Operabox.tv, a new streaming service from Boston Lyric Opera. launches today a trailer for its new film, THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER.
Helmed by film and opera director James Darrah, and boasting a fresh treatment by Spanish screenwriter Raúl Santos that places the opera within the story of a young immigrant girl named Luna who is detained on the U.S. border, THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER debuts exclusively on BLO’s operabox.tv, starting Jan. 29, 2021.
The cast of USHER includes: Chelsea Basler as Madeline Usher; Jesse Darden as Roderick Usher; Daniel Belcher as William; Christon Carney as the Physician; and Jorge andrés Camargo as the Servant. BLO Music Director David Angus conducts the score. Production Designer is Yuki Izumihara. Director of Photography is Pablo Santiago. Costume and Doll Designer is Camille Assaf. Art Director/Lead Designer (Luna) is Yee Eun Nam. Lead Animator is Will Kim; Associate Animator is Jian Lee. Lead Illustrator is Rodrigo Muñoz.
The Glass and Yorinks opera premiered in 1988 at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass. It follows the Boston-born Poe’s inscrutable short story about twin siblings Roderick Usher and his ill sister, Madeline, who live reclusively in a mysterious mansion. A third main character (unnamed in Poe’s story, but called William in Yorinks’ libretto) is summoned by his friend Roderick to come to the Usher house and help him. Like the source material, the opera maintains an opaque approach to the narrative, embracing the main story of a mentally and physically troubled man caring for his sister and feeling trapped in, and by, his familial home. There are suggestions, but not details, about the relationships between the characters. The Ushers’ illnesses are not defined – clues hint at mental health, addiction, or supernatural causes. The oppressive house itself may, or may not, be to blame for the inhabitants’ problems.