Nora Spring (at piano as Atalanta) and Isabel O’Hagan (standing as “torch singer” Romilda). Photo courtesy Rome School of Music, Drama, and Art, Catholic University of America.
Last weekend, Catholic University of America’s Rome School of Music, Drama, and Art produced a Baroque opera, Handel’s “Serse,” in a way which made it highly accessible to a modern audience likely unfamiliar with the original 5th century history on which the opera is based. The opera, in its conventional form, follows events and relationships in the life of Persian king Xerses (Serse is the form used by Handel in this Italian-language opera). Yet the Rome School’s performance was a decidedly modern take on the material.
Imaginative, engaging, and fun, this update is a brilliant way to render Baroque opera accessible to a modern audience.
Just as Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story” adroitly modernizes the plot and setting of “Romeo and Juliet” to late 1950s New York while retaining the original Shakespeare play’s dynamics of human emotions, reactions, and frailties, so does this version update the mise-en-scène of “Serse” while retaining the general incidents of the plot. Unlike “West Side Story,” the words here remain unchanged, thus making the lengthy synopsis in the program of the revised story essential. We quote some of this here:
“Serse is considered by many to be the ‘King of Wall Street.’ Everything he touches is a huge success, and he easily weathered and rebounded from the ‘Black Monday’ stock market crash in 1987. Among his newest acquisitions are a successful record label and a brand new hotel and casino on the Las Vegas strip. […] Serse has recently tasked his brother, Arsamene, with most of the day-to-day operations in Las Vegas. Arsamene has preferred to embrace the decadent nightlife of the city. His best decisions, though, have been hiring Elviro to run the hotel and hiring his [Arsamene’s] girlfriend, Romilda, and her sister, Atalanta, to headline in the lounge.”
Instead of hearing Romilda singing in the summer house and falling in love with his brother’s love interest, the Serse of this updated version is enamored of Romilda singing in the lounge and falls in love with her—an instance of “Cupid’s darts,” to quote the classical allusion-laden Baroque libretto. This new-found, unrequited love sets the stage for a conflict with Arsamene as well as with Serse’s erstwhile fiancée, Amastre. Imaginative, engaging, and fun, this update is a brilliant way to render Baroque opera accessible to a modern audience.
I especially enjoyed the performance of Ethan Nott, who brought out the humor of the character of Arsamene. Romilda was sung beautifully by Isabel O’Hagan, who also displayed comedic talent in a slapstick moment as Arsamene and Romilda throw roses at each other in a lover’s quarrel. Atalanta was well-played and sung by Nora Spring. Ziwei Lin sang wonderfully as Amastre, also adding to the comic and updated antics. As in the original opera, Serse’s rejected fiancée must don a disguise. She does so dressed as Elvis, complete with sideburns, flashy jumpsuit, and cape, à la the King of Rock and Roll’s Vegas days.
Jiayong Mei, who played Serse in this production, shared with us some of his thoughts. He sings with a very unique voice, explaining: “It’s called countertenor, which refers to a male singing in falsetto voice. This style of singing originates from the Baroque period, when it was known as castrati. As the development of vocal technique, male singers nowadays are able to sing in their falsetto voice without any physical suffering.”
Mr. Mei also did the honors singing the most famous aria in the piece, “Ombra mai fu,” impressively and memorably. His own favorite piece to sing in “Serse” is the Allegro “Se bramate” in Act 1. He told Maryland Theatre Guide about performing this aria: “I really enjoyed the bursting emotion in those coloraturas and the dramatic shifting moment in the B section with the words ‘Ma come, non so.’” More generally speaking of performing in the opera, Mr. Mei explains: “It felt like I was having a great lesson about learning how to get to know my voice better, and to sing better, and also how to master my mind and my body on stage.” The second-year D.M.A. vocal performance major enthuses: “I was really being educated by doing this opera and grew a lot from it, both vocally and mentally.”
The highly creative set design of Bridgid K. Burge which included vinyl records, hanging like leaves from a tree, a lounge piano, and a microphone for a torch singer, assisted greatly in making this Las Vegas conceit of this revised “Serse” work. The lighting design of Paul Callahan was also used to great effect, as color from spotlights not only illumined the stage, but furthered the narrative itself. The color orange was used to represent rage and anger; blue to stand for sorrow; red to represent passion; and yellow to denote deceit. Purple lighting served to signal transitions between scenes and moods, often flooding the corridors beyond the windows of the set’s main room.
The stage direction of James Hampton was superb, as was the musical direction of the Baroque orchestra conducted by Simeone Tartaglione. The counterpoint used in Handel’s musical stylings being performed well is crucial, for it accentuates the “counterpoint” in the plot between two brothers at odds (Serse and Arsamene) and two sisters at odds (Romilda and Atalanta).
Running time:Two hours and 30 minutes, including one 15-minute intermission.
“Serse” ran March 23-26, 2023, produced by The Catholic University of America Benjamin T. Rome School of Music, Drama, and Art at Hartke Theatre, 3801 Harewood Road NE, Washington, DC 20064. The next Catholic University student production is “Anything Goes,” the madcap 1930s musical by Cole Porter, running from April 21-23, 2023. For further information, please visit here.
