well, I studied to be an architect but found that I didn’t have a design flair. But I really resonated with the course I took in architecture school on architectural acoustics, which combine my interest in buildings with some facility in music and a more engineering bent on how buildings are put together.

Now I’m primarily a consultant. I work for colleges and universities, for classrooms, for atriums and public spaces, lots of small auditoriums at schools, office acoustics, a variety of things. 

BLO: Are you a musician yourself?
CR: I studied music the way kids do—taking piano lessons! But I like learning more about how spaces sound and what one does in the design of spaces to influence that acoustical quality, which in turn affects how we hear, how you can understand speech, the excitement of a dramatic production if you can understand the words, and so on.

BLO: How did you begin working with BLO?
CR: I think I was referred to Esther [Nelson, the General & Artistic Director of BLO] by a mutual friend, who suggested that if there were concerns or questions about the acoustics for these more challenging or non-traditional spaces, I might be able to help. And indeed the consultant work I do as my career deals with a wide variety of acoustical problems in spaces. So it started with learning more about the Annex productions, and my association with BLO developed through that.

BLO: What are some of the hallmarks of good acoustics? What do you listen for in a space?
CR: Good acoustics obviously depends dramatically on what the goal is of the space—it would be different for an office, for a restaurant, for a classroom, for musical productions, different for different types of musical productions. Where there would be amplified sound, you would want a certain type of acoustical quality, but for live music (especially the voice) you want a different type of acoustical quality. It also depends on the space and what the relationship is between the audience and the performers.

With opera, you want to allow the voice to resonate, to be heard, and you also want make sure there’s a degree of articulation and clarity. And those are the challenges that we’re faced with in any operatic venue.

BLO: When you walk into a space that we’re considering for Opera Annex, what are the things that you’re listening for or evaluating in that space?
CR: The relationship between the audience and the performers, because that’s the most important way to gauge the audience for the performance. [I also evaluate] the degree to which the space will support the propagation of the voice and the music that goes with it without sounding too muddy, or without overpowering the voice with extraneous sounds. One of the variables that helps us evaluate that balance is reverberation, which is the multiple echoes that you hear in a space. So you would rather the environment be more supportive of the voice than, for instance, singing into a closet.

BLO: What contributes to that? Is it the hardness of the materials that comprise the space?
CR: Exactly. The reverberation, which is one measure of the quality of the sound, is directly proportional to the volume and inversely proportional to the amount of absorptive materials in a space. So with those two variables, we can control that reverberation, which is measured in seconds. The audience is always a major component of the absorption in a hall—in so many spaces, the reverberation changes dramatically from an empty space to a full one. But if we make allowances for that and look at the other materials as well as the volume of the space, we have some sense of what that reverberation will be like.

Set model for In the Penal Colony. Design by Julia Noulin-Mérat.

BLO: So in the Cyclorama, we had to add a lot of absorptive materials to the set. Can you talk a little bit about how you came that conclusion?
CR: Anyone who goes into the Cyclorama, especially when it’s empty, will be overwhelmed and impressed in a positive manner by the huge volume, and the fact that all the surfaces that are on the finished materials now—floor, ceiling, oculus—are hard, sound-reflecting materials. There’s nothing soft or porous or fuzzy about any of them. Again, that will change with the addition of an audience, because all of us introduce absorptive materials, but with some rough calculations my colleagues and I figured that this space would be too echoy [for the opera]. So we worked with the design team to incorporate additional absorptive materials. The problem with the Cyclorama is exacerbated by the fact that its circular shape will focus sound in certain ways, just like a lens…or anything that has a concave surface. In the Cyclorama, both the ceiling above, which is a concave dome, as well as the circular floor plan [contribute to this]. So the location of the treatments is our attempt to control that focusing that will occur.

BLO: Are sounds generally more reverberant when they are in a space that is circular?
CR: [In a circular space,] the sound isn’t reflected or bounced around in an even manner…the extreme case of this focusing is evident at the Mapparium at the Christian Science Center, where there’s an entire sphere and if you go inside you can be overwhelmed by the echoes and the reverberation, the focusing, that occurs. The problem is not that severe at the Cyclorama, of course, but [the Cyclorama] was obviously not designed for live performances, it was to look at a painting of the battle [of Gettysburg].

