Duke Ellington's "Beggar's Holiday" is as unlikely an opera as the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild was a setting over the weekend.
But both succeeded admirably, as Marty Ashby from the Guild and Jonathan Eaton from the Pittsburgh Opera Theater revived the work that has had a checkered past but deserves more.
The work deals with the dream-world "holiday" of a beggar in which he encounters the deceit and dishonesty that fill our lives. It is told in a setting more like a musical-comedy than an opera, with a fair amount of spoken word that advances plot.
It also is filled with great songs such as the climactic "Tomorrow Mountain" and "Maybe I Should Change My Ways." This production featured the fine work of Timothy Robert Blevins as the Beggar and Roberta Burke as Polly.
But the real star of the show was Eaton's direction and minimalist staging, which made use of an arched structure to give the small setting yet another dimension. Not only did it make the small stage work, but it made its size a striking success.
