By Greggory Moore, Curtain Call theatre reviewer
When an opera’s first sound is a thunderstorm, it’s a good bet things will get gothic. That’s The Invention of Morel all over, as for 90 minutes we find ourselves on an island populated only by a fugitive from justice and a cadre of ghostly sybarites who exist seemingly only in spirit. Although we never learn why the fugitive needed to exile himself so completely from society, eventually we do find out why he does not register in his co-inhabitants’ reality. It’s a piece of information that will shape his life forever.
Perhaps The Invention of Morel’s most compelling aspect is co-creators Stewart Copeland (yes, that Stewart Copeland) and Jonathan Moore’s choice to present the fugitive through two look-alike performers. Lee Gregory plays him as an epistolary narrator reflecting on the strange events of his island stay, while Andrew Wilkowske plays him as he lives them out. Whether they are separated in song and action, coming together in complementary fashion, or working in tandem, their dual presence is always effective, giving the man’s tale a haunting chronological remove that ultimately is revealed to have deep significance. Moore’s directorial choices are spot-on, and Gregory and Wilkowske couldn’t be better cast. Some of the show’s finest singing comes in a cappella moments when the two utter short, simple phrases, their harmonies so close in tone and notes grouping that we feel them as branching strands of a single thought or emotion.
The sybarites are less compelling. As a whole, they’re like a group of castaways from The Great Gatsby. Looking straight out of an Erte print, they drink champagne and dance (to a vaguely Roaring ‘20s theme that is the most generic part of Copeland’s score) and partake in a lot of self-congratulatory patter about how wonderful they are. We wonder about their presence, but otherwise they’re not very interesting—not even Morel (Nathan Granner). Why his compadres regard him as a genius is unclear, even if in the end we find out that they’re right.
To the fugitive it’s not Morel who captivates, but Faustine (Jamie Chamberlin), seducing him with a siren song one day at the beach even as she looks right through him. He doesn’t care that that he’s a non-entity to Faustine, and he is sure he’s the only one who truly sees her. Chamberlin does everything the role demands of her, but there’s nothing in the character justifying the fugitive’s obsession. And obsession it is. “She feels me even if she doesn’t see me,” he sings. “[…] Any morsel is enough to fill the loneliness of my heart.”
If not poetic, Copeland and Moore’s libretto (based on a novel by Adolfo Dioy Casares) is serviceable; then again, I have yet to come across a libretto with writing that doesn’t sound at least somewhat contrived. Copeland’s music, on the other hand, is inspirational at times. Faustine’s siren song is one of them, full of swells of strings that rise and fall like the waves just off the shoreline. Another comes when fugitive and narrator duet about being carried away by that sea, storming to a frenzy before climaxing to a dead stop. Powerful stuff.
Not the least of the reasons why Copeland’s score works as well as it does is his facility composing for (what else?) percussion. The Invention of Morel is a dream opera for its two percussionists, who create a host of throbbing rhythms and textures by combining bells, blocks, shaker, tambourine, triangle, and marimba, along with a plain old trap set. It’s not that Copeland doesn’t do yeoman’s work with the other orchestral instruments, but it’s on the percussion front that he clearly outstrips most other opera composers.
There is a problem with Long Beach Opera’s presentation, however: the orchestra overpowers the vocalists. You have to appreciate that LBO does not resort to miking the cast—especially in a small theatre like the Beverly O’Neill—but with the orchestra positioned in one of the wings (so close to the stage as to be visible to the audience), there are many moments where the sung notes get completely swallowed up.
Conceptually, too, there is something to be desired in the show’s production design. Sometimes less is more, but here it just seems like less. LBO would have done better to give the show a unified visual aesthetic (maybe all b&w?), rather than going for a piecemeal sort of reality with too many gaps.
On balance, though, The Invention of Morel succeeds as an operatic take on obsession and eternal life. The plot is a bit shallow in places, but the music digs deeply enough for such grand considerations.
Long Beach Opera’s The Invention of Morel
Time: Sat 7:30 p.m.; Sun 2:30 p.m.;
Cost: $49–$150 general admission; $12.50 for students, Runs through March 25
Details: (562) 432-5934, Longbeachopera.org
Venue: Beverly O’Neill Theater, 300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach