Review: THE CAMP at Aratani Theatre

The team behind The Camp, a new opera currently premiering at the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center’s Aratani Theatre should be commended for achieving precisely what they set out to do. With a superior level of artistry in terms of performance, composition, and design, the reality of the Japanese American concentration camps is relayed to contemporary audiences. Daniel Kessner’s score fuses traditional Japanese instruments like the shakuhachi and the koto with elements of a western orchestra in ways that transcend exoticism and embrace the tonal possibilities of cultural exchange. Perhaps this blend of cultures is best celebrated when, in the first act, the cast sings ‘Happy Birthday’ before segueing into a Japanese celebration song and odori dance. Kessner has employed discord and harmonious unity to great dramatic effect, encapsulating the arch of life during incarceration for more than 120,000 people of Japanese heritage.

Bolstering the capabilities of the score, the singers are uniformly excellent. Standouts include Habin Kim, whose coloratura is equal parts piercing and elegant, the perfect voicing for the Shimono family’s younger daughter as well as Alexandra Bass, who lends a tender earthiness to the Shimono matriarch. Patrick Tsoi-A-Sue performs Nobu with a sense of boyish fervor, which is appropriately reflected in Roberto Perlas Gomez’ world-weary interpretation of Mas Shimono. Lovers of contemporary opera will be delighted to hear such a world-class company.

Yuri Okahana-Benson’s scenic design embraces the mottled brown woods of the hastily-built camp structures, and Pablo Santiago’s textured lighting elevates the imagery of attempting to build warmth in an inherently cold environment. Unfortunately, Lionelle Hamanaka’s libretto leaves little upon which to grasp. Facts and figures of the forced removal of families are stated with little specificity or dramatic propulsion. Despite a few cliche elements aimed at humanizing the fictional Shimono family— a brief romantic arch for the elder daughter and the inevitable death of the younger— the libretto remains quotidian and never presents a real perspective on the lives of these characters. Opera is that medium which excels at embodying the heights of human emotion, so to see it employed here to relay a narrative lacking humanity at its core feels disappointing. Of course, the stories of these real people are dripping in humanity (which members of this team know well, as they cite direct familial ties to these atrocities). The sweeping scope of the libretto prevents us from embracing any of these characters, and the effect is less moving than learning about the camps through an exhibition (like the one hosted last year at the Japanese American National Museum) or a trip to Manzanar National Historic Site (free admission and a few hours north of LA). Even the artwork in the Little Tokyo Metro station teaches about the long-lasting effects of Japanese American removal during World War II, and I wonder how much this opera is able to accomplish without pushing us to engage with these issues more deeply.

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