The Strength of Surrender

Thompson Street Opera Company and Pride Films & Plays – When Adonis Calls  

An important contributor to Chicago’s deliciously rambunctiously storefront opera scene, Thompson Street Opera, which focuses on the works of living composers, has given Chicago an important production of When Adonis Calls.  A tight, yet leisurely, ninety minutes of opera that leaps from the score of composer Clint Borzoni set to the sexy, philosophical meanderings of “The Naked Poet” Gavin Geoffrey Dillard as curated and shaped by director/choreographer/librettist wunderkind John De Los Santos, the piece is scored for two baritones, two male dancers, a string quartet, and percussion, a heady and distinctive bouquet that the creators use to full benefit.

Adonis was given its premiere at the Ashville Lyric Opera and won Opera America’s 2017 New Works Forum Award. Borzoni mirrors, then elucidates Dillard’s jagged-then-lush free verse, wondrously specific to near didacticism then suddenly heightened, with a contemporary score that, upon musicological examination, answers all the requirements for today’s opera music, its forms and compositional-themeology sharp, nearly terse at times, then profiting hugely by a sweeping lyricism that must be making Richard Strauss misty in his grave. Set into five vignettes which De Los Santos labels “Exchanges,” this trio of art-makers lead us into a relationship between two seemingly disparate souls as they fire and transform each other, at first sparring and jostling, gradually beginning to take on the other’s characteristics as they open each other’s hearts, then returning to themselves with new understanding.

The bloodlines of this project’s husbandry must have indicated success from its inception. Borzoni, who studied with David Del Tredici at the City University of New York, is Composer-in-Residence for Musica Marin in the San Francisco Bay Area. A second collaboration with De Los Santos, The Copper Queen, is in development by Arizona Opera. His commissions include Arizona Opera, the Delaware Art Museum, the Big Apple Corps Symphonic Band, and Barihunks. De Los Santos’ career began as a principal dancer with the Alamo City Dance Company. His trajectory took him through a stint as resident choreographer with the Fort Worth Opera, to choreography for Dallas Opera, and then into direction of opera, musicals, plays, concert, and ballet. One of the greatest strengths of Adonis lies in the creation of a libretto/concept by De Los Santos, including the addition of dancers to act as reflections of the protagonists/antagonists. Poet Dillard sprang from the North Carolina School of the Arts with his first publishing contract. He has since published numerous collections, along with his infamous, early memoir, In The Flesh (undressing for success), which chronicles his thirty years in Los Angeles as poet, model, artist, songwriter, and porn star. No longer in print, it is a collector’s item. He was dubbed, “The Naked Poet” for his nude poetry readings. He’s been drawn by Tom of Finland and Jake Heggie has set his poetry to art song. His book, Nocturnal Omissions, A Tale of Two Poets, tells a story of a poetic romance between Dillard and younger poet Eric Norris through an exchange of their letters; De Los Santos drew his libretto from their correspondence.

Thompson Street Opera Company champions the Chicago storefront opera companies’ milieu, telling stories of the minimized and disenfranchised for today’s audiences. Here, the elder poet, having mislaid his artistic erection, is courted by a beautiful, younger poet whom he calls, “Buttboy” in mocking sensuality, and this Adonis gifts him the necessary emotional Viagra for reaffirmation. This production was as steamy as the plotline suggests. Staged in a space that feels appropriately “found,” with tired brick walls and a long-dead but eloquent clock at the top of a yet-persisting archway, it recalls the decaying bathhouses of the AIDS epidemic, sexy and dangerous, ghostly dreams of former, hedonistic grandeur. The audience is placed on two sides of a rectangular room, with the orchestra seated in the playing space-proper, within the corner the audience seating creates. The sparse set consisted of chairs, desks, whiskey bottles, the instruments for writing, and a large floor mirror in the center, begging reflection. G. “Max” Maxin IV’s lighting design created shifting, shadowy corners in which to hide. The text was projected on the back wall, the words themselves becoming character. With the orchestra seated on the stage, the score lived within the piece as an omnipresent character as well.

Director Derek Van Barham may be new to opera, but his career is steeped in the Chicago storefront theatre scene, and he has received much recognition for his writing, directing, and choreography for gay-themed productions. Recently named the artistic director of Kokandy Productions, he has directed for Pride Films & Plays, Circle Theatre, Boho Theatre, and Hell in a Handbag Productions. Van Barham guided his players through the psychologically-charged landscape of deep character study with great success. The words were delivered with the sort of clarity and tone-painting born of meticulous study, every adjective examined, the choice of every noun carefully considered. The smoothness of emotional transition between moments of dramatic tension showed an experienced hand at the wheel.  

