Opera: by Frank Raso

Fire Shut Up In My Bones
The Metropolitan Opera reopened on September 27 with the Met Premiere of a new opera Fire Shut Up In My Bones, which is the first opera by a black composer to be performed at the Met. The opera, which has a libretto by Kasi Lemmons, is based on a memoir by Charles Blow, about a boy who is sexually abused by his cousin, and spends his life trying to overcome his trauma. The first act focuses on Billie, Charles’s mother, who is cheated on by her husband Spinner. She threatens him at gun point, put ultimately decides to “leave it in the road” and the family moves in with Charles’s Uncle Paul. Billie needs to feed a family of 6, resulting in Charles developing feelings of loneliness, causing him to be vulnerable to his cousin Chester. Throughout the opera Charles is haunted by two characters Destiny and Loneliness, both of whom are played by Angel Blue. The characters observe Charles, while also affecting his decisions. Throughout the rest of the opera Charles attempts to absolve his guilt, through religion, sex, and joining a fraternity. He is hazed at the college, rendering that solace useless, and develops a relationship with Greta, the final character played by Angel Blue. However, Greta says they can only be friends as she is in love with another man, causing him to resort to murder to end his grief. But he decides “to leave it in the road” and talk to his mother. The production makes use of videos projections and abstract sets to cover quick scene changes and produce less graphic versions of disturbing scenes in the opera. The singers all excellently portray their characters, including Angel Blue as Destiny/Loneliness/Greta, Latonia Moore as Billie, and Will Liverman as Charles. The performance was a powerful evening of theater which will hopefully return in future seasons. Fire Shut Up In My Bones had it’s final performance on October 23rd.

Boris Godunov
Modest Mussorgsky’s opera “Boris Godunov” has a troubled history. The opera was written in a short seven scene version in 1869, but it was turned down by the committees of Russia’s Imperial Theater on the grounds that it lacked a female lead. Mussorgsky revised the opera, adding more folk songs, a third act set in Poland which featured the Polish Princess Marina, and a finale scene in the Forest of Kromy. The Metropolitan Opera is going for shorter running times this season so they opted to perform the 1869 version. The production which premiered in the revised version was tweaked as a result of the decision. To summarize, the plot follows the rise and fall of Tsar Boris Godunov, beginning with officers forcing the people to shout for him to take the Russian throne which leads to a massive coronation scene. However, a story is spread that Boris sent assassins to kill the infant Tsarevich Dimitri.
This news comes to a monastery in Moscow, leading to the young and ambitious monk Grigori to take the name of Dimitri, and pretend he is the Tsarevich resurrected. Boris meanwhile suffers guilt from the murder, and he gradually goes insane following a fruitless search for redemption, culminating in his death. The 1869 version is dramatically weaker than the revised one, Dimitri is reduced to a supporting character and Boris’s mental deterioration is rushed. The tweaks in the production to do not help the drama, particularly placing the scene change between Scenes Five and Six in the middle of Boris’s mad scene. However the musical performance was excellent, Rene Pape reprised his portrayal of the title role, and his performance was astonishing particularly in the final scene. David Butt Philip made the most of his stage time as Grigori, and the performance was well supported by Sebastian Wiegle in the pit. The supporting cast gave excellent performances particularly of note was Aimen Anger as Pimen, an elderly monk in Moscow, and Ryan Speedo Green as a travelling monk who sings a folk song at an inn on the Lithuanian border. Boris Godunov had its final performance on October 17th.

Frank Raso is a 12-year old Brooklynite with a die-hard love of opera. He has seen nearly every Metropolitan Opera production since the 2018/19 season. He’s excited to regularly share his knowledge and observations about the 2021/22 season.