Time warping from the '50s

Illegal immigration. Homosexuality. Incest. Jealousy.

What is this, a discussion of 2008 presidential candidate speeches?

No, these were the issues last night when Washington National Opera plunged a full house at the Kennedy Center Opera House into the dark, gritty 1950s for its penultimate performance of A View from the Bridge.

Opera mirrors the hot topics of the day. A View from the Bridge, though, isn't a 2007 composition. William Bolcom composed the music in the mid-1990s, but, even then, this wasn't new stuff. The source of these "current," angstful issues is actually half a century old, as Bolcom based his work on the 1955 play by Arthur Miller.

WNO mounted a gripping production. Starring University of Oklahoma voice professor Kim Josephson as longshoreman Eddie Carbone and legendary soprano Catherine Malfitano as Eddie's wife, Beatrice, an excellent cast gave the audience a glimpse of 1950s culture in the working class Italian neighborhoods of Brooklyn, New York. Josephson and Malfitano created their roles in the opera's 1999 Chicago premiere, previously reprising them at the Metropolitan Opera in New York a couple of years ago, along with their original cast member Gregory Turay, who sings Rodolfo, Beatrice's cousin from Sicily. Rounding out the lead cast are Christine Brandes as Catherine, Beatrice's niece; John Del Carlo as narrator and lawyer Alfieri, and Richard Bernstein as cousin Marco.

Since I just got my ticket rather unexpectedly yesterday morning, I hadn't done my homework and learned who was in the cast, so finding Josephson, Malfitano, and Bernstein on the roster was a pleasant surprise. Josephson has a little ranch near Vinita, Oklahoma, about an hour from my parents' home (and about an hour from 's ancestral home, too), and I haven't heard him sing since an Il Trovatore with Tulsa Opera a few years ago. This was my first time to hear Richard Bernstein in person, and I'd been very interested in his sound, since he was the subject of so many feature articles about his athleticism and muscular body during the "opera beefcake" era of the late 1990s and early 2000s. And Catherine Malfitano.... wow.... what can one say about being in The Presence?

You know, Miss Malfitano will probably laugh, but my one criticism of her performance in this opera is that she looked and sounded too young for the part. Well, the character Beatrice is probably 40-something, and Miss Malfitano celebrated earlier this year her 60th birthday!

The primary tension in this opera is the relationship between Eddie and his niece, Catherine, whom he has raised since she was orphaned as a baby. He is overprotective and he loves her, though that love begins to take on a more sinister note as the young woman begins dating Rodolfo. It was difficult to judge Miss Brandes' performance as Catherine, since the musical line she had to sing was not terribly sympathetic. Whether the music or the casting decision, though, I never had an impression of innocence or youth, and Miss Brandes always sounded like a mature woman rather than the seventeen-year-old that Catherine is supposed to be.

The operatic love triangle came with Mr. Turay and his Rodolfo, an incredibly challenging role with a high tenor tessitura. In fact, in one line of the opera as Eddie criticizes Rodolfo, he says, "Sometimes he hits a note so high, you stop looking for him, and start looking for her." Turay has a tightly wound spinto voice with a highly pressured sound. He had a difficult character to portray, being not only a lover of singing, but having to dance on stage, and Rodolfo was also known to be good at cooking and at sewing dresses. The script rather heavy-handedly hinted at his potential homosexuality (though he certainly seemed appropriately romantic with Catherine), and Eddie opined that Rodolfo's only love interest in Catherine was so he could get married and become a legal American citizen. Two of Turay's solos (I hesitate to use the traditional term, "aria") garnered applause from the audience.

The "bridge" in the opera's title is the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City that links Manhattan to the southern portion of Brooklyn, overlooking where the opera is set. I presume the "viewing from the bridge" was being done by the lawyer Alfieri, who narrates the tale as an historical report. The stage design is starkly simple with industrial elements evoking the steelwork of a bridge. Projection screens along the back and sides show various old black and white photographs of New York. An area stage right includes the small Carbone home and stage left is an all-purpose area for the docks, the streets, and the lawyer's office. Raked ramps on the sides and back are often filled with members of the chorus, all dressed in dark, working class, period costumes. A scrim downstage serves as the main curtain for the stage; a small piece of scrim material hung obliquely over the "home" area and is used to receive a "shadow" of the lawyer's office door wording during those scenes where he is singing.

Dramatically, the opera is intense, emotional, and highly successful. Musically, though, I found it tedious.

Over the years, I've had the privilege to sing several opera premieres and to visit with the composers about their work. Many times, they write some beautiful, lyrical arias for the principal characters, and fill the rest of the score with typical modern opera atonality, dissonance, and cacophony. When I ask them if they really like that, if that is the music that sings in their hearts, every single composer has told me, "No." They all have said that they have to do that to be "taken seriously" and not considered "old-fashioned" by the musical academics who inform the critics what they should think of new compositions. Therein lies the problem for View. Composer Bolcom is a college professor—one of those "academics" who enforce the rules against melody and pretty music. He has no fear herein that his colleagues will accuse him of being old-fashioned!

The musical score for View is a stereotype of late 20th century opera modernism. The singers are forced to sing harsh, awkward intervals that bounce all around, back and forth, high to low, with no beauty to the musical line. Only Rodolfo and Marco had solos allowing the audience to applaud, and neither Beatrice nor Catherine had solo moments with any lyricality to show off their vocal talents. And how can Catherine sing beautifully of young love when her score has her braying like a mule? Meanwhile, the orchestral accompaniment chugs along with all kinds of atonal noise that bears little if any resemblance to the tunes being sung on stage, or even to the emotions being portrayed. Bolcom seems to favor a lot of minor second clusters. A lot. This, unfortunately, is "academic modern opera" at its height, and I can only say that I did not leave the theater humming a little tune.

Nevertheless, View is a powerful opera. I'm glad I went. Josephson, Malfitano, and Turay all offer noteworthy performances. There's one remaining performance in Washington, so grab a ticket if you can find one.