Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer winner becomes an opera
By IRIS FANGER | June 7, 2006
Angels in rehearsal
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One of the most memorable moments in Angels in America, Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer-winning magnum opus about the terrifying advent of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, is the entrance of the Angel, who comes crashing down through Prior Walter’s ceiling. At a rehearsal last week for the opera version of Angels in America, which opens in Boston June 16, an all-too-human Angel, dressed in hospital scrubs, stood on top of Prior’s bed instead of flying in and sang her greetings to the sick man in a heavenly soprano voice.It’s quite a coup for Opera Unlimited, the collaboration of Opera Boston and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, to snag the North American premiere of Hungarian composer Peter Eötvös’s opera (with libretto by Mari Mezei), which premiered in Paris in 2004. Our local opera companies have neither big bucks nor a big name like Peter Sellars or the late Sarah Caldwell. In this case, it helped that Gil Rose directs both Opera Boston and BMOP and thus could bring them together. “Pooling our forces creatively and economically means that the two companies can take on works that neither could do itself.”
Written in English for a cast of eight plus a 21-piece orchestra and three extra voices in the pit, the chamber opera presents its challenges. The seven hours of Kushner’s two-part drama have been slashed to two hours and 25 minutes, and there are no arias. “A lot of the opera is spoken rhythmic singing, very dialogue-intensive as opposed to melody-intensive,” Rose explains. “The composer has boiled Kushner’s dual work down to 18 encapsulated scenes, more mood and descriptions of events than actual dramatization.”
The cast boasts baritones Thomas Meglioranza and Drew Poling as Prior and Roy Cohn and soprano Amanda Forsythe as the earthbound Angel, who for Steven Maler — artistic director of Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, and this production’s stage director — conjures memories of the 1980s. “What I recall about that period of time was that there were angels walking among us. They were the doctors, who had no idea what was going on medically but were there every day trying to ease people’s suffering, and the nurses who were unafraid to insert an IV or wipe someone’s brow. What we decided to do was let the Angel be a nurse in Prior’s room. He turns around and sees something different from everyone else. The notion is that the potential to be an Angel is inside us. This piece for me is a process of honoring those people.”
ANGELS IN AMERICA | June 16-24 | Opera Unlimited | Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont St, Boston | $45-$65; half-price student rush; $150 opening night | 617.933.8600
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