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Jun 04, 2023

This Week: Marble City Opera Goes Outdoors for Carlisle Floyd’s ‘Susannah’

C hamber opera has been the raison d’etre for Marble City Opera over its 10

Chamber opera has been the raison d’etre for Marble City Opera over its 10 years of life, even if many of the company's productions seemed to redefine what a "chamber" actually is. Tosca in a cathedral and La Traviata in the antique setting of Knoxville's Westwood mansion, along with an assortment of nightclubs, bars, galleries, and other improvised spaces, have pushed the envelope of just how immersive one can be in allowing an improvised setting to be a part of a performance. This week, MCO takes on its boldest staging concept to date, moving outdoors for a production of Carlisle Floyd's Susannah in the appropriately suggestive space of the Marble Springs State Historic Site in South Knox County.

One of the most-performed American operas, Susannah was written during the 1950s during Floyd's tenure on the music faculty of Florida State University. It subsequently premiered there in February of 1955. Floyd based his opera on the apocryphal story of Susannah and the Elders, moving the setting to a small Tennessee mountain community where Susannah, a pretty and innocent young girl of 18 lives with her brother Sam.

After village elders spot her bathing nude in a secluded mountain stream, she is shunned and ostracized by the community. Although steadfast in her belief she has done nothing wrong, Susannah visits the service of a traveling preacher, Reverend Olin Blitch, but flees when singled out for repentance. After the service, Blitch goes to her house ostensibly to pray with her , but inevitably rapes her when he discovers that her brother Sam is away. The next day, learning that Susannah was a virgin, he begs her for forgiveness, but is shot dead by Sam in revenge. The community folk attempt to drive her out of town, but she chases them off with a shotgun, leaving her alone as the opera ends.

Knoxville opera-goers may recognize a number of the faces and voices in Susannah's creative crew and cast—

Director: Matt Haney | Conductor: Andy Anderson

Susannah: Kathryn Frady Olin Blitch: David Crawford Sam: Joseph McBrayer Little Bat: Cody Boling Mrs. Gleaton: Sabreena Cherington Mrs. Ott: Ema MitrovicMr. Ott: Maurice Hendricks Elder McLean: Paul Houghtaling Mr. Gleaton: John Overholt Mrs. McLean: Julie Belanger Roy Mrs. Hayes: Tori FranklinMr. Hayes: Breyon Ewing

Marble City Opera presents Susannah by Carlisle FloydThursday, June 8 | Friday, June 9 | Saturday, June 10 | 7:00 PM Marble Springs Historic Site, 1220 W. Governor John Sevier HighwayInformation and Tickets: https://www.marblecityopera.com/ticketsA streaming option is also availableWear comfortable clothes and shoes suitable for walking on grass Note: Thursday, June 8th, would have been the birthday of the late Brandon Gibson, former Managing Director of Marble City Opera . The company is dedicating the opening night performance to Gibson and his legacy. MCO invites the audience to a toast following the performance.

Drawing from a career background in music, motion pictures, and theatre, Alan Sherrod has been writing about Knoxville's diverse art and music scene since 2007 — first as the classical/new music writer for the alternative weekly Metro Pulse, then later in the same capacity for the Knoxville Mercury. After the closure of Metro Pulse in 2014 by its parent company, Sherrod created ARTS KNOXVILLE to provide a home for Knoxville arts journalism. In August, 2017, he expanded ARTS KNOXVILLE into the site it is today — a site dedicated to continuing the arts journalism legacy of those alternative weeklies. In addition to covering Knoxville's arts scene, he has also contributed music content to the Nashville Scene and other arts and entertainment publications around the U.S, including the website, Classical Journal. Mr. Sherrod was a recipient of a 2010 Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts — the Arts Journalism Institute in Classical Music and Opera — under the auspices of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.In 2019, Sherrod was inducted into the East Tennessee Writers Hall of Fame.