The Atlanta Opera graced Kennesaw States’ Dr. Bobbie Bailey & Family Performance Center and The School of Music with its presence on September 12th, while baritone David Adam Moore and pianist Earl Buys performed Winterreise, D.911.
This was my first opera and I’m happy to say the opportunity came from Kennesaw State. Operas are not usually a college student’s first idea of how to spend their Saturday night, but when I heard I had a chance to cover this event, I jumped.
The Bailey Performance Theater, intimate in size, was nearly full with eager attendees see world renowned Moore perform. Scheduled to start at 8 p.m., the lights dimmed the small stage which was set to look like an iceberg with a projection playing video that Moore helped create. Pianist Earl Buys came out first followed by Moore, dressed in all white. Winterreise, which translates to Winter Journey is a German opera written for a voice (tenor or baritone) and piano. The opera’s run time is a little over an hour and is sung continuously. The opera is made up of 24 songs from poems by Wilhelm Müller and music from Franz Schubert.
“Gute Nacht” (Good Night) started the show, setting the somber mood as Moore’s baritone voice sung of a girl he had won the heart of but leaves “in the winter, in the dead of night, finding his own way in the trackless snow.” With translations above the screen, the audience followed the tormented man through his journey to find himself in the dead of winter and deal with the pain he feels for his beloved he left behind.
Moore used the whole stage to give the audience a thorough understanding of the man’s journey through the winter covered land and his own mind. The individual songs flowed seamlessly into one another, almost as though they were trying to show the length of his sorrow. Highlights of mine came from “Die Post” (The Post); In this song, the man becomes excited that the mail has arrived in hopes to recieve a message from the woman he loves. He quickly reminds himself that there will be no letter from her but wonders if there is any news about her. The screen played a clip of an iPhone getting shot and destroyed with a hammer much to the audience’s amusement/horror. Another highlight came from “Täuschung” (Deception/ Delusion), where the man sings of a dancing light he hopes to lead him astray which he gladly follows. He sees in the light “a warm, bright house and a loving wife within. Illusion is all he has.” Much to everyone’s confusion, the video this time was of blurred exotic dancers shrouded in low red lights. It’s safe to say, it was a little awkward when most of the people in attendance were older adults but none the less, it was a good song.
The opera ended with “Der Leiermann” ( The Hurdy-Gurdy Man), where the man of the play wanders into a village where he meets a man playing a hurdy-gurdy — a stringed instrument that produces sound by a crank-turned, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. He mentions how the man is never heard playing his odd instrument and his begging bowl is always empty even though he never stops playing.
Kennesaw State’s School of Music is in the midst of a concert series which will last throughout the year. A schedule of upcoming events can be found on the College of Arts website, arts.kennesaw.edu under the tickets tab.
