Juliet Letters continues Lyric Explorations series

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Reviewer: kellyluck
Title: Juliet Letters continues Lyric Explorations series
Rating: 3

Performance Reviewed:
Elvis Costello's The Juliet Letters
by Lyric Opera of Kansas City

It is an odd impulse, the writing of letters to
fictional characters. This reviewer has in her
library a collection of letters written to Sherlock
Holmes, an activity so extensive that the bank
currently residing there employs a full-time person
just to reply to them. At the purported Casa di
Giulietta in Verona, about five thousand letters
arrive each year addressed to Juliet, enough that an
entire club is organized around replying to them.
There is something oddly confessional about writing
a letter to someone who doesn't exist; it is
therapeutic, in an unconventional way. Somehow it
seems to free the writer in a way that would be
unavailable when writing to, say, a close friend or
relative.

Elvis Costello's 1993 "The Juliet Letters" is based
on this idea. Written as a sequence of art songs
performed with the backing of the Brodsky Quartet,
it is an unusual album, one that enjoyed moderate
success upon release before eventually finding its
feet as a live performance piece. Saturday night's
production at the Lyric was another of the
"Explorations Series", in which the company goes far
afield from what may be termed conventional opera to
see what possibilities lay beyond. The result is
interesting if not overwhelming.

This reviewer should state from the outset that she
is not a fan of Mr. Costello's oeuvre; he has always
struck her as one who makes the mistake of confusing
solemnity with seriousness. There are a few pieces
here and there which she likes but overall cannot
say she would generally sit down to a steady diet of
the man. Gray is the motif of the evening: the set
is done in shades of gray, the few bits of furniture
that make up the staging are gray, also the outfits
of the performers and about ninety percent of the
music.

Speaking of the music, the instrumentalists for the
evening were the Fry Street Quartet, a very nice
group which this reviewer had not encountered
before. The vocals were by Lyric resident artists
April Martin (Sopr), Samantha Gossard (Mez), Casey
Candebat (Ten), and John Viscardi (Bar). All four
are very talented singers, and this reviewer looks
forward to seeing them all in the upcoming
production of "Dead Man Walking" later in the
season.

There was a little bit of stage business here and
there, generally involving the
plucking/reading/wadding-up of the crumpled
"letters" which crisscrossed the stage on lines like
flies on a spiderweb (one feels the resemblance was
accidental). A fair amount of the performance took
place with the performers seated, so anyone not in
the first few rows was more or less out of luck (the
performance is at the Lyric's offices on 18th
street, rather than their usual venue at the
Kauffman). Lyrics were thoughtfully provided, but
due to the darkness of the venue, there was a
recurring theme throughout the night of audience
members hunched over their programs, squinting in
desperation.

The Explorations series is one of experimentation,
and a welcome one at that. No doubt Elvis Costello
fans will feel the Lyric had done right by the
material, and will be well pleased. Those with other
opinions toward his works are unlikely to have them
radically altered by the evening. Still, it is worth
hearing an excellent quartet while they are in town,
and to catch some rising young talents currently in
residence at the Lyric. It is this reviewer's
opinion that they, not the material, are the real
stars of the evening.



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