Photos courtesy of Long Beach Opera.
“Is it an opera, is it a play, is it a musical? It is hard to locate precisely what world the music is in. Somehow this lack of precise location seems very true to the meaning of the story.”
– David Lang, composer of The Difficulty of Crossing a Field
There are things that happen in this life that are beyond the realm of our comprehension. There are holes in our understanding of the universe, gaps in our understanding of each other and even elements of ourselves that we are unaware of. These mysteries are all the casualties of our perception.
Religion, faith and science all attempt to solve these mysteries for us by giving us a cheat sheet to our unfathomable existence, but sometimes, right in the middle of our daily lives, the mysteries become too great for any sort of reasoning. It is in these moments that life asks us its most impenetrable questions and it is this sort of unsolvable, cosmic happening that lies at the core of The Difficulty of Crossing a Field.
Based on a sliver of enigmatic fiction by Ambrose Bierce, The Difficulty of Crossing a Field concerns an unexplainable event in pre-Civil War Alabama. In the story, as in the opera, a farmer sets out to cross an open field in unobstructed view of his family, neighbors and their slaves. Halfway through his walk he suddenly vanishes from sight.
Although bits of narrative play into the structure of the work, it is more an atmospheric tone poem and meditation on time, space and perception than anything resembling a story. It evokes the strange disappearance by creating an atmosphere of intense mystery itself, with themes and sounds constantly appearing and vanishing, only to return and re-arrange in ghostly, hypnotic variation.
A hybrid of opera and play, this work premiered in San Francisco in 2002 and made its premiere with Long Beach Opera back in 2011. This current staging is a revival of that production.
With a libretto by the experimental Obie-winning playwright Mac Wellman and a score by the Pulitzer Prize-winning David Lang, The Difficulty of Crossing a Field is unquestionably a unique and difficult work not only to stage, but to make resonate. It takes an immense clarity of vision and a gifted creative team, cast, and orchestra in order to do this piece any justice. Long Beach Opera, under the direction of its artistic director Andreas Mitisek and conductor/chorus master Kristof Van Grysperre more than do the work justice. In their hands they have created an iconic and classic interpretation, which like the events depicted, must be seen to be comprehended.
In a brilliant inversion of our own perception as the theater’s audience, those attending the opera are seated on the stage while the action takes place among the vastness of the Terrace Theater’s house. Draped in a never-ending fog, the theater takes on a transcendent eeriness. The quartet which play the music that we hear (all of whom are excellent) are seen in the distance, with the faint glow of their sheet music lights as their only illumination in the darkness. The rest of the theater is lit by an extensive ramp that leads from the front row of the theater’s orchestra section to the back where it disappears completely. Great use is also made of the orchestra elevators which allow the cast members to rise and vanish from the deep pit that separates the stage from the house.
To pick a favorite moment from this work, which in many ways is circular and impenetrable, would be like picking a favorite sip from a cocktail, or a favorite bite from a piece of steak. It is instead better to think of the whole experience as a sort of guided meditation or journey–one which leads you to the cusp of the beyond, but not quite all the way there. Bravely, it leaves you to solve its unsolvable mysteries for yourself.
This is an ensemble piece in every sense of the word, so while I could spend much time singing the praises of the cast, I fear I would do them little justice. To create an environment as seamless and immersive as the one we encounter in The Difficulty of Crossing a Field is a feat to say the least. If any element had been out of place, the painstakingly constructed atmosphere could fall apart, like an alarm clock calling you back to reality from the deep landscape of a dream. I can happily say that this is not the case. All members of this diverse ensemble are not only invested but a perfect fit for their roles. They are all magicians. Every one of them.
As the piece is written for only a string quartet and voices; the only percussive sounds that punctuate the music and the drama come from the cast. A stamped foot evokes the crack of a plantation owner’s whip, clapped hands sound out in a delusional game of patty cake, the snap of the ensembles fingers draw our attention to a fleeting moment, and then another, and then another.
The physicalization of a percussive sound (a stamp, a clap, a snap) is a fitting metaphor for the strange case presented by The Difficulty of Crossing a Field. With each percussive action, we see the movement, hear its resulting sounds and are then left with the vacancy of space that the sound and action once occupied. Much like the disappearance of the figure at the center of this work, these moments draw attention to what once was and what now has passed. Before this stupendous production disappears into the ether as well, I recommend you seek it out.
Long Beach Opera’s performance of The Difficulty of Crossing a Field will continue on Saturday, June 28 and Sunday, June 29 at the Terrace Theater, located at 300 E. Ocean Blvd. Runtime is 80 minutes with no intermission; it is sung in English with English supertitles. For more information and tickets, click here.
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