Valhalla Valley Mall (2023)

Valhalla Valley Mall is a one-act opera about a woman exploring an abandoned mall as Sirens induce her to venture further into what becomes an infinite labyrinth.

Valhalla Valley Mall premiered at HERE Arts Center, New York City, June 27-30, 2024 as part of the Experiments in Opera production, Five Ways to Die. It had a workshop performance at Harlem School of The Arts, November 10, 2023.

Music and Libretto by Jason Cady

Cast:
Alize Francheska Rozsnyai, soprano
Rose Hegele, soprano
Lisa Neher, mezzo-soprano

Musicians:
Bass Clarinet: Eileen Mack
Electric Guitar: James Moore
Bass Guitar: Tristan Kastin-Krause
Vibraphone/Percussion: Joe Bergen
Drumset: Matt Evans

Production:
Conductor: Dmitry Glivinskiy
Stage Direction: Shannon Sindelar
Scenic Design: Efren Delgadillo
Costume Design: Normandy Sherwood
Lighting Design: Christina Tang
Technical Director: Sarah Schetter
Stage Manager: Max Mooney
Sound Engineer: Nathaniel Butler

Serial Killers and Valhalla were denser, almost screwball style with a fast pace and puns and verbal interplay of the former. There was real wit in the texts and the energy in each was high, not just in the singers—especially Rozsnyai in Valhalla which was close to a monodrama—but from the quintet; the overall flavor of the music was rock opera, and the instrumentalists were especially sharp in these. The young woman in the mall, seeking relief from the responsibilities after her mother’s death, finds a consumerist nirvana.

—George Grella, New York Classical Review, June 28, 2024

Five Ways to Die minis are set in an empty shopping mall, a rat-infested city and ladies-who-lunch who discuss life, love, and how best to dispose of a body. The four mini-operas featured music from Song Ae Kim, Del’Shawn Taylor, Jessie Gelaznik and Jason Cady as well as librettos from Joanie Brittingham, Britt Hewitt, Marcella Murray, and Cady. Director Shannon Sindelar paces the operas perfectly. Musical direction by Dmitry Glivinskiy gave us a propulsive beat from a five-piece chamber orchestra, including guitar and bass clarinet. 

The small venue at HERE is used to maximum effect, the stage divided into two parts and intermittent columns that are also used as props to open up the space.  

Language of the libretto for EiO is conversational.  The conversation is not so much between characters as it is with us, the audience, drawing us in with lively images, and punchy  rhymes that catch the ear.  Usually when language is spoken of as 'musical', talk is of extended vowels and consonants that beat.  For EiO, language has very much its own orchestration and drama. The net effect is not recitatif, but rather a rich musical word line that engages. 

Music is not minimized, but it has an unusually jazzy beat. The chamber orchestra for EiO has a rocking percussion and a few strings,  more informal than an elegant opera house pit.  

You never question the operatic qualities of EiO’s productions.  You’re too engaged, amused and moved. 

—Susan Hall, Berkshire Fine Arts, July 5, 2024

More tears, perhaps, have been shed over the demise of the great department stores than the shopping malls that replaced them. For more than 60 years, however, the malls were the bedrock of many communities. ‘Valhalla Valley Mall’ pays homage to their passing by recalling such defunct brands as Waldenbooks as well as those still thriving, including Orange Julius and The Cheesecake Factory. It also poses a real issue for many people of where to go for a walk when the mall is gone?

Such musings are the backdrop for a rite of passage for many who left suburbia for the big city. A Brooklynite has returned to her childhood home to clean it out and put it on the market. In the process, she confronts the ghost of her mother and reality. There will be no proceeds from the sale of the house as her mother had a reverse mortgage on it. Without it, the daughter cannot afford to live in Brooklyn, or anywhere for that matter. The mall beckons to her as a long-forgotten paradise with its cornucopia of goods and memories of a carefree youth.

Cady’s catchy tunes had some in the audience swaying to his beat, but there was real drama in the music he composed for mother and daughter to sing.

— Rick Perdian, Seen and Heard International, July 4, 2024