Intimate Apparel – A New Opera

By 1905, Esther (Kearstin Piper Brown) has lived for 18 years at kindly (she mothers her girls) Mrs. Dickson’s (Adrienne Danrich, who, as the character, exudes a secure sense of place) boardinghouse and bordello. Fortunate in nimble fingers and innate sense of style, she creates made to order clothes and lingerie for the house’s inhabitants and uptown women who want something luxurious but naughty. As African Americans were long banned even from sweatshops, this is lifesaving.

Adrienne Danrich as Mrs. Dickson and Kearstin Piper Brown as Esther (Photo by T. Charles Erickson)

We meet two regular clients, her Black prostitute friend, Mayme (Krysty Swann, effectively playing to character) and rich, palpably melancholy Mrs. Van Buren (Naomi Louisa O’Connell, fine, confident vocals) who, despite being patrician and beautiful, is useless to her husband because she cannot bear a child. Esther’s relationship with the socialite is unusually close and confidential, especially as she’s White. Every dollar the seamstress earns is sewn into a bed quilt for the time she can afford to open a beauty shop.

The only man even peripherally in Esther’s life is Mr. Marks (Arnold Livingston Geis), an Orthodox Jew from whom Esther buys fabric on the Lower East Side. Their two-handers are some of the best and most moving vignettes in the piece due to the actor’s subtle, sympathetic characterization (and excellent voice). Marks recognizes her qualities and is drawn to Esther, yet cannot even touch her by religious law. She loves talking with him about fabric and preens at his respect.

Kearstin Piper Brown as Esther and Naomi Louisa O’Connell as Mrs. Van Buren (Photo by T. Charles Erickson)

One day, Esther receives a letter from an unknown man who is laboring with her deacon’s son on The Panama Canal. George is lonely and wants a correspondent. The heroine can neither read nor write, but is respectively encouraged by Mayme and Mrs. Van Buren, both of whom write letters for her and read his responses aloud. A long distance relationship stirs hope.

Eventually George arrives. The couple are instantly wed. At 35, Esther feels she has no time left; his motives are curiously omitted. This is a man who would clearly rather be catting around without responsibilities, a persona he easily slips back into provoked by lack of work and (we infer this) by his wife’s sexual inexperience.

Keratin Piper Brown as Esther, Arnold Livingston Geis as Mr. Marks (Photo by Julieta Cervantes)

Intimate Apparel is a glimpse at lives with extremely limited options. Librettist Lynn Nottage writes that she’s exploring “the intersection between class and race and gender.” Esther’s parents were slaves. She’s hard working, ambitious and remarkably lucky. The African American world in which she strives is insular. We don’t witness bigotry, but know it’s historically there. (Mrs. Van Buren is an exception. There are reasons.) Finance, class, religion, and education keep people apart. Women and men have dictated positions.

As Esther, Kearstin Piper Brown doesn’t show much emotion. I find her voice strident. Justin Austin’s George wears a single countenance throughout.  It’s difficult to feel for both actors despite powerful vocals.

The libretto is, to me, a play. A superb writer, Lynn Nottage expresses character and situation with specificity and passion. My taste in opera, however, tends towards melody, something composer Ricky Ian Gordon eschews. Nottage’s lyrics emerge as sung text.

Director Bartlett Sher seamlessly sends his cast onto and off a revolving stage with minimal, though sufficient and apt furniture. (Michael Yeargan) Catherine Zuber’s costumes are just right, though there are a few too many red corsets.

Titles are clearly projected.

Opening photo: Kearstin Piper Brown and Justin Austin by Julieta Cervantes

Lincoln Center Theater presents
Intimate Apparel-A New Opera
Music- Ricky Ian Gordo
Libretto- Lynn Nottage
Directed by Bartlett Sher

The Mitzi E. Newhouse
150 West 65 Street