BLO: What has been the most challenging venue that you’ve worked on for the Opera Annex series?
CR: Well, I think the Cyclorama will be one of the most challenging. Although, the Castle was an even larger volume and potentially even more reverberant. So that was a challenge too. The balance of these Annex productions is getting the absorption to be part of the stage set, the design; it’s not a permanent installation, [and we’re] limited by budget. In the Cyclorama what we could do was also limited by the structure itself and its historical significance…

BLO loads in to the Temple Ohabei Shalom for
The Love Potion, November 2014.

Another challenging space was the Temple Ohabei Shalom, where we did the production of The Love Potion last Season. An interesting space and  a huge volume, but as it turned out, that entire interior surface had already been treated with a sound-absorbing finish. Which made it quite non-reverberant, or dead, which is not what you would expect given the visual impact. You walk in and you expect to hear a long reverberation like a cathedral, but it’s not that at all. So our challenge in that case was to help bring some of the sound back to the audience that would otherwise be lost.

BLO: Anything you want to add?
CR: I would want to say that it’s been a profound honor to work with the production staff and the music staff; obviously we all share the same goals, but they have a love of opera which is inspiring and contagious and that’s been a wonderful opportunity for me.

Get to Know In the Penal Colony

Background on In the Penal Colony by John Conklin, BLO Artistic Advisor

WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN

Kafka in 1906

World Premiere
In the Penal Colony premiered in 2000 at ACT Theater, Seattle. In the cast were John Duykers, who had created the role of Mao Tse-tung in Adams’s Nixon in China, as the Visitor and Herbert Perry, who had created the role of Vasco da Gama in Glass’s The White Raven, as the Officer. Perry’s identical twin brother, Eugene, alternated the role with him. (The brothers Perry are perhaps most well known for their roles as Giovanni and Leporello in the Peter Sellars production of Don Giovanni, available on DVD). JoAnne Akalaitis directed, and the designers were John Conklin, Susan Hilferty, and Jennifer Tipton. This production was subsequently performed in Chicago at the Court Theater and in New York at Classic Stage Company.

Kafka’s story had been adapted for the stage by Steven Berkoff in 1969. The choice to use it as a basis for an opera was Glass’s, as was the creative team. He worked closely with his frequent collaborator and former wife JoAnne Akalaitis and the librettist Rudy Wurlitzer in shaping the piece into what he referred to as a “pocket opera.”

Librettist
Rudy Wurlitzer is a novelist and screenwriter whose film credits include Little Buddha, Pat Garett, and Billy the Kid. He also worked with Philip Glass on The Perfect American, an adaptation of Peter Stephan Jungk’s novel about Walt Disney (the opera is available on DVD).

Subsequent Performances
2002 at the Berliner Kammeroper; 2009 at the Opéra National de Lyon; 2010 at the Linbury Studio Theatre in London’s Royal Opera House, in a production by Music Theater Wales which then toured to several British cities, and was also  recorded for a CD. In the Penal Colony has proved to be one of Glass’s most performed works.

Forces
Written for two singers—a baritone (the Officer) and a tenor (the Visitor)—and 2 silent roles (the Guard and the Prisoner) and an ensemble of 5 strings. For the original production, the director, JoAnne Akalaitis, added an actor in the speaking role of Kafka, who served as a narrator and onlooker, his text being drawn primarily from Kafka’s diaries. None of the subsequent productions have used the Kafka character, and the number of nonspeaking roles and the placement of the ensemble have varied. The London production eliminated the Guard, while the French production added a second Guard; an Australian production placed the musicians offstage and set the action in a hospital-like corridor.

Source
Kafka’s calmly brutal and deeply disturbing short story (“In der Strafkolonie”) was written in 1914, revised in 1918, and published a year later. These dates significantly frame the horrors and destruction of the First World War. In 1916, Kafka gave a reading of the story in Munich. An observer wrote, “The listener too was dragged into this hellish torment. He too lay as a victim of the torture bed, and each new word was carved as an agonizing wound in his back. A muffled thud…confusion in the hall...people carried out a lady who had fainted. The group of listeners began to thin. Some fled at the last moment before the vision of the poet could overwhelm them. Never have I witnessed a similar effect of spoken words.”


