An American Momma

By Joan Downs

Behind the open-air theater, fireworks prick the sky with pinpoints of light. Onstage a red-coated marching band, followed by men in stovepipe hats and women lofting VOTE signs, winds through a procession of patriotic floats. A Model T Ford chugs in from the wings. Behind the wheel sits a stout woman wearing a stern expression and a name sash that reads GERTRUDE S. Her passenger, sprightly in gray morning stripes, is Virgil T. Neither seems especially surprised when an angel on roller skates whizzes past.

On Skates. The Mother of Us All is an opera, a piece of Americana composed by Virgil Thomson and set to Gertrude Stein's text about Suffragist Susan B. Anthony. Thomson's score is a bright crazy quilt of American folk tunes, gospel hymns, marches and sentimental ballads that evoke pungent memories of an earlier time. Stein's libretto is her customary trenchant blend of logic with nonsense, historical characters like Lillian Russell (sung by Karen Beck) with imaginary figures like the mobile angel (Ashley Putnam). Snippets of political speeches are intercut with Stein's excursions into absurdities. "I understand you undertake to overthrow my undertaking," Susan B. accuses. "Daniel Webster needs an artichoke," reports the angel, scooting by on her skates.

Along with the non sequiturs, Stein does provide a theme--women's rights and changing relations between the sexes--that seems more pertinent today than in 1947, when the opera was written. Over the years, performances at colleges and a variety of theaters have kept it alive. But only with the Santa Fe Opera's Bicentennial salute did The Mother of Us All get an extravagant production in the tradition of vintage musicals.

The Santa Fe company is celebrating its 20th season as one of the country's most prestigious producers of summer festivals. Its approach meshes old-fashioned craftsmanship with contemporary dash. British Director Peter Wood, who recently worked on the Tony-winning play Travesties, staged the opera as an exuberant parade. Conductor Raymond Leppard, a specialist in 17th century music, was an adventurous choice to lead the orchestra. He responded enthusiastically, adding an overture and some instrumentation of his own devising. Singing the part of Susan B. Anthony is Mignon Dunn, who claims she knows every mezzo and contralto role in Wagner's Ring cycle. Her voice sounded opulent, and in her rich scarlet uniform, she occasionally looked more like a warrior maid than a Quaker suffragist.

As designer of the costumes and scenery, Pop Artist Robert Indiana turned out to be the key person in the production. Thomson admired an earlier version that presented Mother as an animated album with quaint figures suggesting tinted photographs. Realist Indiana had other ideas. Incorporating Pop art's hard-edge feeling into the production, he splashed the stage with circus colors of red, gold, green and blue.

Flags, checks and plaids predominate, with both props and people covered in shadow-resistant felt. Double-duty sets solved the problem of a backless stage.

The red-and-white-striped bandstand in one scene, for example, cracks open into a pink parlor for the next vignette.

Although Santa Fe is not a touring company, they will make a record of their hit production. The BBC and WNET filmed a performance for airing this fall. The first-night audience, filing out of the opera house after the performance, was treated to an impromptu epilogue. A young woman in the crowd sprang up on the fountain and before long her voice was resonating across the plaza proclaiming modern woman's plight. Her speech lacked both the wit and charm of Gertrude S. and Virgil T. But it was a spunky gesture, very much in keeping with the crusading spirit of Susan B.

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