Icelanders, photo by Dona Ann McAdams
Michael Turay as The Gnome, photo by Dona Ann McAdams
It’s a cheesy title, but I couldn’t resist. Now through April 9 you have a chance to see an extraordinary opera by the composer Michael Webster and the poet Eileen Myles. It will be one of the best hours (it’s not long so don’t be scared) you’ve spent in a while. I don’t want to give too much away, because it is theater, after all. Let’s just say it’s about a world where the war-mongers have done such a good job that Hell is practically jealous.
Here is an excerpt from the libretto (available on the Hell web site):
Poet:
No, IÂ’m serious. ThereÂ’s a group of trees coming right towards us.
Man:
And IÂ’m telling you donÂ’t even think about it.
ItÂ’s Father Tree.
People love him.
HeÂ’s our leader.
And he doesnÂ’t do a thing
HeÂ’s the President of the World.
Poet:
Well, shouldnÂ’t we greet him, or something?
Maybe he wants to meet me?
Man:
No, thatÂ’s whatÂ’s so great about him. He doesnÂ’t care.
He has absolutely no curiosity.
HeÂ’s famous for that.
I also love the description of “the opposition,” the Gnome:
If the Gnome mattered at all heÂ’d be Father TreeÂ’s enemy.
If you need more incentive in addition to the word of Eileen Myles, great music and singing, and brilliant use of video by Peter Flaherty, there is also an “opera hunk” of whom I have spoken before, David Adam Moore. He looks like this and he can sing and act.
David Adam Moore as Lewis, photo by Beth Morrison
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