Performances + Events
There is nothing fun or funny about finding oneself stuck in an airport. Most people, Robert Tweten, pointed out, have experienced the frustration of a delayed or canceled flight and the seemingly interminable wait to travel home or elsewhere. Such is the plight of the characters in Jonathan Dove’s opera Flight.
Despite the premise — the jumping-off point for which was the very real story of an Iranian refugee’s 18-year stay in Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport — the opera is a “modern comedy” in which a Refugee finds himself among a group of stranded travelers and the unfolding stories of their dramatically complicated lives.
Tweten, who’ll conduct the NEC Opera and NEC Philharmonia through four performances in the Plimpton Shattuck Black Box Theatre in November, said modern comic operas are something of a rarity. The comedic element, of course, falls to a large degree on the librettist, in this case April de Angelis.
While the work as a whole is “a lot of fun,” Tweten, music director of NEC’s Graduate Opera Studies Department said, the Refugee and his story are the emotional heart of the piece. The role, Tweten said, is a fantastic one for countertenors — “one of the great roles to get to do.” The work includes an aria, “Dawn, Still Darkness,” that countertenors learn for auditions and competitions.
Ricky Owens ’26 GD, who’ll share the role with Baian Chen ’27 (the production is double-cast), said his job requires “internalizing how one would feel” in the Refugee’s position and carrying that “emotional weight” through the performance.
The comic aspect of the opera, Owens said, presents a challenge. “You don’t want to break the fourth wall,” he said, explaining that Flight is “not about being funny, it’s about being found funny.
The opera’s foremost challenge, for the cast and the orchestra, is Dove’s rhythmic language. Owens described the work’s odd-time signatures and syncopations as tricky. Tweten agreed. “Rhythmically it’s very challenging,” he said — a lot of fun once the musicians get into the groove of Dove’s rhythms.
Despite its musical challenges, Tweten said the music is accessible, and that Dove is “a master orchestrator.”
“It’s a fantastic piece for orchestra,” Tweten said, one that features “really great roles for a number of singers,” in addition to the countertenor.
“Be prepared to have fun,” Tweten said, “I expect the energy in the theater will be amazing.”
NEC Opera presents Flight November 20–23 in the Plimpton Shattuck Black Box Theatre. Visit NEC’s Performances + Events Calendar for additional concert listings.
