Treemonisha at New York City Opera

[seekingferret]

I saw what was likely my last NYCO show of the season (Though I still might go to see the Rufus Wainwright opera excerpts at the River to River festival): a concert staging of excerpts from Scott Joplin's early 20th century opera "Treemonisha". Which is in its way far more shocking than roughly contemporaneous and clearly related operas like Der Rosenkavalier. That magnificent opera also put folk vernacular in the mouths of its characters, also used contemporary pop music alongside classic German operatic technique, also expressed egalitarian hopes and dreams as a battle to be fought against ignorance (The MC kept suggesting links between Joplin's composition and Wagner, but I would be shocked if Joplin weren't deeply familiar with Mozart's great operas, whose influence I heard much more sharply in the music). But Strauss was a white European and a renowned conductor and composer. He got leeway that a black American composer of rags was never going to get. In his lifetime Joplin never staged this opera and it wasn't performed until sixty years after his death. And we were left marveling at his chutzpah at even trying. In its mixture of ragtime, gospel, folk, and grand opera, it is a composition that still sounds lively and unexpected even today.

Treemonisha's the story of a young black woman living in the deep south just a few years after Emancipation. She has become educated, elevated by the spirit of enlightenment and the beckoning of a new technological age and is trying to bring her boyfriend Remus up along with her. Fighting her is a conjurer who is trying to sell a bag of luck to her parents- the spirit of superstition and backwardness. Sounds a lot like The Magic Flute, doesn't it? Except without Mozart's misogyny. Treemonisha and Remus overcome obstacles thrown up by the conjurer, sway the townsfolk from feelings of revenge, and teach them that through hope and education and "a long slow drag" the black people can be uplifted. In the end, Treemonisha is made leader of her community and promises progress, forward motion, answering every call for her to STOP with a defiant DON'T STOP.

I've been sort of idly panning around for an opera I could request this Yuletide as part of an all- dark_agenda-request list. I think I may have found it. I'd be interesting in fic about Zodzetrick, for one thing. (Queen of the Night meets Zodzetrick would be awesome) And I'd love to see what happened next for Treemonisha. Watching her grow up... deal with navigating the choice between a Northern exodus or remaining in the South with her people... build a family... keep building herself up.

The show, though, I should say a few words about. It was hosted at the Schomburg Center, a NYPL research library for African-American studies, the third year of a partnership between NYCO and the Schomburg Center to introduce little-known operas by African-American composers. The venue was intimate and friendly, with a real community feel, and the crowd was mixed and full of people who don't usually make it to Lincoln Center. The performers were excellent, a group of young singers who with luck will be going places. And as is apparently usual with NYCO concert performances, the stage management was abysmal. Segues between sections of the performance were clearly unrehearsed, the MC went off-script a few times and had to be prodded back on, coordination between on-stage performers and the crew doing lighting and audiovisual work was poor. The NYCO had a triumphant season from an artistic point of view but it was the way these concerts were run all season long that made it clear why that didn't match their financial results. The company is being run by artists with no real sense of how to run an opera company, with a total lack of professionalism that occasionally has resulted in appalling work. Right now, I have no clue if I will be renewing my subscription next season. I have no clue what next season will look like, and that is the greatest breach of professionalism of all.