Scott Morrison offered a critic's account of William Bolcom's new opera
several days ago.  What follows is my own.

In 15 years of living near Chicago, I've had the opportunity to see and
hear many fine performances at the Lyric Opera.  For years, the Lyric
has shown a serious commitment to 20th-century work; I've seen memorable
productions of "Lulu," Dominick Argento's "The Voyage of Edgar Alan Poe,"
"Peter Grimes" (stunningly sung by Ben Heppner), "Satyagraha" and
"McTeague," while missing other equally significant newer operas.  Last
night, my wife and I attended a performance of "A View from the Bridge,"
the Lyric's latest commission, and its second from William Bolcom.  The
opera itself, and the production in which it is presented, richly deserve
all the attention they have received.

"A View from the Bridge" is an evening of absolutely gripping musical
theater, with equal emphasis on both words.  The well-shaped, intelligent
libretto moves swiftly and seamlessly through its two acts, building to a
climax of shattering intensity.  The characters are well drawn, with the
possible exception of Mike, a minor character whose repeated interjections
of "Yeah" throughout the opera make him close competition with Jar-Jar
Binks for the most irritating theatrical character of the year.  Bolcom's
music is at one with the pacing of the play itself, and serves the stage
action brilliantly.  Much has been written about the eclecticism of
Bolcom's score, with its use of "Paper Doll," in both Italianate and early
rock versions, the doo-wop quartet which opens Act II, and other touches
which have reminded critics of Gershwin, Bernstein, and others.  (My wife
noted more than a few occasions which reminded her in one way or another of
"Peter Grimes;" certainly the choral writing which frames the beginning and
ending of "A View" suggests Britten's use of a similar technique.  The use
of the chorus actually reminded me a bit of Argento's "Poe.") Some have
suggested a certain lack of integrity in the opera's stylistic variety.
Having been a student of George Rochberg's multi-gestural techniques, and
having followed Bolcom's progress as a composer over many years, I find
myself quite undisturbed by Bolcom's wealth of references.  Given the
opera's melting-pot locale, they are almost inescapable, and fit naturally
into the setting.  Bolcom weaves these various sounds together in a deft,
skillful and seamless manner, which matches and perhaps even surpasses what
he accomplished in "McTeague." While he has in the past sometimes leaned
toward a post-modern archness that can be self-consciously clever and
ironic (e.g.  his 1976 Piano Concerto, which I actually like a great deal),
in "A View," the composer takes Arthur Miller and the world of Eddie
Carbone seriously, and communicates with the audience in a heart-felt,
direct, and honest way.  It is particularly instructive to set aside the
more obvious pop-culture references and listen seriously to the rest of the
music in the opera.  Bolcom has devised a richly textured, highly flexible
harmonic language for the opera, which is sometimes steadfastly tonal (as
in the brooding c-minor introduction to Act II), and sometimes highly
expressionistic.  He relies heavily on the orchestra to link scenes, build
tension, and underscore the psychology of the play's many characters.  The
tension in the finale of Act I is made palpable through the orchestra even
before anyone sings a note, and the Eddie's malevolent kisses to his niece
Catherine and her illegal alien fiance Rudolpho are absolutely horrific in
impact.  I doubt that anyone hearing the opera without seeing it can quite
experience how tremendously effective all of this is in the theater.  In
all of this, I hear Bolcom using a voice that is authentically his; a
number of musical fingerprints heard here can be found in his music going
back several decades, and seem very much at home in this particular work.
It's not Bernstein, nor is it high-class Broadway -- it's the work of an
wonderfully assured composer who is in complete command of an enormous
personal vocabulary.

That being said, I'm not sure that this is, as someone put it in print,
the first great opera of the 21st century.  It is rather the last verismo
opera, perhaps one of the finest.  The Italianate story line lends itself
to such treatment.  Told as it were in flashback, the lawyer Alfieri and
the chorus in a sense become the traveling players of "Pagliacci." Rudolpho
is a tenor, and gets several chances to wax lyrical.  His Act I ode to the
lights of New York, a very sweet, tender tune (which must be one of the
moments in which Bolcom alludes to the song composer Harry Warren), should
have a life of its own outside the opera.  Certainly, the ghosts of
Leoncavallo and Mascagni hover closely over the bass aria, "A Ship Called
Hunger," sung by Rudolpho's jailed brother Marco late in the second act.
The aria, which has garnered special attention because its lyrics were
specially written for the opera by Arthur Miller himself, helps clarify for
the audience Marco's feelings of family honor betrayed by Eddie.  It also
sets up his tragic final confrontation with him, in which his demand that
Eddie apologize seems a perhaps unconscious echo of the Commendatore's
final and fateful appearance to Don Giovanni.  In all of these cases the
lyric gift is not borrowed, but is emphatically Bolcom's own, on which
he has frequently drawn throughout his career.  (Are there any more
intoxicating melodies than those in his "Graceful Ghost" and "Last Rag?")

The performance and staging are on a very high level indeed.  Kim Josephson
offers a deeply layered and nuanced theatrical portrayal of Eddie, and
sings his role hasndsomely.  Juliana Rambaldi and Catherine Malfitano do
fine work as Catherine and as Eddie's wife Beatrice.  Gregory Turay sings
the tenor role of Rudolpho with a lovely Italian coloration, and Mark
McCrory finds a great deal of dignity in the role of Marco.  Hovering over
the entire evening is Timothy Nolen's melancholic, reflective Alfieri.  The
Lyric Opera Chorus is excellent as always, and in the pit, Dennis Russell
Davies brings the same masterful control and sweep to "A View" that he has
brought to past productions such as "McTeague" and "Lulu."

I wholeheartedly recommend this production to anyone who can still obtain
tickets for it.  I'm glad to know that New Yorkers will get it at the
Met next season, and can only hope that someone will mount a second
professional staging of "McTeague," a work whose wonderful second-act
passacaglia and desolate final blues ("We're Dean Men") still leave an
impression on me.

DPHorn, still reflecting on a major musical event.