Among the many things one might look to opera for, efficient exposition of complex plot developments has not historically been among them. (There's a reason opera companies typically publish plot summaries in their programs.) In adapting Richard Condon's 1959 novel The Manchurian Candidate, composer Kevin Puts and librettist Mark Campbell had their work cut out for them.
The show's plot needed to be made lucid for operagoers like me, people who have somehow managed to miss both the original novel and its two film adaptations — including the Oscar-nominated 1962 version that made the name of director John Frankenheimer. In the Minnesota Opera's world premiere production, which opened last night, the new opera succeeds using an aptly cinematic approach, with silky-smooth scene changes functioning as jump cuts among the homes and offices of Condon's Cold War crusaders.
Puts, who won a Pulitzer for his debut opera Silent Night (2011, also a Minnesota Opera commission), doesn't indulge in long-limbed melodies or expansive arias: his style here is terse and atmospheric, drawing the audience into a hothouse of international espionage.
The themes of illusion versus reality, of dark undercurrents subverting placid appearances, are apparent from the very first scene — which I hesitate to describe, since this is the kind of thriller where I'd need to flag a spoiler alert even if I described the events of the first five minutes. I can safely say that the story concerns Raymond Shaw (Matthew Worth), a returned Korean War hero who begins to suspect that he's a pawn in a game of international espionage and political back-stabbing where lives are on the line.
Once the basic premise is established, the first act takes a breather to introduce two romantic relationships at the heart of the story. In a flashback, we learn of Shaw's star-crossed affair with Jocie Jordan (Angela Mortellaro), the daughter of a senator (Christopher Job) who's a political rival of Shaw's stepfather Johnny Iselin (Daniel Sumegi); meanwhile, Scott's war buddy Ben Marco (Leonardo Capalbo) meets the fetching Rosie Chayney (Adriana Zabala) on a trip to New York. (While the two snuggle in their train seat, the orchestra chugs along at rapidly repeating figures that nod to minimalist composers' longstanding fascination with transportation.)
Those two quiet interludes, among the most successful in the opera, are essential to establishing the fundamentally tragic tone of this material. In the hands of Puts and Campbell, The Manchurian Candidate is less about politics and deception than about the loss of innocence: Shaw's exploitation by warring powers can be read as a metaphor for the plight of returned G.I.s generally, their minds forever seared with the trauma of war.
The opera's second act gallops toward a thrilling climax, and I found myself leaning forward in my seat despite the fact that I saw the ending coming a mile away — and I'm not usually very good at that sort of thing. Puts glories in this opportunity to whip the orchestra to fever pitch, and his score is full of ominous brass crescendos and screaming dissonances from the string section. Having established that as the basic sound of his opera, Puts and conductor Michael Christie have a lot of fun with pointed and playful departures from it — most notably in a campaign-trail hoedown that has a costumed Sumegi trotting across the stage squeezing a phallic set of cow udders.
The set by Robert Brill puts the action in the political ring, as it were: crowning the stage are a trio of monitors that stage director Kevin Newbury describes in a program note as a "Jumbotrons" that "track the characters' every move with Orwellian precision," often via cameras toted on stage by performers playing TV cameramen. Also stowed in the rigging are on-stage spotlights deployed to great effect by lighting designer Japhy Weideman. The staging, though, is as much about what's not there as what is: the Ordway's Music Theater stage becomes a vast black box that set elements glide onto and off of in an almost dreamlike manner, suggesting a tumbling through dreams — or nightmares.
The singers are well-cast, from the desperately nostalgic Worth to the stalwart Capalbo to soprano Brenda Harris, an international star who brings her penetrating presence to the role of Shaw's manipulative mother. You can't have a real psychological thriller without a dip into Freudian waters, and Harris dives in without apology.
For opera fans seeking atmospheric entertainment, this Manchurian Candidate packs a punch. The only thing missing is the popcorn.
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