Music and Dance Reviews : Tribute to Composer Lee Hoiby Opens at Long Beach

The tribute to American composer Lee Hoiby at Cal State Long Beach began with a well-intentioned but seriously flawed production of the composer’s opera “Summer and Smoke,” based on the play by Tennessee Williams, in University Theatre on Friday.

The problem wasn’t the fake Southern accents that appeared intermittently when the characters spoke but disappeared when they sang, annoying as that was.

Nor was it the almost universal vocal and dramatic weakness of the cast, which tends to be par for the course in a college production.

Above all, it was the problem of an apparent age difference between the heroine and the hero, which cast an undesirable Oedipal pall over Williams’ childhood pair who, grown-up, represent the opposites of soul and body.

Rosemary Scott brought strong vocal resources to the role of Alma, but despite intelligent, feverish acting, was unable to evoke suspension of disbelief that Alma is a peer of the young John Buchanan.

On the other hand, Scott Watanabe as John lacked even that much dramatic and vocal credibility.

Despite major lighting glitches, Mark Shulgasser’s staging responded sensitively to the drama and resourcefully used the small stage and movable furniture.

Michael Carson conducted the onstage orchestra (seated behind a scrim) with serious purpose and effective results, even though one could hope for more expansiveness and point in the music.

The production also included the first performance of an added scene in the first act. Hoiby has remained true to his sentimental, Menottiesque, moody and tuneful style of 1971--cleverly stitching the new into the old by quoting earlier motifs. But he showed some more experimental leanings by scoring it pointillistically, transparently for an onstage piano quartet.

Performances continue, with these and other singers in principal roles, through Sunday.