An Instrument of Liberation

safronia

A world premiere written and composed by Chicago’s ground-breaking inaugural poet laureate avery r. young, safronia is a uniquely American opera, told through America’s classical music: blues, gospel, and funk. Commissioned and produced by the Lyric Opera of Chicago, young’s safronia explores the unfinished history of our country and the meaning of returning home through sonic language rooted in Black expressive tradition, and girded with humor, strength, and righteous determination.

The significance of safronia is impossible to overstate. This new work is a seismic shift in opera; challenging what opera has been, and transforming what opera can be. As noted by Antonio C Cyler, “safronia does not situate itself within a ‘classic’ presentation of opera. Instead, through Black music and vernacular, young has designed an operatic experience unapologetically about, by, for, and near Black people. . .” Stage Director and Dramaturg Timothy Douglas calls safronia “the embodiment of structural transformation.”

avery r. young is a celebrated interdisciplinary artist whose work encompassess film, curation, written and performance works in national and international arenas. young is Co-director of Floating Museum, and a Walder’s Foundation Platform awardee who has produced two albums and scored others’ works.

young’s creation together with the inspired direction of Douglas, delivers safronia as a living entity that bends time and moves the spirit. The approach is “listening as civic practice, history as breath, and music as ancestral way-showers.” The opera hall becomes the chapel, the audience the congregation, and young the voice in the wilderness.

In simple, safronia is the semi-autobiographical story of the Booker family’s forced journey from the Deep South small town to Chicago, and their righteous return. Patriarch baar booker has just achieved his dream of paying off the land for his distillery when all is ripped from him and his family. In the Bookers we witness one thread of the Great Migration, driven from the land of their birth to seek asylum within a northern city of their own country. But Chicago is not the Promised Land; instead of ‘colored’ signs there are redlines, and grown men are still called ‘boy’. The struggles of the city wear on safronia and her father, baar jacob, who drink to numb the wounds of their daily life and the loss of the family Land. But the ancestors are always present, and the Bookers refuse to believe that heaven is the only place they get relief. When the Bookers decide to return and reclaim their box on the earth, they must overcome the evil men who threatened their lives.

But safronia is so much more than the story. It is prayer from the ancestors. It is testimony for the lord. It is the fireworks of celebration and it is an abyss of mourning. It is kicking open the door to preach survival by any means necessary in a call-and-response holy-rolling exaltation. It claims everything. And it uncrooks the spine and sets the back straight.

In one particularly transcendent moment the exiled Booker family comes together, circling and stomping, clapping and chanting. Together they surround baar jacob, exhorting him to ‘lift yourself out of this bad time’ in a spiritual healing that is at once charismatic service, ring shouts of enslavement, and ancient ancestral practice. There is scarcely a scene that doesn’t transport the audience/congregation – whether in conflict, in celebration, or in reclaiming stolen birthright.

The voices in all the primary roles are potent instruments wielded by skilled performers, and the ensembles’ talents provide flawless support.

avery r. young is a powerhouse as baar jacob, the booker family patriarch and center of his own world. young is an incredible performer, with a supernova energy that lifts all those around him. Whether he is funkadelic direct to the audience, or preaching it out to the congregation, young is fire. And he is just as compelling in baar’s deep internal moments – of despair, or defiance, or in divine retribution. At his zenith, young’s baar is magnificent, ten feet tall in triumph with a hard-fought future in his grasp. But baar is too sure of his footing, cannot suffer another indignity, and then we witness in horror the destruction barreling towards him, young’s presence making us will the blow not to land. After years of exile young shows us baar’s spiky husk, empty of dreams but still spitting fire.

Meaghan McNeal is a force to be reckoned with as safronia booker, the indomitable but hard-drinking daughter who rages against the injustice to her family, and the suffocating humiliation of her father, baar jacob. McNeal’s voice is sublime, floating in the upper reaches as she wails her losses even while physically collapsing in her lover’s arms. She rules funk and gospel equally, transfixing the audience with her presence and power.

There can be no more soulful and grounded persona than that of Maiesha McQueen as magnolia booker, the matriarch who is determined to hold on to her family and the joy she makes with them. McQueen’s magnolia is has an unmatched breadth and complexity, whether she is celebrating or battling baar or safronia, or standing as realist and protector of the Booker tribe. When McQueen relates and relives the massacre of the town, her mourning is devastating and her voice exquisite. We can hear the weight of history in McQueen’s magnolia.

As King Willie Tate, Lorenzo Rush, Jr. lives a raw mix of proud defiance and fierce longing to break free from the constraints of Black life in the Deep South. When Rush sings about King’s future we see him reaching for the promise of his name. As he woos safronia, there is an innocent earnestness to his un-jaded hope. In later scenes Rush delivers unexpected but natural comic moments with impeccable phrasing and expression.

In deep thunderous tones Zachary James’ cholly is the imposing personification of white oppression, vindictively shredding baar’s hard-won achievement. With a weaselly falsetto, Jeff Parker’s bossman is an emasculated simp for cholly, betraying baar and denying his role in the family’s loss.

The many styles of music, and the complex, changing moods are well-matched by the skills of Conductor and Orchestrator Paul Byssainthe, Jr. and Choreographer Kia Smith. Byssainthe Jr has served as music director, associate music director and conductor for houses across the country. He received a Helen Hayes Award nomination for best music direction for his work on American Prophet at Arena Stage. Smith is the Founder of South Chicago Dance Theatre, and a prolific choreographer. Among her accolades, Smith was an Ann & Weston Hicks Choreographic Fellow at the renowned Jacob’s Pillow festival, and the first fellow to be presented by the festival.

Costume Designer Jessica Jahn’s shirtdresses, shifts and trousers sculpt the silhouette of the times. All in white, the characters pop from the dark surroundings, and provide the perfect canvas for the artistry of Lighting Designer Jason Lynch. With warm multidirectional lighting the focal performer becomes somehow more than three-dimensional. With a shift, the momentarily silent members of the Booker Family are transformed into tones of grey, a living old-time black and white photo on stage. Among them, baar jacob’s coat of many colors is a vestment passed eventually to the favorite child.

Vam Studio designed video projections for the massive screens to the rear and sides of the stage that effectively translated emotional and psychological messages into a varied immersive environment. Sound Designer Stephanie Farina fills out the worlds of safronia to auditory completeness.

One can only hope that young’s extraordinary work is recognized for the ground-breaking musical experience that it is. Our world needs many future productions, to shake opera free of restrictive expectations and allow safronia to continue as an artwork that serves as an instrument of liberation.

Highly Recommended

Reviewed by Soleil Rodrigue

safronia presented by avery r. young commissioned by Lyric Opera of Chicago ran only two nights, April 17 and 18, at the Lyric Opera House. For current productions visit www.lyricopera.org/shows/upcoming

Additional information about this and other area productions can be found by visiting www.theatreinchicago.com