It ‘ain’t often that I leave my home on Thursday nights. NBC’s stellar lineup of comedy and satire- Earl, Kath and Kim, The Office and 30 Rock- together almost justify my HDTV set up. But I’m happy to say that I’ve been inhabited by The Dybbuk, and flat-screen reality just won’t cut it anymore.
Rarely will any of us have the chance to see a performance of the “living” arts with so many so completely committed to its excellence. The Dybbuk Project: a Multimedia Chamber Opera was composed and written by Colorado College music professor Ofer Ben-Amots. The work parlayed a startling synthesis of disparate elements to produce a haunting and transformative evening of music and theatre for its American premiere at CC’s Cornerstone Arts Center last week. This work should provide Ofer the vehicle to reach a much greater audience than he has ever before.
The music was always engaging as he appropriately centered this exploration of Jewish mysticism and literary tradition around ancient melodic and harmonic styles even as the modern world of music was present. The instrumentalists led by Susan Grace’s relentless keyboard expression and Gilad Harel’s incomprehensible virtuosity and theatricality on the clarinet were all ideal. CC grad Jeremy Wilhelm and Israeli mezzo Yahli Toren nicely underplayed roles that could have been repelling if portrayed too dramatically. The composer’s deft touch with choral composition was beautifully portrayed by a female chorus from the Colorado Springs Children’s Chorale.
The multimedia part of the evening was the work of video maven Sheri Wills who always had a fascinating, if at times confusing, image projected on the rear of the stage. There could found integrated translations of the mostly Hebrew libretto. CC prof Tom Linblade miraculously made it all work theatrically, although the comedic attempts of the two mimes, who assisted in the story line, seemed out of place.
The story line? - search dybbuk on the internet and you’ll get a sense of how strange of a love story this is. There are flaws – Act I is at times porous and tough to follow and the work needs its dramatic balance worked upon – but by the evening’s end, Ofer had his vision realized. The Cornerstone Center was not built for our community, but if the college is going to provide us with cutting edge art such as this and, in this case for free, then we are making out pretty darn good on this deal.