Sweet Louisa: Ozark Lyric Opera presents an original Gothic tale with a spooky doll

Ozarks Lyric Opera’s 2022-23 season will begin with the world premiere of “Sweet Louisa,” an opera that tells a tale of fact, fiction and the supernatural.

Performances are Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, 7:30 p.m., at the Gillioz Theatre, 317 Park Central East.

With this opera, Artistic Director Michael Spyres of OLO has continued to focus on new works.

“We chose to present this original opera written by local composer Katie Kring because it was a beautiful score and it deals with two salient current issues: our societal fascination with horror stories and the mental health crisis that results from extreme isolation.”

The characters of this opera have to deal not just with the harsh climate of Lake Superior, but also the sadness of isolation.

Kring and Rob Hartmann, the librettist, have worked together on this project and many others. Kring is from Springfield. Hartmann runs a theater in Denmark.

This opera is filled with suspense, mystery and strange things, including a doll named Sweet Louisa. The lighthouse keeper rescues a shipwrecked survivor, who gives the doll to Mary Clara, a young girl. That is when the story gets really Gothic and supernatural.

While the pull of this story is the paranormal part, Marya Spring Cordes, the director of this project, has also focused on the human aspect of the tale. It consists of a few sailors and the people at the lighthouse: the Keeper, the Wife, their young daughter Mary Clara and the housekeeper Marthe. The small, tight-knit community lives in a hard, unforgiving environment on the shore of Lake Superior in the early 1900s.

Cordes looked at the storyline of Marthe, the sailors, the Wife and the Keeper, where the women relaxed societal rules for something as simple as providing coffee for the sailors. “It shows how long there’s been a community of understanding and mutual help. They have to band together to make sure everybody is OK,” Cordes said.

“It’s really interesting because a lot of the story has characters in distress when the doll comes into their environment and changes everything,” she said. The human relationships in the opera help the audience feel empathy toward the characters.

Cordes will work with two children who have theater experience, playing the role of Mary Clara, one on each night.

She enjoys working with children. “They (children) have a good deal of savvy and allow themselves to be empathetic; their imaginations are so incredibly vivid — more than adults — they can bring to their imagination anything at the drop of a hat,” Cordes said.

The birth of “Sweet Louisa”

The opera came about after Hartmann visited his father in Eagle Harbor, Michigan, several years ago. While there he visited the lighthouse, where he found an old, spectral-looking doll. He wrote a short ghost story about it that eventually became the opera’s libretto. Immediately upon reading the story, Kring demanded that they make an opera out of it. However, it was not until the pandemic that Kring and Hartmann found the time to write the opera.

The setting is Eagle Harbor, Michigan, Nov. 1915-April 1916. Hartmann knows the lighthouse, the history of shipwrecks on Lake Superior, and how bitter winters can be.

Springfield’s Kring has 30 years experience as a composer. Additionally, she is a well-known local baker.

Some folks may expect more explanation about the supernatural; however, Kring is using a different approach with “Sweet Louisa.”

“When you get into shows that have Gothic humans against supernatural forces, they have a feel to them,” Kring said. “It’s really easy to over-explain the mechanics or the metaphysics of the thing.” She and Hartmann want to leave some things unclear.

“We will not explain that.” Kring said. “Is it a ghost? Is it a malevolent lake spirit? Is it a figment of your imagination? We’re not telling.”

Opera always needs new works

Michael Spyres has been focusing on the imperative of presenting new works about the current human condition. Opera has been created throughout the ages for society to reflect on its own values, he said. To develop a new opera, all members of the troupe must begin at square one.

“Very often it is a frustrating process, since you must not only learn new music but also create a character for the first time, and that can really push people to their mental and physical limits. … (I)t is a difficult but very thrilling experience to bring a piece to life for the first time.”

As OLO Administrative Director Sean Spyres said, without new works, opera would be “a dying art form.”

Sweet Louisa

Where: Gillioz Theatre, 325 Park Central East

When: Sept. 30 & Oct. 1, 7:30 p.m.

Tickets: $27.50-$47.50. All tickets are reserved seating

To purchase: Go online to https://gillioztheatre.org or call the box office at 417-863-9491

Cast

The Wife: Erica Spyres

The Keeper: Jamie Cordes

The Sailor: Caleb Miofsky

Doyle: Jake Luellen

Marthe: Emily Bowen-Marler

Mary-Clara (Friday): Max Duffy

Mary-Clara (Saturday): Natalie Hakala

Cal: Spencer Jones

Fred: Zach Zielinski

Harold: Brandon Sienko

Theater personnel

Conductor: Larry Dissmore

Rehearsal Accompanist: Vicky Claborn

Production Stage Manager: Susan Belcher

Assistant Stage Manager: Alandra Hutchens

Technical Director/Designer: John Johnson

Costumer: Kashena Northrip

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Ozark Lyric Opera presents original story of spooky doll, Sweet Louisa