Music review: L.A. Phil premieres Gerald Barry's sensational opera 'The Importance of Being Earnest'

Last week, the Los Angeles Philharmonic mounted “A Tribute to Ernest.” And people are still talking about it, a great gratis Green Umbrella concert, a legendary occasion in memory of a legendary orchestra manager, Ernest Fleischmann.

That should be enough legends -- and Ernests -- for a busy two weeks at Walt Disney Concert Hall. But the L.A. Philharmonic has done it again. On Thursday night it presented the world premiere of “The Importance of Being Earnest,” an opera by Gerald Barry, as part of its “Aspects of Adès” festival.

Thomas Adès -- who counts the 58-year-old Irish composer, little performed in the U.S., as his favorite colleague –- conducted. The opera is hysterically funny. The score is highly sophisticated and indescribably zany. Although unstaged, the concert performance proved marvelous theater.

The world now has something rare: a new genuinely comic opera and maybe the most inventive Oscar Wilde opera since Richard Strauss’ “Salome” more than a century ago. And something else very rare: the commission and premiere of a major opera by a symphony orchestra. That is something even the innovative other Ernest never thought to do.

The only thing lacking for this jubilant evening was a sense of occasion.

The L.A. Philharmonic has a unique Wilde connection. The orchestra's founder, William Andrews Clark Jr., amassed the world’s most comprehensive collection of Wilde materials, now housed at the Clark Memorial Library on West Adams. But the Wilde world did not come Thursday.

The opera world did not come, either. L.A. Philharmonic subscribers turned in seats and many were empty.

Barry has the reputation of being a madcap eccentric. Five years ago, Adès conducted the U.S. premiere of Barry’s second opera, “The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit,” at a Green Umbrella concert, and it was a triumph of nonstop nuttiness.

In a pre-concert discussion Thursday, Barry said that he doesn’t have a well-developed sense of knowing what is appropriate or inappropriate, and that is certainly true, in the best possible sense, with his “Earnest.” He trimmed Wilde’s text but remained true to it. Although he did allow himself a few truly mad flights of fancy, such as his side-splitting settings of Friedrich Schiller's “Ode to Joy” that  Beethoven famously used in his Ninth Symphony. Oh, and the fact that he turned the upright Lady Bracknell into a bass part in drag?  Barry said he thought of her as a big rugby player from Wales.

Other than that, this is a straightforward “The Importance of Being Earnest,” which concerns two young ladies who will only marry men named Earnest and two scallywags who love them, a story that is anything but straight. Early in the play, for instance, Jack (a tenor) and Algernon (a baritone) carry on about cucumber sandwiches.

Their duet is set to fractured 12-tone melodic lines that hop, skip and jump like the avant-garde of old. Wilde’s rhythms are knocked askew, yet every word comes across and the brilliant absurdity of the dialogue and situation had the audiences in stitches.

The whole opera is like that, although certainly not in 12-tone technique. In fact, Barry starts with a prerecorded piano prologue based on “Auld Lang Syne,” which he said was a tribute to the late Los Angeles patron Betty Freeman, who adored his music, and that tune has an engagingly hilarious way of popping up at the most unexpected moments.

There are lots of kinds of music in this 78-minute score, which goes by so fast you can rarely catch your breath. Among the more extreme is a duet for Cecily (a soprano) and Gwendolen (a mezzo-soprano) written in the rhythmic melodic speech known as sprechstimme. Barry adds a few novelties, such as having the women speak through megaphones and requiring two percussionists to accompany them by smashing plates. Indeed, enough china was destroyed in this duet Thursday to resurface the concert hall's rose fountain if its broken Delftware ever needs replacing.

The orchestra is an unusual chamber ensemble in which winds outnumber strings and brass outnumber winds. The players, like the singers, must be dazzling all the time; still this was a first performance that would be hard to imagine bettered.

Adès conducted complicated rhythms with wonderful élan and character. The cast –- Gordon Gietz (Jack), Joshua Bloom (Algernon), Hila Plitmann (Cecily), Katalin Károlyi Gwendolen), Hilary Summers (Miss Prism), Stephen Richardson (Lady Bracknell), Adam Lau (Lane/Merriman) and Matthew Anchel (Dr. Chasuble, a spoken part) -– was engagingly funny and mind-bogglingly virtuosic.

After a single repeat Friday, the opera won’t be performed again until Adès and most of the cast reassemble a year from now in London for a concert performance at the Barbican Centre. By then, word will be out and it will be a major event.

RELATED:

Music review: The Los Angeles Philharmonic's 'Aspects of Adès' gets off to a start with Stravinsky

Thomas Adès in all his aspects

-- Mark Swed

Photo: Thomas Adès conducting the world premiere of Gerald Barry's "The Importance of Being Earnest" at Walt Disney Concert Hall Thursday night. Credit: Ricardo DeAratanha/Los Angeles Times.

Comments

[Tom Allen]

People who know and love the play are unlikely to enjoy the opera. Wilde's text has its own rhythms and music, which the opera doesn't share. The part of "Miss Prism" as peformed by Hilary Summers somehow worked, but it's not a big part. I did enjoy the plate-smashing, but I think it came too early in relation to the text (which, incidentally, was extremely truncated).

[Roberta]

My husband and I are huge fans of the original Oscar Wilde play and we really really hated and were disappointed with this performance. We joined the other hundred or so patrons exiting quickly at the intermission. Many people got up and walked out of the hall before intermission. The L.A. Philharmonic may never get us to subscribe again after this terrible evening.

