Upstairs was the teeming Cambridge Common; outside, the usual smokers' conversations. "Dude, you spit on my nachos." "No, I spit next to your nachos." And downstairs, Opera Boston Underground had returned to the Lizard Lounge for another well-attended performance.
Proximity has a way of making up for bar-basement acoustics. Lacking any substantial musical education, this particular Bostonist has always enjoyed hearing such oversized sounds coming from human mouths, and this was the first time we'd seen it so close up (and from a girl with such cute shoes). The four works that made up Thursday night's "Quickies" program were well-chosen for the space, all of them social and domestic scenes that would've been needles in the haystack of Symphony Hall, or misplaced earring-backs in the Cutler Majestic's rococo-Barbie jewelry box.
Semi-staged in a stageless venue, these tiny operas leaned on a few mundane props (a telephone, a toolbox, a couple rounds of drinks) and clever libretti in English, enunciated well enough to eschew the usual (and awkward) lyrics projected over the stage. (One thing this setup did share, unintentionally, with Opera Boston's recent and much grander Semele: a glowing red EXIT sign.)
The show's utter accessibility contrasted with the operas' shared theme of miscommunication. Introductions and Good-Byes (music by Lukas Foss; words by Gian Carlo Menotti) transformed a cocktail party into an ever more complex ritual of sociability until all the guests' names crescendoed into beautiful meaninglessness, and the telephone in The Telephone (music & words by Menotti, who's also responsible for the first operas written for radio and for television), separated a young man's impassioned pleas from his oblivious beloved, who had only her singsong half of a phone conversation to offer in return. (Dan Kamalic and Sol Kim Bentley turned out a genuinely cute, funny, sweet performance. See shoes, below.) The bridge players (Sepp Hammer, Angela Gooch, Christian Figueroa, and Glorivy Arroyo) in Samuel Barber's A Hand of Bridge politely took turns singing their desires to the non-reaction of companions who were caught up in their own drama and their own cards.
All these exterior monologues culminated in Daron Hagen's Broken Pieces, in which Pamela (Angela Gooch) sang that "The omelet is a metaphor!"—pointing out her own inadequate attempt to communicate emotional needs (via her breakfast takeout order). This last work was the only one in which the lack of set felt at all like a lack. The program gives some detail that's missing from action on the non-stage: Angela later discovers that Antonio the tile guy (Christian Figueroa) has constructed a mosaic of her face in her bathroom.
Wait, that's creepy. Opera's fine without sets.
From top: Sepp Hammer, Angela Gooch, Christian Figueroa, and Glorivy Arroyo, with poker faces; Brian Church, with martini; Sol Kim Bentley, with frying pan; Angela Goosh and Christian Figueroa, with angst; those shoes, with Sol Kim Bentley.
We are continually grateful to our friend Fancy McCulture-Pants for her assistance with posts like these.
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