Elena Ruehr's chamber opera Toussaint before the Spirits received its premiere by Opera Unlimited in Boston in 2003. The libretto, by Madison Smartt Bell (who went on to write a biography of Toussaint) and Elizabeth Spires, is based on sections of Bell's novels All Souls' Rising and Master of the Crossroads. Toussaint L'Ouverture led the people of Haiti in a successful revolt against the French, making it the first free black republic in the New World. Toussaint was captured by the French, and the opera examines the final hours before his death in a French prison in 1803. He summons the spirits of Vaudun, and debates the decisions that have led him to this place with the spirit of his godson, Moyse, who believes that Toussaint's willingness to deal the French at various points in his career was a betrayal of the revolution.
The scenario has a kind of stasis built into it; the bulk of the opera consists of Toussaint's argument with six Vaudun Spirits, and the first five confrontations are formally repetitive and insufficiently differentiated, either dramatically or musically. The diverse Spirits, who include the embodiments of change, death, love, and revolution, are portrayed by a single singer, and the resulting loss of contrasts deprives the large middle section of the opera of musical or theatrical variety and momentum.
Ruehr doesn't seem to have made use of the Haitian folk material with which particular Spirits are associated, which could have given the middle section the kind of variety that might have overcome the limitations of its dramatic structure. (In a fully staged version, which includes dancers, the opera may well have an overall impact that a sound recording can't capture.) The theme of the opera is the conflict between Toussaint's allegiance to his island nation and to Europe; the music, however, sounds purely western, except for the drumming that closes the opera, and the listener can't help but wonder if the composer missed an opportunity to embody that conflict musically by incorporating elements of a Haitian character as a foil to the conventionally western music. The opera's opening and closing are strongly effective, however, and reveal
Ruehr as a composer of sound dramatic instincts. Her music at its best is atmospheric, inventively orchestrated, and rhythmically vital, and her text setting is lyrical and the recurring melodic gestures are memorable.
Baritone
Stephen Salters is a powerful vocal and dramatic presence as Toussaint, and he appropriately dominates the opera. The remaining soloists, tenors Ramone Diggs and
William Hite and soprano Alison Buchanan sing with dramatic energy and pure, strong tone.
Gil Rose conducts the chamber orchestra in a vigorous and committed performance. Arsis is to be commended for making such a fine performance of a new American opera available to broader audiences.