Review: 'Another Brick in Wall' opera ambitious, relevant, but lacks dramatic credibility

It begins with an indistinct rumbling that grows louder and more ominous. Machinery, perhaps. Or is it a crowd? Finally, the enormous Music Hall curtain opens to reveal a backstage view of a raucous rock 'n' roll concert. Pulsing lights flash into our eyes as a rowdy crowd surges against the stage.

It’s the opening scene of the U.S. premiere of “Another Brick in the Wall,” composer Julien Bilodeau’s adaptation of Pink Floyd’s groundbreaking 1979 album, “The Wall.” The Cincinnati Opera co-production opened Friday and continues through July 31.

If you know Pink Floyd at all, you probably know where this is going. Recreating a seminal moment in Pink Floyd history, lead singer Pink (Nathan Keoughan) melts down, spits in the face of an unruly audience member and launches into a soul-searching mental collapse that powers us through the remaining two hours of Bilodeau’s opera.

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Except that the power isn't really there. Or the dramatic credibility. For Pink, this is a gut-wrenching moment that changes the direction of his life. But director Suzanne Crocker chooses to stage it all in slow motion. It's the sort of decision that repeats itself throughout the opera, diminishing the urgency of many of the opera’s most powerful scenes. Even when the lyrics speak of emotional turmoil and angst, the staging is static and surprisingly lethargic.

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That’s not to say that “Another Brick in the Wall,” which had its world premiere last year at the Opéra de Montréal, is devoid of drama.

For one thing, it is a grand visual spectacle. Towering panels are filled with remarkable and sometimes imaginative imagery, from savage battle scenes and great swathes of color that ooze from one side of the stage to the other to another that fills the stage with a cautionary excerpt from President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s famed “Chance for Peace” speech.

And then there is Bilodeau’s score. Thanks to the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and conductor Alain Trudel, the music operates at nearly as high an emotional pitch as Stéphane Roy’s scenic design and Johnny Ranger’s videos. There may be occasional references to Waters’ music. But they are minimal at most. This is Bilodeau’s music, and it is every bit as hyperdramatic as Waters’ sprawling tale demands.

This is not a rock opera, though. There is no overamplified band grinding away behind wailing singers. Nor will you hear chorus master Henri Venanzi’s singers pound out a throaty version of the album’s anthemic centerpiece, “Another Brick in the Wall.” It’s not there.

But Waters’ words are there. And so is the tale of a young boy named Pink and the topsy-turvy life that leads him to the pinnacle of the world of rock and roll, where he proceeds to implode.

For all its sumptuous visual presentation, though, the impact of “Another Brick in the Wall” is surprisingly muted. Some of it stems from Waters’ lyrics. They have remained intact from the original album, so there are occasional moments of great eloquence. But what once seemed so powerful when wrapped in the urgency of Pink Floyd’s music now often feels flimsy when illuminated on massive screens throughout the theater.

From the moment Pink Floyd’s album was released in 1979, people regularly attached the word “operatic” to it. It was an ambitious and intense story. And the scale of it was epic. But putting that same tale on a stage has turned out to be far more complicated.

Think about it. How realistic is it to build a two-hour opera around a character who is in a state of emotional collapse for 95 percent of the show? Pink may have built a reputation as a charismatic performer. But we never get to see that side of him.

Making that challenge more problematic is that bass-baritone Keoughan is not a particularly compelling stage presence. Even when he has a chance to cut loose in a hallucinatory scene where Pink imagines himself a ruthless despot, Keoughan’s performance is surprisingly tame.

Fortunately, others in the cast give us more vivid portrayals, both vocally and dramatically, especially Caroline Bleau as Pink’s passionate and eventually betrayed wife, France Bellemare and Jean-Michel Richer as Pink’s parents and Reilly Nelson as a Vera Lynn, singing “We’ll Meet Again” in a wartime USO club, one of the opera’s few unabashedly heartwarming scenes.

The production benefits from a pair of fine performances in non-singing roles; Riley Montello as a resilient young Pink and Jared Joplin as The Fan, a character who reappears many times throughout the opera, each time supplying a much needed dramatic boost.

History has conspired to provide the opera an unnerving relevance. Standing in front of a bloodthirsty crowd, the despotic Pink rails against blacks and Jews and gay people and anyone who looks vaguely different.

"Who let all this riffraff into the room?” he sings. “If I had my way, I’d have all of ya shot!”

It’s a chilling moment, one that could easily be lifted from the day’s news in far too many parts of the world.

“Another Brick in the Wall” is an ambitious and admirable undertaking for Cincinnati Opera. It’s indicative of the chances the company has been willing to take to broaden the scope of its repertoire in recent years. Ultimately, it may not prove to be a work we need to revisit every few years. Few operas are. But staging a grand new work and sticking out its artistic neck like this is to be applauded. It’s risky and adventurous and well worth the ride.