FringeNYC 2013: TRUTH, An American Opera about Sojourner Truth

Review by Alyssa Simon · August 9, 2013

Truth: An American Opera About Sojourner Truth is a deceptively simple title for an opera about an extraordinarily complex human being. Composer and conductor Paula Kimper and librettist Talaya Delaney reveal to us so much more about the self-name given American heroine than what is written in schoolbooks, in this fascinating, entertaining and heartfelt show.

Born into slavery as Isabella Baumfree, Truth escaped bondage to become the first African-American woman to win a court battle for recovery of her son against her former owner and went into history as an outspoken abolitionist and women’s rights activist. A passionate advocate of non-violence, she later actively recruited African-American men to fight in the Union army during the Civil War.

Never taught to read or write, she traveled the country to preach stirring speeches, the most famous one, the rhetorically rigorous “Aren’t I A Woman” at the 1851 Ohio Women’s Rights Convention. Yet her convictions may have come not only from her experience, but a fervent belief that she was personally spoken to by God.

Mari-Yan Pringle as Truth uses her majestic soprano voice and charismatic stage presence to show us all the facets of the fiery preacher, religious zealot, fierce woman and mother suffering the unspeakable heartbreak of losing her child. Her Sojourner Truth is a character of mythic proportions as large as life but she also shows us sweet moments of sweeping tenderness and small quirky flashes of Truth’s personality and humor. It’s delightful and a tribute as well to directors Lori Holmes Clark and Linda McInerney when we see those bits of self-doubt and wry observation.

The ensemble cast is equally great. Baritone Jorell Williams plays a smoothly assured, if slightly condescending at first, Fredrick Douglass who Truth swiftly puts in his place. Their chemistry is unbeatable on stage, making their debates lively fun to watch. Tenor Stephen Biegner is John Dumont, Truth’s former owner who, in a brilliant touch by costumer Jill St. Coeur, wears a planter’s hat at least two sizes too big for his head, making him look like the insufferable petty tyrant he is. Biegner later softens his physicality and voice to portray a completely different type of character, the abolitionist and journalist William Lloyd Garrison.

Soprano Heather Michele Meyer sympathetically and movingly portrays Mary Brown, the widow of abolitionist and armed resister John Brown killed at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia as well as Olive Gilbert, to whom Truth dictated her memoir, The Narrative Of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave. Jaylen Fontaine, boy soprano, plays Peter, Truth’s child who she had to leave behind but later fought for and won.  He is a very young actor who lights up the stage with his presence.

The seven-piece music ensemble of Gina Izzo, Rich Johnson, Deryck Clarke, Josh Henderson, Meaghan Burke and Sophia Vastek, combine traditional Western instruments as well as African percussion masterfully played by Tony Vacca. The powerful orchestration combined with the saga of our American history make for a wonderful opera. Go see it!