Suzanne Farrin's 'Macabéa' Premieres at Miller Theatre

Suzanne Farrin's new opera "Macabéa" received its concert premiere at Columbia University's Miller Theatre, presented in the venue's Composer Portrait series. The 75-minute work, based on Clarice Lispector's 1977 novel "The Hour of the Star," runs in three acts and 13 brief scenes. Farrin wrote the score for the Talea Ensemble, conducted by Eduardo Leandro.

The title character is a young woman born in Rio's slums. She is raised by an abusive aunt, exploited by boyfriends, misled by an arrogant boss and killed by a speeding Mercedes. The narrative follows her fragmented inner voice, played with touching sincerity by soprano Charlotte Mundy.

Who created the libretto?

Farrin developed the project with Argentine writer Sergio Chejfec, whose interpretation of Lispector she found inspirational and emotionally stirring. Chejfec died suddenly in 2022, leaving Farrin devastated, as she explains in the companion essay by Katelyn Simone included in the program. She completed the opera with his finished libretto. Lispector herself died in 1977, the year the novel appeared.

What did the performance deliver?

The Talea Ensemble produced a tight partnership with the singers, not always achieved in a first performance of a new opera. Leandro, the reviewer noted, "unpacked the work's complexity with finesse, both revealing its groundbreaking style and revealing its accessibility." Farrin's music shadowed the characters rather than accompanying or mimicking them, with music and voice meeting climactically against the text.

Countertenor Christopher Dylan Herbert sang Rodrigo, the haughty boss, with jarring leaps between low and high material. Soprano Samantha Sosa sang the maid Aparecida's aria "eu gosto de pão" while vacuuming on stage with an actual Hoover. In Scene five, "Macabéa signs a contract," Talea produced percussive clicks, knocks and wooden timbres from Sae Hashimoto's mallets and from strings and horns, signifying the grammar of the text. Mundy's aria "eu gosto de estar só" followed against a harp line that framed the secretary-turned-maid as a nymphlike sprite.

Tenor Gregório Taniguchi sang Olímpica, Macabéa's cold, selfish boyfriend, offering "the evening's most exquisite, hypnotic outpouring of lyrical Portuguese." Mezzo-soprano Mary Beth Nelson Zaros played Glória, the traitorous coworker, joining Mundy for a stand-out duet in the office bathroom that ended abruptly with a crackling recording of Caruso. Three sopranos played Macabéa's roommates, a shadowy chorus sometimes present and sometimes absent. João Luiz Rezende Lopes served as an Argentinian narrator, The Stranger, speaking in Spanish. Contralto Kristen Sollek sang the fortune teller Carlota with careless selfishness.

Farrin sampled other sounds throughout: a typewriter, a music box playing Beethoven's "Für Elise," a cellphone ringtone, and references including "Pelléas et Mélisande." Scene 12, "Macabéa's Blood," is an instrumental interlude with violinist Karen Kim playing solo over string quartet, Macabéa's soul departing with shaker sounds, distant seagulls and rumbling bells.

The critic contrasted the ending with "Carmen": "Farrin does something more powerful: she is able to insert us into Macabéa's life. We are shocked by her death because somehow we have been complicit in it... as if we had driven that garish yellow Mercedes ourselves."

What comes next?

After the well-received premiere, Executive Director Melissa Smey brought Farrin on stage for a brief interview. Farrin said she wanted to show that no individual is disposable and that anyone can have an inner rich life. A staged premiere is set for June 2027 at the PS21 Center for Contemporary Performance in Chatham, NY, with a Brazilian premiere to follow in 2028.