For many people, opera means horned helmets, stilted acting and a lot of screaming. N.C. Opera hopes to blow away those stereotypes with its production of Philip Glass' "Les Enfants Terribles" ("Children of the Game"), opening Thursday in Raleigh's Fletcher Opera Theater.
The 1996 work, based on the classic French film by Jean Cocteau, relates the twisted tale of an erotic relationship between Lise and Paul, a sister and brother who live in their own fantasy world. Complications arise from an obsessive girl's yearnings for Paul and a reserved young man's unspoken love for Lise. Fueled by jealousy, Lise tricks the two intruders into an unwanted relationship to keep Paul for herself, with tragic consequences.
Programming such contemporary fare is part of the mission for the new opera company, formed in 2010 from Opera Company of North Carolina and Capital Opera. The company's plan for each season includes one fully staged popular opera (Bizet's "Carmen" was the choice last October), one concert staging of a somewhat less popular work (Verdi's "Il Trovatore" is scheduled for April) and one contemporary piece.
N.C. Opera's artistic director Timothy Myers acknowledges the risk in offering little-known new works. "I think, however, that the Triangle audience has been misperceived," he said earlier this month. "I think we are in a position to create precedent and create expectation." Last season's production of Benjamin Britten's psychological thriller, "The Turn of the Screw," had a surprisingly strong response, encouraging the company to continue offering works that reach out to those less attracted to the standard repertory.
Company general director Eric Mitchko firmly believes it's a matter of audience perception. "I don't like the artificial barrier of separating what you listen to in the opera house from what you listen to in everyday life." To prove that point, he and Myers organized teaser concerts at Raleigh's Contemporary Art Museum and at the Busy Bee Café downtown, featuring the "Les Enfants" cast in excerpts from the Glass work as well as covers of Rufus Wainwright and Radiohead songs.
Dancers in the cast
The company hopes several unusual factors will pique interest in "Les Enfants." The big draw should be Glass' music. Noted for its hypnotic rhythms and repetitive phrases, it has been heard by millions in his Academy Award-nominated film scores for "The Hours," "Kundun" and "Notes on a Scandal." Many contemporary music fans also know his songs, string quartets and symphonies.
Although none of Glass' operas are traditional, "Les Enfants" is particularly intriguing because it's written for three pianos, an unusual combination that provides unique textures and dynamics. It's also quite compact, lasting just under two hours, including intermission. The dialogue is in French, taken directly from the film, but there are projected English supertitles and English narration.
The piece requires a rare combination of singers and dancers, a stipulation that led the company to hire Carolina Ballet artistic director Robert Weiss to direct. He is using four of his company's dancers (Lara O'Brien, Gabor Kapin, Lindsay Purrington and Yevgeny Shlapko) with four singers (Jessica Cates, Timothy McDevitt, Nicole Rodin and Philippe Pierce).
The staging is strikingly unorthodox. "Sometimes I have the singers on a little platform overlooking the siblings' beds while the dancers portray the characters," Weiss said during a recent rehearsal, "and sometimes the singers play the action with the dancers off stage. At other times, the singers and the dancers are doing the same thing in mirror-image on opposite sides."
Young leads
Weiss is particularly happy to have age-appropriate, multitalented singers in the cast. "They look right for their parts, they can act and move, and they sing beautifully."
Philippe Pierce, selected from the prestigious apprentice program at Colorado's Central City Opera, along with two other cast members, relishes his dual role of narrator and Gérard, the young man in love with Lise. "The whole thing has an Anna Nicole Smith feel to it," Pierce said. "There's a guilty pleasure in watching it get sicker and sicker."
Jessica Cates, who grew up in Greensboro, is making her home-state debut in the intense role of Lise. She was initially concerned about her family's seeing the piece. "They are not well-versed in opera," Cates said, "but I like that this one has a contemporary element, and there's so much visual stimulation. I don't think the storyline has any more shock value than reality TV. It's actually a great way for them to be introduced to opera."
