Yesterday, I was in Paris.
Today, Portland, Oregon.
Very excited to be going to hear In the Penal colony with my cousin Rachel.
The tickets came with complimentary drinks and snacks before the show. When we go inside the theater it is very small and the singers just a few feet away from us. The opera is based on a short story by Franz Kafka.
The prisoners maniacal laughing is haunting. Wow! This is such an intense performance, I can’t believe Mr. Doran can hold onto such dark emotions without breaking character. The rest of the cast too are palpably within character.
At first I thought the orchestra was paired down to fit the smaller theater and company, but Phillip Glass wrote this piece specifically for just a cello, 2 violins, and viola. Glass’s musical repetitions are perfect for the unrelenting tone of the story. We feel the orchestra through our skin and into our bones.
So what is In the Penal Colony all about? It begins with a condemned man in prison who does not know the judges verdict. He is to be executed. there is an officer who maintains the execution ‘machine’ and was a pupil of the last officer who designed the machine and believed in a cruel corporal punishment. The machine is designed to write the crime and verdict into the prisoners skin while he bleeds to death slowly. Fortunately for the prisoner and unfortunately for the officer, the machine is wearing down and there is a visitor from another country who is there to advise the machine officers new commander to be more humane. The officer is a tragically sympathetic character because although he is cruel, he truly loved the old commander and believes to his core in the old ways; he is both aware of the changes happening in the culture around him, but also unable to change who and what he is. He speaks of the past executions when crowds would come by and the children would come to the front to see the expression on the condemned’s dying face. The finale is visceral and bloody.
Notes on the production
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Composer………………………..………. Philip Glass
The Officer………………………………. Ryan Thorn
The Condemned Man…………….. Sean Doran
The Visitor……………………………….. Martin Bakari
Soldier…………………………………….… Nathan H.G.
Conductor……………………………..….. Nicholas Fox
Portland opera
8/3/19