Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – BAM’s Next Wave Festival, Weeks 7-11: Memorable highlights include the dramatization of Joan Didion’s THE WHITE ALBUM and Mark-Anthony Turnage’s visceral opera GREEK

• By drediman
• December 9, 2018
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Weeks 7 through 11 of the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival showcased to BAM-goers a wide variety of genres in its three distinct spaces (the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, BAM Harvey, and BAM Fisher). This variety, however, extended to the artistic success of the performances, which is to be expected given the level experimentation that’s been on display across the mighty Brooklyn institution’s stages. Indeed, without significant risks taken rarely come worthwhile rewards, which was definitely the case with the five Next Wave shows I caught over the last few weeks.

Klassic Carella in Phantom Limb Company’s “Falling Out” at BAM Harvey.

First up at BAM Harvey was Phantom Limb Company’s Falling Out (SOMEWHAT RECOMMENDED), the theater company’s response to the devastating 2011 tsunami and Fukushima nuclear disaster. Like the company’s previous Memory Rings, which I caught at the 2016 Next Wave Festival, its latest effort is a true hybrid piece comprised of a wide array of performance styles – sensitive puppetry, dance/movement (via flex dancing), artful video (including documentary footage), and theater (in this case, Butoh). And also like their previous offering, Falling Out, which progressed at the excruciatingly glacial pace of molasses, was woefully uneven purely as a work of theatrical storytelling, despite showing occasional signs of real synergistic alchemy between its inputs. One of these days, they’ll get it right.

Tony Boutté in Douglas J. Cuomo’s “Savage Winter” at BAM Fisher.

I then caught the one-man opera Savage Winter (SOMEWHAT RECOMMENDED), courtesy of American Opera Projects and Pittsburgh Opera, featuring music by Douglas J. Cuomo and direction by Jonathan Moore. Unfortunately, I found the new opera, which played BAM Fisher, to be ultimately tedious and frustratingly overwrought. The opera is an updating of Wilhelm Müller’s poem Winterreise – perhaps most recognizable to music fans as a song cycle by Schubert – which depicts a desperate man in a grungy motel room battling personal demons and existential woes. Tenor Tony Boutté gives it the old college try, but, alas, his performance was strained, both dramatically and vocally. Coming across most successfully was Mr. Cuomo’s pungent and darkly seductive score, which was skillfully orchestrated for electric guitar, trumpet, keyboards, and electronics.

Mia Barron in Lars Jan and Early Morning Opera’s stage adaptation of Joan Didion’s “The White Album” at BAM Harvey.

Like the existenitally-preoccupied man at the dark heart of Savage Winter, a young Joan Didion was engaged in her own existential struggles, as evidenced in her essay The White Album, which was superbly and stylishly adapted for the stage (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) by Lars Jan and Early Morning Opera. Mr. Jan’s gorgeously theatrical depiction of a society in crisis is layered on top of Ms. Didion’s eloquently searching observations of late-1960s California (richly performed with calm confidence by actress Mia Barron). What at first seemed unlikely bedfellows ended up an inspired theatrical and thematic combination. Both Ms. Didion and Mr. Lars’s agendas expressively and sensitively probe the existence of meaning in humanity’s inherent loneliness, decadence, and savagery vis-à-vis society – both from a personal, as well as a collective perspective. All in all, the unique experience at BAM Harvey surprisingly made for compelling, sophisticated theater.

Heidi Rodewald and Donna Di Novelli’s “The Good Swimmer” at BAM Fisher.

Next up at BAM Fisher was the hourlong pop song cycle The Good Swimmer (RECOMMENDED), with music by Heidi Rodewald and lyrics by Donna Di Novelli. Although I found that the brief affair lacked overall clarity (the conceit-heavy libretto is by Ms. DiNovelli)  – it was only afterwards that I understood that the piece was a commentary on the senseless deaths of soldiers during the Vietnam War – I found music the music by Ms. Rodewald (perhaps best known as the co-creator of the singular musical Passing Strange) to be an appealing combination of instantly accessible pop harmonies (think the Beach Boys) and hieghtened art music. The direction was by Kevin Newbury, who conjured an atmospheric tone for his production via ample video projections and a young, hardworking chorus. These created a dreamy backdrop to the mesmerizing work of the talented onstage band, which was led by the smooth croonings of lead singer David Driver.

The company of Mark-Anthony Turnage and Steven Berkoff’s “Greek” at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House.

Last week at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, I caught the Scottish Opera’s new production of Greek (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED), Mark-Anthony Turnage’s rambunctious career-making 1988 opera (I had last seen a Turnage opera on the very same stage, where his wacky Anna Nicole headlined the 2013 Next Wave Festival). The urban-bleak libretto is by Steven Berkoff, after his own play of the same name, which in turn is based on Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex. The action has been updated from ancient Greece to a rotting, grotesque vision of the East End of London during the 1980s. The opera – which Mr. Turnage composed when he was only in his 20s – is audaciously-scored, complete with jarring rhythms, blaring trumpets, and urgent percussion (conducted by Stuart Stratford, on point). Indeed, the score is the aural equivalent of the unsettled state of Britain, which makes the Greek as relevant today as it was then. The sleek, in-your-face new production, directed by Joe Hill-Gibbins, is smashing, smartly incorporating Brexit-era touches. His use of a giant revolving wall, which gives the opera an oppressive feel, is inspired. He’s also coaxed some beautifully-etched performances from his fearless cast of four, led by a visceral, oddly moving performance by Alex Otterburn as Eddy (the Oedipus stand-in).

BAM’S NEXT WAVE FESTIVAL
Opera, Theater, Concert, Dance/Movement
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, BAM Harvey Theater, BAM Fisher Space
Various running times
Festival runs through December 23