Six Characters in Search of a Murder: Two Boys at the Metropolitan Opera

Elizabeth – Settling in to our seats for Two Boys, the first night of OPERA America’s National Opera Week, Shawn and I were playing with our iPhones when an older usher came over and told us politely, yet firmly, that we were not allowed to use our iPhones in the theater, only the lobby. I could understand not taking pictures, but even looking at Facebook isn’t allowed in the theatre? Interesting as there is a free Wi-Fi connection called “Theatre”. Up and down the stairs of our section searched the usher, alerting each offender about the rules at the Met. An older woman checking the time on her iPhone was confused but obediently put her phone away. All the while, black and white closed circuit images were projected onto the scrim of the Met before the opera started.

Putting away our iPhones may satisfy the rules of the Met, but trying to control technology, its effects and intrusions in our life appears to be futile. This was especially highlighted at the beginning of Two Boys, which started off with a technological glitch. Ah, the irony.

The opera apparently is based off the true-life story of a stabbing by one teenage boy of another. The relationship takes place mainly online, and Bartlett Sher’s production cleverly has the chat dialogue projected onto screens onstage while the characters sing their chat. The opening exchange seemed to have the aforementioned glitch as no chat appeared onscreen. The next conversation was projected on the screens onstage, but sometimes the chat moved faster than the singers singing. Getting technology and reality to sync is sometimes, perhaps, too big a task.

The story of Two Boys is interesting and twisted but while the premise makes for a terrific tale, something felt flat about the first act. I found my mind wandering quite a bit, reflecting on my creepy chat encounters with creepy people as a teenager in the ‘90s. Anne Coote as the detective sergeant has a great voice, but the music didn’t give her very much latitude. There were no terrific sings for her in this piece. Her as computer illiterate and outside of the world of the internet was useful as a guide through the story, but the subplot of her having given away a child 16 years ago didn’t quite work.

At times it felt like too much was happening on stage. I missed the beginning of Jake and Brian meeting because a spotlight was focused on one of the three tiered moving sets depicting chat rooms. But perhaps that in and of itself was representative of all that goes on in our multitasking techno-driven world.

The frenetic choreography in the scenes depicting the internet was terrific and a creative way to illustrate the different corners of the internet ranging from vapid to disgusting. Musically I enjoyed the internet scenes, which had a wild rock sound and the mechanical pinging highlights of the chat scenes. I must admit I had lowered expectations after hearing of negative reviews, and seeing the much smaller audience, but David Robertson’s conducting was terrific, full of pizzaz and had a great energy.

Jennifer Zetlan as Rebecca was adorable and at the end of the evening had gorgeous hair-raising high notes that soared above the entire cast. Sandra Piques Eddy as Fiona was effective and the young boy who played Jake had a lovely voice. I could not find his name in the program, but having a young male soprano playing the part of genius mastermind heightened the eeriness of the story. Keith Miller as salacious sadistic Peter also had a terrific voice and was terribly perverted. Hearing him made me realize just how difficult it was to hear others throughout.

Ultimately, the story came home with me, but not the music. Instead I was left with the unsettling question of why Jake did what he did and the unpleasant aftertaste of my own teenage days in AOL chatrooms.

Shawn – I had purposefully read and seen little about Two Boys before seeing it at the Met. I wanted it to be a completely fresh experience unbesmirched by preconception. I did briefly get caught up watching a low grade twitter feud on Tuesday morning after the semi poor reviews for Two Boys came out after the opening night performance. Quite a few very young opera fans loved Two Boys and felt that perhaps the reviewers were too old to be in a position to review an opera about the deceptions and intrigues of the internet chat room culture as they had not come of age in that era. Interesting exchange, but that was my only exposure to Two Boys apart from the few headlines I have caught over the past few days. I still have yet to read the reviews to which the young opera fans were referring. I will once this is completed.

First off Bartlett Sher has a kink for people dragging things onto, off of and across the stage. This can be very effective but in Two Boys, as in his Elisir D’Amore, I found it distracting. Just too much movement achieving too little save set change.

But the constantly shifting walls onstage were very effective as they blended with the projected security camera footage that is so vital to the case being depicted in Two Boys. I also found the projections of the online chat directly behind the singers was, once one got used to it, surprisingly powerful. The production must find a way to time the text better however as it often got two or three lines ahead of the sung dialogue and then was forced to backtrack. It was very distracting and took me out of the action.

