When it comes to a controversial topic like 9/11, few contemporary artists have invested much artistic muscle. But writer-director Wickham Boyle and composer Doug Geers have boldly wrestled with the thorny subject in their arresting work, Calling: An Opera of Forgiveness. Based on Boyle’s 2001 book, A Mother’s Essays from Ground Zero, the full-length opera is currently premiering at La Mama e.t.c., and gives us an intimate portrait of one downtown family’s experience of the iconic event.
What makes this piece “important” is that it puts a human face on the 9/11 experience. In 13 vignettes, this opera gives us a chance to revisit the terrorist attack on The World Trade Center, not from any cold political perspective, but from the careful probity of one family at close range. Without any false melodramatic flourishes, Boyle traces the haunting event with precision and an almost child-like simplicity.
The 75-minute opera opens with the serene “Blue Sky,” a fugue-like piece that shows us a family and community going about their workaday routines, completely unaware of the impending tragedy. No sentimental embellishment clutters this opener--and it works as a potent preface to the dark scenes that follow. The subsequent scenes jolt us into an alternate universe of evil. The real power of these pieces is that we realize that these scenes represent one month of Boyle’s autobiographical recordings at Ground Zero, and are not inventions. The Mother (Nicole Tori), Father (Roland Burks), Teen Daughter (Nique Haggerty)--and others from the 11-member cast--deftly show us how a smiling community abruptly became a shattered one.
The music is the real ace of the production. Composer Doug Geers has created a richly diverse score that rightly possesses both the negative and positive charisma of the tragedy. Geers’s music slowly moves from an eerie and horrific atmosphere to a harmonic landscape of gentle resolution. It captures the anxieties of the family, the conflicting responses of the rescue workers and dog handlers, and finally the zen sounds of the yoga instructor.
As composer and computer musician, Geers wears 2 hats in the production. Playing the computer alongside the more traditional instrumentalists, he adds a real ultra-modern flair to the opera. Most impressive are the environmental city sounds that Geer evokes from his laptop. It’s true that the violin, the clarinet, the piano, percussion, and the cello have a corner on time-worn tradition, but the computer truly sparkles in its avant-garde savviness.
Now for a quibble: Little attempt has been made to evoke a strong visual image in the opera. The opera is done literally on the level of the words and the music. While the no-frills set (Viktoria Televnyy) works in domestic scenes like “In The Apartment“ and “Don‘t Think You‘re Calling Too Much,” there were times when the set seemed a bit too flat. To be sure, the opera doesn’t need to reach for any spectacular effects. But perhaps some kind of multi-media projection might add more dimension to the scene, “Empty Socket,” which highlights Ground Zero aflame with burning embers. But such flaws are noticeable only because the whole occasion is so extraordinarily gratifying.
This opera is organic theater: Its cast, text, music, and direction (by the incredible Wickham Boyle) are homogenous in their social orientation and aspirations. This is also a work which embodies a quality that we can always find very moving: goodness. True, the opera’s subject is tragic, but the family’s story transcends the tragic event.
Location: La Mama e.t.c., First Floor Theater, 74A E. 4th Street
Box Office: 212-475-7710.
Tickets online: http://www.lamama.org