Opera parable ‘Starbird’ takes flight at UCO Jazz Lab

UCO Opera presented “Starbird,” a modern one-act opera aimed at children, Nov. 15-17 at the UCO Jazz Lab. A parable about the value of cooperation, the music is interesting but not so challenging to the ear that young children would have difficulty following the libretto or the melodies.

The 1979 opera by Henry Mollicone with text by Kate Pogue features three animals who squabble among themselves until they find themselves in a spaceship maneuvered by two robots. There they meet the Starbird, who warns them that the robots will use them for experiments; following Starbird’s directions, they take over the ship and eventually return to Earth having learned that faults are sometimes virtues and that they all need one another.

The trio was vocally strong: Brandon Haynes gave a delightfully puppyish performance as a friendly dog who used to work with a letter carrier, carrying the magazines and flyers. He’s been replaced by a cart and has no home. He meets the Cat, sung with great zest and feline ferocity by KJ Smith. Smith gave the Cat a wonderfully slinky and snarky feel; the Cat’s rat-catching ability has been replaced by an exterminator. When Troy Small’s Donkey arrives, the trio is complete. Small delivered a robust and funny Donkey, who used to give rides at Democratic Party events but has been replaced like the others.

When they discover the silver Starbird, sung with mellifluous stamina by Megan Perdue, they find themselves in the ship. They must overcome their wrangling and work together to defeat the robots and get home; the musical interweaving of the fractiousness and eventual negotiated harmony was delightfully sung and acted by the cast.

“Starbird” was presented as the apex of an evening of scenes produced by UCO’s opera workshop class. In keeping with the spaceship theme of “Starbird,” all the scenes used some space references, and many very cleverly incorporated word changes to reference popular science fiction.

The first scene was from a Menotti opera called “Help! Help! the Globolinks!” that is a type of science fiction in itself. A busload of children are trapped when the radio announces the Globolinks are attacking; these creatures can only be turned back with music. Keegan Rose sang Tony the bus driver well, and Tina Tran as Emily, the only student with an instrument, communicated both fear and courage in her singing.

“Three Little Maids” from “The Mikado” was reimagined as “Charlie’s Angels” from space; the three singers then provided the continuity, appearing in the remaining scenes as transitional figures. The duet and aria from “Susannah” was set as “Rogue One” with the Susannah/ Jyn character beautifully sung by Alexandria Carmon. Perhaps the funniest use of imagery was the lovely trio from Gluck’s “Orfeo” with Eurydice/ Princess Leia (Xinyu Pan) and Orfeo/Luke Skywalker (Jessica Dodd) joined by Amore/Yoda (Sydney Connor) in a song about the value of love. This was followed by song from “HMS Pinafore” called, in this context, “I am the captain of the Enterprise” in which Captain “Kirkeran,” hilariously played by Hayden Turner, extols his competences before accidentally killing a red shirt and walking off with the three “angels” to end the scene.

UCO’s performing arts department tends toward excellence; check the websites at the Jazz Lab (www.ucojazzlab.com) and Mitchell Hall Theatre (sites.uco.edu/cfad/ mitchell-hall/events.asp) for tickets and information on upcoming events.