Just in time for Halloween, the Metropolitan Opera presents "Lincoln in the Bardo" -- a ghost story of poignant depth and emotion, wrapped in a transcendent theatrical experience.
The factual premise that conjures up a host of haunts is heartbreaking enough: in February, 1862, Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln's son, Willie, dies in the White House at age 11 from typhoid fever. At the same time, one year into Lincoln's presidency, the nation has imploded into civil war.
The novel won the Booker Prize and was a bestseller, nevertheless the Met walked a high wire of risk: commissioning American composer Missy Mazzoli and Canadian librettist Royce Vavrek for a world premiere, the first by a female composer, of a story that doesn't seem to be conventional opera material.
The company has spared no resources and a starry cast is heightening the excitement, with singers in the ensemble who have carried shows on their own. The gamble has paid off. What Met audiences are receiving (the opera runs into November) is a fantastically imaginative work of tragedy and humor directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz that touches on the most profound aspect of human life: what happens when we leave it.
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| "Lincoln in the Bardo" with Peter Mattei as Lincoln. Photo/Karen Almond |
An eerie atmosphere arrives even before the opera begins: as the chandeliers rise in the auditorium, they flicker, to soft moans from orchestral instruments, conducted by Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
At the start, in Washington, D.C.'s Oak Hill Cemetery, location of Willie's interment, many spirits are suspended in the bardo. Adam Rigg's set design of mossy rocks, dull green grass and forest trees, is lit by Yi Zhao and Stacey Derosier in shades of fern and purple, like an underwater scene.
Most of the spectral inhabitants are not convinced they are dead, referring to their coffins merely as "sick-boxes" and expecting to recuperate and re-enter their former lives. Two who have become friends are Roger Bevins (tenor Jonah Hoskins), a young gay man who slit his wrists in despair, and Hans Vollman (bass-baritone Ryan McKinny), frustrated that he was unable to consummate his marriage, encumbered by a comically large phallus for a few minutes.
They are joined by the Rev. Everly Thomas (soprano Christine Goerke, sensationally wonderful), who, unlike the others, is fully aware that he is dead. A man sincere in his faith, he is troubled by the thought that the way he conducted his life on earth has not rendered him worthy enough to enter heaven.
A bickering couple, Mr. and Mrs. Baron (bass-baritone Craig Colclough and mezzo Stephanie Blythe, making the most of her scene, as usual) turn up for comic relief.
The specters are often accompanied by metaphysical manifestations or themselves undergo transformation. Bevins, in life eager to experience all his senses, is followed by a gaggle of large eyes on branches, manipulated by onstage puppeteers in green.
The most awesome changes affect Miss Elise Traynor (fantastic countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo) taken from life at age 14 and wildly angry about it. Her unfulfilled desires for intimacy and marriage morph into mouths and pigs' heads, courtesy of the puppeteers, and Costanzo's voice soars through her frustrations.
"Lincoln" benefits from an inspired design team: costume designer Montana Levi Blanco, co-projection designers Hannah Wasileski, sound designer Kate Marvin, creature suits and puppet designer James Ortiz, illusion and special effects designer Jeremy A. Chernick and choreographer Raja Feather Kelly.
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| Willie Lincoln |
"I am to wait," declares Willie, seeking his beloved father, but his ghostly guides try to convince him that the young should not tarry long in the bardo, lest they become entangled (like Miss Traynor) and trapped forever.
The familiar tall figure in long black coat and stovepipe hat enters the graveyard to visit the mausoleum where his son rests and physically cradle his body for the last time. Lincoln (baritone Peter Mattei), intensely grieving, recalls that "you were a joy to us" and wonders, "What put out that spark? What would ruin such a marvel?"
We can sympathize with the feeling that as one leaves the cemetery, the funeral home, the mausoleum, that we are leaving our departed loved one behind, in there, lost and alone.
Willie's spirit discovers he can enter his father's body and read his thoughts, causing this writer to muse on how the presence of those we have loved but see no more still live within us, sometimes faintly, sometimes powerfully.
The outside world and the troubles of the day intrude. Two spirits of formerly enslaved women, Mrs. Frances Hodge (soprano Janai Brugger) and Litzie (soprano Viviana Goodwin) sit on a tree branch. "I want revenge," sings Hodge, on a man and a system that stole her children. A formerly enslaved man, Thomas Havens (tenor Joshua Blue) muses on what it means to be free.
The war is never far away. Ghostly soldiers crowd Lincoln as he agonizes over sending other men's sons towards death in battle.
In the end, the Reverend makes a final sacrifice to save Willie and help him into matterlightblooming and freedom. The spirits realize they are dead and find release by accepting the transition, including Miss Traynor.
Mrs. Hodge and Litzie acquiesce to the transition, but Havens continues his spiritual kinship with Lincoln as he mounts his horse (a real one) to return to the White House and find new strength to lead the country through war and face the issue of slavery.
Mazzoli and Vavrek have done a masterful job of paring down the dozens of characters in the book to create dramatic focus. Mazzoli's music is consistently interesting, tonal but not conventionally operatic, more narrative accompaniment than arias, but making use of a wide range of musical sounds and instruments (like kazoos).
"Lincoln in the Bardo," both novel and opera, provides a deeply moving experience. In the end, we all flow through the continuum of life, from those who went before to those who are coming after, hoping that our matter becomes light and we bloom where we are planted.
