Review: Duffy Makes WAVES in Mazzoli-Vavrek Premiere at Opera Philadelphia

You might call BREAKING THE WAVES--the new opera by Missy Mazzoli (composer) and Royce Vavrek (libretto)--JENUFA without the laughs, LULU without the pizzazz. This stark, brutal work had its premiere last week at Opera Philadelphia, a co-commission with Beth Morrison Projects, with a thrilling score brought to life by the company's orchestra under Steven Osgood and a star-making turn by soprano Kiera Duffy as Bess McNeil. Directed by James Darrah, the gripping production doesn't let anyone off easy, including the audience.

Based on the Lars von Trier film of the same name--winner of the 1996 Grand Prix at Cannes and a Best Film-nominee at the Golden Globes in 1997--WAVES takes place in a devout community on the Isle of Skye, off Scotland, which the opera's creators have captured with the churning sea, the gloomy skies, the isolating environment.

Director Darrah and his design team--a unit set by Adam Rigg with the sometimes Rorschach-like projections by Adam Larsen and lighting by Pablo Santiago--evoke Bess's world without being too literal. All its vertical surfaces take projections, portraying an ever-shifting landscape that conjures up the places (the island, the oil rig) but also the abstract world Bess lives in. The costumes by Chrisi Karvonides also help create the time and place of the early 70s.

This is Bess's story--filled with sex and fervor, spirituality and delusion--and librettist Vavrek did a thoughtful job of paring down the action of the two-and-a-half hour movie to give Mazzoli the framework to build the characters through music. The protagonist goes from sheltered innocent (with a hint of madness in her past) to passionate bride (who insists on consummating her marriage in the church's toilet after the ceremony) to devoted wife (coerced into sex with other men by her husband, when he is paralyzed in an accident) and, finally, to degraded object of scorn by the men who use her.

Duffy throws herself into the role, with her soaring soprano finding all the colors and nuances Mazzoli asks of her, from the opera's first moments in the aria, "His name is Jan," as she asks the community's elders for permission to marry this foreigner who works on an oil rig. Once she marries him, sex becomes omnipresent and she is called upon to shed her clothes, as Bess sheds her inhibitions. Duffy is sensational.

The opera's other most important character is not Jan, who spends much of the opera immobilized, but the orchestra. Mazzoli's instrumental writing is perhaps her greatest achievement here--a tapestry of sound, with its shifting harmonies and, as the opera barrels forward into Bess's ruination, shards of music that echo her break from reality. Conductor Osgood and his 15-piece ensemble did estimable work in fulfilling Mazzoli's incredible demands. Kudos must also go to the all-male chorus (under Elizabeth Braden)--shifting from church elders, to oil rig workers, to the men Bess has sex with and the voice of God, who only she hears. They are not simply a means of keeping down the size of the cast but are key elements in the work's musical and dramatic development.

Baritone John Moore as Jan has the sex appeal to make Bess's attraction most apparent and he shows off an attractive voice, particularly appealing in the final scene, where he beautifully echoed Bess's earlier aria, "The Map of Jan's Body." The opera's two other most important characters are Bess's sister-in-law, Dodo, and Dr. Richardson (in charge of Jan's care), sung marvelously by mezzo Eve Gigliotti and tenor David Portillo. Filling out the cast were soprano Patricia Schuman as Bess's mother and bass Zachary James as Jan's friend from the rig.

Having heard Mazzoli, Vavrek and Darrah speak about their connection to the von Trier film and the development of the production, I was surprised with the bleakness of their vision. Yet this is an opera that you can't get out of your head--and I look forward to hearing it again.

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BREAKING THE WAVES has three more performances at Opera Philadelphia, tonight (27th), Thursday (29th) and Saturday (Oct. 1). It will have its New York premiere at the Prototype Festival, January 6-9, produced by Beth Morrison Projects and HERE. Go to the festival's website for more information about the opera and other works being performed, January 5-15, 2017.

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