“Why don’t you go back to your own country?”
The Chicago Opera Theater opened their 2017/2018 season this month with a production of Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Consul, staged at The Studebaker Theater (410 S. Michigan). Magda Sorel and her family are political refugees who must find a way to remain in the country or else face deportation. It is up to Madga to find a solution, so she attempts to do so the ‘legal’ way and seeks an audience with The Consul to beg for mercy and asylum. In today’s climate of DACA dreamers, xenophobia and wall-building, Menotti’s English-language, modern opera feels more relevant now than when it premiered in 1950.
“We wait forever. We wait in sunless rooms.”
The set is modern and bleak: fluorescent lights, a towering desk and queues of immigrants waiting to meet The Consul. It feels like so much bureaucratic red tape. Paperwork and waiting. Immigrant stories that will never be heard. Fates determined by a faceless government. It feels like purgatory. Like the DMV in the basement of the Daley Center.
“Your name is a number. You need a request. Your hopes will be filed.” No one gets to The Consul without first getting past The Secretary (Mezzo-soprano Audrey Babcock, who makes her Chicago Opera Theater debut and shines in the role). The refugees implore her: “Explain to The Consul! Tell him my name! Tell him my story! Tell him my need!” More often than not they remain nameless, stories untold and in desperate need. “But what is there to explain?” asks the stoic Secretary. Every story is different, every story is the same.
Magda Sorel tries to see The Consul to explain her story: her husband John is in hiding and being hunted, her Mother is desperate to avoid deportation and her child is in failing health. They have reached their breaking point. Magda must find a way to save her family and The Consul is their last chance before she resorts to a more catastrophic and tragic solution. For Magda, the proper bureaucratic path is futile and she resorts to a final, sacrificial end to save her family. Magda is embodied by Grammy-award winning, Soprano Patricia Racette, who has performed all over the world, including the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Royal Opera House, La Scala, Paris Opera, Theater an der Wien and the Bayerische Staatsoper. She is a strong female lead and her voice is glorious.
The historic Studebaker Theater is a gorgeous and intimate venue to see this production. The ornate décor of the theater is juxtaposed with the stark set. The primary setting is The Consul’s outer office, where refugees sit on hard and uncomfortable chairs and The Secretary sits in a desk that mechanically lifts her ten feet in the air, so that she looks down upon all of them. The petitioners are forced to climb up the desk to address her and to sign documents, in triplicate if they are granted asylum: yet another way to make their journeys as difficult as possible.
Chicago Opera Theater prides itself on being more than just an opera house. “COT expands the tradition of opera as a living art form, with an emphasis on engaging and little seen pieces, including brand new contemporary operas for a 21st century audience.” Not wanting to waste an opportunity to extend the discussion of the themes discussed in The Consul, Chicago Opera Theater partnered with other organizations to provide ancillary programming. The Gene Siskel Film Center presented a screening of “The Trial” by Orson Welles, a film which inspired the tone and design for this new production of The Consul. Further, the Chicago Opera Theater and the Newberry Library presented a performance and panel, featuring a performance by the Refugee Orchestra Project and the personal stories of The Consul director Andreas Mitisek and music director Lidiya Yakovskaya.
Chicago Opera Theater’s next production is the world premiere of “Elizabeth Cree.” “Fact and fiction blur in ‘Elizabeth Cree,’ a suspenseful and thrilling tale set against the gaslit backdrop of Victorian London. On trial for her husband’s murder, Elizabeth weaves the story of her days in an English music hall and the grisly slayings surrounding it.” The opera is scheduled for February 10, 16 and 18, 2018. Mark your calendars now.
Photo: Chicago Opera Theater
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.