This House is a triumph at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. The company’s 45th world premiere is a masterpiece. It has a dazzling score by Ricky Ian Gordon and a spellbinding libretto by Lynn Nottage and Ruby Aiyo Gerber, Nottage’s daughter.

The title refers to a brownstone in Harlem that has been the Walker family’s home since 1919. Ghosts of family members still residing in the brownstone begin telling its story in the prologue. Then Zoe, who grew up in the house, approaches it after a long absence. She and her husband Glenn hope to bring the building back from disrepair so they can raise a family there. Zoe has returned home to share this hope with her mother, Ida, and brother, Lindon.

The past has a strong hold on Ida. During Zoe’s visit, the ghosts act out Ida’s memories of painful events and secrets. The revelation of a final secret leads to a profoundly moving conclusion.

The libretto is based on a play Gerber began writing while she was a student at Brown University during the pandemic. Gordon and Nottage had worked together before on a chamber opera adaptation of Nottage’s play, Intimate Apparel. We must be grateful to the librettists and the composer for recognizing that opera is the ideal art form for this ghost story.

Gordon’s wondrously flexible, completely accessible music shows influences of many genres. In the program, Gordon mentions, “jazz, ragtime, serialism, American popular song, stride piano, hard rock…you name it.”

The OTSL cast is superb. Its members sing brilliantly and act with total commitment and credibility. The performers and their roles are:

• Adrienne Danrich as Ida
• Briana Hunter as Zoe
• Justin Austin as Lindon
• Brandie Inez Sutton as Young Ida
• Aundi Marie Moore as Lucy, Ida’s sister
• Krysty Swann as Beulah, Ida’s mother
• Sankara Harouna as Milton, Ida’s husband
• Victor Ryan Robertson as Ida’s Uncle Percy
• Brad Bickhardt as Glenn, Zoe’s husband
• Christian Pursell as Thomas, Lindon’s lover

Daniela Candillari conducts the St. Louis Symphony in a glorious account of the score. Scenes and characters from the past are skillfully interwoven with the story in the present by a superb creative team that includes stage director James Robinson, set designer Allen Moyer, costume designer Montana Levi Blanco, video designer Greg Emetaz, lighting designer Marcus Doshi, choreographer Seán Curran, English diction specialist Kristen Kemp, and wig and makeup designers Krystal Balleza and Will Vicari.

This House will have a wide appeal, from opera lovers looking for a continuation of opera’s grand tradition, to newcomers who never imagined opera would interest them. A work that retains old audiences while bringing in new ones is exactly what opera needs today.

—Gerry Kowarsky

Photo © Eric Woolsey
From the left, Aundi Marie Moore as Lucy, Sankara Harouna as Milton, Brandie Inez Sutton as Young Ida, and Adrienne Danrich as Ida in This House.