Evan Mack: The Travelled Road
Ravello Records

One of the foremost things recommending Evan Mack's The Travelled Road is the choice of material. In a thoughtfully curated recording of five works by the operatic composer, a distinguishing feature is its coupling of one unabashedly irreverent setting with four that are comparatively sober in tone and subject matter. Whereas A Little More Perfect, for example, sets text from the Supreme Court ruling by Justice Anthony Kennedy regarding marriage equality, Preach Sister, Preach uses the words of Lucille Ball, Mae West, Simone de Beauvoir, Ann Landers, and others to convey their empowering message with theatricality and humour.

Recorded in September 2020 at the Arthur Zankel Music Center in Saratoga Springs, The Travelled Road features mezzo-soprano Megan Marino and pianist John Arida, plus cellist Jameson Platte on two pieces. An award-winning singer who's appears with esteemed opera companies throughout the world, Marino and her sincere, assured delivery is a superb match for Mack, while Arida reveals himself to be a wholly sympathetic accompanist. For his part, Platte plays in a number of ensembles, including Duo 92, the Omega Trio, The Orchestra of Northern New York, and more. The composer himself has dedicated much of his compositional energy to opera and song. His first major operatic piece, Angel of the Amazon, premiered a decade ago and was followed two years later by The Secret of Luca as well as the opera Roscoe (2016), The Ghosts of Gatsby (2019), and Yeltsin in Texas! (2020). Consistent with his conviction that opera should be theatrical, passionate, and audacious are the works on The Travelled Road. The performances are duos and trios, yes, but they exude the vitality and expressiveness of a large-scale orchestral presentation. What makes that even more impressive is that the entire recording was captured in a single day.

Opening the release is A Little More Perfect, its title derived from words spoken by President Obama after the ruling was made: “Today, the nation has become a little more perfect.” Here we're presented with the first demonstration of the remarkable connection between Marino and Arida, with the latter telepathically supporting her every vocal choice and inflection; Platte too shows himself to be an equally attuned contributor. For Three Reflections of Sister Dorothy, Mack's used text from arias in Angel of the Amazon. The work encompasses anguish, defiance, and longing in keeping with a real-life tragedy involving Sr. Dorothy Stang, a nun from Ohio who was murdered in the Brazilian Amazon in 2005, and her fight to save the rainforest. As bereft as the opening minutes of “Have I Not Wept?” are, the piece ends with a fervent expression of determination and resilience (“I'll try again / And this time, I won't fail!”) that's perpetuated in the central part, “The Mountaintop” (“We will see the promised land / We will reach the mountaintop”). As moving is “Will They Listen?” with its plea for change (“O God, O God, let them hear / Make them hear the cries of the poor”). The dramatic sweep of Mack's music makes it all but impossible to resist the emotional power of the work.

After the heaviness of Three Reflections of Sister Dorothy, the fifteen short movements of Preach Sister, Preach bring humour and levity to the presentation. Mack's music matches the tone in each case, with the songs ranging from bluesy (“Mae West” and her famous “When I'm good, I'm very good, but when I'm bad, I'm better” line) to light-hearted (“Lucille Ball” with “A man who correctly guesses a woman's age may be smart, but he's not very bright”) and lyrical (“Daphne du Maurier”: Women want love to be a novel, men a short story”). Wry commentaries by Ellen DeGeneres, Gilda Radner, George Eliot, Leslie Jones, Gloria Steinem, Tina Fey, and others appear in the showstopper, which places Mack and his performers on the theatre more than opera stage. As comical as the material often is, its message is serious.

Reinstating the earlier mood is The Secret Ocean, whose three movements confront time's too-rapid passing, childhood, and parenthood. Mack again designs the music to fit the text, with Mark Jarman's words in this case complemented by the composer's poetic writing. On an album filled with exceptional performances, “After Disappointment” and “The Secret Ocean” impress as particularly stirring for the heartfelt expressiveness of Marino's singing. For The Road and the End, Mack uses Carl Sandburg's eponymous 1916 poem to offer one final compelling sampling of his artistry and talent for tailoring material to maximize the gifts of his interpreters. Marino is at her best as she, Platte, and Arida amplify the text's message (“I shall foot it / Down the roadway in the dusk”) with collective force.

Despite the contrasts between the pieces, common to all is the idea of determination, of overcoming societal barriers and catalyzing change. Fighting to save the rainforest, fighting for equality in marriage rights, fighting for female respect and empowerment—the theme emerges in varied form throughout. That such issues are still very much part of the modern fabric makes Mack's progressive works all the more timely and relevant.

June 2021