Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Matthew Aucoin’s CROSSING is that rare new opera of the first order

• By drediman
• October 9, 2017
• No Comments

Rod Gilfry and Alexander Lewis in Matthew Aucoin’s “Crossing” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

This past weekend, I attended the closing performance of Matthew Aucoin’s tremendous new opera Crossing, one of headliners of this fall’s ongoing Next Wave Festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. In fact, I was so impressed with the level of craft of Mr. Aucoin’s work, an operatic adaptation of Walt Whitman’s Crossing Brooklyn Ferry (a diary of the poet’s experience as a volunteer nurse during the latter days of the Civil War), that it has singlehandedly revived my faith in the power and relevance of opera as real theater. That’s a rave if there ever was one.

Mr. Aucoin’s musical composition for Crossing is an ambitious effort of the highest order – restless and dissonant, yet with intense bursts of unbridled lyricism. Indeed, the score fully sustained my interest throughout the opera’s uninterrupted two acts. This feat is particularly astonishing given the composer’s youth; Mr. Aucioin was only 25 when Crossing premiered in Boston two years ago.

However, I attribute the chamber opera’s success as a work of theater to its gorgeously integrated libretto, also the responsibility of the prodigiously talented Mr. Aucoin. His libretto manages to seamlessly balance the specificity of Whitman’s experience with a cosmic exploration of our shared humanity, and it all works brilliantly without devolving into pretentiousness (unfortunately a common flaw in many contemporary operas).

The production, sensitively directed by Tony-winner Diane Paulus, is first rate. The cast is led by baritone Rod Gilfry as Whitman and tenor Alexander Lewis as one of Walt’s wounded, conflicted patients; both are sensational, vocally and dramatically. Each is giving committed, fully lived in performances. The inspired music-making in the pit was provided by Boston orchestra A Far Cry, as led by Mr. Aucoin himself.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

CROSSING
Opera
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House (BAM in association with A.R.T. and Music-Theatre Group)
1 hour, 40 minutes (without an intermission)
Closed