Word: ethane
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Ethan Frome's only flaw is its set and production design. Although it is certainly cozy to be seated near the orchestra and to see all of the musicians, it eventually becomes distracting; the orchestra even drowns out the singing at some points. The stage itself is sparsely decorated: though not out of sync with the plain New England farmhouse of Wharton's novella, it still appears lacking. Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that the stage is so small that the actors often have nowhere...
Although the lighting is minimal, it is used to good effect, highly symbolic of the events unfolding on stage. Whenever Ethan appears, the blue light shines, emitting an atmosphere of desperation; whenever Mattie appears, a bright yellow light is used, thus emphasizing how she literally brightens up the stage...
...audience, often distorting reality. It is difficult to see Mattie, in the epilogue, walk through the audience and climb right onto the stage, only to pretend to be paralyzed from a sledding accident. Although we all fundamentally realize that what happens on the stage is not reality, the opera Ethan Frome could use some fine tuning--from the unpolished scene changes to the deficient set to the fact that one might have a better view of the orchestra than the stage...
Indeed, the slowness and heaviness that characterized the opera Ethan Frome precisely mirrors the tone of the novella. Allanbrook certainly does not change the focus of the novella and his opera portrays the slowness with which life progresses for the Fromes--particularly for Ethan, whose long-defunct love of Zeena causes his perpetual agony. Although the opera's most dramatic scenes--the breaking of Zeena's prize pickle plate and the infamous sledding scene in which Mattie and Ethan encounter their fateful punishment--are a little played down, this seems appropriate when viewed from Wharton's original perspective. In their...
...downplaying these small moments of mayhem,Ethan Frome pays homage to Wharton, making them all the more powerful. Ethan Frome is not sturm und drang, but rather a tale of mute desperation. Allanbrook Sr. and Hunt should be commended for keeping their opera true to a difficult, complex novella...