BWW Reviews: UrbanArias Presents BLUE VIOLA at Artisphere

We all love the classic stories of thieves and/or those who make the most of what they come across. Or, if you're more practical and judicious, you love the stories where people get what they deserve based on their actions. Pair these ideas with opera, and you have the basic idea of BLUE VIOLA, an UrbanArias world premiere currently playing at Artisphere in Arlington.

UrbanArias has a goal to present contemporary, new operas and make them both an appropriate length and accessible to all those who wish to understand and come to love the medium. It's a great concept; however, with BLUE VIOLA, there was a lot left to be desired, and it is sadly not one I would use as a starting point to learn.

The 60-minute opera centers around a "fiddle" found by "King of Lost Things" Vernon, played by JORELL WILLIAMS. Vernon shows the instrument to his on-and-off girlfriend Arnita (ALICIA OLATUJA), who sees it as her chance to escape from a rundown cookie and beef shop in Chicago's South Side. Arnita fights Vernon and steals it, enlisting the help of her boss Mikey (KEITH PHARES) to sell it. Once they find out the true origins of the viola, the pair has to face their decisions and what they've done to get to that point.

PETER HILLIARD's music wanders into the blues, but a lot of it includes slightly painful chords that are difficult to sit through for long periods of time. There is a cool riff of electric guitar at the beginning, signaling anything but your typical opera; however, it doesn't really return. MATT BORESI's few funny lines in the libretto were overshadowed by too many songs that tried too hard to get the point across, or kept pushing the joke to an overdone end. There are also a lot of spots where the notes were high for no reason, and the words got lost. What was equally strange were the appearances of violist MEGAN YANIK, who came out on stage during transitions that simply took away time. Yanik is incredibly talented, but contextually, it didn't work.

As Vernon, Williams has a deliciously resonant baritone voice that gives a kind of royalty to his downtrodden character. He, along with all others given the time constraints, just doesn't get that much development though. In addition, both he and Phares were unable to convey full ranges of expression, save for when Phares appeared to be laughing at the beginning of his scene. Tenor BEN LURYE has a lovely voice, and brings solid, prim neuroses as instrument dealer Fritz. Olatuja was fun, but a lot of her high notes felt shrill, and she was hard to understand. I feel a lot of this can be chalked up to what was written for them, and how little it offered.

Production-wise, I wondered if there was a limitation on lighting. In certain spots, Arnita was drowning in light, making her look almost bionic. In others, she would step completely out of it. There were sound cues that played over the music, making me think it was someone's phone rather than appropriate background noise. The set was rather beige, and a series of numbers all over the formed walls of the instrument shop was mostly just distracting.

I truly appreciate what UrbanArias has set out to do. In order for opera to continue, you need new works. However, this is not one I would encourage anyone to see again. The story is simple, the character action doesn't always make sense, and the production choices only continue to take away from what could be solid performances if all of the many faulty factors were even close to right.

BLUE VIOLA plays at Artisphere in Arlington through March 29th. For more information, visit the production page.

Photo by C. Stanley Photography.

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