From left: Carla López-Speziale as Rosa and Helen Zhibing Huang as Singa in Jorge Sosa’s I Am a Dreamer Who No Longer Dreams. Kathy Wittman/Ball Square Films photograph
Some day, helped by inspired artists and their work, we may find clarity in the divisive issue of immigration.
That clarity will not come from “I Am a Dreamer Who No Longer Dreams.”
The new opera marks the most recent annual premiere, all conceived and funded by White Snake Projects’ founder and director Cerise Lim Jacobs. “Dreamer,” with a score by Jorge Sosa, runs through Sept. 22 at the Emerson Paramount Theater in Boston.
Those past premieres—among them, the Ouroboros trilogy, REV. 23, PermaDeath—have included strong scores by composers like Scott Wheeler, Julian Wachner, and Dan Visconti—along with the Pulitzer Prize–winning music to Madame White Snake by Zhou Long.
Conductors like Wachner, Lidiya Yankovskaya and Carolyn Kuan have brought energy and direction to those scores. Brilliant singers and sets—who could forget Anthony Roth Constanzo as the Green Snake—have lit up stages.
But the librettos—written by Jacobs—have always been disappointing. Weak, un-idiomatic dialogue has undermined character development, and destroyed narrative continuity. “Dreamer” is no different.
In “Dreamer,” two immigrants to America (as it is referred to throughout) confront each other. Mezzo Carla López-Speziale as Rosa—a jailed, undocumented activist and mother—and soprano Helen Zhibing Huang—as Singa, her court-appointed attorney—sang their challenging roles brilliantly. Soprano Kirsten Chambers sang three thankless parts—Mother/Gangster/Prosecutor—with versatile style.
Sosa’s score was inviting and inventive, and got examined stylishly in the pit by Juventas New Music, under Maria Sensi Sellner’s direction. The music had multiple effective moments, including a triple-timed aria, as Rosa tells her “I Am a Dreamer” story; and a beautiful lullaby for the children’s chorus, “I Don’t Want to Leave My Home Behind.” The sounds of a music box, which opens “Dreamer” then later wondrously returns as Rosa’s childhood treasure, proved a touching moment.
Zane Pihlström’s costumes and staging of Rosa’s prison were spare, striking and effective. Rosa stayed center-stage in her prison cell throughout. Singa sat near her, throughout. The children—Anthony Trecek-King’s Boston Children’s Chorus—sat at tables in the back of the set throughout. It was an uncomfortable reminder of reality.
Elena Araoz directed. The narrative flow got undermined by the protagonists’s constant presence onstage: when Rosa and Singa were not part of the action, the simply assumed distracting neutral positions in the middle of it.
The premise itself to “Dreamer” was compelling: a righteous immigrant to America, with a young daughter at home, faces deportation or worse. Her court-appointed attorney, also an immigrant but on the other side of the privilege barrier, eventually grows sympathetic over time, finally agreeing to adopt Rosa’s abandoned child.
But hardly any of their interaction seemed believable. Stock characters acting out stock situations, which followed hard upon each other with limited continuity. Genuine concerns were not examined; characters simply mouthed click-bait headlines.
More deeply, the validity of the “American Dream” remained unexplored in “Dreamer.” At various points the Pledge of Allegiance and “America” make it into the libretto. (As does Bernstein’s “America” from West Side Story—to laughable results). The fact that America itself might be a foolhardy destination, and that some Americans are scared and infuriated by their own country, remains untapped. No matter what, immigrants like Rosa and Singa cling to an American dream.
An editor—or another librettist—would have helped bring genuine intensity to these real issues. White Snake Projects annually assembles an accomplished team of artists; it’s time to honor that collective talent, and engage librettists who can bring these concepts to life.