Safe to say that a phrase like “LeBron is the G.O.A.T., man, and here are the facts” has not previously appeared on a surtitle at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, any more than Chance the Rapper has shown up in a libretto.
Nor have digital imprints of CTA buses scooching their way down the streets of the South Side, their quotidian journeys acting as a frame for arias from the citizenry about Michael Jordan, unwelcome police interactions, songs of hope, family obligation and fear of the future. Then again, the Lyric has never previously premiered anything quite like “The Factotum,” the new opera from Will Liverman and DJ King Rico, which opened Friday to a rapturous response at the sold-out Harris Theatre.
In the later half of the 20th century, contemporary opera tended to mean formally complex works by the likes of William Bolcom or Philip Glass, oft-masterful compositions but not necessarily as accessible as, say, operas by Giacomo Puccini, or Gioachino Rossini whose “The Barber of Seville” provided a loose inspiration for “The Factotum.”
The dramatic action has moved into a barbershop on Chicago’s South Side, where master barber Mike (played by Liverman) is trying to hold on to his father’s legacy of a safe-space salon even as his co-owning brother Garby (Norman Garrett) runs an illegal numbers racket. The scheme threatens the surety of the barbershop, causing stress with Garby’s girlfriend Rose (Cecilia Violetta López) and also jeopardizes the future of the brothers’ niece Cece (Nissi Shalome), who will need college tuition.
“The Factotum” has its current flaws (more on them in a moment), but it’s still an extraordinary event in Chicago’s cultural history, re-imagining the definition of opera by setting the experience on so-called operatic voices (not that there is a hard and fast definition) and encompassing R&B, soul, funk, hip-hop and gospel vocal stylings.
It does not do so in a vacuum: many classical radio stations, seeking more diverse listeners, similarly have mixed up their playlists, and opera companies globally have finally figured out that they’ve underestimated their collective obligation to the contemporary repertoire.
But aside from the gorgeous singing, what’s most notable about “The Factotum,” for this critic, at least, is its populism: it’s not a nihilistic deconstruction of traditional opera for Ivy League sophisticates but a reminder that Rossini, for one, was composing the music of, and for, the regular folks. Figaro was first invented by the French writer Pierre Beaumarchais; his “The Barber of Seville” followed the structure of the Commedia dell’arte, which was as populist as you can get. Any debate as to whether “The Factotum” qualifies or not as an opera is uninteresting to me. Of course it does. No one who has seen it could reasonably argue otherwise.
And, let’s not forget, this work, cocreated by an enigmatic, sampling DJ, is set in Chicago and fueled by the proud history of the tonsorial emporia of the South Side. As such, it’s a civic statement by the Lyric, an organization finally embracing locality as well as its long-standing leadership of international opera.
The great strength of “The Factotum” is its score, a lush soundscape conducted by Kedrick Armstrong that feels entirely like the undergirding of a great American city but allows for individual musical vulnerability.
That is most obviously seen in the character of CJ (Martin Luther Clark), a military returnee from overseas conflict; Clark sings so beautifully, and so delicately, of the travails of reentry that he brought tears to my eyes. It is at those moments you think, “Will Liverman is the real deal,” a soaring, romantic and relentlessly upbeat melodist who can capture his characters’ emotional states and yet who (with Rico) also is fully capable of exploiting such forms as quartets, aptly enough here of the barbershop variety. And in Bootleg Joe (the very funny Lunga Eric Hallam), he has forged a classic scalawag trickster, whose pockets are lined with great-deal merchandise and who sells as he sings.
Should Liverman have starred in his own work here? Questionable, to my mind, since this opera would have benefited from more external eyes who understood that its remarkable achievements in the evocation of a community under stress (always a great source for an opera or a musical) exceed its current accomplishments in dramatically advancing its story. It could use the addition of another experienced director; I suspect Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj, who also has a book credit, was preoccupied with narrative and dramaturgy. The piece now needs drive and richer, more defined visualization, especially in the less defined Act Two.
All that said, the entire experience here is not to be missed, if you can still snag a ticket. I’m sure there were good reasons for staging the piece at the Harris but I kept thinking about how this opera would have looked and sounded at the Lyric and what kind of statement that would have made. For a reprise, perchance.
The title of “The Factotum” is a riff on Rossini’s “Largo al factotum,” an aria sung on Figaro’s first entrance: I’d think about changing it, frankly, as that source is very much a celebration of Figaro’s individual star-power. Liverman actually has composed, and done so beautifully, an opera about the history, the struggles and the loving determination of an entire community.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
Review: “The Factotum” (3.5 stars)
When: Through Feb. 12
Where: Harris Theatre, 205 E. Randolph St.
Running time: 2 hours, 30 mins.
Tickets: $25-125 (sold out but check for returns at 312-827-5600 or lyricopera.org)