Attend the tale of Elva Shue.
Courted for one month and married for three to handsome blacksmith Trout, 23-year-old Elva is already gone at the opening of “Everlasting Faint,” an opera named for the way she died — a bygone reference to unexplained, possibly heart-related death. For good measure, the doctor throws in “hysteria.”
“Women’s troubled lives can end in early graves,” the doctor (Alan Dunbar) sings before he’s hastened away from Elva’s deathbed by her “mourning” husband.
Troubled lives, indeed. But this time, the cause of those troubles will have to reckon with his mother-in-law.
Composer Scott Gendel and librettist Sandra Flores-Strand spent about five years working to bring “Everlasting Faint,” a world premiere based on a true story, to life at Madison Opera. The production goes up one more time on Sunday afternoon in Overture Center’s Capitol Theater.
It has been more than two decades since Madison Opera produced a premiere on this scale. The opera co-commissioned Jake Heggie’s “The End of the Affair” in 2004 and gained widespread acclaim with the Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired “Shining Brow” in 1993.
Court Watson designed the set for “Everlasting Faint” at Madison Opera, and Matt Taylor designed the lights.
“Everlasting Faint” makes a third jewel in that crown. Antique lamps dangle like miniature chandeliers in the homes and courtrooms of late 19th century West Virginia, animated by Gendel’s lush, folk-inflected score. Only in opera does rage sound this beautiful.
The curtain opens on what looks like a sinister production of “Our Town” as the chorus, arranged on wooden chairs, beckons us in with a ballad. Young Oliver Thornburgh, a sixth grader from Sun Prairie, weaves among the chairs as he sings sweetly of “sinners’ crimes.”
Soon, ominous rumbles from the orchestra (led by Stephanie Rhodes Russell) set the tone for the aftermath of Elva’s murder. Gendel punctuates the score with flourishes — a piano phrase that sounds like birdsong, the steady clang of an anvil.
Mezzo-soprano Katherine Pracht sings Mary Heaster, Elva’s grief-stricken mother, with a sustained intensity and impressive control. She and Emily Birsan, as Elva’s neighbor Martha, have some of the opera’s loveliest moments, notably a prayerful duet in Act I (“what will happen/ when I leave this world?” Martha sings).
Martha (Emily Birsan) comforts Mary (Katherine Pracht) after the death of Mary’s daughter, Elva, in “Everlasting Faint.”
Gendel’s melodies invite a closer listen. Soprano Tori Tedeschi Adams, as pale, ghostly Elva, has an agonized keening motif each time she appears, echoed later by her mother when she takes the stand in court. Tedeschi Adams makes Elva less ethereal wisp and more determined spectre, calling clearly from beyond the grave.
And though Strand-Flores’ story trods heavy ground — watch for a single mildly humorous moment — it has real momentum as Mary works to reopen Elva’s case.
Madison Barrett and Alexandra Burch, both marvelous as the furious ghosts of Trout Shue’s first two wives, fan the flames of Mary’s anger. Sung with Tedeschi Adams, the wives’ trio at the end of Act I might be the opera’s breakout piece. It’s thrilling.
Katherine Pracht plays Mary Heaster, a mother intent on avenging her daughter’s murder, in Madison Opera’s “Everlasting Faint.”
Director Keturah Stickann, also the dramaturg, came onto this premiere early. Her work shaping the opera shows in the balance of high drama and quiet intimacy.
As Mary rinses a lace scarf drawn from her daughter’s casket, her washbasin glows a bloody red (Matt Taylor designed the lights; set designer Court Watson designed the tightly patterned wallpaper and off-kilter furniture).
Later, as the chorus rings the stage murmuring (“Still, still, still”), a jury of men watches over the public examination of Elva’s body. Downstage, ghostly Elva and Mary have their most poignant conversation yet.
“Mother, listen,” Elva sings. “You gave me life … this was never your fault.”
Mary Heaster (Katherine Pracht) blames herself as her daughter Elva (Tori Tedeschi Adams) tries to absolve her during the latter’s autopsy in “Everlasting Faint.”
“Everlasting Faint” does have a bit of fun with the villain. Tenor Andrew Bidlack makes a meal out of the charming bad guy bit, and his raucous “Whiskey Girl” sounds torn from another time.
Scenes like this one tie “Everlasting Faint” to operatic classics while giving us something delightfully new. Gendel and Flores-Strand add layers rather than simple repetition, with few exceptions — Matthew Treviño, as Mary’s attorney, has a wonderfully resonant bass, but his “justice” aria feels like somewhere we’ve already been.
Attorney James Garner (Robert A. Goderich) questions Mary Heaster (Katherine Pracht) about her ghostly visitations in “Everlasting Faint” at Madison Opera.
“Everlasting Faint” closes on a call to action, echoing what Flores-Strand has seeded through the story. “Who will listen to the news of another slain girl?” Mary sings in Act I. The finale, led with visible emotion by Emily Birsan’s Martha, offers an answer: all of us.
“We hear your words,” Martha sings, as the chorus joins and the stage backdrops lift. “We witness your pain. The future holds hope for you.”
With a production this strong, the future holds hope for “Everlasting Faint” as well.
