Opera Philadelphia’s ‘strange little roller coaster ride’ is rolling into town
The 10-composer count of "Complications in Sue" may be a record of sorts and one that was engineered in a singular way.
When Opera Philadelphia announced a new multiauthored work titled Complications in Sue, one was right to ask, “What, exactly, is it?” The piece was written in less than a year and is still in progress, so answers to that question might not be specific until the Academy of Music dress rehearsal.
“Dress rehearsal if we’re lucky! Try opening night,” said general director and president Anthony Roth Costanzo. “Opera is in a constant state of emergency.”
Created to commemorate the company’s 50th anniversary, Complications in Sue opens Wednesday with 10 composers commissioned to write eight-minute scenes. These collectively encompass the century-long life of a mythical everywoman named Sue.
She saves Santa Claus from an existential crisis in a nonbelieving world, fends off aggressive shopping algorithms that tell her who she is, and deals with more typical stuff like a lonely ex-husband. Forget any typical narrative. It’s what librettist Michael R. Jackson calls “a fantasia … with some real people but some abstractions.”
That last part is a Jackson specialty — as seen in his much-awarded fantasy-prone Broadway hit A Strange Loop. What it all means, will be in the mind of the beholder. “The audience isn’t going to be told what to think or how to feel on this strange little roller-coaster ride,” he said.
At the center of it all — sort of, at times — is the high-personality cabaret star Justin Vivian Bond, best known as part of the comedy duo Kiki and Herb, but she has enjoyed new respect having been named a 2024 MacArthur Fellow. Bond suggested the title and rough framework of Complications in Sue but has become an unintentionally mysterious factor.
She plays Sue, speaking and singing at times, functioning within the whole as “a leitmotif … an energy force that tracks through the whole piece,” said Jackson.
But not a typically operatic force.
“Vivian has an operatic-scale charisma … She is very funny very surreal and very herself,” said Costanzo.
It all sounds abstract and ambiguous to those who don’t know Bond’s work. But here is what is known: She will look fabulous in a wardrobe designed by JW Anderson (creative director of Christian Dior), not surprising since Bond, who is trans, has described her brand of social commentary as “glamour resistance.”
Bond has been vague about what she would do within the piece. She has also been strangely absent.
At a Jan. 16 workshop presentation by Works & Process in New York, Bond was reportedly present but didn’t participate. Rather than being in Philadelphia during down-to-the-wire rehearsal weeks, she has been in Paris during Fashion Week Haute Couture Spring (Jan. 26-29). Reportedly, she has stayed in close touch with Costanzo — as he continues to find a midpoint between the majestic tradition of creating opera for the ages and the speedy topicality of the highly collaborative “devised theater.”
Opera Philadelphia has previously worked with the drag cabaret group the Bearded Ladies but not on the scale of an Academy of Music production. Multiauthored satirical works have occupied a small but notorious niche on the larger cultural landscape, such as the Jean Cocteau-conceived 1920s ballet The Wedding Party on the Eiffel Tower and, in theater, the Manhattan Theatre Club’s 1988 Urban Blight.
But the 10-composer count of Complications in Sue may be a record of sorts and one that was engineered in a singular way.
The lineup could be called “who’s cool in (the broadest definition of) classical music,” including the Opera Philadelphia’s composer in residence Nathalie Joachim, Errollyn Wallen from London, Cécile McLorin Salvant from the jazz world, Metropolitan Opera vet Nico Muhly, and everything vet Missy Mazzoli.
Had Costanzo asked any one of them for a full-length opera, they’d have probably said “no” to the four- to five-year commitment. But with eight minutes — and a chance to work with a richly talented creative team — “how could they say no?,” he wondered.
When assigned to their individual scenes, the composers didn’t know what the others were doing — which meant more freedom for those already writing grand operas (such as Mazzoli) and attractive to those newer to the field such as Salvant (“Cécile is really curious about opera,” said Costanzo).
Up-and-coming, Philadelphia-raised Dan Schlosberg, 38, who grew up in the Academy of Music nosebleed seats and now works with the radically revisionist, New York-based Heartbeat Opera, had already written a few student operas but ran with the grander resources available at Opera Philadelphia.
His segment about Sue’s ex-husband going off the rails is a bit of a mad scene. “I wanted to follow his mental journey ... the music goes from contemporary to big-band jazz to Broadway-like torch songs and everything in between,” Schlosberg said. “I wanted to harness the full orchestra, tons of brass ... percussion ... sirens ... as many colors as I could.”
Other composers include Andy Akiho, Alistair Coleman, Rene Orth, and Kamala Sankaram.
The onstage team includes soprano Kiera Duffy, who has fearlessly starred in new works such as Mazzoli’s Breaking the Waves, as well as the edgy, in-demand U.K.-based tenor Nicky Spence. His reason for coming on board was simple: Anthony Roth Costanzo.
“I took the call because it was him,” Spence said.
Costanzo feels that he has hit the lottery with the composers, though one wonders if local audiences are ready for a presence as fierce as Bond.
“Philadelphia is a fierce town,” Costanzo assured.
Certainly, he has brought much diversity to mainstream Philadelphia opera venues, especially on the LGBTQ+ front. Amid the shifting political climate, might there be pushback? That’s likely, he admits.
“But Opera Philadelphia is for everyone.”
“Complications in Sue” plays Feb. 4, 7 p.m. Feb. 5, 7 p.m., Feb. 6, 8 p.m. Feb. 8, 2 p.m. Academy of Music, 240 S Broad St, Phila. All tickets are Pick Your Price, starting at $11. operaphila.org, 215-732-8400