Elizabeth – The Scarlet Ibis, the first opera of the third annual Prototype Festival and part of Opera America’s New Works Forum, was a refreshing break from the classical opera scene. The intimate atmosphere of HERE was perfect for Stefan Weisman’s chamber music and David Cote’s libretto telling the story of Brother and his young disabled brother who is affectionately called Doodle. I felt the whole time like I was in Doodle’s home or the woods and swamp that surround it.
The opera explores the love/hate nature of sibling relationships—tension and aggression, affection and love—as complicated by having a disabled sibling. Hai-Ting Chinn is Brother, and she does a great job onstage for practically the entire 100 minutes (no intermission). Doodle is sung by countertenor Eric S. Brenner, and played by a puppet manipulated by Eric F. Avery, Josh Rice and Meghan Williams. The only other opera in which I have seen puppets used was in Madame Butterfly at the Met, and there the puppeteers were dressed in all black and practically hidden in the shadows of the lighting. The Scarlet Ibis puppeteers were in full light and dressed normally. It was a bit distracting at first having so many people clustered around a puppet, but Chinn’s focus on Doodle as puppet helped focus me on the puppet. And the puppet also came to life through the puppeteers. I was surprised to find myself choked up at points as I watched the puppet. Not only was that a testament to the puppeteers, but to Eric S. Brenner (who occasionally manipulated the puppet alone). Just listening to Brenner was mesmerizing, and his countertenor voice led to the Southern Gothic otherworldly vibe.
The team creatively used the small space at HERE. The theater is small–basically only five rows of seats and each has maybe 20 people in it. You walk across the stage to get to your seats. The set is small and bare yet an entire world is created through tables moving, screens upon which shadow puppets are projected, boxes lit up below the moving tables and a long rectangular light box at the back of the stage had cutout shapes that showed the back drop (house, forest, etc) and various light colors told you what time of day it was. Given the intimate setting I didn’t understand why all the singers were miked as I didn’t think it would be necessary. I particularly enjoyed Nicole Mitchell’s contralto, an unusual voice type I don’t hear often. Her voice lent a sense of authority and I saw her at times as the social conscience in the handling of Doodle’s illness and weakness. The solemn acting and clear voice of Kevin Phares’ as Father encapsulated the gravitas of an anxious father who had few options (given the time period) to help his ailing son.
When the Scarlet Ibis appears, a rare bird not native to Doodle’s part of the world, apparently blown off course by a storm, the reactions of Doodle and his family are telling. Instead of seeing the bird as beautiful all but Doodle seem afraid of it and disgusted. They even forbid Doodle from touching it for fear of getting sick. When Doodle later dies in a different storm after being abandoned by his brother, I wondered if the reactions were actually more mixed than they appeared. To me the ending was unsatisfying not only for the lack of clarity in the family’s response, but also the unclear events that caused Doodle’s death left me feeling like the ending was too abrupt and opaque. But regardless The Scarlet Ibis and its highly creative stagecraft left a lasting impression on me.
Shawn – In The Scarlet Ibis, composer Stefan Weisman and librettist David Cote have created an audial and visual southern gothic tale of surprising effectiveness. Especially in its use of a shadow projections, moving platforms rolled across the stage to signify different settings and, most striking of all, a puppet as one of its lead characters, Doodle.The puppet is manipulated by Eric F Avery, Josh Rice and Meghan Williams and sung by countertenor Eric S Brenner who also acts as solo puppeteer during many of the opera’s more intimate moments. Brenner was haunting in his ability to act as the puppet even when separated from it. As if he were an older, future projection of Doodle, or an external avatar of his spirit. The old joke is that tenors cannot walk and chew gum at the same time, well this countertenor sang, acted and was a convincing puppeteer all at the same time. I honestly felt very protective of Doodle at several points in the show. Which speaks volumes to the excellence of the puppeteers, the design team under Joseph Silovsky and Brenner’s performance.
The entire production in the small HERE theatre shows how much can be done with just light, creativity and ingenuity on stage.
I did have one problem with the narrative in that Doodle’s brother, Brother’s motivation seemed to crumble from confused love/hate for Doodle into a far more black and white sadism which made it far less compelling for me.
The singers were fine, although I am not sure why they were all miked in so small a space although it did seem to allow them to equalize the voice levels. Though that’s kind of cheating, no?
The Scarlet Ibis continues through this weekend, though all shows are sold out. But there is a wait list.
– Elizabeth Frayer and Shawn E Milnes
Related Links:
The Future of Opera in 20 Minute Increments: Washington National Opera’s American Opera Initiative
Merrily Widowing in Two Dimensions: The Merry Widow at the Metropolitan Opera
The Relativity of Time and Back Pain: Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg at the Metropolitan Opera
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