THE BALLAD OF BABY DOE
Douglas Stuart Moore (1893-1969) mined the same vein of American regionalist folksiness that employed his contemporaries Virgil Thomson and Aaron Copland (and, like Copland, worked in New York City, the antithesis of regionalism and folksiness). Their music paralleled the regionalist paintings of Thomas Hart Benton and Grant Wood, though their style lasted longer; they were still exploring folk melodies long after Benton’s muscular realism had been replaced in popularity by the spatterings of his student Jackson Pollock. In recent years their works have been revived by companies looking for operas that are outside the standard round of 19th-century war-horses and that can still be viewed (if you squint) as contemporary.
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Most of the beautiful and vocally interesting sections of this opera belong to its title character, and soprano Carol Gale carried them off with charm and verve, in a clear, high voice. Her diction was the best among those singing the major roles, the more remarkable given the notorious difficulty of projecting words intelligibly above the staff, and her rendition of the aria that closes the opera was touching. In appearance Chris Owens was well cast as Tabor, but his voice was less satisfactory. His baritone is large, warm, and manly, but loses pitch when he tries to sing too loudly. Many of his words were lost, and he was often stiff in his acting. Whether at director Carl J. Ratner’s behest or on his own initiative, he unfailingly and annoyingly held his arms rigidly at his sides and stared up at the spotlights when he should have been looking at Baby.
