2008 Woodie Awards
'Little Women' has ups, downs
Kacy Wilms
Issue date: 11/19/07 Section: Entertainment
- Page 1 of 1
Little Women" is the beloved story of four sisters growing up together after the Civil War.
Composer Mark Adamo took the tale and made it into a two-hour opera, which premiered Wednesday night at the Langworthy Theatre.
The opera is told from the perspective of Jo March. She and the man whose love she could never return, Laurie, are discussing his recent marriage to Jo's sister, Amy, and what that means for them. Jo has worked hard to make everything right, and opera takes off from there, rewinding to the past to make sense of the future.
There were plenty of high notes and some very low notes and the vocalists, for the most part, hit them very well. Of course, there are always glitches. The quartet of singers, symbolizing the four sisters, seemed to be off at the beginning. When they were singing major chords or in unison, they sounded better.
Two different actresses played most of the characters depending on which night is attended. Saturday night, actress Kelsey Shiba, who played Jo, seemed to have too much vibrato in her voice. This enabled the audience to understand an already particularly hard genre to begin with.
Christopher Puckett, who played Laurie, seemed very stiff and unable to interact fully with the other cast members.
Individually, each actor and actress was incredible. However, together there lacked a connection between the characters. It was as if they seemed uneasy to touch each other.
The set worked so well in this type of theater. By only moving part of the set around, they were able to make it into a completely different scene. This took away long set changes, which can grow tiresome.
Act I seemed to drag, due to drawn out songs between characters that seemed to last forever. Act II picked up and even the cast members seemed inspired.
"Little Women" seemed on the verge of melodramatic, but Act II made it work. There should have been more interaction between characters, but the music and the set were beautiful so it made up for any mistakes.
Operas are not everybody's cup of tea, but the story flowed well enough so the audience could keep up and it was performed so they would want to know what happened to the characters. "Little Women" is not the best opera, but, it was fun to watch.
- Kacy Wilms is a senior psychology major and theatre studies minor. She is also a Mirror staff writer.
Composer Mark Adamo took the tale and made it into a two-hour opera, which premiered Wednesday night at the Langworthy Theatre.
The opera is told from the perspective of Jo March. She and the man whose love she could never return, Laurie, are discussing his recent marriage to Jo's sister, Amy, and what that means for them. Jo has worked hard to make everything right, and opera takes off from there, rewinding to the past to make sense of the future.
There were plenty of high notes and some very low notes and the vocalists, for the most part, hit them very well. Of course, there are always glitches. The quartet of singers, symbolizing the four sisters, seemed to be off at the beginning. When they were singing major chords or in unison, they sounded better.
Two different actresses played most of the characters depending on which night is attended. Saturday night, actress Kelsey Shiba, who played Jo, seemed to have too much vibrato in her voice. This enabled the audience to understand an already particularly hard genre to begin with.
Christopher Puckett, who played Laurie, seemed very stiff and unable to interact fully with the other cast members.
Individually, each actor and actress was incredible. However, together there lacked a connection between the characters. It was as if they seemed uneasy to touch each other.
The set worked so well in this type of theater. By only moving part of the set around, they were able to make it into a completely different scene. This took away long set changes, which can grow tiresome.
Act I seemed to drag, due to drawn out songs between characters that seemed to last forever. Act II picked up and even the cast members seemed inspired.
"Little Women" seemed on the verge of melodramatic, but Act II made it work. There should have been more interaction between characters, but the music and the set were beautiful so it made up for any mistakes.
Operas are not everybody's cup of tea, but the story flowed well enough so the audience could keep up and it was performed so they would want to know what happened to the characters. "Little Women" is not the best opera, but, it was fun to watch.
- Kacy Wilms is a senior psychology major and theatre studies minor. She is also a Mirror staff writer.
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