The Florida Grand Opera Kicks Off Season With Mourning Becomes Electra

Florida Grand Opera kicked off their 2013-14 season with the Southeast American premiere of Mourning Becomes Electra. This opera, by Fort Lauderdale’s own Marvin David Levy, is based on the play cycle by world-renowned playwright, Eugene O’Neill. Mourning Becomes Electra, performed completely in English, created major hype in South Florida’s theatre community.

Mourning Becomes Electra places the events depicted in the ancient Greek drama known as the Oresteia, by Aeschylus, onto a New England family during the Civil War. The plot is rather twisted with each character going through respective meltdowns. The family must deal with the consequences of mother Christine’s decision to have an affair with her cousin, Adam, while her husband, Ezra, is away at war. Throughout seething passions of bitterness, infidelity, incest, and murder lies a stunningly captivating opera that leaves the audience asking: “Is revenge really worth it?”

Mourning Becomes Electra hasn’t seen a lot of stage time since it’s opening in 1967. The original play premiered at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center in New York City. It then vanished from the theatre for 31 years. The Lyric Opera of Chicago was the second company to adopt the show in 1998, following three more revivals. Florida Grand Opera was the fifth American company to produce it.

“Although it was highly successful, opera companies are reluctant to mount productions of contemporary works, because they traditionally never sell as many tickets as the small group of standard operas,” Florida Grand Opera Managing Director of Marketing and Communication, Justin Moss, said.

This production, however, was completely unlike your traditional opera. First of all, widening the opera’s appeal was the fact that it’s in English. This, plus projected Spanish and English subtitles above the stage, made the story very easy to follow. Secondly, projections were utilized to create the illusion that ghosts of the members of the Mannon family exist, which enhanced the idea that their house actually is a “tomb.” Thirdly, a single set piece was used to represent a bed, a coffin, and the deck of a ship. Also, the opera began with young Lavinia closing a dollhouse of her mansion and ended with adult Lavinia opening it to close it on herself. This wildly inventive staging was extremely symbolic throughout the production.

“The production team made a nod to ancient Greek theatre by using periactoids, a device used in 458 B.C., when the Oresteia was first performed,” Moss said. “These isosceles triangle-shaped columns provided three surfaces that could be painted to suggest different scenic elements, and revolved as necessary. With modern technology, we had limitless possibilities of what imagery we could use and were really pleased with the final product, which was a vividly engaging and aesthetically pleasing production.”

Lauren Flanigan and Rayanne Dupuis were the main stars in Mourning Becomes Electra. The last three shows of Florida Grand Opera’s 2013-2014 season are Giuseppe Verdi’s Nabucco, Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca, and Jules Massenet’s Thaïs. Like all Florida Grand Opera productions, Mourning Becomes Electra was absolutely spectacular. The next three are surely not to be missed.