Jackson Terminal is one of the true gems of Knoxville’s past—a railway freight depot whose utilitarian history from the late 1880s belies its current refurbished glory as an event space on one end and a home for a modern distillery and a taproom on the other.
Marble City Opera is one of the true gems of Knoxville’s present—a chamber opera company that, in only five years of existence, has filled a special niche in Knoxville’s music scene, gravitating toward one-of-a-kind non-theatrical spaces for its productions and stimulating audiences with innovative performances and distinctive performers.
What happens when you combine the two?
This weekend found Marble City Opera’s final staged production of the year, Dominick Argento’s one-act work from 1971, Postcard From Morocco, in the event end of Jackson Terminal. The placement of a piece like Argento’s opera (libretto by John Donahue) in a space like the Terminal felt strangely natural—seven people find themselves waiting in a train station, all the while examining their existences in terms of their personal “baggage” in a surrealist dramatic environment. Dare I say it? It’s a bit like “Waiting For Godot in a Train Station.” And I mean that in the nicest—and most enticing—possible way.
However, this is not a derivative piece in any stretch of the imagination, neither dramatically nor musically. Argento has taken Donahue’s fantasies and imbued them with a musical character that is innovative, fresh, and contemporary without resorting to the tension and angst of sustained atonality. In fact, Argento’s references to other music styles are smile-inducing; there are even hints of waltzes that seem to drift by, suggesting seduction, or at least, the nostalgia of one’s past.
In what has to be Marble City Opera’s most successful casting of singers to date, Postcard From Morocco features both familiar voices and some new faces for the company’s eclectic audience. The seven excellent voices, each getting a vignette as such, run the gamut from coloratura soprano to bass. Somewhere in musical middle of that group is Mr. Owen, a man hugging his paint box for dear life, sung powerfully and dramatically here by tenor Brandon Evans. Tenor Ryan Ford was excellent as the Man With Old Luggage. On the coloratura end, Cat Richmond energetically sang the Lady With A Hand Mirror. Jennifer Barsamian offered a detailed and expressive take on A Foreign Singer. Ryan Colbert made a feast of quirky dramatic contrasts with her Lady With A Cake Box, while smoothing it with a velvety vocal line. Baritone Colin Levin was a vocal and dramatic standout as a Shoe Salesman. Bass Daniel Berry was intriguingly rich as the Man With A Cornet Case. With an icy, authoritarian facade—and an enigmatic train whistle—Marya Barry was the Silent Character.
Director James Marvel created a flexible environment of movement for each varying vignette of the piece, with transitions elaborately constructed out of choreographed pacing. Although each voice had its own spot in the musical spectrum, Marvel further defined the characters with clothing and props that oozed personality, and defined the work overall with an atmosphere in which “travelers” are robbed of their individuality.
Unfortunately, for all the apparent appropriateness of the Jackson Terminal for this production, the elephant in the room was the room itself. The space’s gorgeous old brick, hard concrete floor, glass, and high beamed ceiling made for a reverberant environment that battled the operatic voices in terms of understanding the crucial libretto. This was an issue even for singers with crisp, incisive diction, an issue that also varied with both pitch and volume, affecting the higher voices and fortissimo moments to a greater extent than the lower and softer. Clearly, catching the nuances of language, or even the language at all, in a piece such as this, is of paramount importance if one is to follow the narrative.
The company went with a single keyboard version of the score (pianist Brandon Coffer; conductor Peter Leonard), which, given the texturally interesting Argento orchestration for eight players, seemed disappointing at first. However, taking into account the room’s liveliness, this may have been a blessing in disguise.
Postcard From Morocco has one final performance this evening, May 11, at 8:00 PM at the Jackson Terminal.
This is one of the most quirky, amazing opera performances I have witnessed in my 40 years of attending opera. Brilliant direction and beautifully prepared singing made this an evening I will remember for a long time. Alan mentions his inability to understand the libretto, and indeed, that is very true. However, the piece was so outrageously absurd that neither I nor my co-attendees felt we missed much by not understanding in a concrete way the details of the story.
Bravo, MBO!