Central City Opera’s ‘Our Town’ emotional, understated

CENTRAL CITY — Ned Rorem is among the most revered of living American composers, and his style is accessible and lyrical. Known for his art songs, Rorem has not delved much into opera.

Before 2006, no operatic treatment existed of that most quintessentially American play, Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town,” largely because Wilder himself, and later his heirs, resisted the idea. In 2006, when already in his 80s, Rorem, was finally given the approval to set the revered masterpiece to music. He responded with a score that is as understated and poignant as the original play, one that has received praise and enthusiastic approval from audiences when it has been performed. The libretto by J. D. McClatchie eliminates some of Wilder’s characters, but is extremely sensitive to his mood and theme.

For various reasons, the first operatic setting of “Our Town,” despite the prominence of its composer, has not yet been recorded. Therefore, the only way to hear it, at least for now, is in live performance. CU Opera staged it in Boulder in 2010, and that production led Central City Opera director Pelham Pearce to select it for the current summer season at the jewel box theater in the mountains.

This production premiered Saturday under the baton of Christopher Zemliauskas, assistant musical director of the University of Colorado opera program. Zemliauskas has already proved himself as a conductor of modern American opera, including last spring’s sensational “Little Women” at CU.

Director Ken Cazan does spruce things up a bit from Wilder’s famous bare stage. There are a few props, along with discreet black and white projections on the back wall to help establish the time period in the early 20th century. At the end of the second act, the cast poses for a wedding photograph, and that photograph of the actual cast — looking like it was taken in 1904 — is then projected, a wonderful effect.

But there are pantomimed newspapers and hymn books, and ladders are used to suggest the two young leads at their windows. Rorem’s orchestra is not extremely small, but he deploys it carefully and lucidly. The use of the piano is especially felicitous. Most of all, this opera is eminently suited to this historic building, with its combination of a large, open stage and an extremely intimate audience space. It is not a blockbuster like the other current CCO production, “The Barber of Seville,” but it accomplishes what it intends and challenges the audience only as much as it has to.

Tenor Vale Rideout, who played the role of George Gibbs in the opera’s 2006 premiere, takes on the iconic Stage Manager in the Central City cast. Wearing a headset and modern clothing, Rideout emphasizes the main purpose of the character–to break the fourth wall. But the stage manager also takes an active part in the story, interacting with characters who themselves break the wall, taking on side roles such as the minister at a wedding, and guiding young Emily Webb’s entry into the afterlife in the third act. Rideout’s voice is smooth and comforting, and is allowed to soar in those final scenes.

Soprano Anna Christy as Emily Webb, however, has an even more daunting task than Rideout. The character’s courtship and marriage is the focus of the first two acts, and her young death that of the third. The major shift in tone is difficult for the audience and for the actors. Christy conveys all of this with an effortlessness that almost appears thankless, making her the true centerpiece of the evening. Her final aria after Emily’s ill-fated visit back to the living is exquisite. Tenor William Ferguson is youthful and fresh as her friend and later husband George Gibbs, the role created by Rideout.

The couple’s parents are an excellent quartet. Baritone John Hancock and soprano Sally Wolf as newspaper editor Mr. Webb and his wife have a certain youthfulness that is reflected in Christy’s portrayal of Emily. Mezzo-soprano Phyllis Pancella is warm and ingratiating as Mrs. Gibbs, and is given a soaring role in the Act III afterlife/funeral scene. Bass Kevin Langan is magnificently resonant as Dr. Gibbs, especially in the scene where he scolds George for not helping his mother. Tenor Kevin Newell and mezzo-soprano Claire Shackleton are both quite moving in the important smaller roles of Mrs. Soames and Simon Stimson. And the chorus of townspeople, especially memorable in their entry to Rorem’s excellent arrangement of an old hymn tune, is vital to the atmosphere.