Read the entire short story by Kafka here: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/In_the_Penal_Colony 

Reflections on the Opera America conference

Every year, opera companies from throughout North America get together for a conference and discuss strategies in development, new marketing ideas, technical production discoveries, programming ventures, etc. This year's host city was beautiful Vancouver, Canada.

I assisted a few sessions, here is a behind-the-scenes look at some of them:

Electronic Media Forum: Where is Opera headed now that we have media as a means of communication? We explored twitter and facebook as a marketing tool, some companies are creating short videos of behind-the-scenes (anything from following the day in the life of a singer, to how a set is built, to an homage to their unsung heroes), how blogging is a great way to connect directly with your audience, recording a world premiere, livestreaming a performance online, radio and television broadcasts, having your audience tweet live during a final dress performance etc.  In this day and age of communication, the thirst for audiences to get more information on the process has broadened and it’s very exciting to see how we can interact more with our patrons.

Atmospherics Onstage: This session was very interesting because we are always seeking to have more haze or fog onstage. Haze is wonderful for lighting effects; it helps create beautiful dramatic shafts of light. What is tricky in opera, as opposed to theatre, we have to worry about our singers' voices, the orchestra, visibility of monitors- how can we not hinder their performance, etc? The consensus is mostly to use water based machines--unfortunately not all of them give us that great of an effect as glycol based machines.

As the Seasons Turn: Non-traditional Opera on the Mainstage: This is always a hot topic at the conference. Some companies are having difficulty getting their audience excited about new music or new productions. Some companies do shows in parking lots, swimming pools, outdoors tents. However, if you put out a quality product, then the audience has a better chance to follow you and take artistic risks with you. I have to say, I was very proud to be sitting in the conference room as a member of BLO. We have been adventurous, concept wise, while being respectful musically and I think the pay off has been successful. Our Annex series (producing one opera each Season in a non-theatrical venue) is a wonderful opportunity to see a show within a different architectural context and many companies are hoping to have something similar in a few years.

I also visited the Queen Elizabeth theatre which underwent some major renovations over the past few years to sound proof it and make it more comfortable for the audience. I attended the keynote address, numerous mingling activities, and the Robert L.B. Tobin Director-Designer Showcase (they have interesting projects from the next generation opera makers). I heard about The Magic Flute Vancouver Opera produced with a new book and it made me look forward even more to our upcoming production. Our creative team has come up with a brilliant context and it will give our audience a new take on the story.

My favorite, year after year, remains the NEW WORKS SAMPLER. Over the evening you get to hear all kinds of new works either in development phase or recently performed. I find it fascinating because it’s a great way to get a pulse as to where opera in America is. I am incredibly excited by some of the new materials  I got to hear.

Julia Noulin-Merat
BLO Associate Producer 

JAMES MACMILLAN’S CLEMENCY NOMINATED FOR OLIVIER AWARD

James MacMillan’s Clemency—a Boston Lyric Opera (BLO) co-commission with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Scottish Opera; and Britten Sinfonia—has been nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award in the category of Best New Opera Production. BLO presents the American premiere of Clemency as part of its recently announced upcoming 2012/2013 Season.  The Olivier Awards will be presented during a ceremony at the Royal Opera House on April 15, 2012.

Clemency is BLO’s 2013 Opera Annex production and will be performed at the Artists for Humanity EpiCenter February 6–10, 2013. The libretto, by poet Michael Symmons Roberts, is drawn from the book of Genesis–Abraham and Sarah are childless and nearing the end of their lives. They are approached by three travelers who share the unexpected and miraculous news that Sarah will have a child in old age. The mood darkens as it becomes clear that the travelers are on a mission of vengeance upon the neighboring towns, and Abraham pleads clemency for their inhabitants.

Widely considered British theatre’s most sought-after awards, the Olivier Awards were inaugurated in 1976 and are presented by the Society of West End Theatre.

BLO’s Opera Annex offers audiences an opportunity to experience opera in an alternative space outside the traditional theater environment. Clemency is BLO’s fourth Opera Annex production.

Hear composer James MacMillan speak about the opera.

