‘Treemonisha,’ ‘Susannah’ and ‘Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra’ Reviews: Fatal Love and Outcasts’ Arias

The Opera Theatre of Saint Louis reworks Scott Joplin’s creation and presents Carlisle Floyd’s classic about a community’s outsiders, while Haymarket’s production of Johann Adolph Hasse’s tragedy preserves its gender-bent precedent.

By 

Heidi Waleson

June 27, 2023 6:25 pm ET

Brandie Inez Sutton and the chorus of ‘Treemonisha’ 

PHOTO: ERIC WOOLSEY

Webster Groves, Mo.

Current interest in historical works by black composers has led to numerous contemporary performances. This spring brought two new versions of Scott Joplin’s opera “Treemonisha,” offering new context and orchestrations (the originals did not survive) for the piece, which was never performed in the composer’s lifetime. One, with additions by composer Damien Sneed and librettist Karen Chilton, concluded its run at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis on Saturday.

With a new prologue and epilogue, OTSL’s production frames “Treemonisha” as Joplin’s personal story—a tribute to his young second wife, Freddie Alexander, who died of pneumonia 10 weeks after their marriage. In the new opening scenes, Joplin celebrates finishing his opera, which he hopes will establish his classical bona fides (“No more boarding houses and saloons”), as the languishing Freddie encourages him and dies. (Some creative license is taken: Freddie died in 1904; “Treemonisha” was completed in 1910.) Joplin’s grief then transports them to the opera proper, set in a Reconstruction-era rural black community, where Freddie and Joplin become Treemonisha and her close friend Remus.

The original opera’s slim plot involves conjurers trying to sell “bags of luck” to the credulous people. When Treemonisha, the only educated person in the community, stands up to them and decries superstition, they kidnap her. Remus, dressed as a scarecrow, frightens the conjurers and rescues her, whereupon the community acclaims her as their leader. The new epilogue segues to Joplin again at the piano. Ill and distraught because his classical compositions have not won him fame, he is visited by the apparition of Freddie/Treemonisha, who tells him that he is ahead of his time.

The framing sequences and Mr. Sneed’s orchestration freighted what is basically a charming period piece with a message about black aspiration that it was ill equipped to bear. The overlong prelude was full of pronouncements—“A prescient message / for the ages”—rather than human interaction, and Mr. Sneed’s music, trying to dovetail with Joplin’s, was pallid, catching fire only when it dropped in some actual Joplin tunes. His orchestration of “Treemonisha” proper was over-egged and saggy, blunting the snap and syncopations of the score. (George Manahan conducted.) Joplin may have wanted to write a grand opera, but “Treemonisha” is more of an operetta with catchy songs and brief plot segments interspersed with rousing ensemble numbers, like the ring dance “We’re Goin’ Around.”

Brandie Inez Sutton brought a slightly edgy but competent soprano to the role of Freddie/Treemonisha. Camron Gray, stepping in for an indisposed colleague as Joplin/Remus, displayed an attractive, soft-grained tenor; he was persuasive in “Wrong is Never Right,” Remus’s lecture to the conjurers, who are forgiven at Treemonisha’s insistence. Olivia Johnson, also a step-in, delivered with aplomb the aria in which Treemonisha’s mother recounts her daughter’s origins, and Markel Reed made Parson Alltalk’s call-and-response sermon a high point.

The production, with sets by Marsha Ginsberg and costumes by Dede Ayite, also tried for a modern vibe, with the realism of Joplin’s parlor and two simple cabins juxtaposed with Afrofuturist-inspired costumes for the conjurers and woodland denizens. Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj’s directing was rudimentary; Maleek Washington’s choreography had more bounce and verve. 

Janai Brugger and Frederick Ballentine

 PHOTO: ERIC WOOLSEY

Carlisle Floyd’s “Susannah” (1955), an established American classic, got an excellent, well-cast production at OTSL, sensitively directed by noted soprano Patricia Racette. Andrew Boyce’s handsome set was built around a raked central section with church windows that occasionally glowed from below, indicating the tyranny of the church in this isolated Appalachian town; Eric Southern did the lighting. Kaye Voyce’s costumes updated the time to the present—Susannah’s short red dress at the square dance (here a line dance, choreographed by Seán Curran) drew the disapproval of the Elders’ wives—and Greg Emetaz’s projections supplied lovely backdrops of mountains, forest, and the blanket of stars for “Ain’t it a pretty night?”

Casting black singers as Susannah (Janai Brugger) and her brother, Sam (Frederick Ballentine), also subtly underscored their outsider status in the community. With her vibrant soprano, Ms. Brugger traced Susannah’s journey from an optimistic, high-spirited young girl to a woman beaten down by the cruelty of others. “The trees on the mountain,” her folk-inspired lament, was especially heart-rending. Mr. Ballentine brought out Sam’s sympathetic side in “It must make the good Lord sad” but also his dangerous qualities. William Guanbo Su, a powerful bass, captured the duality and vanity of the preacher Olin Blitch. Elissa Pfaender excelled as Mrs. McLean, Susannah’s chief tormentor, and Christian Sanders was a gawky, effective Little Bat. Gemma New was the spirited conductor. 

Chicago

Haymarket Opera specializes in 17th- and 18th-century works, produced in historically informed style. Last weekend, it offered Johann Adolph Hasse’s “Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra” (1725) in its elegant and appropriately sized new home, the 160-seat Jarvis Opera Hall at DePaul University. In this two-character serenata, originally intended for concert rather than staged performance, Marc Antony and Cleopatra consider their futures after their defeat by Octavian at the Battle of Actium. In a series of paired arias, recitatives and two duets, the lovers, led by Cleopatra, eventually realize that their only honorable course is suicide. 

An image of ‘Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra’ at Haymarket Opera

 PHOTO: ELLIOT MANDEL

The first performers of the piece were legends: the castrato Farinelli as Cleopatra and the contralto Vittoria Tesi Tramontini as Antony. Haymarket kept the gender-reversed casting, with countertenor Kangmin Justin Kim as Cleopatra and contralto Lauren Decker as Antony, and created a full staging.

Theatrically, the show worked well. Wendy Waszut-Barrett’s mistily painted baroque-style sets evoked an Egypt as seen through 18th-century eyes, and Brian Schneider’s lighting gradually darkened as Marc Antony and Cleopatra accepted their fate. Mr. Kim, costumed by Stephanie Cluggish in a stunning gold-patterned dress, with wig and makeup by Megan Pirtle, looked every inch a queen. Chase Hopkins, the director, wisely had the performers interact naturalistically, rather than with stylized 18th-century gestures, and the portrait of their relationship deepened through the evening. Three nonsinging supernumeraries—two ladies-in-waiting, who wielded peacock fans and prepared poison for all at the end, plus a Roman soldier—also enriched the stage picture.

Musically, matters were less secure. Da capo arias require variety in their repeats to keep them interesting. Mr. Kim, ornamenting his speedy lines with abandon as the fierce, determined Cleopatra, was more skilled at this, even if his voice was steely at times. Ms. Decker found less to play with in her more legato, lover’s role, and her imposing contralto needed more shaping. The 12-member orchestra of strings and continuo, led by Craig Trompeter, the company’s founder and artistic director, could have pushed them toward more varied expression.

Ms. Waleson writes on opera for the Journal and is the author of “Mad Scenes and Exit Arias: The Death of the New York City Opera and the Future of Opera in America” (Metropolitan).