A BERKELEY STUMBLE FOR 'BABY DOE'
            And Singing Swan-Songs in the Snowfall 
                                              By D. Rane Danubian
        artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music and dance 
                                                                 Week of July 16, 2009
                                                                  Vol. 11, No. 117
          BERKELEY---“The Ballad of Baby Doe” vacillates between folksy Americana, traditional opera, and historical drama with music that is somewhere between ingratiating and pedestrian.
            The opera has been revived by the modest but durable (30 years old!) Berkeley Opera in a production indicative of the gravitas of American troupes today: The resources (and budget for prime singers) are audibly more limited than ever before, the elaborate multi-scene staging becomes a single set with projections, and each performance is preceded by a fervent plea for free-will contributions to weather this economic crisis, in which arts funding is clearly not the first priority.
            Some troupes cut back on the number of operas. Others, like the San Francisco Opera, are doing popular pre-20th-century operas. And yet others, like Berkeley Opera, speed on, but in such a spartan fashion that the point is lost on this listener.
            Still, “The Ballad of Baby Doe” is a welcome returnee, as much a part of Americana mainstream as “Our Town” is in theater. It was inspired by the sad ending of the steadfast widow Baby Doe Tabor in 1935, frozen to death and destitute at her husband’s old, worthless silver mine in Leadville, Colo. The ex-senator Tabor had died himself 36 years earlier. Composer Douglas Moore  saw it produced in New York in 1958 with a fast-rising soprano star named Beverly Sills in the title role.
            Moore’s music does not have lasting impact, but the historical side is fascinating. Tabor went from mere miner to mining magnate, along the way abandoning his wife Augusta for the pretty new thing in town, Baby Doe, who was a generation younger. The two stuck together, to every one’s surprise, even after his fortunes were wiped out, and Baby Doe became the very model-icon of spousal fidelity.
            Berkeley Opera could be called a mom-and-pop company. While Jonathan Khuner is artistic director and occasional conductor, Baby Doe is played by soprano Jillian Khuner, who had taken many leads in the earlier days of the troupe. She plays opposite the expansive, bigger-than-life Tabor of baritone Torlef Borsting.
            Of considerable interest was the Augusta of mezzo Lisa Houston, who radiated true operatic fire as the wronged, abandoned woman, and the W.J. Bryan of bass John Bischoff, who was credible as a presidential candidate. When heard July 15, the orchestra was too small (only about two dozen), and even rowdier than the silver miners cavorting on stage.
            The most inspired moments of the uneven score come with the late peace-making encounter between Augusta and Baby Doe, followed by the (invented) soliloquy scene of the abandoned Bay Doe, singing a swan song in the snowfall of the Rockies. Along the way there are hoe-downs, reels, and generous choral segments.
            The economy production’s most notable element were the excellent projections by Jeremy Knight in a quasi-19th-century style  of photography setting the many varied scenes.
                Douglas Moore’s “The Ballad of Baby Doe” presented by Berkeley Opera through July 19.  Julia Morgan Theater, Berkeley. For info: (510) 841-1903, or go online. 

        ©D. Rane Danubian 2009
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        D. Rane Danubian has been covering the dance and modern-music scene in the San Francisco Bay Area with relish -- and a certain amount of salsa -- for years.
    These critiques appearing weekly (or sometimes semi-weekly, but never weakly) will focus on dance and new musical creativity in performance, with forays into books (by authors of the region), theater and recordings by local artists as well.
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