Boston. (North America).(Resurrection)

The prospect of Tolstoy's visionary novel Resurrection, set to music by Tod Machover -- director of M.I.T.'s Center for Future Arts, Opera of the Future/Hyperinstruments Group and Things That Think and Toys of Tomorrow consortia -- might inspire understandable trepidation. Despite audible misgivings prior to the performance, the intermission brought no exodus but rather thoughtful, animated chatter among audience members.

Indeed, for all its thematic complexities and use of space-age "sound-shaping devices," Resurrection (which had its world premiere at Houston Grand Opera in 1999) is an accessible, immensely compelling work. While Machover claims not to have attempted to write overtly "Russian-sounding" music, his score -- with its surprising juxtapositions of angular, dissonant elements and radiant melody -- inevitably recalls the operas of Prokofiev and Shostakovich. Indeed, Resurrection's finale (in a Siberian prison camp) and its concern with issues of moral freedom and societal corruption make it something of a Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk turned on its head, with Shostakovich's grim irony and despair replaced by the hopefulness of Tolstoy's utopian vision. Still, Machover's score and the admirable libretto by Laura Harrington and Braham Murray take an excessively upbeat turn at the opera's end: the sugary, didactic finale finds the company lined up at the footlights, trumpeting sententious nonsense that is embarrassing even now, in this age of the supposed "death of irony."

The cast boasted strong leads in mezzo Christine Abraham (Katusha) and baritone Carleton Chambers (Prince Nekhlyudov). Abraham has the makings of an extraordinary artist. She brought to her long, demanding role a consistently bright, supple voice that never once lost its bloom, and her singing of Katusha's lovely Act II lullaby was unforgettable: her tone ...