The Todd Couple
The Spokane Opera will reprise one of its biggest hits beginning Friday with “Sweeney Todd,” the Stephen Sondheim show with the delicious subtitle, “The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.”
Back in 1990, when Spokane Opera was still known as Uptown Opera, “Sweeney Todd” became its most successful production ever.
People flocked to this gruesome story of a London barber, which is based on an old 19th-century melodrama, “The String of Pearls.” The customers of this particular barber are unlucky indeed. Mr. Todd has a habit of slitting his customers’ throats and turning the bodies over to Mrs. Lovett, his neighbor, who bakes them into meat pies.
Yummm. What kind of opera is this? Slasher opera?
In fact, it did not begin life as an opera at all, despite the fact that it has been a staple of opera companies ever since. It began as a Broadway musical, a big 1979 hit starring Angela Lansbury.
Whether “Sweeney Todd” is or is not an opera was the subject of debate in the April 30 issue of The New York Times.
“By no definition is `Sweeney Todd’ an opera,” said orchestrator Jonathan Tunick, summing up the general feeling. “It is not sung throughout. It is driven by the drama and cast by dramatic type (as opposed to being cast strictly by voice).”
He called it instead a “successful American musical drama.”
Yet, as Sondheim himself explained in the same issue, if it is done in an opera house, by an opera company, you might as well call it an opera.
“Essentially, the difference, I think is in the expectations of the audience,” said Sondheim.
The truth is, it doesn’t matter one way or another. This Spokane Opera production should appeal to musical theater fans because it is, in fact, a Broadway musical and an uncommonly sophisticated one at that.
“The plot’s ugliest incidents inspire Mr. Sondheim’s most gorgeous melodies,” wrote critic Frank Rich in The New York Times.
It should also appeal to opera lovers because it is done by an opera company and sung by opera singers.
Baritone Rob Newman, a veteran of Spokane Opera, sings the role of Sweeney Todd. He also was Todd in the troupe’s original production back in 1990.
Mezzo-soprano Buffy Baggott takes on the role of Mrs. Lovett, made famous by Lansbury. Baggott will give the role a decidedly more operatic bent, since she has apprenticed at the Chicago Lyric Opera and Santa Fe Opera.
John Cooper sings the role of Anthony, the romantic love interest. Andrea Frey will sing the role of Johanna.
We’ll let the Spokane Opera’s co-artistic director, Bill Graham, have the last word on whether “Sweeney Todd” is a true opera.
“I believe `Sweeney Todd’ is opera,” he said. “Opera has changed. It’s about words and music, and this opera is a deliciously dark comedy.”
This sidebar appeared with the story:
ON STAGE
`Sweeney Todd’
Performed By the Spokane Opera. Opens Friday, 8 p.m., and continues Saturday, 8 p.m., Sunday, 3 p.m., Wednesday, 7:30 p.m., June 2, 8 p.m., and June 3, 8 p.m., at The Met. Tickets are $15 to $35, available through G&B (325-SEAT or 1-800-325-SEAT).