South Florida Classical Review

Jonathan Dove’s opera Flight is both an airport drama about stranded passengers and an allegory that delves into individuals’ aspirations for new beginnings, a brighter future and greater horizons. The University of Miami’s Frost Opera Theater, backed by the Frost Symphony Orchestra, opened a two-performance run of the British composer’s engrossing opus on Thursday night at UM Gusman Concert Hall. The evening proved a total triumph.

Flight has been widely produced in Europe and the United States since its premiere in 1998 by England’s Glyndebourne Opera. The work is cleverly conceived with a libretto by playwright April De Angelis replete with humor, surprising incidents and double entendres that had the audience in stitches. (Laughter was frequent throughout much of the work’s three acts.) 

A group of passengers arrive at an unnamed airport expecting to board their planes when an electrical storm grounds all air traffic. Through a long night and early morning, their stories and traumas unfold. As the weather clears and the people go on their diverse flight paths, they each express hope for better times ahead. The drama is also a tale of an undocumented immigrant who is living illegally in the airport. Both participant and narrator, his story remains sadly relevant today in a world raked with war, violence and displaced people. (The character is based on the true story of an undocumented Iranian man who lived in Paris’ Charles De Gaulle for 18 years.)

Prior to Flight, Dove was best known for his chamber orchestration of Wagner’s Ring cycle. He is an experienced man of the theater and the opera’s musical and dramatic arc are tightly rendered. While resolutely tonal, Dove’s music often seems like a film score, accompanying the action rather than leading it. 

Still, there are some beautiful moments. The Refugee’s aria is poignant, a pregnant woman’s narrative takes lyrical flight and the final ensemble provides an uplifting, satisfying culmination of the interlocking stories. Dove’s busy, agitated and complex orchestration is challenging and Yuan Xuan Cao (who conducted last season’s excellent production of Kurt Weill’s Street Scene) LINK led the Frost students in a brilliantly articulated, colorful reading that brought out the best in Dove’s scoring.

The roles of the Comptroller and Refugee dominate the action and musical landscape. (Only two of the characters actually have names.) The consistently high-lying coloratura leaps for the Comptroller make Lucia’s Mad Scene seem like a student exercise. Seated high above the terminal, Congcong Wang’s gleaming timbre and silvery top range were nothing less than stunning. This is a soprano with great potential. 

In a role originally conceived for a countertenor, Lauren Richards made the Refugee’s plight strongly felt. Whether peddling magic stones or pouring out the protagonist’s tale of escape and hiding in a plane’s wings, Richards’ rich, vibrant sonority commanded the stage. The final duet for the Comptroller and Refugee, after the passengers have departed, was beautiful, with their timbres wonderfully contrasted. (The libretto suggests a romantic attraction on some level for each other.)

One of the least developed roles is that of the Minskman, a diplomat on his way to a new post, but David Lee’s warm, luminous baritone made his every utterance stand out.  As his wife, Olivia Gray’s burnished middle register embellished her ambivalence about living in a new country with strong textual enunciation. Her birth scene in the airport was alternately humorous and touching. 

Tina and Bill are a couple trying to recapture the magic and adventure of their early years together, Julia Izqquierdo’s light soprano enchanted in.Tina’s Spanish, rhythmically inflected moments. Yet when she found out that her husband has spent a night of revelry with the flight’s steward, she unleashed a fusillade of coloratura rage that rocked the house. Brandon Flores’ lyric tenor made the most of Bill’s limited solo opportunities and he was genuinely funny in scenes with Holden Seward’s comedic Steward.

Alexandra Cirile brought a dusky mezzo, dramatic projection and nervous intensity to the role of the Older Woman who is stood up by her fiancée from Majorca but, ultimately seeks new destinations under the Refugee’s encouragement. Emily Auten Cross was a bossy Stewardess with a mezzo of piercing velocity. In the brief lines of the bureaucratic but compassionate Immigration Officer, Harrison Caplin’s strong bass-baritone proved potent.

With a stunning airport terminal set by Stephan Moravski, Jeffrey Marc Buchman’s staging vividly pointed up the light and dark elements of the story with each character specifically detailed and the action never flagging. 

Celso Peruyera’s lighting effectively captured the grim, storm- tossed night and the dawn of a new, clear day. Carla Cid De Diego’s array of colorful costumes delighted the eye. Dove’s score includes electronic amplification. Frank Martinez’s sound design enhanced the music and scenario without ear piercing harshness.

Flight becomes stronger and more effective as the opera and its protagonists’ dilemmas and aspirations progress. More than the sum of its parts, the opera is a tremendously entertaining evening of music theater. There is one remaining performance.

________

The production of Flight marked the final major offering of Frost Opera Theater under music and program director Alan Johnson who is retiring after 19 years in the position. Under Johnson’s leadership, the productions and musical standards have often reached a professional level. Training hundreds of gifted singers, Johnson has mounted Puccini and Mozart works (including a remarkably fine Magic Flute) and such rarities as Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortileges and Stravinsky’s Mavra and Rake’s Progress. 

Most importantly, he has given attention to contemporary opera, producing works by Thomas Sleeper, Osvaldo Golijov, Michael Dellaira and Michael Daugherty among others. The premiere of  Dellaira’s The Leopard in 2022 was a milestone in the history of the school’s opera program. 

Johnson leaves a rich legacy. Buchman, his frequent collaborator, will succeed him in the position, and, hopefully, will continue Frost Opera’s adventurous, artistically fulfilling path.

The Frost Opera Theater repeats Flight 7:30 p.m. Saturday at UM Gusman Concert Hall in Coral Gables. ci.ovationtix.com

Posted in Performances

---

Leave a Comment

Name (required):

Email (will not be published) (required):

Website:

Message:

Δ