Review: IS THIS AMERICA? at Home Computer Screens

On Oct. 23, the Santa Fe Opera and Center for Contemporary Arts presented Is This America? This online workshop featuring scenes from the one-act opera, This Little Light of Mine, took place on October 10, 2020, aboard the retired tanker Mary A. Whalen which is docked in Red Hook, Brooklyn. The opera features major events in the life of voting rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer and marries them to arrangements of traditional Spirituals.

One of 20 children born into a Mississippi sharecropper family, Hamer was a Black woman who protested against the ridiculously difficult literacy tests and the accompanying poll tax that prevented Black citizens from voting in many southern states. Hamer's courage in the face of jail, beatings, and other dangers to her person resulted in the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. This year, voters should remember that Hamer put her body on the line so that all of us could vote. Thus, a vote not cast is an insult to her memory. It is of optimum importance that all the varied and sundry voices of US citizens from every state be heard at the upcoming election.

The brick-red deck of the Mary A. Whalen was studded with white folding chairs six feet apart as masked singers took their places for the opera. The work's first line was "Black Lives Matter," repeated as a shouted, emphatic spoken-chorus. It served to show how far this country has not advanced beyond the conditions of the 1960s. The work itself showed how much one fearless, talented, dedicated activist can achieve, and what the price of that achievement can be.

Because of pandemic regulations, this was a concert performance of scenes with no on-stage action. Singers' masks covered their faces and necks from below the eyes. Despite this, their tones were clear and enunciation understandable as they told of Hamer's charisma and her incredible courage.

Musically, the most interesting moments took place when virtuoso pianist Michelle Cann played music from several spirituals or African-American civil rights songs such as "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round," "This Little Light of Mine," and "Go Tell it on the Mountain." Singers in turn harmonized with the main theme to contrapuntal rhythms. Briana Elise Taylor's exquisite low notes were particularly outstanding . Because of social distancing regulations, singers acted with their voices to tell the story of Fannie Lou Hamer, a never-to-be-forgotten civil rights heroine.

Photo of Briana Elise Hunter by Curtis Brown.