The Baltimore Rock Opera Society is presenting two original—and awesome—operas to celebrate the opening of their new home at the Autograph Theater on West 25th Street. The productions are incredible—cleverly staged on two levels, costumes that are artworks in themselves, and impressive dancing, singing, and music. It all defies description: if you love opera, see it. If you think opera is old-fashioned, this will change your mind!
First, kudos to owner Billie Taylor for preserving this epic performance space! It glistens! Formerly the Showtime Theater, this building was long abandoned. It is hard to believe that it sat vacant for so long less than ten blocks from the Charles Theater, perhaps the most popular venue in Station North Arts & Entertainment District.
The first in the double feature is Amphion, a tale of the ancient world and the collision of the Holy Roman Empire and its Eastern rival, Persia, in the sixth century. A cast of larger-than-life characters have come together to discuss peace following a seemingly endless war.
Superficially the story of ill-fated love or diplomatic negotiations gone wrong, it is, the Director tells us, actually about transformation. The musician Amphion is punished for his dalliance with the Persian minister’s daughter by having his arms and legs severed (discreetly, behind a scrim). Despite this, he continues to sing powerfully, a man who seems more complete than before. Like the eunuch charged with guarding his lover Nasree, Amphion has learned that there is more to manhood than body parts.
As the performers take their bows and the mist from the final scene dissipates, stage hands scurry around changing the set, readying it for The Terrible Secret of Lunastus. Gone are the arches and columns of the ancient world. A charging station faces us stage center; flickering panels on either side take on a hi-tech air. A screen, divided into a dozen different sections flashes changing imagery. This opera makes effective use of what must be the old movie screen by incorporating projection into its storyline, the first a familiar television news format that proclaims that the moon has dropped from the sky and that global chaos reigns on earth.
Lunastus is about the as-yet-imagined (or feared) future. A crew, accompanied by a truly appealing android played by dancer Lilly Susskind , has traveled far away in space and time, fleeing the destruction of earth by a sinking moon. This crew discovers the distant planet Lunastus, inhabited by a peculiar blue race, the Abzug. They reveal a narrative which predicts all that has already occurred on earth, or will occur. As with the warring ancients, romance sparks, this time between a human woman and a turquoise Abzug man (once again, discreetly, behind a scrim).
Violence ensues. In the heat of battle, a truly terrifying two-story monster appears—a Cyclops with monumental chattering teeth and slinking tentacles that penetrate every door and opening on stage. All is saved by a powerful laser and the humans return to the spaceship, unaware that their female companion bears a child, half Abzug, who will return with them to earth. In the final scene, the android reveals this conception with a gravity that suggests that even if it is the end of the opera, it is a new beginning for human civilization. Maybe we have made progress since the Holy Roman Empire!
All in all, beneath the beauty and fun of these two remarkable performances, another thread emerges. Throughout history and into the present day, we fear “the other.” So much of what troubles the world stems from our inability to accept, even embrace differences.
This is an experience well worth the investment of four hours from start to finish. You have two more weekends to see the BROS’ double feature. Curtain rises at 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and 5 p.m. on Sunday.
Doreen Bolger is always on the move because she can’t stop seeing, supporting, and writing about the arts in and around Baltimore City. Her lengthy love affair for the arts began in Long Island when her father, an executive in the textile industry, brought home breathtaking fabrics every night from the heart of the garment district. 