Strange and spooky origins

The story of The Lighthouse caught the fascination of myself and fellow assistant stage manager, Ginger Castleberry, when we looked up the location of the historical events on which the opera is based, see it on a map: http://g.co/maps/gmzw7

Who knows what really happened on this isolated group of rocks? The real-life Northern Lighthouse Board investigation (the opera's Court of Enquiry) concluded that all three lighthouse keepers were swept out to sea by a powerful wave, but no bodies were ever found washed ashore …

Ginger and I initially theorized the Loch Ness Monster was to blame for the disappearance of the men. After all, Nessie would have been hungry after a 300-mile swim between Loch Ness and the Flannan Isles. However, when we staged the final moments of the opera yesterday, director Tim Albery has provided us a more intriguing—and plausible—interpretation of the final moments of the keepers. The score blurs past and present in a way that gave us clues of how the story could fit together. With only a three person cast, the singers have been delving into the mystery from the perspective of the lighthouse keepers when they were confined together on duty, the relief officers who discovered the empty lighthouse, and impartial narrators after the whole event. You'll have to come and see to be your own judge of the keepers' fate!

--Courtney Rizzo, Assistant Stage Manager

Provocative Opera at 2 Extremes

Last season's Opera Annex production, The Emperor of Atlantis was featured in this article by The New York Times. Our Opera Annex is a fully staged production designed for an alternative space outside the traditional theater environment, all at a lower ticket price. The New York Times praised, The Emperor of Atlantis as the "most tantalizing" production of the 2010/2011 Season in its original review of the production and in this weekend's article includes that same production as one of "the most memorable performances [...] by groups that specialize in the repertory’s extremes, early and new music. And thoughtful, often provocative opera productions figured prominently at both ends."

This season's Opera Annex, Peter Maxwell Davies' The Lighthouse, is modern piece based on the stories about the lighthouse on the Isle of Shoals. The opera is an unforgettably gripping and overwhelming portrait of growing madness and possession. A chamber orchestra and Davies’ own compelling and mysteriously deep libretto, conjure up an isolated world, terrifying and moving. Don't miss it!

Curtain Call

It’s been a great year with The BLO Bunch of varied and beautiful opera, not to mention the opportunity to meet new people. It was also a lot of fun to go to the opera with three friends who were relatively new to the experience (I think all three asked what they should wear for the occasion), who I would like to recognize here for taking a chance on opera, and for joining me in the schlep from Providence to Boston.

Puccini’s Tosca, November 2010—Maggie, my former roommate and a highly cultured journalist, joined me to see her first professional opera. Tosca, in all its full-blooded passion, makes a great first opera. The BLO production, updated to Fascist Italy in the 1940s, was a new setting that married very well with the original context of the work, and was perfectly understandable even for a first viewing of the opera. Maggie thought Jill Gardner in the title role was outstanding, and Bradley Garvin rather dashing for such a nefarious villain.

The Emperor of Atlantis, February 2011—my date for the evening, Alena, had seen very little opera—we became friends when she played Miles (a role usually given to a boy soprano) in my production of The Turn of the Screw. We sat square in the front row, and we both agreed that David Schweizer’s production was the most exciting theater we’d seen in a long time—the show turned the image of conventional opera on its head. However, only afterward did Alena learn about the incredible, improbable history of how the opera came into being—the score written in the concentration camp at Terezin, hidden from the Nazis, re-created decades later with the help of a spiritual medium, and finally coming into its own in the operatic repertoire in recent times.

Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, May 2011—I brought my friend Andrew to last night’s show, another singer and actor friend who has performed opera, but never seen a professional production. Fortunately, the Shakespearean text of Britten’s opera formed a convenient lens for understanding the production, and the striking visuals of the production stood on their own. Afterward, we went to The BLO Bunch after-party at Jacob Wirth for some outstanding fried pickles.

I love bringing people to the opera, and I think they’ll all be back.

And, well, that’s the season.  Join The BLO Bunch next year, and come see what’s up with all the fuss about opera, because there’s been more than 400 years worth (and counting.)

-- Audrey Chait, Brown University

Backtrack: Kevin Burdette

The fabulous author of Tastee McBea joined us last week at Jacob Wirth following Wednesday's performance of Agrippina and shared her interview with Kevin Burdette, who recently played the role of Death in BLO's production of The Emperor of Atlantis, or Death Quits.

