****HIGHLY RECOMMENDED**** Lyric Opera of Chicago's ongoing commitment to presenting at least one contemporary opera per season has an added bonus in the programming of their current 2024/2025 season -- not just one but two of the six fully-staged operas that Lyric is producing are company premieres of operas written by living composers and featuring librettos which are sung in English. The first of these operas is "Blue," an emotionally riveting and profoundly powerful work from composer Jeanine Tesori and librettist Tazewell Thompson, who also serves as the director of this finely crafted production. The second, Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek's "The Listeners" will conclude Lyric's season when it opens in March of 2025. 4 SPOTLIGHTS
"Blue" is a pure revelation of where we are as a nation during this most precarious and pivotal moment in America's history. It does not attempt to rationalize just how we have gotten to this point, but rather presents a very straight-forward narrative of two people who fall in love, learn that they are expecting a baby and then vow to raise their child with all of the love and respect that they have for one another. They both are hard-working citizens living in present day Harlem who firmly believe in "the American dream" but who wake up into a reality, once their son has reached the tender age of 16, in which that dream has dissolved into a nightmare. This is a tragedy that far too many African American families have had to endure.
The Father (bass Kenneth Kellogg) is a policeman who prefers to be called an "officer of the law." The Mother (mezzo-soprano Zoie Reams) is a successful restaurateur who is happiest when she is in her kitchen preparing food for her child, simply named The Son (tenor Travon D. Walker), who is a sensitive student artist and activist who would rather attend non-violent political protests than hang out with his friends to play video games. Of course, father and son clash over traditional differences which are universal in father/son relationships, but The Son cannot reconcile himself with the fact that his father is a cop (er."officer of the law"). The Son feels that his father is completely out of touch and has been programmed to work for "The Man," which only reinforces the well-known tenet that African Americans are conditioned to fear any member of the police force.
Kellogg delivers a towering performance as The Father. His beautifully nuanced portrayal of a devoted father who is desperately yet earnestly trying to connect with his son is poignant and ultimately heartbreaking. Matching Kellogg every step of the way is Reams as the proud and grateful Mother. Reams expounds great joy in Act I as she shares the news of her pregnancy before she is eclipsed by unimaginable sorrow and loss during Act II. Working together as a solid unit, both Kellogg and Reams present a contrasting image of how parents can either deal with their collective grief and process it with each other or refuse to address it at all.
The most crucial scene in "Blue" could be the one that opens Act II. The Father visits The Reverend (baritone Norman Garrett) to seek solace and perhaps find some answers for his feelings of guilt, anger and regret. It is here that Thompson addresses some of the thorniest issues of his penetrating and sincerely perceptive libretto. Namely, the all-too-familiar and seemingly endless list of names of young African American men who we have lost to senseless gun violence. As The Father grapples with the misuse of power by the authority of the state, The Reverend offers the mere consolation of the church to bring him some sense of solace.
Rounding out this impressive ensemble are three of The Mother's Girlfriends (soprano Ariana Wehr, soprano Adia Evans and mezzo-soprano Krysty Swann). They enjoy many laughs and words of encouragement in Act I but become The Mother's essential support system in Act II. The Father also has three buddies who are fellow police officers with whom he shares his feelings. These Policemen (tenor Terrence Chin-Loy, tenor Jonathan Pierce-Rhodes and bass-baritone Christopher Humbert, Jr.) bring genuine humor and vitality to this production.
Conductor Joseph Young does a tremendous job with Tesori's sweeping score. Tesori, perhaps most well-known as the composer of numerous Broadway musicals (two of which won her the Tony Award for Best Score) has created a score which can initially envelop the listener in rich and lush orchestral flourishes but also creep up and catch one off guard as the score and the libretto fuse into a complex cohesion which has the ability to knock your socks off.
There is no denying that "Blue" is a major new and important American opera that yearns to be seen by everyone. Thompson's libretto has a male character who makes a subtle reference to James Baldwin's "The Fire Next Time" in which he claims that he is frustrated and is running out of patience as well as time.
He can't wait until the next time.
Neither can we.
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"Blue" continues until December 1, 2024
Lyric Opera is located at 20 North Wacker Drive, Chicago, IL
Remaining performances are:
Friday, November 22 at 7:00 PM
Tuesday, November 26 at 7:00 PM
Sunday, December 1 at 2:00 PM
For more information and tickets, visit lyricopera.org/blue.