Amelia: By Daron Aric Hagen

I should preface my review with the following. I do not really enjoy modern music in terms of the opera. I also am very leery of operas sung in English. There is something strange about them. I suppose it is the way the words are drawn out. It somehow sounds better in Italian, French or German. So keep those biases in mind.

Seattle Opera commissioned this opera. It is a brand new work that is getting its first shot at public viewing. There has been a lot of hype about it and it has gotten good reviews in general. As always my reviews aren't refined at all.

Pros: I really enjoyed the story. I think that if you can get a winning story behind an opera you won't be doing too bad. The story is what draws the people in and then keeps them. The premise that we were dealing with a person who had lost their father in war was one that I am sure is both universal and compellingly current. Many avenues for people to relate even if it was just in the hypothetical. The part of Icarus was sung by Nicholas Coppolo and he has a wonderfully lovely tenor. It was the winning voice of the opera for me. I also enjoyed the vocal talent of Jane Eaglen but that is not unusual. She has a phenomenal voice always. She could probably sing the phone book and make it sound good.

Cons: Unfortunately there were several things that really bothered me about this opera. First, the music. As I have said, I am not a huge fan of modern opera. The last one I saw was the End of the Affair which was dreadful. The music seemed a bit scattered. The vocal arrangements in parts reminded me of alley cats all yowling at the same time. There often seemed to be no theme or direction of notes. Rather the random always was in play. So, the music was mediocre. Also, the settings took entirely too long to change from scene to scene. The scene with the village in Vietnam was stunning as was the set for Paul's work. However, if you have to write an interlude of music (3-5 minutes long) to give the techies enough time to switch sets out then the sets are entirely too aggressive and complex.

Second item that really bothered me was the character story lines. There were no less than 3 story lines going on within the opera. They were all part of the main story line but it seemed as though the story was a bit overworked. One of the instances where a bit more editing of the libretto would have serviced the opera well. The story of the Flier in particular I would have gotten rid of. I am sure that is total and complete sacrilege to the opera writers but it seemed unnecessary and mostly disconnected to the entire opera. Also (and this would also get my potentially blacklisted) I would have done away with the third scene of the second act entirely. It was a prime example of reaching too far and not adding ANYTHING to the overall story. Add 3 minutes to tie up the loose end left in scene two and it would have been perfect. The ending was a bit anticlimactic.

Third item that got under my skin and there is no way to say this nicely. It was a bit like Opera meets the Sixth Sense. There were dead people wandering around the entire opera that would periodically interact with Amelia. It was strange and bothersome at best. Particularly when they were wandering the halls of the hospital. It just seemed unnecessary.

Must See Rating: *** Only because I am hoping it would improve upon a second viewing.