The Gambler

Any show (outside of Charles Mee) that incorporates fluorescent or neon lights raises many red flags for me. Think back to the Met’s current production of The Magic Flute. I’ve heard you either love it or hate it; I HATED it (although I did like the bearded kids floating high above the stage). Think back to that ghastly production of Lohengrin (I think that’s the one, minimalist and slow and boring). Well in The Gambler, for once fluorescent lights didn’t make me sick to my stomach, they just provoked a confused expression at a set that was a little outdated but working well enough for its purpose.

We open with everything in felt, casino green with a touch of gold. And, I’m surprised. I haven’t heard a Prokofiev opera before. This isn’t arias or songs even, but is based on the spoken, the conversational. It’s recitative-style almost entirely with very little break. Only when we are well into the latter half do I think, “Now, maybe finally this is opera.”

The Gambler is structured. There are four acts and all four are almost exactly thirty minutes. The opera is based on a Dostoevsky book that I’ve never read and I’ve actually read my share of the big ones.

The singing/speaking is very good. The cast is very good with what surely must be very difficult. Prokofiev has a way of sounding easy, yet really pushes all musicians to their limits. I know I’ve encountered some interesting challenges on his Romeo and Juliet that sounds delightfully easy. And, one of the things I like about Prokofiev is in evidence in this opera: his use of the full spectrum of the register. We get those high flute and piccolo parts against a heavy dose of tuba. He uses the extremes and the middle in a way few composers do. The orchestral parts are a treat under the vocal parts.

It is so frustrating, though, to go two hours without a real song, without something you can hum out of the theater. I left thinking this is filler in the history of opera. This is a way to get from Benjamin Britten to Glass or Adams. And, this is one road they could have taken but fortunately didn’t follow too much.

I’m so glad I saw it in an educational way. But, it’s not a CD I’ll pick up soon. Or, maybe I will because it really stretched me and pushed me. Finally, I was the person in the lobby afterwards saying, “I don’t know, that was awfully modern.” And, I don’t say that about much. I embrace John Adams. I love Stravinsky’s The Rakes Progress. Wagner, great. The more modern, the better. This was different. It worked and it didn’t work and I’m curious if more listening would open it up for me.

So, I guess this resembles thoughts on the opera rather than a decent review of the production. But, it was so new for me and so different that I couldn’t get past it. I’ve never encountered Prokofiev this way and I’d be curious about how I feel about it five years from now. It’s just too new today to tell.