15 years post premiere, Maryland Studio Opera returns to the University of Maryland

Poster for the “Late the Same Evening” (The Clarice)

The Maryland Studio Opera performed last month the Edward Hopper-inspired opera “Later the Same Evening,” 15 years after it premiered at the University of Maryland.

The opera follows an evening in Manhattan inspired by five paintings by artist and New York native Edward Hopper: “Room in New York” (1932), “Hotel Window” (1955), “Hotel Room” (1931), “Two on the Aisle” (1927) and “Automat” (1927). 

Hopper’s infamous 1942 painting “Nighthawks,” intentionally did not make the list, according to a statement by the composer John Musto during the pre-show panel. He wanted to bring together lesser-known Hopper works to speak to a central theme of Hopper paintings. 

There is “something vague about the people in the paintings,” Musto said. 

Hopper’s paintings had a common motif of loneliness and isolation, his most infamous work being “Nighthawks.” The piece captures “the alienation and loneliness indicative of modern urban life,” according to art education website The Art Story. 

But what happens right before the scene that you see in the painting? Musto dissected this question in collaboration with librettist Mark Campbell. 

The composer said he had to get into the skin of each character in the paintings in order to create the opera. The biggest challenge in composing the piece was creating the puzzle of it all and then “solving the puzzle at the same time.” 

Before the premiere, the show went through seven to eight iterations, including at Boston University, Central City Opera, and Glimmerglass, said Maryland Studio Opera director Craig Kier. In 2007, “Later the Same Evening” premiered at the University of Maryland, directed by Leon Major, in collaboration with the National Gallery of Art.

“We kept saying, ‘just like Leon did,’ but then [Musto] said we have to try something new,” said stage director in the school of music David Lefkowich. 

Collaboration with the National Gallery of Art included the use of paintings throughout the entire piece, but the story was meant to stand on its own, Musto said. 

“We let the people tell the story instead of the paintings always being the starting point of every part of it,” Kier said. “And here we’re surrounded by the people who are making the music, making the art, in all ways are students.” 

Musto referenced this puzzle he needed to solve when he created the composition. Kier found when he composed it, he was faced with a puzzle of his own. Understanding the piece was a part of the “journey” the student performers, student pit and he underwent.  

There was a need to solve the puzzle of the complex music composition, find as many answers as possible and be comfortable not knowing the outcome until the very end, Kier said. 

The students were “passionately diving” into the piece, Kier said. As an audience member, “you get to come and see emerging talent onstage learning their craft in real time,” he said. 

The set, costume and lighting designers of the production are MFA students part of Theatre Dance and Performing Arts Studies. The question Lefkowich was left with was, “what else can we do now with a new set of creative people... that may be new and different?” Kier said. 

The use of projections is very different, the director said. 

The windows on stage displayed city skylines which acted as “a portal into something,” Lefkowich said. 

In a metaphorical way, the audience watched the actors on stage watching another show. There is this parallel created between the experience of going to the theatre that we’ve missed, Kier said. 

“I think we really cherish it, especially now after having not had a chance to enjoy and absorb live theatrical experiences together in person,” Kier said. 

The individual stories in the opera breathed on their own, but the ways in which the production was able to use technology to tell more engaging stories were through sets that “magically floated” on stage, Lefkowich said. 

With this, Lefkowich questioned, “When did it feel right to bring the paintings to life?” He decided that it was at the end because “great stories need to be experienced” and breathe on their own.

“I think it’s different, as it should be. We always want something that is new and different,” Kier said.