by Mike Hoban
Divas – Written by Laura Neill; Directed by Adrienne Boris; Music Direction by Patricia Au; Set Design by Jeffrey Petersen; Lighting Design by Emily Bearce; Sound Design by Zach Cadman; Costume Design by Drew Myers-Regulinski; Presented by OperaHub in collaboration with the Diva Museum at the The Plaza Theatre at the Boston Center for the Arts, 539 Tremont St., Boston through June 30
Whether intentionally or otherwise, it would appear that the Boston Opera community has made a concerted effort in 2018 to broaden the appeal of the genre to the theater-going audience. Beginning with Boston Lyric Opera’s intriguing offerings (Threepenny Opera and Trouble in Tahiti) this spring and continuing with OperaHub’s captivating production of Laura Neill’s world premiere of DIVAS, a play with opera music, the ploy appears to be working – at least for this reviewer. Part Twilight Zone episode, part historical drama, DIVAS also offers a Whitman Sampler of brilliantly performed opera selections that should serve to entice theater-going folk into exploring future opera productions.
Playwright Neill opens the piece with a modern day spin, with nine female opera singers – drinking champagne from red frat house solo cups – dishing backstage after a fundraiser for a local opera company about bad dates with men, the state of opera in contemporary society and the NEA. One by one they exit the stage, pulling costumes from a rack, and, following an (extended) blackout, reappear onstage as prominent figures across multiple centuries from the opera universe. The women have been summoned from their place of rest to the mostly bare stage, and they soon realize that they are being held captive by a Star Trekian force field, which prevents their escape.
Being true divas, the individual stars alternate between trying to assert dominance over the others and supporting each other as women. This framing device also serves as a clever way to set up each woman to tell their story and, of course, to sing. Fittingly, the most dominant of the divas, late 19th century prima donna Adelina Patti (Chelsea Beatty), who after a stint as an American child protégé became an international rock star of sorts, opens with a gorgeous rendition of “Sempre Libera” from La Traviata. Each of the nine divas gets their turn to showcase their gifts, and there is no discernible level of a talent drop off throughout the musical sections of the play. There are also a pair of duets, the first featuring Patti and African-American Sissieretta Jones (Arielle Rogers), the “Black Patti”, on the evening’s most recognizable number, ‘Home Sweet Home” the American standard by Henry Bishop; and the second, “La mère grand” by Giacomo Meyerbeer, sung by the devout Jenny Lind (Erin Anderson) and the hermaphrodite Pauline Viardot (Glorivy Arroyo), is awe-inspiring.
The vocal performances are the obvious strength of the show, but there is much to be said for Neill’s talents as a storyteller. The narrative really works best when it focuses on the individual stories of the opera singers and on their particular struggles as women in the performing arts during their time in history. Neill writes dialogue well (“Every woman who dares to create something beyond needlepoint is my angel” says one) and the performances by the actors are impassioned and laser-focused. The fantastical staging device works slightly less well as the women concoct a plot to use their voices to shatter the walls of their imprisonment, and the insertion of the 21st century feminist thought into the mouths of 18th and 19th century women – while the observations are 100 percent accurate – feels a bit heavy-handed at times. It should also be noted that this is an all-women production from an all-female cast, playwright, stage director, and music director – which is certainly an encouraging sign for Boston’s theater scene. Overall this a well-written, wonderfully executed piece.
As I have stated in the past, the sum total of my experience with opera until this year has pretty much been confined to multiple viewings of the Warner Bros. classic cartoon, “What’s Opera Doc”. That being said, if you’re looking for a gentle way to be introduced to the beauty of opera as musical form with an interesting storyline to boot, this is the ticket. Highly recommended. For tickets and additional info, go to: http://www.operahub.org/upcoming
