Believable

For the past couple of days I've pondered upon Carlyle Floyd's opera Willie Stark and whether the story was successful to me from the music or from the story. I was entertained with the story; not entertained with laughing or enjoyment, but I was engaged with the story, empathized with the characters and took away a new perspective on a few subjects that our society tends to grapple with. It was fascinating to see a character that apparently began with good intentions, but for various reasons shown to the audience was pulled down a long road of corruption. It is my opinion that the concept is very engaging, however Carlyle Floyd's talents do not rest in reworking a story for a libretto. We only see the sub-story or background through the radio announcements, something that really interrupts the action of the story, took me by surprise every time and left me thinking “what the heck?” The only character that was really well fleshed out was Willie Stark. All the other characters were not and therefore they were not as believable. One could attribute this to poor acting, but I believe that the singers in the LSU production were pretty decent. The music displays a lot of mood swings, or change of thoughts, leaving me thinking that the characters were not well driven and frankly lacked an attention span. One character that did work was the secretary lady, but we are only introduced to her in the last act, which also threw me for a loop. Also, the love triangle was most peculiar. I didn't believe that Anne loved Willie. This may have been intentional, but I am left with no other thoughts as to what might have been going on there. I want to know why. She had lots of monologues but I don't really remember what she said, nor was I moved by her situation. I think that this can be tied back to the ability of the music to tie the story together as a whole. Music has the ability to help pull the audience in and heighten the drama of the story helping to connect the proverbial dots. The music, while perhaps interesting and helpful at some points, fails as a collective in this opera. I really wish the Floyd had gotten at least a lyricist to help him with this one. It has so much potential.