Review: LUMEE'S DREAM at Home Computer Screens

Ellen Reid and Roxie Perkins' Lumee's Dream, is the expansion of Lumee's Act II short monologue sung while smoking outside a nightclub in p r i s m. She says she "hurls herself out the window" into the blue from which she eventually returns tired and wet. In the Dream, Lumee speaks of her favorite dream, her imagined reality, as the picture gradually shreds into kaleidoscopic images of Bibi, her maturing daughter.

Although this later work gives more details about the characters in p r i s m, I still have questions. Did Lumee give birth long before she was mentally ready to be a parent? Why does p r i s m have no male roles? Perhaps Bibi's father was also very young and refused to acknowledge her.

In the Dream, Bibi is merely a figure carved into designs on a kaleidoscope. Lumee sings of her need and her dream as her copper and feather from p r i s m slice through the night of her mental state. Rebecca Jo Loeb sings warmly and smoothly in the mezzo-soprano range that fits her voice perfectly. The ensemble consisting of two violins, two violas, cello, harp, percussion, and electronic sounds, lets Loeb's voice weave in and out in a melodious blend.

Sasha Rivero and the original Bibi, Anna Schubert, together form the myriad images of Bibi in the Dream. Director James Darrah and co-director, editor and effects designer Adam Larsen conceived the images that make both p r i s m and Lumee's Dream fascinate both eyes and ears.

I think opera fans who see p r i s m will draw meaning from the Dream. The short scene might become a recital piece with piano or harp accompaniment. I would miss the gorgeous sounds of the viola and cello, however. Both the Pulitzer Prize-winning p r i s m and the spin-off scene, Lumee's Dream, are pieces that everyone interested in modern opera should see.

https://www.laopera.org/performances/upcoming-digital-performances/dream/

Photo of Rebecca Jo Loeb as Lumee courtesy of LA Opera.