Check it out.

Check your expectations at the door.

The show had closed, I was still reeling in my seat, and finally the lights went back up. As my friend and I started packing to leave, I felt a little apprehensive. Usually I would immediately leave to start my long, arduous trek back to campus. But tonight was different—the club 28 Degrees beckoned me.

I didn’t know what to expect. Was it going to be a dance club? Get down on the floor with Harlequin and Death? I was hoping to keep my horrifyingly embarrassing dance moves to myself, and vowed to keep myself from venturing too far away from my seat. But when I got there, the atmosphere was not what I expected.

Instead of a bumping dance party, or a coalition of highly mature and arthritic septuagenarians (the demographic traditionally thought of as the average opera patron) what I found was a group of like-minded young adults, sophisticated in taste and passionate about opera. No one was like to shirk in the corner or try and hide from the crowd. I’d made a couple friends when I was at 28 Degrees, enjoying my complimentary hors d’oeuvres, and chatting up the patronage and even the actors. I talked about the show we’d all just seen, the nightlife in Boston, favorite Disney movies, best types of eyeliner. No subject was bane to the cosmopolitan group of theater-goers. I had a great time, enjoying my talks with talented and

As I left the club, what I’d really experienced started to hit me. This was the generation of arts patrons that were going to keep the opera tradition alive. These young, driven, passionate and sophisticated people are what the opera needs. And with their help, shows like The Emperor of Atlantis can still be put on. I’m glad to have met with them and can’t wait to see them again after Aggripina.

- Sujin Shin, Brandeis University

Hello! Hello!

If you missed The Emperor of Atlantis, or Death Quits, I am truly sorry for you.
 

Allow me to make you feel worse via this review.

Weeks later…I’m still thinking about it. THAT’s how good it was… ;)
 

Prior to viewing the production, I knew quit a bit of the history behind the work. Ullmann and Kien were both captives in the Theresienstadt concentration camp, where many of the “privileged” Jews were moved.  These “privileged” included a host of composers, instrumentalists, artists, writers, and intellectuals. Though the Holocaust brought an immense darkness, Terezin brought an immense light. Despite the horrors around them, these artists created works that would not only surpass time, but would be the successors of their death.

Such is the case of Ullmann and Kien who were both killed in Auschwitz.
 

This new BLO production is a testament to the power and legacy of their work. This new production of The Emperor of Atlantis, or Death Quits, was in a few words brilliant, witty, and breathtaking. But, when it comes down to it, I cannot really describe the experience, how empowering or unique it was. There was comedy, drama, love, and sweet bliss and relief.
 

The rundown:
Singers – Every single singer/actor was brilliant. Bravo and brava to all!  Notables…

o       Kevin Burdette was, as put by fellow cast member John Mac Master, the “Jim Carrey of Opera Theater”. Funny, frightening, and awe-inspiring, Mr. Burdette was truly a presence to be reckoned with in this production. As Death/Loudspeaker, he really set the tone at times to how the audience should feel.

o       John Mac Master’s role as Harlequin very much reminded me of Pierrot, the sad clown of the comedia dell’arte stock. He played the role well, with a constant sarcastic twist on his humor. However, there is one eerie “It” moment, when he sings a lullaby, which in the context of the doom and gloom just gives one the chills.

o       Jamie Van Eyck…purely charming. She was commanding as the Drummer, boldly following Emperor Overall. Her character could inspire a mass, convincing anyone to do anything she wanted. Much like Death, her sharp, prcise marches ruled the stage. She was the eyes, ears, and arm of the Emperor, and Van Eyck made it clear in her bold and precise performance

The setting – Confused…in a creepy-good way. From the moment you entered the theater, the experience was in motion. Ushers (who were actually supernumeraries to the show), never ceased in repeating this marvelous line: “Welcome to our performance. We are sorry, but our venue is under repar. What is your name?” If that didn’t unsettle you, walk into the theater. It felt like walking into a body bag. The entire room was “under repair”, covered in plastic sheeting, dangling wires, and it seemed to be emitting strange noises from everywhere.

He would have loved it...

The sets were also very “improv”, made out of various parts and pieces of junk or “stuff”. Also, nothing was hidden. There were no blackouts for scene changes. It was all left for you to watch.

