Cory Weaver
West Edge Opera (WEO)’s 2025 Pageant opened boldly the weekend earlier than final (2-3 August) with sturdy performances of two very completely different operas that explored the polar extremes of non-public sacrifice. On this planet premiere of Dolores, a model new opera about American civil rights chief Dolores Huerta, the title character and the union chief Cesar Chavez sacrificed every part (together with virtually his life) to combat for the farm staff’ causes. However, the biblical French Baroque opera David and Jonathan explored the extent to which a ruler is keen to make sacrifices to remain in energy. Each introduced an exceedingly well timed social commentary on the occasions we reside in and grand entries to West Edge Opera’s lengthy checklist of achievements.
Composer Nicolás Lell Benavides and librettist Marella Martin Koch’s Dolores is the second full-length opera to be commissioned and developed by WEO, following final yr’s Bullrusher. Dolores was born from WEO’s Aperture program, an opera incubation challenge based through the COVID-19 pandemic, and it underwent 5 years of improvement, together with the hour-long public preview workshop in August 2023 that concerned the real-life Huerta herself. (Benavides is her third cousin.) The work is a co-commission with Opera Southwest (who will current it in October), San Diego Opera, and The Broad Stage.
Slightly than capturing Huerta’s whole life story, the opera focuses on a slender but pivotal interval of her life, particularly the spring and summer time of 1968. Three years into the Delano Grape strike and after Chavez started his 25-day quick, United Farm Employees (UFW) co-founder Huerta turned her consideration to Senator Robert Kennedy and have become an ardent supporter of his presidential marketing campaign as much as his assassination on June 5, 1968. (The strike ended two years later and Huerta subsequently turns into the unstoppable champions of labor, immigration, LGBTQ and girls’s rights.)
Whereas Benavides claimed in an interview that the opera wasn’t “meant as a historical past lesson”, however, it adopted carefully the precise occasions in 1968, together with the essential second when Huerta stood on the stage with Kennedy as he celebrated successful the California major, moments earlier than he was gunned down. Moreover, Koch’s libretto drew from most of the characters’ precise phrases, together with Huerta’s personal (and UFW’s well-known slogan) Sí, se puede (Sure, you’ll be able to), which memorably was a rousing choral piece (with viewers participation!) that ended the opera. Little surprise that through the intermission, many within the viewers reminisced about dwelling by means of elements of the opera.
There was quite a bit to advocate in Benavides’ music, from his assured mode of juggling many musical genres (jazz, musical theater, Latin, and even mariachi influences), his uncommon scoring for the tiny orchestra (which included electrical guitar), and, notably, his capacity to attain a stability between the heavy and lightweight moments by peppering the rating with many humorous and virtually comical scenes, some attributed to the Tough Dick (nickname for Richard Nixon) function, whose appearances felt like a a lot sinister King George III from Hamilton!
In his Director’s Observe, Octavio Cadenas hoped to focus on the immigration narrative of the story by specializing in the human side: “behind each headline and statistic is an individual, a household, and a historical past.” There was a way of simplicity to his manufacturing as if to focus on that this was a narrative of us, “frequent of us.” Cadenas and his crew used projections of actual images – taken from private, historic, and cultural archives – that Yuki Izumihara projected on Liliana Duque-Piñero’s collection of decreasing-sized clean canvases.
Duque-Piñero additionally positioned the next platform (with an enormous canvas behind it) and a tall rotating staircase that was used to emphasise essential factors. Ulises Alcala dressed everybody on stage in period-appropriate costumes. All the things was staged respectfully to the time and place of the actions, to the extent that it felt like watching a documentary at occasions, as soon as once more evoking recollections within the viewers who had lived by means of these occasions.
My solely drawback with the piece as an opera – particularly as somebody who hadn’t lived by means of the period, and who wasn’t conscious of a lot of Huerta’s work earlier than the present – was that in an opera full of sturdy male characters (Larry Itliong, Cesar Chavez, Bobby Kennedy, Tough Dick), the title function usually took the backseat and felt secondary. Her emotions, actions, selections, and sacrifices within the face of the occasions usually appeared inaccessible. This was notably evident when Kennedy got here into the image and the opera was virtually in peril of changing into a Kennedy opera. Solely on the finish, with a Joan of Arc-like gesture and amidst the “Sí, se puede” chantings, did the title function absolutely bloom into a pacesetter and a trailblazer.
