Murdering for love, heck, murdering in general, never ends very well. Yet, homicides continue and will continue for as long as the human race goes on. We have all experienced times when we’ve decided we don’t want someone to be around us any longer or have romanticized the possibility of what a life would be like without conditions we feel oppressed by. Yet, just as our emotions sometimes may lead us to drastic decisions, they may also, luckily, lead us towards empathy. In a world where so much of our well being depends on our abilities to communicate and express something as irrational as our emotions, the fine line between tragedy and comedy runs just one impassioned action away from the other.
Thérèse Raquin, Tobias Picker and Gene Scheer’s operatic adaptation of Émile Zola’s first major novel is unquestionably a tragedy, and I mean that in the great Greek and Shakespearian meanings of the word. The opera’s relentless ability to create characters that are flawed and sometimes disturbing in their life choices, while still giving its audience the insight to understand them emotionally, infuses it with the empathy its main characters were deprived of in their own lives.
When these elements are combined with a romantic and often beautiful score, and LBO’s smart, minimalist staging, it also creates an engaging, unique and surprisingly resonant work of opera/lyric/theater.
Though I haven’t read the Zola novel of the same name that the opera is based on, research suggests that besides updating the Parisian setting to 1946 instead of 1867, the opera follows the novel’s plot pretty closely
A very young Thérèse is taken in by Madame Raquin, her aunt, after her mother passes away. There, Thérèse grows up tending to the Madame’s household and to the failing health of her cousin Camille. In other words, she is treated more like a servant than a member of the family. Madame Raquin marries the two cousins to one another in an attempt to create some stability in the household but in spite of the change in Thérèse’s position, her roll in the home remains much the same.
When Camille’s childhood friend-turned-artist Laurent come back into his life, he decides to invite him to paint his portrait. While visiting to work on the painting, Laurent and Thérèse become enamored with each other and their tumultuous affair begins. What starts as lusty infatuation soon becomes elevated beyond either’s expectations and they hatch a plot to kill Camille on a boating trip they take together.
After eleven months of convincing their friends and family that Camille’s death was an accident, the two are set to be married under Madame Raquin’s request. Ironically however, once Thérèse and Laurent are able to consummate their love without secrecy, their bedroom is set upon by Camille’s ghost causing them to confront the stifling guilt they suffer from head on.
Tobias Picker’s score is romantic and moody, creating much of the tone and the momentum of the piece with a breathless, unceasing omnipresence. Besides a calculated pause after Thérèse’s second act aria, the music never stops, allowing the drama to build in a refreshingly straight forward mode for an opera. Though the score is not particularly unique in how it sounds, its relentlessness allows for an emphases on character and plot development that feels far more cohesive and natural than many other narrative operas contemporary or otherwise.
Aside from a few eye-roll-inducing rhymes and a bit of comedic relief that doesn’t quite justify its means, Gene Scheer’s libretto is self assured and surprisingly well balanced. The action in this adaptation of Thérèse is taut and engaging, resembling a play at times far more than an opera in the classic tradition. This is to the opera’s benefit, creating a work that manages to keep your attention even during its momentary distractions.
The musical direction and conducting of LBO’s Artistic and General Director Andreas Mitisek was on point as always this time around and the LBO’s orchestra sounded larger than the sum of its parts, resonating beautifully from the Warner Grand’s pit.
The voices of the cast were all uniformly excellent as well, un-miked and left to be heard with their natural resonances, unquestionably the proper choice for this space and production. In fact, I was greatly surprised by how few times I had to check in with the super titles as the casts’ excellent diction and projection greatly paid off.
Ed Park’s Laurent was masculine and emotionally present in his portrayal, though his performance lacked the insatiable lustiness his character is so consumed by. It was clear to see that he had deeply rooted feelings for Thérèse, but the violence that emerges from him as the story progresses seemed to come from somewhere far away as opposed to somewhere primal.
Likewise, though Mary Ann Stewart sang Thérèse’s roll beautifully and, as with Mr. Park, seemed to really settle into her character in the second act, she often seemed lost and without direction in the first, lacking the erotic energy her character tragically discovers and looses so quickly. When she fully arrived in her Thérèse in act two with her heartbreaking aria, it made me long for her to have found that same connection with her character earlier on.
The two most consistent and outstanding performances surprisingly were by Suzan Hanson as Madame Raquin and Matthew DiBattista as her son Camille.
As the Madame, Hanson showed great depth of character, not only with her expressive singing but also with her increasingly engaging physical performance. Her eyes alone when she was serenaded by her son’s ghost and later fully paralyzed were as communicative as anything she could have sung or gestured towards.
Matthew DiBattista gave this productions most memorable performance however, with the clearest singing voice displayed and a physical performance that transitioned from sick and weary in act one, to undead and ghastly in act two. The scene in which he emerged from the wedding bed of Thérèse and Laurent like a zombie straight out of Thriller elevated the theatrical nature of this production into something kind of audacious. Though I may not have chosen the same physicality for Camille’s ghost, the conviction DiBattista brought to the table, coupled the scene where he informs his mother he was murdered remains the hardest image for me to shake.
Stage director Ken Cazan’s updated setting created just enough of a contemporary edge to make the opera seem tangible and he managed to create some truly great theatrical moments throughout. The murder at the end of act one, everything involving Camille’s ghost and the increasing irony Camille’s portrait plays on the mood of the production all proved to be quite effective. His shortcomings unfortunately are what kept his adaptation from becoming something that was truly transcendent.
The erotic nature of Zola’s novel seems to be a key to its timeless appeal and relevancy, yet here we were never allowed to see the possible violence inside of these two main characters before it appears in their collaborative act of murder. Likewise, to believe that both Thérèse and Laurent truly think that doing away with Camille will make their lives more content, we need to see a chemistry that is wild and uncontrollable. Here, this was not the case. The eroticism between these two characters is essential in telling their story and a half assed cunnilingus scene does not a convincing love affair make.
Regardless of the shortcomings of the material and this production, Thérèse Raquin proves that narrative can still be a theatrical genre that allows introspection and empathy in ways that our daily lives most commonly don’t. Zola said his novel was written to “seek the animal within” it’s two main characters. When put upon the stage, his story asks us to question the animals within ourselves. I think he would approve.
NOTE: As is sadly the case with all productions by Long Beach Opera, this production had a short two performance run. Though it has closed, this review is intended to raise awareness of the work that LBO does and to encourage the public’s attendance of the company’s future productions. It should also be noted that LBO is now offering $15 dollar student tickets to their performances. If you are a student I highly recommend taking advantage of this offer.