Honestly, I could tell you everything about this opera, but it just wouldn’t do the production justice. At the core of the opera was this: the message of tyranny, murder, deceit, humanity, and escape from pain. Imagine a the torture of pain, of not being able to die! How terrible it is that someone could feel so much pain, that death is the only way out, but it is not there! This was the reality for some of the Jewish people held in concentration death. By the end of the opera, Death says it the best. “I do not bring pain…only relief from pain.” That moment, when Death takes back his job, is the most haunting moment. To see Death in action is actually beautiful. It is freedom.
 

This production will have life. If you ever see this BLO production being put up at Boston Lyric Opera again, or else where, please see it. It will certainly change you (ESPECIALLY if you have not seen opera). 

Don’t miss out on another “shoulda been there moment”.

xoxo,
Jessica Trainor, Boston College

Welcome to our performance

“Welcome to our performance. Our venue is under repair. We apologize for any inconvenience.”

The venue was like Disney World, like a creepy, under-construction version of Disney World. Complete with “friendly” ushers lining your path in, repeated a mildly unsettling monologue over and over to each person, the theatre was topped off with a solid covering of plastic-wrap and scaffolding and ladders about the stage, obscured by black and red banners. It was like something out of the Alan Moore-inspired movie V for Vendetta, and I knew I was in for a show unlike any other.

The Boston Lyric Opera’s production of The Emperor of Atlantis, at the Calderwood Pavillion on February 02, 2011, was a tribute to both the heroic men who devised it as well as to contemporary triumphs in the world of opera. Utilizing lighting and media, unconventionally unfinished set design, and haphazard costuming to turn a few heads on the runway, the holocaust opera became an entirely new animal to those who may have seen it before, and to those who haven’t, an entirely new animal compared to what they thought it might have been.

Hello Hello! Bravo Bravo!

- Bryan Cardillo, Boston College

'The Emperor of Atlantis' - Confusing. Intriguing. Ullmann

On Wednesday, February 2, I had the opportunity to see The Emperor of Atlantis by Viktor Ullmann in the Boston Lyric Opera’s latest production. 

When I first entered the theater, it was quite confusing.  There were ushers (or who you thought were ushers) standing there, just talking.  They were saying things such as, “We are sorry, but our theater is under renovation.”  Certainly, the theater DID look like it was under construction when one entered.  Perhaps the scariest thing the ushers did (and the spookiest, I would say) was asking everyone what their name was.  On the surface, that is not out of the ordinary.  It was the way the ushers said it, however, that made you question their motives and made you feel very uncomfortable. 

The theater itself was covered in work lights and sheets of plastic.  The stage was full of plastic and work lights as well as some additional scaffolding.  For the first opera, the world premiere of The After Image by Richard Beaudoin, the stage was in all black, with only a chamber orchestra consisting of a Clarinet, Violin, Piano, and Cello and two singers onstage (Jamie van Eyck and Kevin Burdette).  It is the same instrumentation of Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, an obvious piece to look back to.  Although The After-Image was an interesting piece, to my ears, it did not make aural sense.  The only reason I knew what was going on was because of the action onstage.  It did set the mood for the Ullmann, so in that regard it was successful.  It will be interesting to see how, in the future, BLO utilizes new music in their productions.  Hopefully, they continue to commission new works. 

The highlight of the evening was the Ullmann.  It was fantastically conceived and implemented.  Even the transition from The After Image was built into the opera, as there was no intermission.  The Nazi influence was certainly present, with Emperor Überall (Andrew Wilkowske) a cross between Napoleon and Hitler, as was the German singspiel element.  The director, David Schweizer, plays up the irony of the entire production with over-the-top props to ridiculous costumes.  It makes the elements of the story that are really biting very poignant.  The duet between the soldier girl (Kathryn Skemp) and the soldier (Julius Ahn) were very moving.   The drummer (Jamie van Eyck) was equally impressive in her commanding role. 

The people who stole the show, however, were death/loudspeaker (Kevin Burdette) and Harlequin (John Mac Master).  Death was funny at times, serious at times, but always set the tone.  He was commanding even in his outrageous costume, complete with bright red lipstick.  In his exoteric role, he was the center of the truth of the opera.  Harlequin was the companion to death and the only person who was an actual comedic figure.  He was dressed in such a way as to remind you of Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo.  This was very important in how John Mac Master played the role, which he did to great success. 