Cory Weaver
WEO assembled a sturdy solid to carry out the drama, led by conductor Mary Chun. Chun, who additionally performed the 2023 preview workshop, was in a position to coax a studying with energy and charm from the 16-person orchestra, which was actually no small feat. Extra importantly, she introduced out all the colours, nuances, and varied influences in Benavides’s music, making the entire proceedings really feel well-rehearsed and alive. Equally, Mark Morash’s 12-person refrain contributed considerably each because the farm staff and as Kennedy’s marketing campaign crowds.
The male soloists had been well-cast and uniformly wonderful. Contemporary from making his Met debut earlier this yr, Alex Boyer made a charismatic Kennedy; his booming voice lending his characterization a much-needed gravitas. However, Samuel Faustine stole the present as Tough Dick; the intense timbre gave an intimidating high quality to the function, which he diversified and grew extra menacing every time he appeared. Baritone Rolfe Dauz and bass-baritone Phillip Lopez had been polar opposites of their interpretations of union leaders Itliong and Chavez; Dauz was explosive and forceful, whereas Lopez was heat and sympathetic. Lopez was notably environment friendly through the quick scene; Chavez’s banters along with his spouse Helen (performed by Chelsea Hole, additionally doubling as Ethel Kennedy) had been exceptionally heartbreaking. Caleb Alexander and Sergio Gonzales accomplished the comprimario roles with their successful performances as Paul Schrade, chief of the United Auto Employees, and Juan Romero, the busboy who held Kennedy after the assassination.
Naturally, all eyes had been on Peruvian-American mezzo-soprano Kelly Guerra, who assumed the titular function, and she or he actually didn’t disappoint. Bringing a darkish, sonorous sound and imposing physicality, Guerra embodied the function wholeheartedly as a union chief torn between hopes and anxieties for the longer term. The endings for every Act showcased her tackle Dolores the most effective; within the solemn prayer on the finish of Act I, she bared her soul to want for higher futures for her household, The Trigger, and Kennedy, whereas within the aforementioned Act II ending, she fiercely promised to go on and combat for The Trigger, ending the opera in a feverish state.
A protracted ovation greeted the solid and the manufacturing crew after the opening present. Nonetheless, the viewers went utterly berserk when the real-life Huerta approached the stage, took the mic, and urged the viewers that we couldn’t quit on this horrible time in historical past. “We all know we are going to win, proper?” ¡Sí se puede!
Cory Weaver
A complete completely different temper greeted the viewers the next day, when WEO premiered its second opera this Pageant Season, Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s David et Jonathas (David and Jonathan). Forged (initially) in 5 Acts and a prologue, the tragédie en musique relies on the Hebrew Bible’s First Ebook of Samuel with a libretto by Father François Bretonneau (a Jesuit priest). It was first carried out at Collège Louis-le-Grand, a Jesuit faculty, in 1688, in tandem with a Latin play, Father Étienne Chamillard’s Saul, the place every Act of the opera was adopted by one Act from the play.
A totally staged efficiency of a French Baroque opera is way and between proper right here within the Bay Space. So far as I recall, the final one was when the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (PBO) introduced the modern-day premiere of Jean-Philippe Rameau’s La Temple de la Gloire at Zellerbach Corridor, UC Berkeley, on the finish of April 2017. It was unlucky that the COVID-19 pandemic thwarted the plan for PBO to stage Jean-Marie Leclair’s solely surviving opera, Scylla et Glaucus, in April 2020.
David and Jonathan’s relationship – through which they fashioned a covenant and took a mutual oath – has fascinated theologians and students for hundreds of years. Whereas the normal Christian interpretations deal with it as a type of homosociality – a mere non-sexual camaraderie between two males – trendy interpretations inch in direction of a gay relationship. In any case, “Jonathan turned one in spirit with David, and he liked him as himself.” (1 Samuel 18:1)
Director (and WEO’s Normal Director) Mark Streshinsky and conductor Adam Pearl determined to re-edit the opera right into a extra coherent two-Act story, much like their therapy of Francesco Cavalli’s Eliogabalo 4 years in the past. Basically, Streshinsky and Pearl expanded the Prologue into a complete Act with music pulled from varied Acts to create the reenactment scene of David’s combat with Goliath and the creation of the covenant earlier than and after the Witch of Endor’s scene. The majority of the actions throughout the 5 Acts (with David taking refuge with the Philistines till the dying of Jonathan) had been compressed into Act II. Purists may hate it, however I feel the opera retelling labored brilliantly to current a extra coherent story and a logical rationalization for Saul’s jealousy-turned-madness.
