Denied Glory

Went to see Glory Denied, the second (of four) Kentucky Opera productions for the 2019 / 2020 season. I have to admit that as much as I love opera...which is a lot, at least 3,000...I had to brace myself for this one. Because, as you could probably infer from the title, it is a Modern Opera--written in 2007. And you know what that means, right? Angular, jaggedy music that sounds like you took an Aaron Copland symphony, sliced and diced it, threw away 3/4ths of the notes, then spliced what was left back together. And the vocals? You could guarantee that it would be William Shatneresque in terms of its strange (and sometimes dissettling) emPHAsis. I don't know who wrote that memo in 1930 which ordered all opera composers to adhere to an atonal formula, but I wish somebody would piss on it and say, "I want to write beautiful melodies!" Or maybe all of those people migrated over to the Land of the Musical. 

At any rate...Glory Denied was filled with angular, jaggedy music and screechy, wrongly emPHAsized lyrics. So no disappointment on those counts.

Still, there were things that I enjoyed.

The story--about an American prisoner of war who is released from captivity, then comes home to find that everything has changed...including his wife, who has taken up with another man--was powerful. 

The stage set was kind of interesting. (See above.)

And Cree Carrico, who played Younger Alyce, not only had a beautiful voice, but she was also extremely hot.

And if you like your operas to go, this one was just about drive through window service with a first act of 36 minutes and a second of 41. I think the only reason they had an intermission was to make us feel like we were getting our money's worth.

Seriously.

Kentucky Opera claimed that Glory Denied was "One of the most important new works of present-day opera...."

Well...to each his own the old maid said as she kissed her cow.

🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄

But everything else aside, there was one moment that really stuck in my brain. In a Seed Got Caught in My Gumline, Rotted, and Caused My Palate to Fester way.

After Older Alyce tells Older Thompson (the former POW) that she's been playing house with another guy while OT was being beaten by his Viet Cong warders, he is, as you might guess, a bit depressed. So he drinks a lot, wails for awhile, and then, finally, goes to Older Alyce and tells her that he forgives her. She responds, "I don't give a shit about your forgiveness."

And you know what makes this even worse? I got the distinct feeling that I was supposed to cheer for her. That I was supposed to see her as a Woman Who Took Control of Her Own Life and Threw Off the Rusty Chains of Patriarchy.

And so far as I'm concerned, that is just some serious bullshit. 

Older Alyce justifies her behavior by saying that she did what she had to do to survive. Mmm-hmm. Interestingly enough, Older Thompson points out that she was still cashing the checks the U.S. Army was sending to her...his salary.

Well. Welcome to the brave new world in which "transactional" isn't synonymous for "sell out whore."

Sigh.

I'm looking forward to seeing The Marriage of Figaro in a couple of months. I hear there are tunes you can hum and EVERYthing.