Dolores Claiborne

The set of Dolores Claiborne. Photo by Cory Weaver.

Poor planning on my part caused me to miss all of Patricia Racette's performances as Dolores Claiborne in Tobias Picker's opera of the same name, based on the Stephen King novel and just wrapping its world premiere at San Francisco Opera. However, I did manage to attend Catherine Cook's first night in the title role (she was the understudy for Dolora Zajick, who now famously bailed out just three weeks prior to the opening  night of an opera written specifically for her) and she turned in a solid performance as the put-upon, beaten-down, yet resilient Maine housekeeper whose nearest and dearest don't fare very well.

Picker re-kindled his earlier partnership with librettist J.D. McClatchy, and on the whole the result of their labors works well, but much of its success rests on the dramatic elements furnished by King's plot and characters (especially in the second half where the music, at least on my initial encounter, is less impressive than in the first) and an absolutely magnificent production. In fact, as the season's opening one-two punch, Mefistofele and Dolores Claiborne are easily among the best productions seen onstage during Gockley's tenure and combined they raise the stakes pretty high for the rest of the season as far as production values go. It will be interesting to see if SFO can maintain this level of quality staging, as so many during the past couple of season have seemed to have skimped on values and budgets. The dazzlingly versatile two-tiered set by Allen Moyer, the cinematic lighting by Christopher Akerlind and the perfectly executed projection design by Greg Emetaz create a highly theatrical experience and have a major role in bringing the story to life and keeping the audience thoroughly engaged as Picker's music increasingly hits the mark with only intermittent success.

The first act starts off with the death of Claiborne's employer Vera Donovan (Elizabeth Futral) as she tumbles down a flight of stairs and then Claiborne steps up to finish the deed by wielding a heavy object above her head. Cut. Fade. Cue Claiborne being interrogated by the police and now hit rewind to show how we got to the starting point of all of this. Tobias's music hits on all cylinders here, especially as the first extended scene features numerous maids running hither an yon at Donovan's estate as a steady rhythm percolates underneath it all. As the scene transitions to the small Claiborne house, furnished with second-hand furniture and oozing an air of gritty poverty, the percolating music starts chug like a jigsaw and then swirls in on itself, becoming a whirlpool that swallows the energy of the estate and sourly belches it out into the Claiborne living room where we meet Dolores' husband- a sleazy drunk named Joe St. George (Wayne Tigges) and her obviously unstable daughter Selena (Susannah Biller). That musical transition is a miracle of Wagnerian scale, but it's also the only one I noticed that was so skillfully rendered. There's also a brilliant segment which takes place during a ferry ride, where the music creates a gorgeous effect of the tide moving against the boat, while Dolores pulls out the horrible truth about what's been going on between her daughter and husband. This incestuous bit of sexual abuse gets it own signature tune which unfortunately sticks in the mind all too well, in the same way "Singing the in Rain" gets ruined in A Clockwork Orange,only maybe worse because the song is just so disgusting.

But Picker's musical inventiveness, which really carries the first act, isn't sustained in the second, and musically it seems to become very reminiscent of Britten. Is that due to challenges of singing decent lyrics in English, or is it because Britten's shadow is so large when it comes to English-language operas that composers have to push so far away from him to not draw the comparison? I really don't know, but during the second act the music kept bringing me back to a land-locked Billy Budd. The exception to that comes near the end, when Vera sings "Let me die" and suddenly it sounds like the ending of La Boheme. Still, everything else continues to work in the opera's favor- Tigges gives his all to the role and is thoroughly convincing to the point that when he gets his due the audience wants to cheer, and Biller, now an adult in the second act, not only gets the best aria of the entire show but she nails it perfectly. In fact, Biller's performance here is a triumph on all levels- she's equally convincing as a fourteen year-old girl and forty year-old woman, and her voice makes the transition convincingly as well, rising to the substantial challenges Picker's laid out for her. The same can be said for Futral, who manages to make Vera a sympathetic character despite the fact that she's a cold and calculating murderess herself and is gets a chance to sing anything remotely appealing but appeals nonetheless.

But the lack of musical engagement is almost easy to ignore because Dolores Claiborne is a contemporary verismo, a thriller-as-opera which consistently engages the viewer through its tight plotting, cinematic staging, and the dramatic conviction of the performers. For this Cook deserves kudos of all kinds- second-billed in her first leading role after 20+ years and 40 some-odd productions at SFO, she was wholly believable in the role and did an admirable job with the vocals. George Manahan conducted, and seemed well in control of the score, always in support of the singers, and letting the orchestra loose with visceral effect when the music called for it. Dolores Claiborne, as a new form of American verismo, isn't Tosca, but it succeeds.