At its core, The Emperor of Atlantis is about tyranny, oppression, murder, deceit, hope, and humanity.  All of these emotions were conveyed onstage.  It was an extremely powerful production.  I wish I had time to see it again.

- Rob Tedesco, University of Auckland

'Atlantis' tells a modern musical tale

Brandeis Justice staff writer, Sujin Shin, attend the 2/2 performance of The Emperor Atlantis, or Death Quits and shares her review!

'Atlantis' tells a modern musical tale

Are you hooked on opera? Did The Emperor of Atlantis surprise you? Move you? Tell us what YOU think!

- The BLO Bunch

What is this experience?

Walls covered with plastic tarp, personnel with freakishly robotic friendliness greeting you with lines of "What is your name?" and "Sorry, our facility is under renovation at the moment," the atmosphere hardly felt like an opera was about to be performed inside its space. It was unsettling. The older crowds looked as if they weren't sure if they had bought tickets to the right show. But for me, I felt as comfortable as if the former group was sitting in a box seat at a traditional opera house. It was giddiness that was silently taking over me. I could not wait for what was about to happen.

The lose wires and unassuming scaffolding, and bits and pieces of props littering the stage plus the onstage orchestra -- it felt like we were invited to a personal rehearsal. The entire space felt like it had sprung out of spontaneity, as if friends were gathering around to improvise a little storytelling rendezvous. However unfinished the aesthetic may seem, the product was anything but powerful and in depth, and deeply calculated. Every bit of surprises and unusual choices seemed to have been pored out of much thought and in want of reaction -- and reactions they got.

For the first time in my life, I am made to feel sympathetic or rather, admiration, towards Death. It is an unusual story that is much more prevalent than one may think. Death does not make one suffer, but relieves one from suffering. Death is a good guy, if you really get to know him.

What a present surprise the whole evening was for me; opera in its nontraditional form. Much more intimate space, you could literally see the actor's jaw tightening from emotion. And in English -- never mind that some words were hard to understand without the super titles, it was gloriously wonderful to have heard it sung in a language I understand. BLO needs to do more of this. This production was bold, inventive, wonderfully thought provoking, and visually a feast for those who cannot pay attention for long periods of time, which was to say perfect for me.  

- Ying Songsana, Emerson College

The Emperor of Atlantis: reviewed

The Emperor of Atlantis has a truly amazing history--we’ve been talking about it on this very blog. The piece was written in a Nazi concentration camp in Terezin, but the original rehearsal process was shut down, and both the composer and librettist were murdered during the war. For audience members who read about the show beforehand, the circumstances of the piece become inseparable from the work.

However, BLO’s production of The Emperor of Atlantis is such a world unto itself that it can also apparently stand on solid legs with no context at all. I brought a friend to the show who knew nothing about Der Kaiser von Atlantis, and she was blown away by the performance. Only after the show, did we discuss how the opera came to be. I found it easy to be sucked into the immediate world of the show when everything was so thoughtful and visually detailed, but the terrible circumstances of the work’s creation always hovered, chillingly so. The musical references in the score, from dance-hall vaudeville to Bach chorale, are so well placed that you can feel the wry intention behind every note.

The double bill of The Emperor of Atlantis and After-Image, the world premiere prologue by Richard Beaudoin, was a completely surrounding theatrical experience. The opera begun the minute I entered the theater and found the ensemble of supernumeraries (who were a highly visible and integral part of the show) stationed throughout the theater, already performing. I had no preconceptions about what the show should look like (unlike going to see Madama Butterfly, for instance.) It was as if Kevin Burdette, who led the cast as Death, and his fellow singer-actors (all physically and vocally stunning) were creating their roles for the first time, guided by a very strong compositional force furnished by director David Schweizer and conductor Stephen Lipsitt. In real time, the show seemed to spring fully formed from nowhere—it is a rare and exciting experience to go to the opera and not have any idea what is coming next!

More like this, please.

