With all of its throbbing vocal and orchestral intensity, opera is full of sex, as a byproduct of passion. But how often does opera portray sex — full and frontal?
Three Way, the new opera with music by Robert Paterson and libretto by David Cote that opened Thursday at the Brooklyn Academy's Fishman Space, has no live sex acts onstage. Or nudity. Or is even a turn-on. What's left? Much navel gazing (though not literally) in three one-act operas that periodically left you asking if the emotions in sex without passion are too small (and sometimes too petty) to fill out an aria.
At least the piece never lapsed into tutorial mode. But in dramatizing ex-taboos — from bondage to group sex — the opera feels a bit 1970s in its sense of newly won liberation. Mostly, Three Way stayed aloft thanks to composer Paterson's tendency to keep the music light, bouncy and well-paced in a tonal, Jonathan Dove sort of way. It's as if, in his zeal to resist any implied moral judgment, the composer played a more supporting role than what you usually get in opera.
Presented by American Opera Projects and the Nashville Opera with the American Modern Ensemble, the opera certainly benefited from good singing and acting, plus a production designed by Randy Williams and directed by John Hoomes that was handsome, highly functional and stepped in with some sexy video (by Barry Steele) in moments where composer Paterson maintained a high road by not becoming sexually graphic. But did it justify its three-hour running time? Barely.
The best came first. The Companion is set in the near future with a career woman (Danielle Pastin) living with an android lover (Samuel Levine), and going broke over self-defeating upgrades: The more human-like the companion gets, the more moody, selfish and useless it becomes. Patterson and Cote are definitely onto something here, comically examining what we think we want in a partner, but discovering that playing God by dictating precise physical and emotion requirements is the way of madness, not to mention debt as tech support put her behind in her mortgage.
As with all three sections, Cote throws in plot twists that Paterson accommodates with pithy motifs, many sounding appropriately mechanized in this section. Here, and in other parts of the triptych, getting down to business sexually often means a lapse into something jazzy. Why not? Best moment: She asks a tech-support guy if he wants to have a three way, and he demurs because he doesn't do it with what he calls "units." A new taboo?
Safe Word, part two, is about a relationship between dominatrix (Eliza Bonet) and client (Matthew Trevino) with twists that are cliches in our post-Jerry Springer world. Rarely did the piece truly illuminate why people seek out this kind of play acting, but Paterson took it seriously with spare, dissonant chords that were more like film scoring. Within the Three Way triptych, this section provided some shade amid the lighter first and third sections. Conductor Dean Williams was particularly skillful at maintaining tension. But am I the only one who finds any kind of cruelty hard to laugh at these days?
Plot-wise, the Act III Masquerade had the least dramatic credibility. Married couples at a swingers party are obliged to wear robes and masks so they don't know who they're having sex with. I know that's a time-honored European Shrovetide tradition and in this context was practiced in the dark. That's fun? In any case, the self-discovery element was reminiscent of the Stephen Sondheim Broadway show Into the Woods, particularly with the libretto's tight, Sondheim-esque rhyme schemes. The best operatic moments arose from the loneliness experienced by one who is left out of group gropes — countertenor Jordan Rutter delivered the evening's best and most affecting singing. Later, baritone Wes Mason had some great moments in a tragic-comic aria about performance failure. Musically, Masquerade is the liveliest section of the three, and doesn't portray a retreat back to more safe, conservative sexuality. Even so, Three Way isn't going to take anybody out of their comfort zone. After all, it emerged from its Nashville world premiere in January with no signs of tar and feathers.
Three Way runs through June 18 at the BAM's Fishman Space in Brooklyn.