Company Finds Life in ‘Dead’

Janacek’s “From the House of the Dead” is a miracle opera.

That is not to say it is a “Parsifal.” There are no great religious conversions, no roses bloom in the God-forsaken prison yard in Siberia where the opera, based upon Dostoevsky’s early novel, is set. There is no plot, even. Just the daily grind of murderous inmates and the little that is left of their miserable lives.

The miracle revealed, then, is the one that the 20th century so admires--finding God in the details. And no opera in this century better excavates beauty and humor and an appreciation for life from the places where you might least expect them than this score that Janacek completed in 1928, a month before his death.

And there is another small miracle to behold with this opera, namely a strong new production of it that Long Beach Opera effected Sunday afternoon in the Carpenter Theater at Cal State Long Beach. A perfect symbol for the new life extended a company on the brink of financial collapse, “From the House of the Dead” completes Long Beach Opera’s first season as a resident company of the university, and the company’s adaptation of a festival format, which also includes the premiere of “Hopper’s Wife.”

“From the House of the Dead” is an opera thus far neglected in America, but not for very good reasons. The title, I suspect, scares some people away, and opera companies don’t especially like ensemble operas. The score requires a very large cast and has no real plot or star roles. It is framed simply, around the admission and eventual release of a nobleman and political prisoner, Alexander Petrovich Goryanchikov, who befriends the youngest prisoner, Alyeya, a boy. And most of the human interest in it comes from a number of narrations, in which individual characters tell their stories.

Nor does it help sell the opera that there are practically no female voices. Alyeya is a soprano role, and there is a line or two for a prostitute. Otherwise, it is an ensemble of 20 male prisoners and guards.

And yet, the opera announces itself as special before any character has walked on stage. The genius of “From the House of the Dead” is in the pit, in the way small obsessive musical motives become transformed through a new harmony or new turn of melody that seem to express the essence of a character or emotion. These transformations are the opera’s real miracle.

Long Beach Opera, unfortunately, could not muster a good orchestra (or maybe it was rehearsal time the company couldn’t afford), but it could--this is its miracle--muster a good conductor, a fine ensemble of singers (with a few standouts), a terrific set, an intelligent director and first-rate lighting. Given all that, and the greatness of the opera, one could live with the orchestra.

Since the opera is so much an ensemble piece and an orchestral work, the conductor is, perhaps, the most crucial component. Neal Stulberg seemed to do the best he could with his under-rehearsed musicians and undernourished strings (more skimping on their number), but he appeared in the pit as an essential pillar of rhythmic strength, but also urging players and singers into the kind of incisive expression that is the essence of the Janacek style.

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It looked as though the money saved on the orchestra was spent on Anthony Macilwaine’s set, which I suspect other companies with large enough stages will be now clamoring to use. Realistic but fantastical, it somehow captured the sheer desolation of a prison yard and looked magnificent at the same time--dominated by the guard tower but made exciting by the huge pipes the prisoners are employed into making. Adam Silverman’s lighting quickly made the set loom or seem intimate as needed.

Julian Webber’s subtle direction wisely calls little attention to itself. There is too much going on in this opera, too many characters and too many rapid changes of dramatic focus, to fool around. But it requires a special skill to move the theatrical spotlight with the precision that Webber seemed to do effortlessly.

Of the large cast, the singers who got the words out best (the opera is sung in English translation from the Czech and without surtitles) are the ones who also seemed to sing with the most character, to tell their tales the most compellingly. Those included John Duykers as the volatile Luka and Michael Myers as the love-lorn Skuratov. Jeffrey Morrissey was a scholarly and feeling Goryanchikov; Robin Follman acted the boy, Alyeya, convincingly, although her too-full soprano gave her away.

* “From the House of the Dead” repeats Saturday at 8 p.m., Carpenter Theater, Cal State Long Beach, 6200 Atherton St., $67-$27, (310) 985-7023.