"Owen Wingrave' by Opera Philadelphia and Curtis

Benjamin Britten is one of the most performed 20th-century composers, but his Owen Wingrave has virtually been ignored. This short opera, based on a Henry James story, has been dismissed for its supposedly weak plot and music that imitates other Britten works.

On the contrary, I'd say Owen Wingrave exhibits the welcome earmarks of Britten's style. Its score adds gamelan-like percussive effects and unusual pairings of solo instruments. And its story takes a different tone than his most popular operas, Peter Grimes and Billy Budd.

Those two exude the salty air of the sea; Owen Wingrave is more stately, as befits its setting in the country mansion of a distinguished British family, and its expression of the composer's pacifism and his conscientious objection to military service in World War II. In this opera, young Owen refuses to pursue a military career even though soldiering has been a way of life for his family for generations.

Duty to obey

Owen is berated by his fiancée, Kate Julian; by her mother; and by all of his family, with declarations like, "It is his duty to be a soldier and, as a soldier, to obey." A balladeer sings about a young man who was killed by his father for refusing to fight. Kate humiliates Owen by flirting with another man. Owen, in a powerful soliloquy, affirms his pacifism ("In peace I have found my image"). Kate accuses him of cowardice and dares him to show his bravery by going into a haunted room. Owen agrees, enters the room and mysteriously dies.

Daniel Fish, an avant-garde director who made an excellent impression with his staging of Sarah Ruhl's A Clean House at the Wilma Theater in 2004, here made his operatic debut in a joint production by Opera Philadelphia and Curtis Opera Theatre. He provided some effective changes, such as replacing the usual framed painted portraits of Owen's ancestors with photographic images.

The pacifist theme was expanded to include a protest against gun violence, referencing the Sandy Hook shootings. One powerful scene depicted mothers packing pistols into their children's school bags.

Confusing accents

Fish opted for costuming that suggested contemporary America rather than Victorian England. Unfortunately, the singers still used English accents. To compound the confusion, this production omitted the projected titles that have become normal at all operas, even those in American English.

Henry James claimed that a text must above all be recognizable to its readers. That dictum is even more important when dealing with a text that is sung. Even though this cast enunciated as well as anyone could expect, it's always hard to discern the words when three or four voices sing simultaneously, as occurs in Owen Wingrave (and in almost all other operas, too). Enigmatic phrases projected onto the scenery commented on the action, but their sloganeering didn't adequately replace the clarity of projected text.

Stage action was cryptic and suggestive rather than straightforward. That might be fine when you restage a familiar opera, but it's confusing for first-time viewers of a little-known work like this one. In Fish's Clean House, the imagery of a vacuum cleaner conveyed the point of the play. Here, Fish's stage inventions confused things more than they elucidated.

The young professional cast from Curtis Institute sang and acted very well. Owen's innocence was reflected in ethereal singing by members of the Philadelphia Boys Choir. George Manahan conducted superbly, demonstrating the musicianship of his cast as well as the expertise of the Curtis Institute Orchestra.