One of the greatest triumphs in Minnesota Opera’s half-century-plus history was 2011’s “Silent Night,” an opera in which opposing World War I soldiers celebrated their common humanity. It deservedly won a Pulitzer Prize for composer Kevin Puts’ marvelous music, and he and librettist Mark Campbell quickly were commissioned to create something else for the company.
The result opened at St. Paul’s Ordway Music Theater on Saturday evening: “The Manchurian Candidate,” a Cold War-era thriller of brainwashing and assassination with a tone and message radically different from “Silent Night.” Whereas their last opera found warmth in the wintry trenches of Western Europe, “The Manchurian Candidate” is as icy and unemotional as the assassin at its center.
While sprinkled with shocking murders from the opening scene onward, few victims are anyone you know, perhaps because the opera is more interested in scaring than caring. Hence, its rewards are fleeting. While Minnesota Opera’s production is full of imaginative staging ideas and exceptional singing, the opera itself is a disappointment, even though Puts puts plenty of intriguing ideas and orchestrations into his score.
What seemed chillingly possible when Richard Condon wrote his 1959 novel is now a historical fantasy about China, the Soviet Union and North Korea linking up to overthrow the U.S. government, using congressional communist hunters as tools of their megalomaniacal vision. Perhaps the ideal scenario for an audience would be to suspend disbelief and go along for the thrill ride. Alas, this opera is too bloodless to be thrilling, despite the best efforts of Matthew Worth as assassin Raymond Shaw (powerful of voice throughout his expansive range) and Brenda Harris as his politically ambitious mother, whose motives remain murky despite two extended arias of explanation.
One of the epiphanies offered by “Silent Night” was that Puts was a composer with a style and sound entirely his own. But, in “The Manchurian Candidate,” he borrows so liberally from the music of others that I found myself wishing for more Puts and less Bernard Herrmann, Aaron Copland, John Philip Sousa, John Adams and ’50s TV themes. While it’s understandable that Puts aspired toward how Herrmann helped build suspense in Alfred Hitchcock films, these characters are too colorless to draw us in.
That said, it’s certainly a creative staging, the paranoid premise underlined by designer Robert Brill’s hovering observation booth and a hanging-scoreboard-style Jumbotron flashing surveillance video, as well as director Kevin Newbury having scenery movers arrive early to surround the performers before a scene has concluded.
With 22 singing roles and a large chorus, it’s an expansive cast, and they all execute their parts impressively. And conductor Michael Christie and the orchestra handle the score’s many challenges exceedingly well. Yet, despite its high production values, the opera never makes up for its paucity of character development. This cold war drama has too much cold and not enough chills.
Rob Hubbard can be reached at rhubbard@pioneerpress.com.
What: Minnesota Opera’s “The Manchurian Candidate”
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday
Where: Ordway Music Theater, 345 Washington St., St. Paul
Tickets: $200-$25, available at 612-333-6669 or mnopera.org
Capsule: A lack of humanity hamstrings a strong staging.
