Opera opinions
I would love to hear what others thought of the Cambodian opera that premiered in Lowell this weekend.
I loved the opening scene when the monk says “you must listen to my story” and describes Cambodia in 1963, peaceful and tolerant, then ties it in with the murder of JFK. For my generation, it is almost a cliche to ask someone where you were when JFK was killed. It was the first significant event of my life. I was in first grade and my teacher was crying! That makes a huge impression on a 6 year-old. When the monk mentions the day that the Khmer Rouge fell upon Cambodia, in April of 1975, then falls to his knees, no more needs to be said about the horrors that followed.
Some of my favorite moments were: the song about having “no mothers” and the accompanying dance where a mother is teaching her daughter the intricate Cambodian dance forms; the recurring song “That’s the way love goes”; the moment at the end, when Dara reappears in a monk’s saffron robes and embraces Sam; the scene between Bopha, her sister and Khan, where we see how the family dynamics have evolved out of the horrors of the past; the older monk, and what he is able to teach the younger generation about compassion. I felt like the opera hinged on memory: some of the most poignant moments were when Sam remembered his father playing the buffalo horn, or when Dara reminded Sam of when they were in the refugee camps together. And yet, there is the sense of how much memory has been lost because of the Khmer Rouge.
While the love story was not that compelling and some of the character motivations were not easily understood, these problems seemed less important as the story progressed.