Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Charles Wuorinen’s highly anticipated, emotionally turbulent operatic adaptation of BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN doesn’t fully satisfy

• By drediman
• June 5, 2018
• No Comments

Glenn Seven Allen and Daniel Okulitch star in NYC Opera’s production of Charles Wuorinen’s “Brokeback Mountain” at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Last night, I attended the final performance of New York City Opera’s brief run of Brokeback Mountain, Charles Wuorinen’s operatic adaptation of the Annie Proulx short story (made famous by Ang Lee’s celebrated 2005 movie version), at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center. As you’re apt to already know, the opera tells the story of a forbidden gay romance between two rough Midwestern ranch hands. The opera’s anticipated debut occurred in 2014 at the Teatro Real in Madrid under the direction of in-demand theatrical auteur Ivo van Hove. It was remounted in a more intimate chamber edition shortly thereafter at the Salzburg State Theater. It’s the latter staging that has made its way to New York.

Mr. Wuorinen’s emotionally exposed opera – set to a concise libretto by Ms. Proulx herself – mostly works. His angular, atonal score does well to underline the turbulence of Ennis and Jack’s repressed relationship. However, apart from Ennis’s moving final aria upon Jack’s passing, the opera is devoid of any emotional release through lyricism or harmony. Even Jack and Ennis’s lustful, loving, albeit hurried meetings over the years defiantly refuse to give way to traditionally-wrought romance. I guess it makes dramatic sense that only through death could there ever be peace for either of these two troubled souls. But musically speaking, it left me a little unsatisfied.

Jacopo Spirei’s production works well enough, although I did find some of the staging and scenic transitions a bit clunky at points. I wish I could have seen Mr. van Hove’s take on the opera; his visceral, emotionally raw aesthetic would have worked well with Ms. Proulx’s tale and Mr. Wuorinen’s score. As for the cast, they were very good. As the tragic lovers, tenor Glenn Seven Allen and bass-baritone Daniel Okulitchare ideally cast as Jack and Ennis (Mr. Okulitchare created the central role of Ennis in Madrid); they look, act, and sing their respective parts with great sensitivity and attention to detail. The performance was incisively conducted by Kazem Abdullah, who brought abundant color and driving rhythm to the score. Brokeback Mountain comes on the heels of another new LGBT-themed opera, the deeply affecting, more traditionally-scored Fellow Travelers, Gregory Spears’ similarly-scaled and themed operatic adaptation of Thomas Mallon’s novel of the same name. I just wish it had the same considerable cumulative emotional payoff as that previous work.

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BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
Opera
New York City Opera at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center
2 hours, 30 minutes (with one intermission)
Closed