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| Photos from "Faust," above, and "Lakme," atop blog, courtesy of Opera in Focus. |
I considered replying, “But my puppetry opus is ready!” But that didn’t seem the path of the hardened journalist, and since the paper hasn’t run the puppet story yet—I’m shooting for Friday—it wouldn’t be right to post it here first and scoop my own paper.
So, to keep the week going, I’ve disinterred this 2010 visit to one of the oddest landmarks of Chicago puppetry, Opera in Focus, a rod puppet operation improbably located in Rolling Meadows. No pictures, alas. I’ll post the kid-in-trouble column at 6 a.m. If you want to learn more about Opera in Focus, you can click here. Its season begins Feb. 4 with, fittingly, a program that includes "Aida."
Whew.
Opera is a grand art form, and Verdi's "Aida" is the grandest opera
of all, a tale of forbidden love amongst the pyramids. Its
Triumphal March is opera's famed flourish, a pageant that sometimes
includes chariots, horsemen and live elephants.
So when I heard that not only is opera performed by puppets in
Rolling Meadows, but in May the show on the 4-foot-wide stage was
"Aida," I had to be there.
Chicagoans of a certain age will remember the Kungsholm Miniature
Grand Opera, performed at a Swedish restaurant at Rush and Ontario.
That closed in 1971, but puppeteer Bill Fosser, who began working
at Kungsholm at 14 in 1943, continued the tradition. He kept his
Opera in Focus going at various storefronts, and even in a Magic
Pan restaurant, until his puppets found a permanent home in the
basement of the Rolling Meadows Park District headquarters in 1993.
This "Aida" was abbreviated, but still over two hours long, with
four intermissions, plenty of time to wonder: a) exactly how did
Rolling Meadows become the permanent host to puppet opera? And b)
how did this blending of puppetry and song -- unique in the world,
apparently -- find new enthusiasts after Fosser's death in 2006?
In the early 1990s, Rolling Meadows was looking for ways to spur
cultural interest -- courting a children's museum, a youth theater,
waging a "battle" with Park Ridge over the puppet opera.
"I had just been assigned by city of Rolling Meadows to work on
economic development, and we had nothing in the form of
entertainment," said Linda Liles Ballantine, executive director of
the chamber of commerce, who had read about the puppets. "I
happened to say to the city manager, 'Oh shoot, this would be
something unique.' "
Unique it is. As tempted as I am to assume a straight face, hold up
the puppet "Aida" to the Lyric's and find it wanting ("The artistic
decision to present a recorded 'Aida' using only four puppets
underscores the Lyric's wisdom in using a full orchestra and 100
live singers . . ."), the truth is, it is beyond critique, a visual
and musical gem in a separate realm of sweetness that you either
appreciate or you don't.
My wife loved it. "This is such a little treasure," she said. I'm a
harder case, so did recall Samuel Johnson's line about women
preachers and dancing dogs -- the issue isn't whether it's done
well, "but you are surprised to find it done at all." That said, I
was charmed by the effort.
The puppets are not marionettes, but rod puppets, operated from
below, 16 inches tall and finely crafted, with lush costumes.
Wisely, every half hour there is an intermission, with a spread of
food—hors d'oeuvres, cookies, candy and pop—in the small lobby.
My boys appreciated that.
Afterward, the puppeteers invite the audience backstage, so you can
see how they maneuver the puppets, while sitting on low rolling
chairs, and view their work room, with sets and costumes and
puppets from other operas at the ready.
You also meet the puppeteers -- brothers Justin and Shayne Snyder,
Barry Southerland and Leilani Narcisco. All in their 20s, it is
remarkable to find a quartet of young people devoting themselves to
this obscure realm of low-tech entertainment. Why?
"To keep the tradition alive," said Narcisco.
"We do what we do because we love it!" said Justin Snyder, who was
an apprentice under Fosser and got the others involved. "It's a
labor of love. We're the last remnant of a beautiful art form that
is unique to Chicago."
That they are. Unlike the Lyric, which, like an exhausted bear,
hibernates half the year, Opera in Focus performs year-round, if
sometimes sporadically and not usually single operas, but
highlights. Call to make reservations -- (847) 818-3220, ext. 186.
Adult tickets are $12, a buck less for seniors, children are $7.
—Originally published in the Sun-Times, May 31, 2010
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