From the Archives: Opera Review

Reprinted From Buffalo Spree Jun 28, 2021 Updated Jun 28, 2021

Jessie Downs is a precocious talent, and her opera The Second Sight, performed at the Unitarian Universalist Church on West Ferry and Elmwood, included flashes of beauty and stunning vocal artistry.  Those moments were compromised, however, by a libretto which suffered from tone, pacing, and style issues which made the opera, at times, inaccessible.

The opera’s two protagonists, Ola Rafalo and Claudia Brown, brought an extraordinary sophistication to their performances, conducting a veritable clinic in opera technique. Indeed, all of the roles were sung by highly trained and experienced performers whose acrobatic vocal runs ricocheted all over the church’s old limestone walls for nearly two full hours.

The performances were in service of a libretto, however, which suffered from a need of editing. Less an opera than a lightly staged song cycle, The Second Sight is an ethereal story about the death of an infant within a mythical (not in any specific place or time) framework, examining the…