The Operatic Overload of “Both Eyes Open”

Suchan Kim as a Japanese-American farmer from California, who has to endure American prejudices during World War II (photograph by Robbie Sweeny)

Yesterday afternoon the Presidio Theatre Performing Arts Center concluded its first season with the first of three performances of the one-act chamber opera “Both Eyes Open.” Lasting about 90 minutes, the opera’s libretto by Philip Kan Gotanda presents an uncompromisingly intense narrative of the brutal conditions that Japanese-Americans were forced to endure during World War II. The context behind the story itself was so rich in content, taking in both Japanese traditions and the full brutality of American politics (presented, ironically, in the context of the latest stage of brutality being meted out by the Supreme Court), that the program sheet provided two full pages of background information.

Indeed, the context was so rich that it basically overwhelmed every other element contributing to the performance. That included the staging directed by Melissa Weaver, the music composed by Max Giteck Duykers, the roles sung by soprano Kalean Ung, baritone Suchan Kim, and tenor John Duykers, and the instrumental quartet of violinist Emanuela Nikiforova, clarinet Cory Tiffin, pianist Marja Mutru, and Joel Davel playing his “all-purpose” Marimba Lumina. The advance material for this production called it a “haunting, hyperreal tale of love, ambition, injustice and betrayal in this entertaining, yet searingly honest, portrayal of the past, to bring to light the current anti-Asian xenophobia and violence that continues today.” That overloaded verbiage basically presaged the excesses of the overall production.

There is no questioning the motives behind the opera itself. In the midst of all the excesses of production, there remains a “hard nut” at the core of a national history that can be (but never is) mapped out by its acts of injustice. We should view this parade of injustices, past and present, with “both eyes open,” as the opera’s title suggests. Sadly, the view from the stage of the Presidio Theatre was obscured by trying to account for an abundance of details, distracting the viewer from the basic hard truths that need to be confronted.