Review: Performance of 'The Medium' deliciously well-done

By CHRISTOPHER HYDE, Special to Portland Press Herald, Sept, 2005

I hadn't realized that Gian Carlo Menotti's opera, "The Medium," was so good until I saw a performance Saturday night at Berwick's Hackmatack Playhouse by a new company, Intermezzo, The New England Chamber Opera Series. It was simply stunning, even with a piano in place of an orchestra. If the company returns next year, as planned, with another Menotti opera, there should be standing room only.

Intermezzo was formed three years ago with the goal of presenting small, contemporary operas. In three years, it has commissioned and recorded five new chamber operas and performed to acclaim all over New England.

"The Medium" is that rarity, an opera that makes one think. Madame Flora is in the position of a cynical ghost-tour guide who experiences what she believes is the real thing. As someone has pointed out, the problem with encountering a ghost is that it makes you change your whole way of thinking. In Madame Flora's case, the spiritual hand on her throat precipitates a nervous breakdown and violence against those she loves.

What is even more rare is that "The Medium" has some of the most beautiful music written in the 20th century. The duet between Madame Flora and her daughter, Monica, when the latter is comforting her after she feels the spectral hand, is reminiscent of Mahler but contains even finer harmonies and has nothing of Viennese sarcasm.

Sharon Brown was superb as Madame Flora. One seldom finds a fine mezzo-soprano who is also an extremely accomplished actor. Everything about Madame Flora's descent into her own particular hell is believable, including her love-hate relationship with the mute boy Toby.

Kristen Watson, as Monica, could well be one of the spirits she portrays in the fake seances. Her voice captures the essence of Menotti's ethereal portrait of a girl-woman who holds the little family together with love and humor. Her scenes with Toby, especially the one with the Siamese puppets, are heart-rending.

One wishes that Toby, played by Donald Ringuette, could also sing, but he does just fine with silence and body language, including a dismaying performance as a whipped dog.

Cheryl Medeiros Nancarrow and John Whittlesey, as Mr. and Mrs. Gobineau, and Jena Eison, as Mrs. Nolan, are perfect as the believers who want to be duped. Their ring dance around Madame Flora as she tries to explain her fraud, and they refuse to admit it, is stage business with triple meanings, a credit to the direction of David Gibson, whose staging of the opera leaves nothing to be desired.

The short operatic vignette, "The Telephone," written as a companion piece to "The Medium," is more dated, but still an amusing and agonizing portrait of empty chatter on the airwaves. Nancarrow and Whittlesey, as Lucy and her suitor, Ben, actually manage to make it moving as well.

Pianist Stephen Yenger makes his instrument sound so much like a pit orchestra that the difference is soon forgotten. Bravo to all.

Christopher Hyde's Classical Beat column appears in the Maine Sunday Telegram.Copyright © 2005 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.