Enough cannot be said of the superior musical direction and conducting of Alexandra Enyart. In only a short time in Chicago, she has shot to prominence in the storefront opera scene. Perched on a stool in a corner of the stage, Enyart was always present, but never obtrusive. It takes a special ear to breathe with a singer from the podium; This is not a skill that every conductor, even many who are quite successful, have in their arsenal. Enyart seems to know when a singer is going to breathe, and how much intake is needed in that slip of a moment, almost before the singer knows themselves. The audience could live fully in the world of the play, because Enyart championed her orchestra as another member of the cast, everyone breathing in, and letting go, together.

Baritone Jonathan Wilson sang The Poet with a vocal dexterity that almost taunted the role’s rangy requirements. A much sought-after performer in the storefront opera scene, Wilson has also sung with Chicago Fringe Opera, Third Eye Theatre Ensemble, and Transgressive Theatre-Opera. Wilson is known for his effortless high notes, and it is a joy to hear the lower voice just as in line, with the variances in color, weight, and dynamics so under his control that it is his to give over to the character.  His Poet never shirks the responsibility for his coarseness, cruelty, or vulnerability. Wilson soft-pedaled nothing. He should be singing this role all over the country.

Nathan Kistler is a newcomer to Chicago, via Central Michigan University and the University of Notre Dame. Kistler seems readymade for the role of The Muse (Adonis). Given his pleasing physicality and countenance, and his warm, expressive voice, audiences not yet acquainted with Kistler might have been beguiled into believing that the leonine, sexually shrewd character on display was merely an oversized version of himself. It was startling to see Kistler at the curtain call, when The Muse escaped into the shadows and it was revealed that Kistler bore him only a passing resemblance. If his debut is an indication of the type of work Kistler is prepared to do in Chicago, he is indeed a most welcome addition, for Chicago’s audiences have the utmost respect for an artist who can allow a singular, synergistic, flesh-and-blood phantom to slip into the room.

Thompson Street wisely cast covers for the roles in this vocally and emotionally athletic two-hander and rewarded their study with a performance on the final date. Baritones Zachary Angus (The Poet) and Brandon Sokol (The Muse) gave entirely individualistic performances of precisely the same production, and higher praise cannot be given an artist in such an endeavor. It is the expectation that covers receive little actual stage rehearsal, and perhaps no rehearsal with the orchestra whatsoever. Particularly in a piece driven by character more than plot, it is a coup if artists can create onstage relationships without hours spent in each other’s physical orbits. Thompson could have presented Angus and Sokol in these roles for the central performances and have enjoyed a solid success.

Angus’ Poet lived in a column of swirling angst, as physically shut-tight as he was emotionally until Sokol’s Muse began to tease and wheedle. This Poet conveyed a despair that could only have been healed by this clown-god; their relationship took its course in a true and honest fashion. Sokol’s limpid baritone glinted in jest and glowed in longing. His mezza voce is a thing of heart-wrenching beauty.

I would rather have had the text projected more sparingly. In the case of both casts, the diction was splendid, and all the text didn’t require a visual boost to be understood. I loved having it so present, but less here would have been more. The challenge of the space to the choreography was considerable. At times it was quite effective, while at other times there was confusion about whether the dancers were alter egos, emotions, or additional characters. The movement made attractive pictures, but not the sensual pictures indicated by the text, nor did it answer the ebb and flow of the score.

Van Barham took a chance with the tiniest flash of full nudity in the last second of the opera, as the two might-be lovers finally come together. With four of Chicago’s most sinuous barihunks in the casts, it is difficult to understand why a sudden reveal, plunged immediately into darkness, was the answer. This felt far too much like the pants-shucking of the unemployed steelworkers in The Full Monty. In this context it felt cheap. A longer, more expansive moment had been earned, and was warranted.

That last bit is the quibbling. Everything else was glorious.

Highly Recommend

Reviewed by Aaron Hunt

Presented November 30, December 1, 2, 7, 8, and 9 at the Broadway Theatre at the Pride Arts Center, 4139 N. Broadway Avenue, Chicago

More information about Thompson Street Opera Company is available at www.thompsonstreetopera.org. More information about Pride Films & Plays is available at www.pridefilmsandplays.com

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