Look, Mr Darcy! An opera!

The best outing B. and I have had recently was last Saturday's concert premiere - it was called that because it was just singers before music stands, nothing staged - of Kirke Mechem's opera of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. I hadn't heard any of Mechem's other operas - he's adapted Tartuffe and Sheridan's The Rivals - but I do know some of his choral music and have admired it.

I've been looking forward to this for a year or so since the Redwood Symphony announced it was forthcoming. And the Redwood Symphony has been looking forward to having me review it, and they've been on me for quite a while about that.

And here's the review. It has some critical observations, but the Symphony's marketing director was very pleased upon reading it.

It was a vivid and enjoyable experience to attend. I took lots of scribbled notes, but found I didn't have to consult almost any of them to write the review.

I do regret, however, that space limitations required leaving out some things. When I wrote that, towards the end, "too many threads need to be wrapped up at once, and too much is left to the viewer’s memory of reading the book," I was thinking in particular of, after Jane's relationship with Bingley had been left hanging in the air, a scene arrives in which we gradually learn from incidental references that they are now happily engaged. I don't think Mechem intended that to come as quite the unveiled surprise that it would be to the untutored viewer. I think he expects you to remember that from the book. Earlier scenes don't make that kind of assumptive leap.

When noting that "a jig at Netherfield catches up the vocal lines into its lively rhythm," I was thinking also of an earlier sarabande, to a tune derived from Handel, where the vocal lines conspicuously stay apart from the simultaneous dance, and I wondered why the difference.

I also regret not mentioning all of the soloists. Amy Goymerac as Charlotte was almost as strong as Amy Foote. James Cowing as Mr. Bennet had lots of character, but was not as fluent a singer as his large part required. Bradley Kynard as Wickham had a lovely tenor voice; pity his part was so small.

I should have noted also that the audience was clearly having a good time throughout. Austen's humorous lines consistently got laughs. I'd tried to alert the local English Regency group to this show, but I didn't see any of them show up. (They would have been conspicuous, as they'd probably have worn period costume.) Maybe some of them came to the Sunday matinee.