Fire Shut Up in My Bones

Opera number three was Fire Shut Up in My Bones with K.  But first, the food!

Since the opera -- which is based on the autobiography of New York Times columnist Charles Blow -- is set in a small Louisiana town, we had some southern classics for dinner.  Our extremely fancy entree was cheddar and pimiento grilled cheese sandwiches, accompanied by chicken salad and potato salad.  There were also deviled eggs, although I forgot about them in the fridge until the following day.  Our drink was a 1930's New Orleans invention called the Cocktail a la Louisiane.  It required some work from S to perfect the recipe, because all I found was an ingredient list, without measures.  However, he undertook the task like a champ (albeit kind of a drunk one by the end of it).

We ate at home so S could participate, then headed down to the show.

Speaking of the show, I enjoyed it more than I anticipated I would.  First and most importantly, it was a collection of strong voices, singling well together.  Much to my surprise, though I do not generally consider myself to be a fan of jazz, I enjoyed the scoring, which was heavily jazz influenced.

The semi-permanent staging was simple but effective, made more so by the contrast between scenes of Charles's chaotic home life, which involved lots of furniture and other set pieces brought out for a few minutes, and scenes focusing on Charles's loneliness, which were spare and, well, lonely.  Speaking of that, there were a trio of characters played by one actress -- destiny, loneliness, and Charles's girlfriend Greta -- which was an inspired casting choice. 

For Charles himself, he was portrayed as a child and as an adult. There was a time warp happening in front of our eyes, with adult Charles shadowing young Charles through various significant moments in his life -- sometimes singing in duo, sometimes just observing, watching the beginning of the derailment of his childhood.

Some critics complained that the performances were melodramatic and that certain scenes were overly-long, but I did not find that.  Contrary to some of the classic operas, in my opinion this one told a much longer and more detailed story in the same time frame, giving it the feeling that it was moving along quite swiftly.  To my surprise and delight, I overheard an elderly audience member exclaim, "That was very good!"