Hadestown an original gem worth seeing

Some people break out in a cold sweat when they hear the word opera, but let me reassure you that Hadestown: A Folk Opera is unlike anything you have ever heard before. There is nothing to fear, honest.

Hadestown is Anais Mitchell’s baby, a completely original songbook in a class of its own. The music roams freely across the American song catalogue, incorporating gospel, ragtime, blues, jazz, rock, swing, folk and bit of avant-garde.

And although the project is complex, the music flows freely and is completely accessible. It could actually be dubbed as a musical without dialogue.

Mitchell is an inspired singer-songwriter you probably have never heard of until now, however she has written an entire folk opera on the Orpheus saga. First performed in 2006 in Vermont with a cast of local actors and musicians, it has been refined over the years and toured with different artists.

Currently on its last tour, the concert version of the show began a two-day run at the Arden Theatre on Wednesday night.

The original Greek myth is about a man, a poet-singer, who follows his wife to hell. Mitchell’s version occurs during a post-apocalyptic America suffering a depression. Times are hard. Hades (John Rutherford), a Machiavellian ruler, runs an underground city. It prospers because Hades has constructed a wall around it to keep wealth in and poverty out.

Eurydice (Mitchell), although madly in love with Orpheus (St. Albert product Stephen Tchir), abandons him and chooses the security of Hadestown over an uncertain life of destitution. But she soon discovers that hell has no freedom.

Hadestown is a difficult project to describe but it works in large part because Mitchell is a gifted songwriter who stitches dense themes into powerful imagery. Yet each tune sounds so deceptively simple.

Much of the show’s success is also based on the characters’ ambiguous natures. Every character demonstrates good and bad and that forces us to look deeper. Slowly it dawns on us that they are all victims of many emotions, including love, envy, joy and disappointment.

The show begins with a six-piece band tuning their instruments while eight singers walk on stage and shuffle their music sheets at microphones.

Hermes (Kris Demeanor) opens with a short introductory narrative for each character before Mitchell and Tchir swing into Wedding Song, a sad premonition of impending doom.

Throughout the program Mitchell is completely comfortable, showing us Eurydice’s desperation in Gone, I’m Gone before bewitchingly calling to Orpheus in Flower.

Along with Eurydice, Tchir’s Orpheus is key to the tragedy. And Anais has written some of the most beautiful songs for him such as the heartbreaking Wait For Me, and the tragic Doubt Comes In when he realizes he has lost his love.

While Tchir initially appeared nervous on stage, it was during If It’s Time, that he opened up his richly toned vocals and displayed Orpheus’ romantic confidence pledging eternal love.

As Hades, Rutherford’s deep bass voice was the perfect counterpoint. We see the seeds of his evil in Hey, Little Songbird that only heightens and peaks with His Kiss, The Riot.

Charlotte Cornfield as Persephone, Hades’ wife, delivers the vocal power and strength of Hadestown’s first lady. But this Persephone also operates a hole-in-the-wall speakeasy behind her husband’s back that serves his slaves.

Although Persephone is a rich personality, Cornfield missed an opportunity to get sassy and reveal a different aspect of her character with Our Lady of the Underground, a tune with a very seductive melody.

Ultimately this is a time-honoured legend that is still relevant today. Fabulous in its ambition, Hadestown was beautifully executed. Such an original project is definitely worth seeing before it is mothballed.

Tickets are still available for Thursday’s 7 p.m. show.