From February 19 through the 23rd, Los Angeles Opera and Beth Morrison Projects presented the West Coast premiere of Adoration, an opera with music by Mary Kouyoumdjian and libretto by Royce Vavrek. The work premiered last year at Prototype Festival in New York City and its story is based on the eponymous 2008 film by Atom Egoyan.
Omar Najmi as Simon, Naomi Louisa O’Connell as Simon’s mother, Rachel, and Roy Hage as Simon’s father, Sami, in LA Opera’s Adoration (Photo Credit: Greg Grudt)
The plot centers on high-school teenager Simon who releases an online video that condemns his dead Arab father of planting a bomb in his deceased mother’s luggage while she was pregnant with him and traveling to Bethlehem. Flashbacks reveal the parents’ relationship and the hatred in the family between Simon’s white Christian grandfather and his Muslim father. After his parents’ deaths, Simon ends up living with his maternal uncle. Once he posts his video story online encouraged by his teacher, Sabine, the video becomes viral and elicits various shocked, outraged or empathetic reactions. Meanwhile, Sabine disguises herself as a Muslim woman and visits Simon’s uncle while he is decorating for Christmas, leading to a symbol-laden confrontation between the two about the public display of one’s faith. However, ultimately, the storyline becomes too convoluted and creates a sense of confusion toward the end of the opera when it felt like total clarity was obscured, and the full truth of Simon’s story seemed uncertain. Perhaps that was inevitable as the plot attempts to tackle such vast and crucial topics at once—intolerance, religious hatred, racism, Zionism, capitalism, terrorism—that it constricts the flow of the storyline.
Composed for amplified string quartet and audio playback, Kouyoumdjian’s music is eerie, intense, disturbing, grumbling, and at times chant-like with moving string melodies weaving through and evoking a distant world. It can get monotonous, but often it is absorbing and haunting.
Miriam Khalil as Sabine and David Adam Moore as Tom, Simon’s uncle in LA Opera’s Adoration (Photo Credit: Greg Grudt)
All members of the outstanding cast—Omar Najmi (Simon), David Adam Moore (Tom, Simon’s uncle), Naomi Louisa O’Connell (Rachel, Simon’s mother), Roy Hage (Sami, Simon’s father), James Demler (Morris, Simon’s grandfather)— are excellent singers and actors, and were well suited for their roles. Eleven-year-old Spartak Syrota was touching in the silent role of young Simon. Especially impressive were Miriam Khalil and David Adam Moore throughout the opera, and particularly in the confrontation between Sabine and Tom by the Christmas tree; both brought in theatrical force, razor-sharp delivery of the profound libretto, fully engaged body language, and magnetic presence, making this chilling scene truly gripping and unforgettable. Laine Rettmer’s direction, without the existence of much furniture and props, was minimalist and effective, and made the lit Christmas tree stand out literally as well as symbolically.
Afsoon Pajoufar’s set consisted of a white wall, with a rotating inner section, on a turntable. Camilla Tassi’s projection design enhanced the plot to great effect overall, especially the videos of Simon’s mother. The mother wore the most glamorous attire among Rachel Dainer-Best’s realistic costumes. Scott Bolman’s lighting design proved specifically notable when it came to the death of Simon’s parents.
Spartak Syrota as the young Simon in LA Opera’s Adoration (Photo Credit: Maria-Cristina Necula)
The thought-provoking vision that Kouyoumdjian and Vavrek are offering audiences in Adoration is absolutely commendable and engrossing; after all, the opera’s plot not only deals with fundamental issues that humanity has faced since time eternal but it also anchors those issues into today in the power of social media and in the context of post 9/11 trauma and shock. This story throbs with such heart-shredding drama on both an individual and universal level that it does not need a complex framework at all to be impactful. On the contrary, the intense drama would require a simpler, more streamlined approach in order to give the audience a chance to fully absorb the events as well as their implications. The constant pivoting from the present to the past, from real life to the video and social media screens as well as the over-layering of effects and projections fragment the devastating power of the plot and prevent the audience—or at least this reviewer—from becoming completely immersed in the opera, except in the scenes that are more focused theatrically and not overloaded or interrupted by too many visual and sound effects. I would venture to hope that this is a work in progress, a work of immense dramatic force if only it were anchored in a conceptual “less is more” structure.
Top: Omar Najmi as Simon and Naomi Louisa O’Connell as Simon’s mother, Rachel in LA Opera’s Adoration (Photo Credit: Greg Grudt)
