Rebecca Grey is a composer with a very individual view of the world and her art.  Who else would write operas about nightmares on an overnight bus trip or about a savvy racoon taking on a rapacious Toronto landlord?  Or, for that matter, cycle the Highway of Tears?  Her most substantial project to date is Bus Opera.  I first saw a workshop of an early version of it at the CMC a couple of years ago followed by a performance of extracts at one of New Music Concerts’ MAKEWAY concerts for early career creators at St. George by the Grange a few weeks later.  So I was very happy when I was offered the chance to attend a workshop performance of the (pretty much) complete work at Hugh’s Room on Tuesday night.

The Bus Opera website contains a really good description of the piece and its history and has some video excerpts so I’m not going to duplicate that.  Rather I’ll talk a bit about Tuesday’s performance and its reception on Tuesday bearing in mind it was a workshop of a piece that is complete in the sense that all the bits are there but not necessarily in their final form.

It was presented as “semi staged” by Daevyd Pepper..  There was some blocking etc but there were still music stands and, to be fair, the “action” had been created and rehearsed in a ridiculously short space of time.  There were also sketches, by Rebecca’s sister, of what sets and costumes might look like in a fully staged version.  Enough, I think, to imagine a fully staged version.

It’s come a long way in two years.  The music; which is scored for five singers, piano, cello, violin and alto sax; all using a wide range of techniques, is interesting and very atmospheric.  The libretto (also by Rebecca) is clever and very funny in places.  What still needs work (IMHO) is the dramatic impact of the piece.  It’s very short (<45 minutes) and feels really condensed, as though the composer is desperate that the audience doesn’t get bored.  But there’s really no danger of that and, for me, the opposite is true.  It’s so condensed and fast paced that I had some difficulty “Keeping up” (and this was my third time seeing some of the material).  I felt that it could slow down and relax a bit.  Interestingly in the audience feedback there seemed to be a bit of a generational divide about that with some younger audience members feeling the pacing was about right and fellow older folk more in my corner!

The performances, by the way, were excellent, especially given minimal rehearsal time.  It’s pretty complex musically with all the extended technique and so on, so props to Morgan-Paige Melbourne on piano, Gemma Donn on violin, Ivan Lamberton on cello and Justin Massey on alto sax.  The singers were excellent too with Daevyd Pepper and Rebecca playing different aspects of the main Protagonist, Andrew Adridge, in various roles including a notably nightmarish dentist, Hillary Jean-Young, also in multiple roles, and Ryan McDonald as the eerily creepy Shadow who is a sort of conscience to the Protagonists.  This part is beautifully written and was very well sung.  I think it could be expanded to advantage.  Finally Justin Miller was very funny in the spoken part of the Bus Driver.

Bottom line, Bus Opera has real potential and it’s come a long way.  Some tweaks and it could be very successful.  It’s got a lot of what contemporary operas need to succeed.  It’s a strong story with excellent music and it’s also got the ingredients that promoters like.  It’s chamber scale and I think even a somewhat expanded version would come in around an hour which is perfect for today’s theatrical audiences.  I hope it gets picked up and produced somewhere in the not too distant future.