The opera tells the story of a young Calisto, a man who has fallen for a beautiful woman named Melibea. In order to win her love, Calisto sends his servant Sempronio to the witch Celestina so that he can procure a love spell. What Calisto doesn't know is that his servant makes a deal with the witch to trick his master out of more money as well as obtain the love of Elicia, one of Celestina's whores. Using a magic thread and spool, Celestina gets Melibea enchanted enough to have her meet Calisto in private. After payment is given, Sempronio and another servant try to get their money but Celestina refuses, forcing the men to kill her. After being discovered, the two servants are executed and Elicia takes her revenge by killing Calisto when he falls off Melibea's ladder. Melibea then takes her own life, bringing the witch's curse to full circle.
How does one group perform an opera every half hour for almost two weeks? Well, it turns out that all the music and visuals were recorded ahead of time. This work is one in a new trend of installation operas, combining prepared multimedia with a specific location to create a unique experience. The Vélez Blanco Patio follows the architecture of the 16th century, providing a time specific setting for the wall projections, which combine animation with shadow puppetry to visually tell the story. The music was recorded on multiple channels and played from several speakers in the room, with each voice or instrument corresponding to a different sculpture.
The sculptures as narrators is a concept which has been used before, let us not forget the Muses in Disney's Hercules. But unlike the cartoony nature of moving mouths, the statues are from the actual museum collection and placed around the room, highlighted only by spotlights. The characteristics of each statue are significant of the role they play in the opera. For example, all the bass viol music is attributed to the Orpheus statue, who is portrayed playing the viola del braccio. King Phillip the Second is a bass and Caesar is a countertenor, a little Easter egg for the dedicated opera fans.
The main debate that is presented at the start of the opera is "How did it happen?". The audience is presented with the visual of five deaths, which occur in the opera and the statues argue over whether the fault is black magic, the devil, love, or jealousy. Phrases from this section return very often, prompting some kind of moral for the ending. In the end, it is love that brings about the ends of the characters. Love of money, sexual desire, and honor, are all downfalls for these people as we are treated to magical thread spun by Celestina.
In between, it was a visual and musical delight. The music, written by Matt Rogers, greatly evokes the Renaissance style while creating the right amount of cacophony. The usage of lights and projections in that darkened patio room prompted fear and empathy for the story, although sometimes it was hard to determine what was being sung or said. With the imbalance of volume in the music, I needed to listen to opera twice in order to better hear the music. The visuals had no problem relaying the story. The scale of both the romantic and political tones of the era are perfectly presented throughout.
Overall, the work is great and it is a shame that it may be a while before it is presented again. While no recordings are available at moment, it doesn't mean that it won't ever come to pass. Alone, the music would make a wonderful stereophonic opera experience. The real thrill, however, is certainly following the model of groups like On-Site Opera, in which one needs to be there to truly experience the production. If more productions from Opera Erratica make their way to NYC, you bet that I will do my best to see them.
