#newwork2016

By: Nareg B., Capital Opera Teens; National Opera Teens Advisory Council

This past November, the Washington National Opera produced a new version of Philip Glass’ (composer) and Christopher Hampton’s (libretto) Appomattox, which a few of us from the Capital Opera teens were lucky enough to see.

A WNO “world premiere,” it was actually an expansion on an opera of the same name premiered by the San Francisco opera in 2007.  Opening 50 years after the Voting Rights Act and 150 years after the end of the Civil War, Appomattox was, in a word, riveting. The emotion of the audience as a whole was palpable as the opera explored the meaning of race relations from the end of the Civil War through the 2000’s.

The acts were set in front of a white “manor home” backdrop, with costumes appropriate for the different periods: Grant accepting Lee’s surrender at the Appomattox Court House, the apex of the civil rights movement in 1965 in Alabama and the White House, and the more current (2011) epilogue in a prison.

Each act explored the issues of race and racial equality in a series of scenes set in the overarching time period. In each tableau, the audience is left with the feeling that though we as a country ultimately achieved some of the goals toward a more equal society, we have a long way to go.

The opera was raw emotion, with President Lyndon B. Johnson for example, sung by baritone Tom Fox, using many vulgar expressions and yet voicing one of the most powerful addresses on race in the entire piece. Martin Luther King was sung by bass and local DC favorite, Soloman Howard (my youngest sister, Arya, has been in two productions with him, Magic Flute and The Lion, Unicorn, and Me. According to her, he is brilliant, talented, and extremely kind—especially to the children in the operas). Soloman’s capabilities are enormous as he drew the audience in with every phrase he sung.

The music itself was haunting. In Act I there was much dissonance, with beautiful arias scattered throughout to provide contrast. The juxtaposition was potent. In Act II, MLK performed a powerful piece that resonated in contrast to the discord of some of the other music. He engaged in a kind of back and forth with his fellow civil rights activists, which increased the tension and tautness of the scene. In the act’s epilogue, the dissonance of the music jarred a bit with abundant use of recitative, adding to the discomfort we felt as one audience, reacting to horrific racism, still manifested today.

However, it was the final chorus of women that moved the opera to its profound conclusion. The audience was reminded of the meaning of hope; the necessity, as Winston Churchill said in 1941, “Never give in. Never, never, never—in nothing great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honor….”