Musically the choral pieces were what worked best for me. Strikingly in fact. The “sound” of the internet chat room “innerverse” was rivetingly compelling. Muhly seemed to use more classic church like choral sounds for it as opposed to some sort of modern fusion industrial synthesized sound to depict the internet chatter. Effective as this world is the church for these kids. The chorus’ faces illuminated by their laptops and projections of snippets of chat room speak worked excellently in conjunction with their musical sequences. And right down the middle of the audial and visual chatter was the constant background drone of “Everybody Hates You. You Should Kill Yourself” which is later revealed as the key to Jake’s motivations.

The dancers in the internet sequences however were far less compelling and I found them to be distracting as I had no idea what their movements were supposed to suggest or mean.

The procedural detective story worked well when utilized which was too seldom. The “Mybe /Maybe” moment when Detective Strawson compares the chatspeak style of the various online personas was incredibly effective but very short lived and the only visual and musical depiction of her deductive detective work. New and exciting stuff here, I wish there had been more of it.

Structurally there were some problems with Two Boys as well. Why does the Detective sing about the “lost, rudderless” children of the chat rooms when she has only just learned of the chat room culture in the most topical way just a scene before? This could have come later. It felt forced and out of place where it was. Additionally, that Jake viewing Brian as his great and perfect true love was the impetus to his actions could have been better depicted for me. Instead, Alice Coote’s Detective Strawson simply sings a line twice that tells us that. Show don’t tell always works better.

Speaking of Alice Coote, she was absolutely fab. I completely bought her as a modern day detective. Coote’s characterization reminded me of a more frayed version of Helen Mirren’s DCI Tennison, which is a wonderful thing to be reminded of. Keith Miller as Peter the imaginary gay sexual sadist blackmailer and assassin was excellent as well. I like Miller in everything I see him in and with “over 200 performances of 24 roles” at the Met we see him a lot thank goodness. Jennifer Zetlan as Rebecca was engaging enough although sometimes hard to hear and Sandra Piques Eddy as Fiona was a fine and appropriate combination of sex and menace. Additionally, the little boy who played the True Jake was frightening in his waif like vulnerability but strangely was not listed in the Playbill.

The crowd regardless of its size roared for the performers and especially for Nico Muhly, resplendent in his frock.

I hadn’t read anything about the true life case that inspired the story of Two Boys either, so when the reveal came it was truly horrifying. It reminded me of the story of Armin Meiwes who advertised on the internet for a “young well built man to be slaughtered and consumed,” was sadly taken up on the ad and, with the young man’s consent, murdered and consumed his body over ten months. Truly terrifying horrific stuff.

I really enjoyed Two Boys overall. Yes, apart from the chillingly riveting choral sections the music did lose me from time to time. But a great deal of it worked and Nico Muhly has demonstrated excellently what can be done with opera in the post millennial age telling post millennial stories about issues that resonate with the desperately needed up and coming, and hopefully growing, new and young post millennial opera audience.

Two Boys is apparently losing money. “Is Two Boys the Biggest Flop in Metropolitan Opera History?” read one headline I saw. I also saw the Met tweeting out mass $30 discount ticket codes for Two Boys, which is never a good sign. But, what I also see in the headlines and twitter feed is that it is influencing the parameters of the conversation online.

Nico Muhly

(Nico Muhly is himself a shrewd and charming user of social media with nearly 30k followers on twitter. Compared with Anna Netrebko’s Twitter account which has 20.4k followers, Thomas Hampson with under 10k and, to my mind the best and most innovative figure in opera social media, the wonderful and brilliant Joyce DeDonato with 18.6k followers.)

Just yesterday morning, the New Yorker twice tweeted out an article called, “The Psychology of Online Comments and the Conflicting Effects of Anonymity on the Internet.” And if the twitter spat I witnessed is any indication, Two Boys is prompting an intergenerational discussion about what stories should be told and how in opera. Even if only for a moment, that is important. And although the crowd was somewhat light the night we went, it was also far younger than usual for the met.

Peter Gelb of all people knows it isn’t always about selling the house but selling the media and culture and propelling the conversation. That is what makes one relevant in this age. And that’s a victory in the long term.

Salman Rushdie, himself, tweeted after the opening night performance:

And who are any of us to argue with Salman Rushdie?

– Elizabeth Frayer and Shawn E Milnes

(Photos courtesy of Metropolitan Opera Facebook page and Twitter)

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Six Characters in Search of a Murder: Two Boys at the Metropolitan Opera

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