Review: Compelling singers lead Florentine's world premiere of 'Sister Carrie'
It’s not every day, or even every year, that one gets to see the fully staged world premiere of an opera.
The Florentine Opera production of Robert Aldridge and Herschel Garfein’s “Sister Carrie,” based on Theodore Dreiser's novel (1900) of the same name, is giving Milwaukee audiences that opportunity this weekend at the Marcus Center's Uihlein Hall.
The opera’s plot finds a young woman leaving rural Wisconsin to make her way in Chicago. She works a factory job for a time, eventually landing in New York and becoming a star in the city’s developing theater world. She uses relationships with two men to fund and support her aspirations.
Mezzo-soprano Adriana Zabala gave a dramatically compelling, beautifully sung performance in the title role on Friday. Baritone Keith Phares was strikingly well matched to Zabala in the role of Hurstwood, both in dramatic presence and focused, refined, vocal deliveries.
Tenor Matt Morgan brought energy and a warm sound to the role of Drouet, but his voice was often lost in dense orchestrations. Alisa Suzanne Jordheim provided a vocally and theatrically sparkling Lola.
A large ensemble cast, and the Florentine Opera Chorus, gave polished, convincing performances, including some particularly strong, lovely singing from Florentine Opera Studio Artist Ariana Douglas.
The opera is built on an inventive score that reflects music written in the 1890s in spots. Its powerful orchestrations were given a bold, convincing performance by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra under conductor William Boggs.
The opera has a tendency to make a good thing last too long. Several long numbers stall the plot, including the factory scene at the top of Act I, with its lengthy voice-imitating-machines number, and a chorus of angry, unemployed soldiers, near the opera’s end.
The Florentine’s “Sister Carrie” is played on a sparse set, with machine gears and single building as backdrops for most of the show. Small trolleys of furniture create pocket scenes of restaurants or characters’ homes. Stark lighting and large dark spaces on the stage added to the sparse feel.
Rachel Laritz’s period costumes, which included gorgeous gowns, provided the opera a sense of time and place.
Sound was an issue throughout the opera, with many vocal lines lost to orchestrations or dead spots on the stage. Unexpectedly loud floorboard sounds, as performers moved across the stage, gave the singers more competition to be heard.
The Florentine will repeat “Sister Carrie” at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at the Marcus Center, 929 N. Water St. For tickets, visit www.florentineopera.org or call (414) 273-7206.
