Boston Lyric Opera reimagines Philip Glass’s The Fall of the House of Usher for the virtual world (photo courtesy BLO)
THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER
Boston Lyric Opera / Operabox.tv
Available on demand through June 30, $10 for seven-day stream
Live conversation March 3, free with RSVP, 8:00
blo.org
www.operabox.tv
As with theater and dance, opera has been developing a new life online during the pandemic lockdown. It’s not a replacement for what we had before, and will have after, but some companies have been spurred to creative leaps by the crisis, not merely to raise money and stay busy and relevant, but also to explore what it can look like for artists to work together over Zoom or in person only with those in their pod, in empty theaters, energized by this weird new world.
White Snake Projects’ Alice in the Pandemic reimagined the Lewis Carroll character going down a rabbit hole filled with deserted streets and crowded hospitals, incorporating 3-D animation. City Lyric Opera’s interactive Threepenny Opera asked the at-home audience to bring signs and participate in other ways. On Site Opera’s audio-only To My Distant Beloved took place over the phone, performed for one person at a time. Here Arts Center’s all decisions will be made by consensus was the first Zoom opera, streamed live over the growing platform. Jean-Luc Fafchamps’s Is this the end? found soprano Sarah Defrise playing a teenager on the run through the nooks and crannies of la Monnaie in Brussels, escaping from mysterious masked figures. And Marina Abramović explored operatic endings in her multimedia 7 Deaths of Maria Callas, streamed live in front of a masked, socially distanced audience at Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich.
Boston Lyric Opera has made a splash with its highly inventive virtual adaptation of Philip Glass’s 1988 opera, The Fall of the House of Usher, featuring a libretto by Arthur Yorinks based on the 1839 Edgar Allan Poe short story, which was also made into a popular horror film in 1960 by Roger Corman starring Vincent Price. BLO takes a unique approach in telling the tale of twins Roderick (Jesse Darden) and Madeline Usher (Chelsea Basler), who are visited by an old friend of Roderick’s, William (Daniel Belcher), who quickly notices that something is amiss in the mansion. Also on the scene are the Ushers’ servant (Jorgeandrés Camargo) and physician (Christon Carney).
Several distinct visual elements and contrasting narratives make up the opera, as director James Darrah, screenwriter Raúl Santos, and cinematographer Pablo Santiago cut between the Ushers’ impending demise, employing puppets and stop-motion animation, and the desperate journey undertaken by the mute Luna, a young Guatemalan girl attempting to enter the United States, told using hand-drawn charcoal drawings and cutouts. The ninety-minute work includes archival footage of danger, devastation, old television ads, recent news reports of ICE detention centers, and happy families while touching on issues of mental illness as seen both in the nineteenth century and today. The show is bookended by Sheila Vand as a Rod Serling–like host, welcoming us with “Good evening. Not what you expected? Well, there’s nothing to be scared of just yet.” The score was conducted by David Angus remotely; Annie Rabbat serves as concertmaster. Production designer Yuki Izumihara creates a spectacularly creepy atmosphere, with costumes and dolls by Camille Assaf and art direction by Yee Eun Nam.
Produced during the pandemic lockdown, The Fall of the House of Usher looks and sounds great, although the haunting story doesn’t always mesh together, leaving you occasionally scratching your head, and the final twist is likely to both delight and confound you. Perhaps some of your questions will be answered in the live Zoom community conversation taking place March 3 at 8:00. In addition, the interactive digital reading room complete with Easter eggs for a gamelike frisson and an essay on the company’s website expand the experience.