James Gill
Heather Johnson carries out the heaviest assignment as Jo.
Madison Opera has scored a triumph with Little Women.
The opera is among the most successful of recent American operas. It is based on the classic Louisa May Alcott novel, with both score and libretto written by Mark Adamo, who was present for the opening performance at the Overture Center’s Capitol Theater on Feb. 5. He participated in a pre-performance discussion and was in the house for the curtain-call bows.
Though unmemorable, the score of Little Women ably supports the words. But the libretto itself is the show’s strikingly clever and sensitive achievement. It is extremely wordy, to be sure, which means audience members have to look away from the stage to follow the subtitles.
Nevertheless, the stage is truly worth watching. While the placement of the orchestra at the rear of the stage behind a scrim is sometimes distracting, the minimal set, sustained by intelligent use of projections, works well. The staging, by director Candace Evans, is splendidly apt and imaginative.
As Adamo has distilled it, Alcott’s story portrays a family in flux. Four sisters enjoy a loving closeness that Jo, the eldest, hopes can go on forever; she is devastated by the departure of the other three. The role of Jo is the heaviest assignment, carried out powerfully by Heather Johnson. Courtney Miller, who plays Meg, has ringing moments of assertiveness, while Jeni Houser is a charmingly sweet Amy. In the role of Beth, whose main narrative function is to die, local star Chelsea Morris Shephard seems wasted until she delivers a deeply moving death scene.
The men in the sisters’ lives are particularly well realized: Tenor Eric Neuville as Laurie, baritone Alexander Elliott as John Brooke, and bass Craig Verm as Friedrich Bhaer are all outstanding. Indeed, all the show’s singers (including members of a Sondheim-style female-voice quartet that adds comments) display excellent singing and acting throughout.
Little Women is also conductor Kyle Knox’s podium debut with Madison Opera, a successful one, even if the show brings to mind the old cliché about a score that does not send you out humming hit tunes.
Overall, Little Women is a compelling piece of lyric theater that quickly absorbs the audience.
The production repeats on Sunday afternoon, Feb. 7 at 2:30 p.m.