In Streshinsky’s imaginative and prescient of the opera, there was little doubt that David and Jonathan had been lovers; in actual fact, he staged the covenant as a type of homosexual marriage ceremony, full with a reasonably graphic consummation of their love. (Therefore the content material advisory for nudity and sexual conditions.) The truth is, he (and Pearl) went even additional to solid Jonathan as a tenor! Initially written for a boy soprano, the function has thus far been sung by a soprano in just about all recordings product of this opera. The choice to transpose it for a tenor was a sound one, because it gave each David and Jonathan equal footing within the relationship, and WEO was blessed to have two outstanding tenors with very completely different timbres.
The remodeling positioned extra emphasis on the character of Saul, which Matthew Price brilliantly portrayed as a king consumed by hatred and jealousy (sound acquainted?) to the purpose of shedding his thoughts and declaring pointless conflict with tragic penalties. Saul now turned probably the most fascinating character within the opera, and Price impressively charted his gradual degradation along with his deeply resonant voice and thru his mannerisms.
Scenic designer Ember Streshinsky positioned three L-shaped movable body constructions, plus a sq., bed-like pedestal, on the heart. The mixtures and rotations of such frames effectively denoted the areas, akin to Saul’s palace and the couple’s mattress chamber. Props had been used sparingly, aside from Paul Hayes’s gigantic Goliath puppet (with an infinite “member” within the opera’s most cringeworthy scene), which was performed for laughs (and Saul’s desperation).
Probably the most spectacular “props” on stage had been truly the inclusion of 4 scantily-clad dancers (Marcos Vedoveto, Christopher Nachtrab, Max van der Sterre, and James Jared) who gracefully moved between the singers and the refrain in a spellbinding choreography by affiliate director and choreographer Benjamin Freedman, paying homage to each Baroque dances and MTV-like sequences. Marina Polakoff dressed just about everybody on stage in tunic-like garments, aside from the Witch of Endor (in a black robe as if able to compete in RuPaul’s Drag Race, with matching apparel for the dancers) and Joabel (in metal armor). The mixture of her costumes and Michael Oesch’s colourful, dramatic lighting gave the manufacturing a phantasmagorical high quality.
Cory Weaver
On the danger of sounding like a damaged document, WEO assembled an distinctive group of singers for this; there was not a weak hyperlink within the solid. Apparently, they had been additionally all sounding idiomatic (not at all times the case with Baroque performances round right here) and with very good diction, thanks to educate Daphne Touchais.
Tall, good-looking, and, sure, buff, Derek Chester and Aaron Sheehan had been completely plausible as a pair of lovers, David and Jonathan. Their simple chemistry was projected in the best way they embraced, kissed, and checked out one another. Vocally, Chester’s sonorous, barely darker sound contrasted effectively with Sheehan’s brilliant, trumpet-like instrument, they usually made probably the most of their many (love) duets. Watching them carry out kinda made you surprise why nobody considered performing the opera this fashion earlier than! The comprimario roles had been dealt with fantastically with a gaggle of soloists that made their presence felt, from Wilford Kelly’s authoritative Achis, Benjamin Pattison’s slickly conceited Joabel, Richard Combine’s otherworldly (Ghost of) Samuel, and, particularly, the one feminine principal within the solid, mezzo Laurel Semerdjian, who memorably stole the present each vocally and bodily in her temporary look because the Witch of Endor. Morash’s small refrain accomplished the vocal excellence with their appreciable contribution to the entire efficiency.
All through the present, I couldn’t assist however marvel at Pearl’s conducting of the 14-person ensemble from the harpsichord. Not solely did he lead with class and vigor, however he additionally managed to make the orchestra sound idiomatically French —a really outstanding feat. I felt transported to the halls of Versailles by listening to them! Pearl additionally maintained a gentle hand in guiding the proceedings whereas being delicate to the singers’ wants. It was utterly invigorating to come across such a excessive degree of musicianship on this manufacturing!
WEO’s third and remaining manufacturing on this yr’s Pageant, Alban Berg’s Wozzeck, opened on 9 August. Nonetheless, there is just one present left for each Dolores and David and Jonathan, and they’re going to play on the identical Saturday, August 16. Whether or not you wish to be a part of the motion or wish to expertise one of many most interesting displays of a French Baroque opera round, be certain to not miss both!
