JUNE 30, 2016 // 7
A sisterhood of song
Astoria Music Festival concludes with ‘Little Women’
By PATRICK WEBB
ASTORIA MUSIC FESTIVAL
FOR COAST WEEKEND
‘Who will we be tomorrow?
It’s not in my control.
I know that for a moment, we were four sisters . . . one soul.
On to tomorrow, each to her separate goal.’
— “Let Me Look At You,” the fi nale to “Little Women” by
Mark Adamo
C
Can you control another
person’s destiny?
Perhaps it is better to ask:
How long does it take for
an adult to learn he or she
cannot?
“Little Women,” Louisa
May Alcott’s tale of sisters
growing up in New England
after the Civil War, asks both
questions and comes to a
distinct conclusion.
American composer
Mark Adamo makes that
the theme of the concluding
quartet of his operatic ver-
sion, which will be staged
this weekend to complete
the 2016 Astoria Music
Festival.
The Friday evening show
and Saturday matinee at the
Clatsop Community College
Performing Arts Center will
conclude three weeks of 13
classical concerts that have
lured appreciative crowds to
the North Coast for the 14th
annual festival.
The four sisters will be
played by the actresses who
sang the roles in the Eugene
Opera production in May.
That show was directed by
the opera company’s general
manager, Mark Beudert, and
conducted by its musical
director, Andrew Bisantz.
Both return to coordinate
the Astoria production, with
members of the Astoria Mu-
sic Festival apprentice vocal
artists program joining the
cast. However, instead of an
orchestra, which was used in
Eugene, Adamo’s music will
be played by solo pianist
Jeremy Reger.
Beudert, who is the
director of the festival’s
‘Little Women’
Opera sung in English, based on the book by Louisa May Alcott, music
and libretto by Mark Adamo, directed by Mark Beudert and conducted
by Andrew Bisantz, featuring pianist Jeremy Reger and a cast from
Eugene Opera and the Astoria Music Festival apprentice artists.
7:30 p.m. Friday, July 1, and 2 p.m. Saturday, July
2, at the Clatsop Community College Performing
Arts Center, 16th Street and Franklin Avenue, in
Astoria. Preview talk by Mark Beudert, one hour
before each performance. For details, visit www.
astoriamusicfestival.org
Apprentice Vocal Artist Pro-
gram, will speak about the
opera one hour before each
performance.
The work, written in
1998, was the fi rst opera by
American composer Mark
Adamo. It was commis-
sioned by the Houston
Grand Opera and has been
performed around the United
States and in Canada, Israel,
Australia and Belgium.
The Boston Globe called
it “The ‘Cinderella’ of recent
American operas.”
Critics have highlighted
the manner in which Adamo
uses recurring musical
themes to contrast the lead
character Jo’s stubbornness
with her sisters’ acceptance
of change.
While he acknowledg-
es that many readers see
Alcott’s classic as a story
of a free-spirited writer torn
between the love of the boy
next door and a man of the
world, Adamo once offered
a more complex interpreta-
tion.
“Closer reading of Louisa
May Alcott’s novel revealed
to me a deeper theme: that
even those we love will, in
all innocence, wound and
abandon us until we learn
that their destinies are not
ours to control,” he said.
musician,” he said. “There’s
“So I shaped a libretto
a depth to her performance
in which Jo’s love for her
as an actress that relates to
her musical ability.” Jo never
sisters regained the power
leaves the stage. “It’s an en-
it wielded in the original
durance test,” Bisantz said.
novel — and imagined
The libretto draws on
a fi nale in which Jo at last
references to John Bunyan’s
accepts that even sincerest
“Pilgrim’s Progress” as well
love and strongest will can-
as references to Goethe’s
not stave off change and
writings sung by Jo’s second
loss.”
suitor, the German Dr. Bhaer.
The March sisters will
Bisantz predicts audienc-
be sung by mezzo sopranos
es will enjoy the witty fi rst
Hannah Penn (Jo) and Alicia
act, then share the emotion
Piper Garcia (Meg), and
of Beth’s death, the manner
sopranos Emily Way (Beth)
in which the sisters react to
and Jocelyn Thomas (Amy).
their suitors, and Jo’s fi nal
Brett Sprague (Laurie), Tim
acknowledg-
McCoy (John
ment of the
Brooke) and
‘THESE ARE
inevitability
Zachary Len-
THE BEST
nox (Friedrich
CONTEMPORARY of change.
“It’s a very
Bhaer) play
ROLES FOR
American
their suitors.
MEZZO
opera,” he
Bisantz,
said, noting
the conductor,
SOPRANOS.’
that Adamo
is thrilled at
earned a
the opportuni-
degree in play writing before
ty to reprise the show he and
his musical credentials.
Beudert staged in Eugene.
“Mark Adamo is a wonderful
He has been involved with
other productions with Glim- composer. The way he wrote
this, using the language of
merglass Opera in upstate
the post-Civil War, is really
New York and Northwestern
why the piece is so effective.
University in Illinois. It is a
Mark wanted to tell the story,
popular choice for college
fi rst and foremost, and add
music programs, in part,
his musical ideas — but they
because it offers four solid
all tell the story.”
female leads. “These are the
Bisantz describes the
best contemporary roles for
“gorgeous” quartet at the
mezzo sopranos,” he said.
end, as “the most nostalgic
Penn, who sings Jo,
piece in modern opera —
worked with Bisantz at
Glimmerglass, in Florida and sophisticated not simplis-
Eugene. “She is a crackerjack tic.”
e
v
First Lutheran Church
e
725 33rd Street
Sa th e!
Astoria, OR
t
a
(503) 298-8580
D July 18 th– 22 nd
Vacation Day Camp at
Monday - Thursday: 9 am to 3 pm
Friday: 9 am to 11:30 pm
• Camp theme: Follow The Leader!
• Camp Counselors from Camp
Lutherwood!
SUBMITTED PHOTO
SUBMITTED PHOTO
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Eugene Opera General Manager Mark Beudert directs the fes-
tival’s Apprentice Vocal Artist Program.
Mezzo soprano Hannah Penn
will sing the part of Jo March
in “Little Women.”
Eugene Opera’s musical di-
rector, Andrew Bisantz, will
conduct “Little Women” at the
Astoria Music Festival.
Games! Singing! Crafts!
Outdoor fun!
Friends and much more!
For children who have completed K through 5th grade!
Registration forms available at: www.astoriafi rstlutheran.com