Berkeley-based West Edge Opera has wrapped its summer Festival 2018 at its new digs in Craneway Conference Center on the Richmond waterfront. Known for unusual performance sites (an abandoned train station, a derelict warehouse) and repertoire, WEO's recent productions matched well with the offbeat venue. Spectacular Bay views from the former Ford assembly plant's windows and complimentary beer and wine added to the atmosphere, but audiences care more about WEO's innovative programming, even if additional parking, shuttles to and from BART, and indoor restrooms made attendance easier.
A theme ran through all three shows, described by General Director Mark Streshinsky as focusing on "complicated and strong women." Artistic leadership was equal between the sexes, and the company has ongoing plans to correct a field historically dominated by men. All of the composers were male, however, which explains some of the variable results. It could be said that all of their heroines were riddles wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. Or less kindly, "complicated" meant everything from semi-comatose to calculating. Still, the three women struggling in a world of toxic testosterone showed creative coping strategies.
Seeing "Mata Hari" by composer Matt Marks and librettist Paul Peers (who also directed) first was a disappointing start. Less opera than music-theater piece, the swift biography (85 minutes without intermission) of Margaretha Zelle, famous as WWI dancer, temptress and undercover agent Mata Hari, comes down squarely in her defense.
A lifelong victim of abuse, robbed of her children, income and fame, she was finally executed by the French. Peers views the circumstantial evidence that condemned her as just that. He is searching for her humanity, and feeling sympathy for the notorious spy. Told in flashbacks from prison, the saga of a fascinating woman we may never understand is plagued by repetitious exposition, stereotypical characters and pedestrian lyrics.
Sets by Neal Wilkinson, video by David Palmer, costumes by Oana Botez and lighting by Michael Oesch lifted the work visually, and the small band conducted by Emily Senturia brought the composer's catchy pastiche to vivid life. Marks died last May at 38. The performances, dedicated to his memory, revealed a talent cut tragically short.
In the spoken title role, actress Tina Mitchell recreated the performance that caught GD Streshinsky's eye in the 2017 New York Prototype Festival. Mezzo-soprano Molly Mahoney did her best in the clich� part of Sister Leonide. Starting as Mata's crude, cigarette-smoking jail attendant, and ending as her confidant, Mahoney relied on her vocal resources (and her Flying Nun headgear) for believability.
Baritone Daniel Cilli was a stand-out as Captain Ladoux, and countertenor Jean-Paul Jones sang effectively in pop-inflected solos as Mata's lover Vadime and the ghost of her son.
Love triangle
In director Keturah Stickann's cut-to-the chase imagining of Claude Debussy's symbolist opera "Pelleas and Melisande," the title heroine startles the audience immediately as she gasps frantically for air. Is she awakening from a nightmare, or collapsing after an escape? Whatever; she has gone from one fright to another. Discovered by troubled Prince Golaud and quickly wed, Melisande is lost in a numbing void until she meets her husband's brother Pelleas.
There are many ways to interpret the triangle, but most productions favor ambiguity over passionate emotion. Stickann was movement director and choreographer at San Francisco Opera, with memorable work in "Moby Dick." At WEO, she shows brilliance as a director.
Music Director Jonathan Khuner conducted his own chamber version of the score, with fine orchestral response. His reduction suited Stickann's sharper-edged vision. His poetic translation of the text for the supertitles was another treat.
Baritone Efrain Solis has impressed audiences as an Adler Fellow and a spot-on Papageno in SFO's "The Magic Flute." Seeing him change from Mozart's comic bird-catcher to Debussy's darkly doubting Golaud was a revelation. Scenes of startling violence showed his acting range, and his voice remains powerful.
Mezzo-soprano Kendra Broom's nuanced Melisande warmed her flesh-and-blood interpretation with sweet innocence and flashes of wit. Her duets with sympathetic tenor David Blalock as Pelleas were beautiful.
Operatic workout
The final offering of the festival, Italian composer Luca Francesconi's deeply disturbing "Quartett," hardly sent listeners into the balmy Richmond night whistling a happy tune, but no one could deny the unnerving power of the experience.
Soprano Heather Buck is building a reputation as a singer of daunting contemporary roles. Baritone Hadleigh Adams is a returning favorite at WEO, praised for his star turn in Thomas Ades' "Powder Her Face." Together they are an uncommonly fit and attractive pair. Their athleticism and vocal flexibility proved important assets, considering the demands director Elkhanah Pulitzer and costume designer Christine Crook placed upon them.
Continuously changing from one skimpy outfit to another, and climbing and sliding up and down Chad Owens' remarkable set, Buck and Adams got quite a workout as they navigated the minefield of Francesconi's score. Conductor John Kennedy has strong contemporary opera creds, too, and with Meyer Sound helping sound designer Jeremy Wagner, the confrontational work transfixed the audience for 90 relentless minutes.
Based on characters from "The Dangerous Liaisons" and Heiner Muller's play, Francesconi puts two singers into four parts and switches them up between roles and genders. It is confusing, repellant and merciless, but the composer's jaundiced exploration of sexual terrorism avoids pomposity. His studies with legendary experimental composers inform the multi-dimensional results, and "Quartett" justifies West Edge Opera's outlandishly provocative production.