- Audrey Chait, Brown University

After the production closes

On Wednesday night February 2, 2011 BLO bunch gathered once again to see Boston Lyric Opera’s presentation of The Emperor of Atlantis. It was a night for learning. I am very familiar with the great works of Mozart, Handel and Puccini with their rich melodies. The Emperor of Atlantis by Viktor Ullman, along with the world premiere of The After-Image, a prologue by Richard Beaudoin, was an education on contemporary music. Although I am not familiar with contemporary music I enjoyed the evening. I enjoyed the way in which The After- Image shared similar context as The Emperor of Atlantis but was not meant to be a new addition but complimentary to the opera. In addition, I believe the librettist of The Emperor of Atlantis was brilliant writing with such depth of context at such a young age in such a miserable time. I believe the opera was a great success for Boston Lyric Opera I look forward to seeing how they can further push boundaries in future annex performances.

Till Next Time,

Kara Fleishaker, Boston University

Backstage with John Mac Master - That's a wrap!

It all comes together!

Well friends, if you’ve been following these posts, you’ve travelled along this journey from our arrival in snowy Boston on January 9th, to the snowy morning of February 3rd, the morning after our second performance.

I’m thrilled to report that the show has come together beautifully, and as is sometimes the case – but is always our hope – the piece is more than the sum of all our efforts – at least according to the feedback we are getting from our audiences, and from the lovely early reviews.

It’s a long process from being engaged for a project like this – usually more than a year ahead of time, to finding and purchasing a score of a work like this one, off the beaten track and new to most of us. Then came learning the notes and trying to make sense of the story, and lots of e-mails and conversations about the piece before we even arrived here.

You read the accounts of our rehearsals; tech week was the usual challenge of ironing out all the little details, and adding the orchestra. Then came dress rehearsal with a small audience present….Then opening! Lots of excitement; and though the house was sold out, some empty seats since folks could not all get here because of the storm….But the performance felt right; it felt real and authentic….and the more than 100 people who stayed behind to discuss the piece with the cast and production team after each of our first two performances showed that our audience is sophisticated, they understood what we were trying to portray, and they had an insatiable appetite to know more about the work, its genesis, the conditions in the camps, who Viktor Ullmann and Petr Kien were….

After the opening we were able to spend some time with Board members and donors, and to see their commitment to BLO and the Opera Annex program. Last night after performance number 2 we gathered with a large group of young adults, mostly university students – part of The BLO Bunch – at a nearby bar, and were struck by their enthusiasm for opera and this performance. At both events people commented on how moved they were, how engaged they were by the drama, and how much they enjoyed experiencing opera in a small venue, and the intimacy of it all.

I have to tell you how heartening this is, when we see audiences respond in this fashion to some of our “edgiest” work…..Congratulations to the vision of Esther Nelson, General and Artistic Director of BLO – and the support of her Board and donors – in making this show a reality…..And congratulations to all my colleague performers and production team who once again have taken mere words and notes on a printed page, and made them come to life once more.

- John

In Terezin, Where 'The Emperor Atlantis, or Death Quits' was Imagined.

In Terezin, a city northwest of Prague, a sort of "paradise ghetto" was promised to Czech and other European Jews. Most of them were prominent people in society: distinguished musicians, writers, artists, and leaders.

It was a ruse used by Nazi Germany. This place was for safekeeping, amidst the commotions that were Hitler's quest for power and destruction.

It was the place where many lives passed through, many perhaps hopeful in never leaving because of the comparatively much worse faith awaiting for them at places like Auschwitz.

Once, a happy little village was sprung up for the occasion of the Red Cross visit. Shops that would never once be visited by people of Terezin were built. Stores were stocked with goods that would never get bought. And facilities were constructed that would never again be given access to. The Red Cross representatives stayed on the dotted path designated to them on the maps made by the camp's officials. They didn't stray from the movie set that was specifically made in honor of their visit.

Here, prisoners were forced to create art, as one of the ways to deceive the international community of the reality. They wrote music, performed plays, and put on charades for outsiders. Granted, these activities were not unwelcome by the prisoners of the camp.

In what more extraordinary and most devastating circumstances could art be created? Art is an expression, of love, hate, emotions, fleeting moments, lasting impressions, or whatever one may make of. And in Terezin, perhaps it was an expression of silenced voices and an attempt at a hold on humanity.


- Ying Songsana, Emerson College