BWW Reviews: EMMELINE Will Wring Your Heart at Opera Theatre of St. Louis

It's a sad old tale from New England's oral history. Combine the Oedipus story with "The Scarlet Letter" and you'll get a sense of the plot and tone of the piece. It is 1841. Emmeline is the eldest child of a large poor family in Maine. At the age of nearly 14 she is sent to work in a cotton mill in Massachusetts. Her wages of a dollar a week are sent home to help her struggling family. This innocent is seduced by the mill-owner's son-in-law and bears his child, which is given to adoptive parents. Only her aunt knows Emmeline's secret.

Emmeline returns home and for twenty years she manages the family boarding house and cares for her invalid mother, watching as her younger siblings marry and move away. She has come to feel that "marriage is not for the likes of me." But she falls in love with Matthew, a young new boarder. The whole town is shocked that this "spinster" should think of marrying a man so much younger than herself. At the wedding there is much disapproving gossip. But to Emmeline this marriage to Matthew offers her first real chance for happiness.

Alas, her happiness dies aborning, when at her mother's funeral secrets are revealed that bring Emmeline's world tumbling down. The rest is bitterness, shunning and solitude.

The score is very beautiful. It is generally tonal and varies from the soulfully romantic to the ultra-modern (as in the chaotic, dissonant music of the machines at the mill and their robot-like workers). A miserable, grindingly religious, life-despising feeling pervades most of the townspeople. At the very opening moment--at an infant's funeral--Aunt Hanna almost rejoices that "God has spared the child the suffering of this life!"

The mill girls--mere cogs in the mill's machinery--live regimented lives in a dormitory where after supper it's "Plates to the kitchen, hearts to heaven!" They are inundated with such mottos: "The Mill will spin your dowry!" "The Mill will make you free!" (Now, what's that in German?)

Our hearts go out to poor Emmeline, and Tobias Picker's music grips us throughout. There is such variety! There is a gorgeous childbirth duet between Emmeline and her unforgiving aunt, a rousing song among the men about building railroads "for the war and freedom." Once, Matthew plays a charming folksy tune on his harmonica--and the orchestra sweetly follows him. There's a beautifully romantic love duet with Emmeline and Matthew. There's a church filled with "Rock of Ages" while a violin brightly scampers aloft above the singers. There are great, tortured chords as Emmeline's world falls apart. Conductor George Manahan leads his singers and musicians to near perfection.

The cast is very strong, but a few merit particular praise: The lovely Joyce El-Khoury sings Emmeline with a sweet, pure soprano. Her control of dynamics is remarkable: she can fade a note slowly, smoothly to the merest pinpoint of sound. Matthew is sung by John Irvin, a splendid tenor indeed; his diction is superbly clear. And contralto Meredith Arwady sings the role of Aunt Hanna. Miss Arwady almost steals the show with a voice that can be as low and powerful as the voice of God.

Wayne Tigges is excellent as the vile seducer. (He was so convincing that in the curtain-call he graciously accepted a few "boos.")

Supporting roles are all beautifully sung. Matthew Lau as Emmeline's father, Geoffrey Agpalo as the driven overseer at the mill, Nicole Haslett as a friendly housemate, Renée Rapier as the strict but caring landlady, Felicia Moore as Emmeline's unfriendly sister, Daniel Brevik as the pastor, Lilla Heinrich Szasz as a girl at the mill, and Eric van Heyningen as an older suitor all do commendable work.

Allen Moyer has designed a spare, flexible set. A vast empty sky provides a canvas against which the cast is often presented in stark silhouette. Some scenes are centered on a great branchless tree. A turntable allows stage director James Robinson to accomplish swift and graceful scene changes as well as quite moving support for the drama. There is one lovely instrumental passage when Emmeline and Matthew, who have just met, walk in opposite directions around the turntable. They slow slightly as they pass each other--each time a little more--as if increasingly drawn to each other. What a perfect illustration of a tender, growing love! And after the awful revelation the turntable spins unceasingly as Emmeline and Matthew find their whole world aswirl.

Costumes are by James Shuette. They're mostly dark and somber, matching the general mood of the piece, though they brighten a bit for the wedding scene.

Christopher Akerlind gives very effective and evocative lighting.

So it's a strikingly beautiful opera--visually and musically. But there is a grim hopelessness that burdens the story, and some of the characters seem mere stereotypes. Maguire is written as only a little more than a caricature of a seducer. The preacher is sanctimony incarnate, and Aunt Hanna--however powerful her performance may be--is simply a horrid, unfeeling religious zealot. There are just so many mean-spirited people here! I chatted with a friend at intermission who said that she was "so angry with all these people!" "I just want to smack them all!!"

Indeed.

But the final moment is one of strength and tragedy as the lights fade on an aged Emmeline--ostracized by her unforgiving people. In a vast black space that last tiny brilliant spotlight makes Emmeline's white shawl flame like the sun, as if reflecting the fierce will and strength of character that has allowed her to survive.

Emmeline stayed in her home town for many years, alone and shunned--always waiting for her child to return. In historic fact she lived in a shack, supported by secret charity. She died, possibly of starvation, and at her funeral her own sister whispered to her casket, "Finally, you'll pay for your sins!" Nice people!

"Emmeline" continues at Opera Theatre of St. Louis through June 27.

For more information visit the company web-site.

Photos by Ken Howard

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