Wuthering Heights

Minnesota Opera presents “Wuthering Heights,” the opera based on Emily Brontë’s novel, is now showing at the Ordway through April 23rd (tomorrow).

Wuthering Heights did not disappoint. It is one of the few operas sung in english and the score invokes deep-rooted passion, misery, and the heart wrenching pang of lust. A lust that transcends class that is not weakened by separation. Lust that continues beyond the grave, as Heathclif asks Cathy to haunt him until his last dying day. An haunt him she does, her voice trails through the halls, as he demands her spirit to come into the walls of Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff is haunted, tormented, and driven mad by the woman he craves, by the lust he never quenched.

The back drop is a gloomy walled Wuthering heights, that opens to a lush green flower filled moor. The projections designed by Wendall K. Harrington create an effective visual representation of the music. The images transport you to the lush moors and grip the changing seasons at Wuthering heights. The visuals brought the stage to life and left me wondering what was next.

Conductor Michael Christie brought the Ordway to life. The opera really pops when textures and melodies intertwine. You feel the grip of emotion as the strings take you to a crescendo of devoted love and the pain felt at Wuthering Heights. The vocals filled with passion and pain, invoke the emotions of love lost.

It was beautiful, heart wrenching, and darn right amazing. It had been a while since I’d been to the opera. Oh an I must say I didn’t go alone. The Irs man came with and he liked it as well. I would highly recommend this opera to anyone. It’s a must see.

Disclaimer: I received free tickets from the Minnesota Opera. All views are my own.