Lensic Performance Arts Center. Sante Fe, NM. Balcony (first row, left, $25).
Synopsis. The opera follows the life of Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977) from a share-cropper to a civil rights activist, emphasizing events that happened during (approximately) the years 1962 to sometime shortly before her death. See the "official" version in the screenshot below.
Conductor - Jeri Lynne Johnson; Fannie Lou Hamer - Nicole Joy Mitchel, Dorothy Jean Hamer - Kearstin Piper Brown; June Johnson/SNCC Worker - Heather Hill.
Fannie Lou Hamer
We are visiting New Mexico and I came across this event. The opera featured prominently on the Sante Fe Opera's website, and was commissioned "by the Sante Fe Opera through Opera for All Voices." My interpretation of this was Sante Fe paid for the composition, but a "community opera" will be performing it.
Lensic Performance Arts Center reminds one of Count Basie and State Theater. It is in very good condition, so perhaps also renovated recently (indeed completed in 2001). The theater seats around 800 people, and attendance was 60 to 70% for tonight's performance. There were very few African American in the audience, perhaps a reflection of Sante Fe's demographics (less than 1%; for the State, 2%).
I didn't know what to expect from the story. Turns out one didn't have to be too graphic to relate the horrors blacks suffered at that time. Events that came to mind are: a hysterectomy was performed on Fannie Lou without her knowledge, she was beaten up for standing up for her rights, she was fired soon after her attempt to register to vote, her negotiations with Hubert Humphrey, and her daughter dying young.
The staging was minimal. The backdrop is a screen with different images and videos projected on it. The main prop is a platform. Put some chairs on it, and it is a bus or a church, put a facade in the front and it is a house, project some bars on the screen and it is a jail cell. Sometimes Fannie Lou would sing as a video of (the real) her is played saying the same words. The list of orchestra members is short, but produced an adequate sound that balanced well with the vocal lines.
Before the opera started, the composer Chandler Carter came on stage to describe a little bit about the process, and acknowledged the presence of the librettist Diana Solomon-Glover. Brown, billed as Dorothy Jean, also played many other roles, including a pastor and a white police officer. There is a warning of "strong language, racial slurs and symbols of violence."
People in the front row: Conductor Jeri Lynne Johnson, Composer Chandler Carter, Librettist Diana Solomon-Glover, Brown, Mitchell, and Hill.
Given the politics of today, one often forgets how necessary the civil rights movement is. And this also puts the birth of liberation theology in perspective. It was great that I got a refresher on these issues.
It should be quite easy to get to the venue. But this was Halloween weekend, so we were caught in traffic - that we missed the entrance didn't help. We made it to the seats with 10 minutes to spare.
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