SFO: Grand Opera for Our Times?

Following up on the San Francisco Opera (SFO) festivities for the world premiere performance of John Adams’ latest opera, Antony and Cleopatra, this past Saturday, last night I experienced my own “first taste” of this new composition during its second performance at the War Memorial Opera House. As was observed a little over a month ago, Adams provided his own libretto, for the most part an adaptation of the play by William Shakespeare with the same title. Working with consultation provided by Elkhanah Pulitzer and Lucia Scheckner, Adams drew upon texts from other Shakespeare plays, as well as “supplementary passages” from Plutarch, Virgil, and other classical texts.

Pulitzer directed the staging, and Scheckner served as dramaturg. The primary “concept” behind that staging had more to do with Thirties Hollywood films than with Rome’s transition from republic to empire. This involved an elegantly elaborate system of panels, designed by Mimi Lien, which was conveniently configured to reveal “windows” of different sizes and shapes to present different episodes from the narrative. Thus, rather than watching a juxtaposition of scenes that one would see in a movie, the viewer was guided from one region in the field of view to another as the scenes changed. The result was a context of “wide-screen cinema,” which seemed to suggest a return to the “grand opera” of the nineteenth century through a vehicle of the twentieth. That perspective tended provided just the right “contemporary” setting for Adams’ music.

Following up on Adams’ many partnerships with director Peter Sellars, a production solidly grounded in a literary foundation was a welcome relief from “shock value eye candy.” Adams was far more than capable when it came to establishing a “narrative spinal cord” for the libretto; and Pulitzer’s approaches to staging consistently followed the path of that narrative, rather than undermining it with razzle-dazzle distractions. Nevertheless, the duration of the evening clocked in at around three and one-half hours (including a 25-minute intermission). As the narrative seemed to approach Cleopatra’s death at a snail’s pace, one could be forgiven for wishing that the performance would “cut to the chase.”

The tension of the forced marriage of Antony (Gerald Finley, right) to Octavia (Elizabeth DeShong) (photography by Cory Weaver, courtesy of SFO)

Nevertheless, bass-baritone Gerald Finley and soprano Amina Edris (who was born in Cairo) brought compelling and convincing performances to their respective title roles. Those that know their Roman history know that this was a period during with the Republic was ruled by a triumvirate, which consisted of Antony, Octavian (tenor Paul Appleby), and Lepidus (bass-baritone Philip Skinner). These roles established the context of Roman politics and foreshadowed the rise of Octavian (later Caesar Augustus) above the other two.

One also observes Octavian trying to control Antony through marriage. After the death of Antony’s wife, he is led into a wedding with Octavian’s sister Octavia (mezzo Elizabeth DeShong). As a result the overall network of personalities is one of “strategic connections,” given a helpful diagram in the program book.

The one significant problem is that the libretto discloses a complex web of interactions, which Shakespeare’s text managed to unfold with his deft capacity for rhetoric. We know that he could guide his attentive audience through complications and conniving schemes by virtue of his skillful management of iambic pentameter. Unfortunately, Adams’ music never rose to the convincing clarity of Shakespeare’s iambs.

The compelling passages in the score come in the instrumental lines, whose repetitive qualities evoke an intense depiction of the rumblings of Fate. There is also a clear “sense of place” in Egypt when the score calls for extended passages performed on cimbalom (played by Chester Englander). When it comes to the vocal lines, however, Adams’ capacity for melody never rises to the heights of spoken delivery of the “source text.”

Taken as a whole, Antony and Cleopatra has its assets and its liabilities; and, hopefully, some of those liabilities will get straightened out over the course of subsequent performances.