SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Ricky Ian Gordon, The Grapes of Wrath : (Concert Opera Version in Two Acts), Soloists, Ted Sperling (conductor), Eric Simonson (director), The Collegiate Chorale, Carnegie Hall, New York City, 22.3.2010 (BH)


In 2007 the Minnesota Opera commissioned what has turned into something of a hit: The Grapes of Wrath, with music by Ricky Ian Gordon and libretto by Michael Korie, based on John Steinbeck’s monumental novel. After the handsomely mounted Minnesota production (which I reviewed here), the opera was performed in Pittsburgh, Texas and Utah.

Spurred by a request from James Bagwell and the Collegiate Chorale for a concert version, Gordon and Korie trimmed some of the original scenes, replacing them with a narrator (here given star power with Jane Fonda) and added bits of music cut from the Minnesota production (which was almost four hours long). The result, presented to a packed audience at Carnegie Hall, turned out to be perhaps more powerful than the original.

Some of this was due to the massive Chorale itself. With almost 200 voices, the group made a force that swept through the room as powerfully as the dust storms that alter the lives of the main characters. The rugged, thrilling opening, “The Last Time There Was Rain,” immediately establishes the story’s bleak background, and its striking, Copland-style open chords served the group’s sound well.

Gordon’s music draws from popular forms throughout the 20^th century, from swing to barbershop quartets to Broadway to jazz, and the wide-ranging palette suits the material well. If occasionally there seems to be a certain predictability in the way individual numbers climax and resolve themselves, Gordon nevertheless writes gratefully for voices, supported by lush orchestrations. Conductor Ted Sperling led the enormous ensemble with swiftness and passion, making the most of the score’s big moments.

And on a technical note, the fast-moving plot was boosted by crisply conceived Depression-era images, projected neatly onto the panels on the back wall of the stage. At the end, the enthusiastic audience responded with a huge ovation.

The cast could not have been better. Nathan Gunn brought his rich, supple voice to the role of Tom Joad, with Peter Halverson and Victoria Clark making an affecting, strongly characterized pair as Pa and Ma Joad. Broadway veteran Christine Ebersole almost brought down the house in her brief appearance as Mae, a waitress at a roadside café, as did Andrew Wilkowske in a heartbreaking turn as Noah, Tom’s brother, whose drowning scene brought some quiet gasps from some in the audience.

Replacing an indisposed Anthony Dean Griffey is a tall order for anyone, but Sean Panikkar made a superb last-minute addition to the cast as Jim Casy; one friend murmured, “He’s the real deal.” Other fine performers included Stephen Powell as Uncle John, Rochelle Nelson and Don McComb as Granma and Grampa, Matthew Worth as Connie, and Steven Pasquale as the younger brother Al—all excellent—along with two youngsters, Madelyn Gunn and Alex Schwartz. And as the pivotal Rose of Sharon, Elizabeth Futral not only sang beautifully but had the last word, closing the show with an indelible reading of the final, quietly wrenching scene.

Bruce Hodges