'A View From The Bridge' revisits campus

Adam Walton said his favorite scene appears in the second act. The character Eddie comes home to find his brother alone at home with his niece. Given that his brother has a bit of a known obsession with his niece, Eddie assumes the worst.

“The situation quickly deteriorates and the whole scene is shocking and riveting,” Walton said. “It’s like you don’t want to watch it, but you can’t look away.”

Walton is a second-year master’s student in vocal performance and plays the role of Marco in IU Opera and Ballet Theater’s most recent production, “A View From The Bridge.” This is the second time “View” has come to the MAC stage. The production’s original premiere in 2006 was also its collegiate premiere.

Though the plot of the opera is in the style of a Greek tragedy, the songs are sung in English. Alain Barker, director of Marketing and Publicity for Jacobs, said it is this characteristic that will grab the audience’s attention.

“Seeing the production in technical rehearsal this week, I was struck by how relevant and powerful the story is to American society today,” he said. “The music is both direct and highly descriptive, and you feel yourself drawn into the drama almost immediately.”

Walton’s character, Marco, is the main fixture in the story. As a married Italian with three children, Marco struggles with poverty. In the hopes of solving this problem, Marco illegally immigrates to America with his younger brother, Rodolfo, to work and send money home.

“He’s the responsible one, but he’s also fiercely loyal to his brother and his family,” Walton said of his character. “Even though he’s essentially a good person, he’s driven to some extreme actions when he feels that his family has been dishonored and betrayed.”

Vincent Liotta, stage director for the opera and professor of opera studies, worked with the piece’s original premiere at IU.

“Since then, I have only become more convinced that it may be the best opera written in the last decade of the 20th century,” Liotta said.  
    
Though he worked on the original production, Liotta said he now sees the opera and see it in a different light.

Regardless of previous experience with the piece, the opera is one with themes that can be relevant throughout time. 

“With the current debate in the United States about immigration,” Barker said, “This opera really brings the discussion into focus and shows how intermingled we all are with our present, past and future.”