{"id":3957,"date":"2021-06-15T22:34:54","date_gmt":"2021-06-16T03:34:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anngumpperdesign.com\/?page_id=3957"},"modified":"2021-06-15T22:37:18","modified_gmt":"2021-06-16T03:37:18","slug":"everything-comes-to-a-head-review","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/anngumpperdesign.com\/index.php\/everything-comes-to-a-head-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Everything Comes to a Head Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\"Georgia<\/picture><\/div>
\u00a0<\/div>
Georgia Jacobson, a Duluth native, is part of Lyric Opera of the North’s “Everything Comes to a Head.” (Photo submitted by Lyric Opera of the North)<\/div><\/div>
\u00a0<\/div>

Take a 14th-century Italian masterpiece, \u201cThe Decameron,\u201d where seven women and three men leave Florence to escape the Black Death, agreeing to tell stories to pass the time as they flee the city, trying to leave the pandemic behind. Add the creativity of the Decameron Opera Coalition to update that premise to the COVID \u201cplague\u201d of today by creating a frame and nine stories through opera. Throw in nine opera companies from across the United States, including the Lyric Opera of the North. Mix in artists, musicians, directors, and virtual technical wizardry and \u2026 Ta-da! You get \u201cTales from a Safe Distance,\u201d featuring nine short world premiere one-act operas.<\/p><\/div>

Beginning with the opening frame, the very unhappy \u201cHappy Hour\u201d is told cleverly in Zoom boxes and sets up the premise of the endless passing of time in quarantine. This piece also introduces LOON\u2019s offering, \u201cEverything Comes to a Head,\u201d as a \u201ctale of lovers and roommates and woe\/Tragical and Theatrical).\u201d With sprightly music by Rachel J. Peters and a clever libretto by Margi Preus and Jean Sramek, the black comedy is dark but funny and provides a delightful bite-sized piece of opera, at just 11 minutes long.<\/p>

The story begins with the mournful Rosemary (Marjorie Maltais) lamenting that her boyfriend Basil (Jorell Williams) has not called her for months, as the pandemic has worn on. Her two \u201cmean girl\u201d roommates, Sage (Georgia Jacobson) and Trish (Raven McMillon) remind her of what a bad boyfriend he had been.<\/div>
\u00a0<\/div><\/div>

Sage\/Trish:<\/b>\u00a0He broke his quarantine\/On top of everything<\/p>

Trish:<\/b>\u00a0Did he wash his hands?\/Did he wear a mask?<\/p>

Sage\/Trish\u00a0<\/b>Wasn\u2019t that something he should just do?<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

Then shades of the \u201cLittle Shop of Horrors\u201d thicken the plot when Basil\u2019s gruesome murder is revealed and his singing, severed head ends up first in Rosemary\u2019s Samsonite suitcase and then in the clay pot of her overgrown basil plant. (Basil\/basil\u2014Get it?) All four singers use their gorgeous voices and their sense of fun to create a cohesive work, even though they were never together in the same room.<\/p>

Ann Gumpper\u2019s virtual set, with beautiful paintings done for a green screen backdrop, give a whimsical interpretation of a kitchen with animated steam, a bathroom, with a bubble bath complete with animated bubbles, and a plant-filled balcony.<\/p>

Bill Munson is both the project\u2019s film editor and pianist. He is joined by Erin Aldridge, concertmaster with the DSSO, both providing the lively musical accompaniment.<\/p>

As arts organizations all over the world struggle to keep from going under for good, projects such as this one are showing how to find ways to keep telling their stories.<\/p>

At the Decameron Opera website, Maria Sensi Sellner from Pittsburgh\u2019s Resonance Works, wrote, \u201cWe are daring to think big in a time of limitations, creating a collaboration that is uniquely born of this time, but which will help opera to thrive far beyond it.\u201d<\/p>

If you ‘go’<\/div><\/div>

What:<\/b>\u00a0Decameron Opera Coalition’s “Tales from a Safe Distance”<\/p>

When:<\/b>\u00a07:30 p.m. Oct. 9 (LOON opera) Oct. 16, Oct. 23 and Oct. 30<\/p>

Tickets<\/b>: $15 for access to all the works available at\u00a0decameronoperacoalition.org<\/a>\u00a0for streaming through Dec. 31, with closed captioning available<\/p>

Sheryl Jensen is a former teacher, magazine editor and director. She reviews theater for the News Tribune.<\/i><\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Georgia Jacobson, a Duluth native, is part of Lyric Opera of the North’s “Everything Comes to a Head.” (Photo submitted by Lyric Opera of the North)\u00a0 Take a 14th-century Italian masterpiece, \u201cThe Decameron,\u201d where seven women and three men leave Florence to escape the Black Death, agreeing to tell stories to pass the time as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3957","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anngumpperdesign.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anngumpperdesign.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anngumpperdesign.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anngumpperdesign.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anngumpperdesign.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3957"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/anngumpperdesign.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3961,"href":"https:\/\/anngumpperdesign.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3957\/revisions\/3961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anngumpperdesign.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}