[Norm Reeder]

Well Mark Swed's review accurately describes the technical qualities of the performance Thursday night. However, he fails to emphasize the "fiasco" aspect of the whole evening. Half of the seats in Disney Hall were empty at the beginning, something absolutely unheard of on a Thursday night subscription series concert. In the first five minutes, people were already leaving. At intermission, 50% of the original attendees left, leaving an almost empty hall for the final act.

We were there the previous week for Ades concert and we loved it. The Barry piece is disappointing in many aspects. Its kind of imitation Stravinsky "neo classical" in style, except not near as good. The only thing that saved it is the fact it is based on the Oscar Wilde play which is a spoof of the English aristocracy and their affected manners. The play was funny, the music was not. The audience judged the performance correctly, Mark Swed was far too kind in encouraging a second rate composer.
Norm

[Leland Bard]

I'm just in from the Friday performance, and agree with Mr Swed on the stature - and fun - of the piece. No, it doesn't replicate the Wilde play, but it's fresh and high-spirited opera that savors Wilde's wit and flair for anarchic hi-jinks. Barry is a delight in his conversation about his work, and I can't imagine how he has notated Lady Bracknell's clenched, strangled, gasping, gastroesophogeal-refluxing attempts to utter the word "handbag"! Cast and ensemble were masterful, and I could see from Terrace View that Ades conducted with delight - thank you, LA Phil!

[Peter Grant]

I was there and if you paid attention to timing, the audience was laughing when they read the supertitles, not when they heard the actual lines. The music was ponderous and too heavy for the fluffy dialog. The odd intervals made Algernon sound like a donkey braying. Lady Bracknell as a bass didn't work. The plate thing seemed like a rip off of Baba the Turk and went on for about 40 plates too long -- and made it even more difficult to hear the talented singers who were trying very hard to be heard with the loud orchestra behind them. Comic banter needs timing, not odd...pauses be...tween syllables.

You're right that it shouldn't have been foisted on symphony subscribers who left in droves after the intermission. The man standing next to me in the elevator gave a more accurate review than yours, "It's clever, but I can't make a meal out of clever."

[UV]

The performance was astonishingly precise, the singers quite amazing and assured. This was what kept me awake.

Usually love Thomas Ades and his music, but this is a major exception. Really hard to believe that this tenth-rate cobbler is a favorite of his.

This was not music in any way - it was a a series of opaque and often alienating sonic effects haphazardly patched together that had nothing whatsoever to do with the play, it's action or characters. The "cute" moments were actually quite revolting - the poor musicians required to stamp their feet, whistle, sing along, etc, the singers asked to mug and groan and gasp for no apparent reason except the most obvious. Really dumb dumb DUMB despite some clever orchestration along the way. But some cleve orchestration alone does make a work worthy by itself.

No thematic unity or structure other than that already provided by Oscar Wilde. It lumbers along in a separate universe, most of it pretty damned ugly and, again for no apparent reason - very LOUD.

Halfway through I wondered why on earth this dreary mess even exists- does the composer actually believe he would illuminate Wilde's iconic play? Or maybe improve it? If so, given the musical treatment, this remains a mystery and only the laughable hubris of its creator is certain.

This sorry dude is poor competition for true modern/contemporary composers who attempt opera- Messiaen and Saariaho spring to mind, among others. So- quite appalled to find such a complimentary review here.

As the Brits might say: what a load of rubbish. And a very sad waste of time and efforts by all those involved.

[Symphony Patron]

We left at the intermission and felt insulted by the jibberish (performed by talented musicians no less) presented to us.

[ruth]

wow. its as if we saw different concerts. moranic. half the audience left at intermission including us.

[izzard]

Agree with review 100% - the only thing to add is that I thought the music sounded exactly the way the play felt. It was one of the more entertaining and satisfying concerts I've ever been to.

As for those of you who walked out (and I counted maybe 20, not "hundreds", by the way), my condolences to you for having no sense of humor and terrible taste in music. And Oscar Wilde himself would probably laugh in your faces if he saw the size of the pedestals that you're placing his play on. Next time, just don't bother going to listen to music by living composers and leave seats for the rest of us who love original, exciting music.

[Matt]

This was the most disappointing opera/play I've ever seen. It was literally painful sitting through the performance and completely agree with another reviewer's assessment of Algernon's voice sounding like a donkey braying. Also, the symphony portion of the performance literally added nothing to the experience. A TOTAL disappointment.

[w1n5t0n]

It always amuses me when people attend a concert event that they end up walking out of, because with about five minutes of investigation (i.e., reading), they would have known exactly what type of music and/or what type of performance they were getting themselves into, and would not have attended in the first place. It's called due diligence. Try it sometime. Otherwise you're in the same category as the morons who are attending the Charlie Sheen shows and then complaining afterwards that he was boring. Duh.

[Mariehartsf]

I can't agree with the reviewer more. My friend and I both loved this opera and I found myself truly laughing out loud -- something I almost have never done at a live opera. And the music was rather swell too :). Came back tonight to catch the ades/Messiaen program. Enchanting as well.

[Mariehartsf]

Just a side note: no, half the audience didn't leave at intermission. Maybe five. But I was there on Friday and maybe it was a hipper younger crowd.

Also, as a classical theatre professional, I have to say that this opera captured the play far better than any stage production I've seen, with the exception of the terrific one at Oregon Shakespeare festival a few years ago. It was certainly far superior to the god awful Peter Hall production at the Ahmanson of recent memory.

[Larry]

This amazing production weeded out all the close minded individuals who probably would have walked out on Mozart or Stravinsky during that time. I also did not hear the usual rude coughing that is so common during a typical LA concert. It was a pleasure to sit in the audience without the uptight vibration and the stuffy individuals rushing out and pushing in the elevators. The com[poser really got the feel of the language and the absurdity of the Upper Class that Wilde injected into his play.