Agamemnon [read reviews]

Read the full review in The Seattle Times (also printed below).

An opera based on the Ancient Greek Tragedy. The piece blends Taiko with Fisher's eclectic ensemble, including masks and movement, to tell the story of Agamemnon's murder.

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Greek Tragedy Retold With Music, Dance
by Mary Murfin Bayley
June 19, 1998

Those ancient Greeks really knew how to tell a story. Agamemnon kills his daughter, Iphigenia, as a sacrifice to the gods in exchange for a good wind to go to war. When he comes back 10 years later, his wife, Clytemnestra, still mad, is sharpening the knives.

Garrett Fisher's opera, "Agamemnon" - which retells Aeschylus' great tragedy using song, Taiko percussion, dance and masks - sticks to the simplest, starkest elements of this story. When Deeji Killian, standing in a red robe, sings in her warm, passionate, soprano, "What can truly drive a man to war, and how could he leave me - leave me stained with the blood of my child?" it is deeply moving.

Fisher casts the same dancer, Teresa Mathern, as both the murdered daughter, Iphigenia, and as Cassandra, whom Agamemnon has brought back to be his concubine. It's a clever stroke. Mathern, who has a beautiful, angular face and body (think young Ingrid Bergman) projects an intense vulnerability. Both Clytemnestra and Agamemnon turn to her briefly as a replacement for their long-lost daughter, which has a creepy psychological resonance.

Sculptor and mask-maker Louise McCagg has created a "death mask" of Mathern's face that Mathern wears above her forehead like a raised visor. Its expression is eerie, calm and quiet. It puts both Iphigenia and Cassandra at a remove from the passions of the story, leaving the anger and pain to the tormented husband and wife.

Baritone Robert Tangney, as Agamemnon, hit some verbal rough patches last night but he was able to convey the self-deluded doggedness of the character. He repeatedly defends the sacrifice of his daughter by saying, "What's done is done." It's a thrilling finale when Clytemnestra takes the knife (handed to her by Sandra Fann as Fate) and answers him: "No, what's done will be done."

She follows him offstage where, as in all good Greek tragedy, the execution takes place. But instead of the usual offstage scream we are given a quiet, dignified dance by Fate.

Fisher's music is as controlled, narrowly focused and dramatic as his libretto. He uses oboe, English horn, piano and harmonium as well as Taiko drums for his varied effects.

Agamemnon produced by the Fisher Ensemble at the Nippon Kan Theater, Seattle, WA; at On the Boards Northwest New Works Festival.
Garrett Fisher, Composer and Librettist; Christy Fisher, Choreographer; Meg Fox, Lighting Designer.
Vocalists: Deeji Killian, Robert Tangney; Dancer: Theresa Mathern (in photo); Oboe: Taina Karr; Taiko: William Satake Blauvelt, Karen Akada, Stan Shikuma, Mike Walker; Viola: Brian Lew.
Developed with assistance from the Bossak/Heilbron Foundation, Seattle Arts Commission, King County Arts Commission.