WATCHING: POUNDING OPERA
Dead Man Walking (San Francisco Opera streamed)
When we lived in San Francisco, we subscribed to the opera, and when we were very lucky, we were invited to sit in the director’s box, close to the stage. I loved the opera seasons there, mostly because their season always included at least one contemporary opera. We saw a wonderful production of Nixon in China, for example.
The Chief Penguin signed up to watch post-performance live streams of some of this season’s SF Opera offerings. He watched all of Rigoletto (I caught snatches of it), and together we endured Dead Man Walking with music by Jake Heggie and lyrics by playwright Terrence McNally. I say endured, not because it was bad in any way, but because it is extremely intense and moving. Based on the book of the same title by Sister Helen Prejean and the 1995 movie (which we have seen), this powerful opera premiered in 2000.
The staging of the opera is simple and minimalist, but very effective. Sister Helen leaves the school-aged children she works with to visit Joseph De Rocher, her pen pal who is on death row. He is initially distrustful of her, not sure she can help him, but then asks her to be his spiritual advisor as he awaits the recommendation of the pardon board and, ultimately, his execution date. Almost to the end, he proclaims his innocence and denies that he has killed the two teenagers, not having the courage to admit the truth and seek forgiveness. While he is bitter and vulnerable, Sister Helen herself becomes overwrought with emotion from their encounters and questions her own beliefs and assumptions.
The scenes with Joe’s mother and brothers are heartbreaking, while those with the teens’ parents seeking accountability and justice are heartrending in another way. I would not have thought that an execution scene would be so excruciating and powerful to witness, but it was. A thought-provoking and demanding work of art. See it if you have the opportunity.
POWERFUL FICTION: 1960’s MAGDALENE LAUNDRY
Wayward Girls by Susan Wiggs
Susan Wiggs’s latest novel is a bit of a departure for her. Her earlier enjoyable books are heartfelt stories of family and romance, often in a series built around a particular location (Lakeside Chronicles) or historical works set in the 19th century. Wayward Girls is set in the late 1960’s in Buffalo, NY, and then zooms ahead 50 years to the present day. I’ve read about and seen films about the Magdalene laundries in Ireland, but I was not aware that from the 1880’s into the 1920’s, there were a number of these institutions in the U.S. including in Buffalo, Albany, and Philadelphia.
Masquerading as do-good institutions for reforming girls who were pregnant and unmarried or were troublemakers, they were industrial laundries run by nuns. The girls were forced to labor all day, were physically mistreated, and regularly punished by being locked in a dark closet. In essence, they were prisoners with no visitors and no escape.
Mairin, a 15-year-old with a lively spirit, misses her deceased father greatly. When her stepfather Colm tries to get “handsy” with her, she lashes out at him physically. He lies, her mother takes his side, and Mairin finds herself carted off to the nuns at Good Shepherd Refuge. Not one to settle quietly, Mairin makes multiple attempts to escape, before she becomes friends with several other girls. A natural leader, she inspires Angela, Helen, and Odessa to think about how they might successfully escape before they turn eighteen.
Much of the novel details daily life in this prison and then shifts to the present day and what Mairin’s life now is, years after she escaped. The trauma of that time remains, yet Mairin’s curiosity impels her to try to discover what happened to the other girls.
The characters are fictional, but the situations are based on a real laundry and survivors’ accounts. It’s a totally absorbing book. I also found the setting, from the music and TV shows of that era to the descriptions of life and culture in upstate New York, spot on. Not surprising, I guess, since although Wiggs lives in Washington State currently, she spent her early childhood near Buffalo. Highly recommended! (~JWFarrington)
FIRST NOVEL: MOMENTOUS REVERBERATIONS
Finding Grace by Loretta Rothschild
Both Honor, married to Tom, and Grace and her husband Pietro make important decisions that have repercussions years later. Finding Grace is Briton Rothschild’s novel debut. Chapter One is shocking and totally unexpected.
Without giving away the plot, it’s fair to say this is a novel about love in several forms: parental love, romantic love, and love among friends. It’s also a book about big secrets, those we hold rigidly tight, and smaller ones, things we protectively guard in how we present ourselves to one another. How candid are we with someone we are attracted to, and how soon do we reveal ourselves fully?
The conundrum at the heart of this story is an unusual one, and it threatens to upend the progression of a new love. Finding Grace has some surprising twists and turns of both character and plot. Recommended!
Note: Header photo of Cary Regional Library facade ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)
