Wet Afternoon; Wet Opera

By Jonathan Jones

Thursday, April 28, 2011

On a wet afternoon, I made my way to Lincoln Center for a day at the opera.

I don’t know opera. I’ve sat through it. I’ve sung it. I’ve loved it. In 2001, I even appeared in it. But I don’t know it. That said, there is little I can accurately say about Séance on a Wet Afternoon, Stephen Schwartz’ work that was commissioned by Opera Santa Barbara, first performed in 2009, based on the1964 British film directed by Bryan Forbes, itself based on the novel by Mark McShane. This is a horror story so compelling that you cannot take your eyes off of the stage. It being opera, one has to remember that the ears should play an important sensory role as well, but here, I’m less certain of the success of the piece.

Stephen Schwartz is a brilliant composer. He can create mood and feeling like the best of them. Listening to Séance, I was enthralled by the orchestral score and reminded of Schwartz’ successes as a film composer. The orchestra in Séance sounds like an Alfred Hitchcock film—as it should. In fact, it was so convincing that I wanted to write Schwartz  a letter imploring him to accept his success in musical theatre and move on to composing exclusively for film, thereby creating an renaissance of film scoring.

Vocally, what was happening was much less clear. With perhaps one exception (a song that ‘plays’ on a recording—sung off stage by the chorus), there was no aria in the piece that could stand on its own. Further, the recitative was distracting and all together bizarre – as though Schwartz forgot that he was writing a song, let the dialogue fall where it may, and set it to music that did not appear to have an identifiable structure. Nonetheless, the skill of the principals was such that the audience lauded every song.

Directed by Schwartz’ son Scott, the chorus operates as reporters whose gestures and staging so closely mimic that of the Ozians from Wicked (“Good News”), that it became almost comical at times, which was truly inappropriate.

As for the plot, a woman conspires to become a renowned medium by kidnapping a child, holding her for ransom, and then claiming to use her mystical powers to find the child and return her safely to her parents. Unfortunately, in a twist straight out of Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, it is revealed that her husband has been placating her delusions for some time, and when she has her mental break (followed by their own version of ‘get the guests’ – truly, who influenced whom?), she decides on a new ending for the kidnapped girl that was so horrifying, I think my heart may actually have stopped.

The story is so strong that it is definitely worth seeing. Yet for the opera aficionados out there, I might say beware – but rather, I invite your comments. What did you think of this Séance?

This video begins with the song that I loved (strangely not listed in the song list on Stephen Schwartz’ website):

Séance on a Wet Afternoon is presented at New York City Opera though May 1^st. It will be presented at Queensland Opera, Australia in 2012.