New ‘ musical drama’ weathers its premiere

Not entirely an opera and not really a musical, and billed therefore as a new musical drama, During Wind and Rain, which received its world premiere Thursday night at North Little Rock’s Argenta Community Theater, was an awe- inspiring musical and theatrical experience.

The show is based on the late 19th- century family history of librettist Margaret Jones Bolsterli, who grew up in the tiny Desha County town of Watson — also the hometown of composer/ conductor Michael Rice.

Rice and director Judy Trice have assembled a cast of absolutely gorgeous voices, right down to the little children and chorus of townsfolk.

In the bright, joyful first act, matriarch Maggie Jones ( mezzo- soprano Kathryn Pryor) and patriarch Joseph Jones ( bari- tenor Matthew K. Tatus) revel in their prosperous farm and their growing family — grown sons Gordon and Luther ( tenors Mark A. Burbank and D. Brent Miller), grown daughters Irene and Sallie ( soprano Karen Q. Clark and mezzo Sarah Stankiewicz Dailey), sonin- law Alfred Stroud ( tenor Daniel Foltz- Morrison) and a passel of kids and grandkids ( Madison Courage Fleck, Corbin Pitts, Lauren Lasseigne, Robbie Pryor and Bram Fendley).

The second act turns dark, really dark, right from the get- go — I don’t think it spoils anything by saying it opens with a funeral, and that’s only the first of a series of tragedies that test the family, possibly past the breaking point.

Rice’s gorgeous score skillfully works in period elements ( some Gay ’ 90s and even ragtime accents) plus a few familiar church tunes and a lovely setting of the Thomas Hardy poem that lends the show its name. Trice’s direction is simple and brilliant; so is the set — a front porch and a front yard, with the excellent nine- piece onstage orchestra in the back 40.

Cast and musicians will reassemble for performances at 8 p. m. today and Saturday, 2 p. m. Sunday at the theater, 405 Main St., North Little Rock. Ticket information is available by calling ( 501) 3531443 or visiting the website, argentacommunitytheater. com.