Uksus

Tuesday night I attended Oakland Opera's opening performance of Uksus, a theater piece with music by Erling Wold. The show starts while you're waiting to enter. Actors dressed as Soviet guards asked for my passport, gender & height, which only prompted me to give smart-ass answers. The cast put on a 10 minute ceremony in the lobby involving a young man in a gurney, after which we were admitted into the theater proper.

Music was provided by an on-stage 7-piece band, led by conductor Bryan Nies standing on a platform behind the 1st row of the audience. The cast used a central catwalk extending from the stage, plus performing areas along the sides of the room. The scenario is based on the life & work of Daniil Kharms, a persecuted Soviet Era avant-gardist, who eventually died in an asylum. The action is a pageant of absurdist skits incorporating speech, singing, grotesque behavior & convulsive movement. There was dialogue about pissing, bœuf & meatballs. I found it confusing & after a while stopped trying to follow along.

The cast all gave committed performances & made their nonsensical actions seem purposeful. The singing was attractive. Tenor Timur Bekbosunov had a clean, controlled & pretty sound. Soprano Laura Bohn & mezzo Nikola Printz often sang in parallel, & their voices were nicely in tune & made a beautiful combined sound. I especially liked Ms. Printz's velvety lower register. All the voices were amplified, even though the venue was relatively small. Mr. Wold's music was a vamping mix of jazz, Philip Glass & klezmer & was easy to listen to, though I felt I'd gotten its full range within the first few minutes. The band played comfortably, & clarinetist Beth Custer sang a deep-voiced solo as part of her duties.

The show ran 100 minutes, with no intermission. Lots of people took pictures, & the woman seated next to me made several careful video pans with her smart phone. In the final scene, dodge balls were bowled off the stage, & one landed at my feet. I automatically picked it up, &, because I was in the front row, I momentarily considered I could easily take out any cast member of my choice. It would have been in the spirit of the piece.

§ UKSUS
Music by Erling Wold
Libretto by Yulia Izmaylova and Felix Strasser

Oakland Opera Theater
Directed by Jim Cave
Conducted by Bryan Nies
Designed by Lynne Rutter

Timur Bekbosunov — Pushkin
Laura Bohn — Fefjulka
Nikola Printz — Our Mama / Stalin
Bob Ernst — Michelangelo
Roham Sheikani — M2
Jim Cave — A Samovar
Sabrina Wenske, Peter Overstreet, Nathanael Card — Border Guards

Beth Custer — clarinet
Rob Wilkins — trumpet
Joel Davel — drums, vibraphone
Diana Strong — accordion
John Schott — guitar
Elzbieta Polak — violin
Lisa Mezzacappa — contrabass

Tuesday 30 August 8pm
Oakland Metro Operahouse
522 2nd Street, Oakland