Intricately Tuneful

GIUSEPPE PENNISI reviews John Adams' opera
'I Was looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky'

Very few Italian opera houses perform modern (ie twentieth/21st century) American operas. They are afraid that the audience will not show up and that ticket sales will be disappointing. Rome's Teatro dell'Opera and the Teatro Regio in Turin are among the daring few. It is a rare case that in September, when people still go to the beach, two American operas are nearly simultaneously performed: Philip Glass' Akhnaten in Milan and Turin as a part of a Festival and John Adams' I Was looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky (fully staged) in Rome. This is a good indication that theatre managers and artistic directors are helping the audience to acquire more modern tastes. I did not travel to Milan or Turin for the concert version of Akhnaten because I have still an excellent memory of a fully staged production at the Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg some ten years ago. But I was at the opening night of I Was looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky on 11 September 2015.

A general view of North Los Angeles, with almost the entire company (with extras as projections), in John Adams' 'I Was looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky' at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Photo © 2015 Yasuko Kageyama. Click on the image for higher resolution

The title is a quotation from an interview with a television journalist when the so-called Northridge earthquake struck Los Angeles on 17 January 1994 with the fastest peak ground velocity ever yet instrumentally recorded. Causing strong shaking as far away as Las Vegas, its level 6.7 ferocity was reinforced by a force 6.0 aftershock a minute later, then another of equal intensity eleven minutes after that. This cataclysmic event provides the 'before and after' scenario for seven emblematic Los Angeles archetypes. The libretto is by the late poet June Jordan. She approached Adams to work on this project about the quake, in an amalgamation of musical modes ranging from Adams' minimalist music to lyrical a cappella, Tin Pan and Schubert alleys and rock, soul, blues, gospel and Latin American rhythms.

It is quite different from Adams' operatic masterpieces, such as The Death of Klinghoffer, Nixon in China and the more recent Dr Atomic. Adams intended to compose a more indigenous form of a potentially popular musical. Jordan's libretto embodies much of the political consciousness redolent of the period; it is not out of date because recent American stories remind us of how deep ethnic issues are in the United States. Adams' minimalistic style is the basic carpet on which the amalgamation of the different musical numbers, or songs, are deployed. Even critics who did not appreciate this work acknowledge that it includes impressive and intricately tuneful songs. Adams himself prefers to characterize the work as a songspiel, though it partakes of a full panoply of popular American musical genres. The title piece, sung by the company to open and close the evening, has a dense seven-part harmony; hence, it is quite complex and thoroughly characteristic of Adams' style. Nonetheless, it enthrals the audience.

Wallis Giunta as Tiffany and Grant Doyle as Mike (with extras/projections) in John Adams' 'I Was looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky' at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Photo © 2015 Yasuko Kageyama. Click on the image for higher resolution

Ceiling/Sky still manages to lurch from one individual gem. Adams became far more adept with many of these ideas in his more recent The Gospel According to the Other Mary.

Daniel Keeling as Dewain and Wallis Giunta as Tiffany with extras/projections in John Adams' 'I Was looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky' at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Photo © 2015 Yasuko Kageyama. Click on the image for higher resolution

Over the last twenty years, Ceiling/Sky has travelled to several countries with good success. The production I saw and heard in Rome come from the Parisian Châtelet Theatre. The musical direction is entrusted to Alexander Briger, a long time understudy of Sir Charles Mackerras. The orchestra is quite small (seven instrumentalists) and includes quite a bit of live electronics. The singers are seven young Americans — Daniel Keeling, Jeanine De Bique, Joël O'Cangha, Janinah Burnett, Grant Doyle, Patrick Jeremy and Wallis Giunta. The staging (Giorgio Barbiero Corsetti), the sets (Massimo Troncanetti), the costumes (Francesco Esposito) and the videos (Igor Renzetti, Lorenzo Bruno and Alessandra Solimene) deserve high marks because they change colour with each song.

Daniel Keeling as Dewain, Janinah Burnett as Leila and Wallis Giunta as Tiffany with extras/projections in John Adams' 'I Was looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky' at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Photo © 2015 Yasuko Kageyama. Click on the image for higher resolution

There were many youngsters in the audience, and there was warm applause after the main songs and the end. But on a warm Friday in early September, many subscribers to the highly priced boxes and orchestra seats preferred to go to their secondary residences in the country or at the beach.

patrikpen

giovedì 31 dicembre 2015