Picture by Steven Pisano
The arc of Issues in Sue, Opera Philadelphia’s present world premiere, is unimaginable with out…effectively, ARC. That’s, in fact, Anthony Roth Costanzo, OP’s Normal Director and President, who has been audaciously reinventing the corporate since he took maintain in 2024.
Who else may have assembled a roster of luminaries with this sort of cutting-edge glamour? The librettist is Michael R. Jackson, the Pulitzer and Tony-winning visionary behind A Unusual Loop. The fundamental thought for Issues in Sue got here from Justin Vivian Bond, the legendary gender-bending-and-defining efficiency artist. Collaborative administrators Raja Feather Kelly and Zack Winokur are famous names in au courant dance, theater, and opera circles. As for the composers (sure, plural), they embrace Missy Mazzoli, Nico Muhly, Cecile McLorin Salvant, Rene Orth…and the listing goes on.
Sure, who however ARC may have made this occur? On this case, he didn’t himself take to the stage, past introducing the opening night time efficiency to tumultuous applause. However there was by no means any doubt that that is an ARC occasion (an Arc-vent??).
However what is “this”?
Actually, that was my query getting in, and admittedly I used to be doubtful. I anticipated this new work to be showy and enjoyable—the type of pièce d’event that succeeds by making an enormous celebratory assertion—however nothing substantial, and never a bit prone to have a lot of an afterlife.
I couldn’t be happier to be proved mistaken on each counts. Let there be little question: Issues in Sue completely is an opera. And a really fantastic one.
As you would possibly have already got picked up, the title is each a pun (on “issues ensue”) and an correct description. What we have now here’s a biography of the titular “Sue,” advised from start to demise in a set of quick (8 to 10-minute) vignettes that sequentially cowl ten a long time: from her start to her demise at 99. “Sue” is performed right here by none aside from Bond themself—a celebrated performer, however definitely not an opera singer. Their voice, an efficient cabaret instrument, is extra of a boozy baritone within the Elaine Stritch vein.
Issues nonetheless doesn’t sound like an opera? So, let me inform you why it’s.
The core of the work is a set of through-composed scenes by a splendidly gifted and imaginatively assembled group of stellar musicians. (To those I’ve already talked about, add Andy Aikho, Nathalie Joachim, Alistair Coleman, Kamala Sankaram, Dan Schlossberg, and Errolyn Walton.)
Every composer has their distinctive sound worlds, in fact, however there may be an astonishing sense of cohesiveness to the work, which emerges with a sound world that’s up to date and sometimes witty, but additionally has some very melodic passages. It’s not basically a chamber opera—there are brass devices and percussion within the wonderful orchestra (fantastically carried out right here by Caren Levine).
But to me, the work has a way of chamber music in some ways. Although generally edgy, it’s additionally warmly nostalgic, or no less than bittersweet. Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer season of 1915 got here to my thoughts greater than as soon as.
Issues, like Knoxville, is a personality research that’s directly extraordinary and profound. Sue’s life has the standard ups and downs, starting in a childhood the place her have to imagine in Santa Claus is examined by Santa himself, who has had fairly sufficient of his personal job. (This units in movement a darkly humorous tone that underscores a lot of Issues.) Transferring on, we see Sue by means of years of college; with mates and rivals; in a romantic relationship (with Roger) that works and doesn’t work; and finally, her final minutes on earth as she’s escorted away by Demise themselves. (It’s not a spoiler to say that the piece suggests life ends because it begins.)
Picture by Steven Pisano
Basically we come to know Sue by means of an evolving group of people that encompass her. That is the “operatic” solid of singing actors who play a number of roles in addition to functioning as a collective narrator. They’re tenor Nicky Spence, baritone Nicholas Newton, and soprano Kiera Duffy—all excellent in each sense, with Duffy notably dazzling in some very stratospheric writing. The solid additionally contains mezzo Rehanna Thelwell, who although indisposed mimed the function on stage. It was sung by cowl Imara Miles—a fully attractive, lush mezzo who clear is a rising star. Sue herself was performed right here by Justin Vivian Bond. (Extra on that in a minute.)
I rank Issues in Sue as a serious success for Opera Philadelphia, and an exhilarating signal that for the corporate, ARC is certainly its Arc de Triomphe.
Nonetheless, I’ve a few reservations.
The primary has to do with the staging, which by any commonplace is dazzlingly conceived and executed, stuffed with sensible theatrical strokes and eye-popping design (set by Krit Robinson, lighting by Yuki Hyperlink, costumes by Victoria Bek and JW Anderson). However the humorous tone that works so effectively in the beginning feels more and more out of kilter with the evolving and darkening nature of the work itself, although a last lump-in-the-throat picture is unforgettable.
My second reservation is probably going extra controversial, and that has to do with Bond themself. As talked about, they’re the co-conceiver of this piece. Extra to the purpose, Bond is a real icon, a hero on the earth of gender portrayal within the arts—and that imprimatur is felt all through Issues in Sue. Their presence lends a luster that additionally helps outline Sue as each human and larger-than-life.
Picture by Steven Pisano
However as a performer, Bond doesn’t settle simply into this work. The singing is restricted to a ditty which is delivered with fashion, however doesn’t provide a lot past that. There’s nearly no spoken dialogue till an extended monologue the place Bond, fully breaking the theatrical body, excoriates all issues Trump and Trump-identified. This introduced down the home (nobody would mistake an Opera Philadelphia efficiency for a Turning Level USA rally), however for me, it’s an unwelcome, grandstanding distraction from the work itself.
I do imagine Issues in Sue has a future—and one that can nearly definitely not contain Bond’s bodily presence. Which for me is correctly. One of many exceptional issues in regards to the work is that Sue herself is actually an observer; her lively participation in talking, singing and even bodily presence is extra felt than seen. Take away the character and also you lose little or no. The truth is, in some ways I believe you acquire one thing—we come to know and care about Sue by means of the folks round her. By the tip, they’ve completely and generously introduced Sue to life… and moved us as an viewers. What extra can we ask for?
