* Notes *
Opera Parallèle gave a shifting world premiere of David Hanlon’s The Pigeon Keeper (pictured, {photograph} by Stefan Cohen) at Cowell Theater in San Francisco final night time. The piece was ready meticulously and is partaking on many ranges.
The drama is ready on an unnamed Mediterranean island beset by drought and refugees that wash ashore. The libretto, by Stephanie Fleishmann, has a dreamy folks story side to it. The narrative facilities on a 12-year-old woman Orsia whose fowl loving mom has died seven years in the past after giving delivery to a stillborn son. The fisherman father Thalasso will not discuss his useless spouse. The islanders are unwelcoming of the newcomers, however it’s by an encounter with the village outcast solely often known as the Pigeon Keeper within the story that Orsia and her father come to search out therapeutic.
Hanlon’s music has quite a bit to suggest it, a lot of colours and texture and a minimum of one hummable tune. He bought the San Francisco Women Refrain to sound like all the things from a flock of pigeons to a rain bathe. Oddly, at 80 minutes, the piece felt neither lengthy nor brief, it was its personal suspension in time. Maestra Nicole Paiement performed with depth and exactitude, each notice felt intentional. There weren’t even a dozen devices, but the orchestra sounded robust and unified.
Director Brian Staufenbiel’s manufacturing employs a multistoried set that’s reworked with projections and props, seamlessly switching the scenes with some assist from the members of the ladies refrain. There have been some very efficient surprises with how the flock of pigeons and the waves of the ocean are depicted.
The singers all appeared completely forged and fully plausible of their roles. The members of the San Francisco Women Refrain sounded cohesive and ethereal, particularly soloist Shayla Sauvie. As Thalasso, baritone Craig Irvin sounds very clear and the ache of the character felt actual.
The tenor Bernard Holcomb sang the title function but additionally is the Widow Grocer and the Schoolteacher. It was so spectacular that he might embody these three folks so absolutely, it took me almost an hour to place collectively that he was the identical particular person. He actually did sound completely different in every function.
Soprano Angela Yam is in regards to the dimension of a really dainty 12-year-old and sang Orsia with some superbly sustained excessive notes. Her voice has a pure lucidity and sweetness, she was additionally in a position to distinctly convey the feelings of the piece.
* Tattling *
There was solely slightly speaking a few occasions in the course of the efficiency, which had no intermission. The viewers appeared rapt and engaged.
I discussed to my companion that I believed the composer was a piano accompanist in Merola maybe 15 years in the past. I used to be happy to notice that Hanlon is a Merolino from 2010 and was an Adler Fellow as effectively.
