Pittsburgh Opera is closing its season with an enigmatic world premiere — with three distinct endings.
“To be performing something that has never hit a stage before is always super exhilarating,” said tenor Fran Daniel Laucerica, who plays Thomas the thief in “Woman With Eyes Closed.”
The new opera from award-winning composer Jennifer Higdon is based on the true story of an art heist. It follows the struggles of Mona (Meredith Arwady), who discovers a suitcase of artworks stolen by her son, Thomas. When she discovers that one of the paintings — the eponymous “Woman with Eyes Closed” — bears a close resemblance to her own mother, she finds herself with an impossible decision to make.
A decision so impossible that audiences at different performances will see one of three possible resolutions.
Pittsburgh Opera will mount five performances of “Woman with Eyes Closed,” opening on Saturday, April 26, at the Bitz Opera Factory in the Strip District. According to Pittsburgh Opera general director Christopher Hahn, the first three shows will cycle through all three endings. The fourth will feature the audience favorite ending, as voted after dress rehearsal on April 24. And the fifth show will close out with the cast’s choice for best ending.
“This is literally unique,” Hahn said. “I do not know of any other piece that is like this.”
He said that he believes Higdon’s decision to leave the disparate paths open to the audience is brave. “Woman with Eyes Closed” was originally commissioned by Opera Philadelphia, and Hahn was thrilled to be able to bring this fresh opera to Pittsburgh for its world premiere.
“Opera is mistakenly stereotyped as some sort of 19th century old-fashioned form and it’s actually incredibly alive and vibrant. There’s an awful lot of new creative work going on, and so being able to introduce a whole new range of things to the Pittsburgh audience in the last couple of decades, that’s been my journey,” Hahn said.
“Woman With Eyes Closed” falls into that category of new, vibrant creative work. Higdon is a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer who has done commissioned work for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in the past, amongst many other orchestras around the United States. Previously, she composed the opera “Cold Mountain,” based on the 1997 novel by Charles Frazier (which was also adapted into a 2003 film).
Hahn said that working with Higdon to bring her newest opera to life was a rewarding experience. “She’s a fabulous collaborator. She was very keen for this piece to see the light of day.”
Stacking up the building blocks of a brand-new opera is, as he described, “exciting and daunting.” “It brings out the best in people, and hopefully not the opposite.”
On the performance side, Laucerica has found this production challenging — but in a great way.
“It’s not a role that I would take a look at on a page and say that it would fit me perfectly, but it’s been kind of exciting to figure out how to navigate doing service to it. … It’s just been awesome, and Jennifer’s been so cool and encouraging throughout this entire process.”
“Woman with Eyes Closed” is a piece with emotionally complex characters, so Laucerica and his fellow cast members had to meet the challenge of elevated acting, in addition to bringing a brand new score to the stage with their voices. “I’ve actually gotten to play a couple bad guys here. I don’t play them very often. I think the tenor is more typically sort of a lover boy or a romantic archetype so it’s always exciting when I get to play something different. This is different from all the other times, to say the least.”
Thomas, his character, is not easy, he said. “It’s been challenging because there have been quiet a few characters — specifically this season — that I’ve played where I have, on the surface, very little empathy for. But you can’t play that.”
He’s had to do the work of getting into Thomas’s head and relating to him. “I hope that I’m conveying it well.”
The full cast and creative team have been working tirelessly to bring the vision of “Woman With Eyes Closed” from page to stage, Hahn said. Stage director Kristine McIntyre was entrusted with visualizing the staging and bringing in the right designers to execute the first-ever production that’s lived inside composer Higdon’s head.”
“In this week, Jennifer was seeing the production come together in ways that were total. She was delighted. She was jumping up and down excited,” he said.
Hahn, who has been with Pittsburgh Opera for two and a half decades, sees operas like “Woman with Eyes Closed” as perfect examples of what he wants to do with this company. “That’s why doing new music, doing new pieces, doing new endings — new everything — is so crucial in what we do, and it’s how we challenge ourselves.”
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“Woman with Eyes Closed” will be performed at the Bitz Opera Factory in the Strip District on Saturday, April 26 at 8 p.m.; Tuesday, April 29 at 7 p.m.; Friday, May 2 at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, May 3 at 2 p.m.; and Sunday, May 4 at 4 p.m. Run time is about 75 minutes with no intermission. For more information, visit pittsburghopera.org.