A Review Of Lillian Alling

Photo credit: Tim Matheson

Okay, we just had to do it. And in a moment, you'll understand why. We recently received a review of our Lillian Alling from opera-goer James Shih. The kicker? Had we not been made aware that James is a 17 year old student at Sentinel Secondary, we would've thought this review came from a newspaper or magazine article. In fact, James had written this for his high school newspaper and it was forwarded to us by his teacher, Janine Bond.

Read on for James' review:

We are spoiled today in terms of entertainment: from the home TV screen to the sixty-inch silver movie screen, from the romantic to the comedic, from music videos to documentaries. With this wealth of TV riches, what, many people ask, is the point of an opera? Popcorn is strictly frowned upon during performances. No A-list celebrity will ever star in one. There’s too much singing. There’s no action! The costumes are old. The stories are old. Everything’s so old!

Lillian Alling, the new Canadian opera that premiered last Saturday at the Vancouver Opera, offers some tantalising answers to the above question. Lillian Alling shows that opera is indeed, as Wagner put it, a Gesamkunstwerk—a fusion of art, music and poetry, spellbinding in its ethereal beauty, yet shockingly revealing in its realism.

And, despite this seemingly complicated appellation, Lillian Alling is not at all relegated to the confines of “high brow” entertainment, as is the common misconception. Set in the 1920s, the opera retells the true story of a young Russian immigrant named (as you might have guessed) Lillian Alling, who treks across North America. Journeying alone from the commotion of New York to the solitude of Northern British Columbia, her goal is to find Jozef, a man whose life inextricably changed hers. As the opera unfolds, we discover that her relation to the man is not at all what it seems. So there you have it: an intriguing, heart-warming plot, sans 18th century page boys, 19th century Parisian bohemians or prehistoric demigods donning Viking helmets.

It is from this plot synopsis that Lillian Alling’s ingenuity is born. The level of complexity in this opera is impressive, reminiscent almost of Inception, although much more human. There are three separate stories, each within its own epoch. Lillian Alling’s tale is in fact told through the memories of Irene, an old woman who is about to move to a retirement home in Vancouver during the 1980s. As she and her son, Jimmy, drive from the desolate wilderness of the Canadian North to Vancouver, Lillian’s tale—her trials, her tribulations—come to life on the stage. But it does not end there: as Lillian travels on her journey, she is haunted by mysterious, unearthly flashbacks of her family. At the climax of the opera, these three stories—Lillian’s journey, her flashbacks and Irene’s story—all fuse together. We come to realise that though separated by the blinding swathes of time, and geographical distance, Lillian and Irene share a connection through their past.

This is weighty stuff, and it is only befitting for the musical score to be just as melodramatic. Despite being a modern opera, the music is welcomingly consonant: soaring, arpeggiated crescendos, punctuated by warm accents on brass, form the musical backdrop to the stirring plot. The singers have their heart-wrenching duets and arias. Lillian sings the sole musical leitmotif that recurs throughout the opera— a little jaunty theme that depicts her adventurous spirit. Also notable are the potpourri of musical vignettes, each serving as a snapshot of Lillian’s journey aross the continent. Characters sing Broadway-style ditties whilst Lillian searches in Brooklyn; pastoral tunes depict a Norwegian settlement in North Dakota.

If Lillian Alling teaches us anything, it is that in order to move on happily to the future, we must put acknowledge and transcend the painful events of our past. The characters of the opera only achieve calm after having done this. This is a lesson that is mirrored in the opera’s own existence: Lillian Alling pays homage to the great operas of the past, but looks ambitiously forward. We Spartans ought to do the same.

Thanks James for the beautifully written review. We're thrilled you enjoyed Lillian Alling! Oh, and everyone here agrees, you are indeed a powerhouse of a writer!

~Ling Chan, Social Media Manager