by Lou Harry
Indianapolis Business Journal
The sole on-stage character in Dominick Argento’s one-act opera “A Water Bird Talk” isn’t given a name. He’s just “The Lecturer,” an anonymous gent whose off-stage wife has somehow made him the guest speaker at a ladies’ social club event.
The Lecturer’s subject: water birds (although he would have preferred to speak of spiders). And he’s got some notes and slides to share.
But the Lecturer shares more than his knowledge of our feathered friends. He shares his discomfort. He shares his awkwardness. And, when his wife temporarily leaves her vantage point offstage, he shares his deep sadness about the state of his home life.
Cliché? It could be. The long-suffering husband under the rule of the can’t-please wife certainly isn’t an original concept. It goes back to the Romans—if not to cave drawings. But as smartly written by Argento and as embodied by the outstanding Robert Orth in Indianapolis Opera’s production (which ran through Nov. 13 at the Basile Opera Center), the cliché is transcended through heartache, intimacy, big-hearted sincerity and theatricality.
