Viviana Goodwin in the title role and Justin Austin as Remus in Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha at Washington National Opera. Photo: Elman Studios

Treemonisha is a young black woman found as a baby under a tree by her adoptive parents, Monisha and Ned. Educated by a white woman, she teaches others in her rural community, near Texarkana (where Joplin himself was raised), to read and write. After she defeats the local conjurers, who use superstition to cheat and swindle, the community elects her as their leader.

This version of Treemonisha, while still largely recognizable as Joplin’s work, has been adapted and orchestrated by composer Damien Sneed, with some new dialogue and lyrics by Kyle Bass. The work remains a lightweight piece in many ways: an operetta more than an opera, with spoken dialogue and incorporating a range of popular musical styles, a compendium of the music Joplin heard and played in his youth, from ragtime to spirituals to barbershop quartet. The adaptation tightens some of the dramatic structure, while bringing out the originality of Joplin’s compositional voice.

Soprano Viviana Goodwin, a Cafritz Young Artist heard as Clara in last season’s Porgy and Bess, made an eloquent and winsome Treemonisha. Her lyrical voice suited the character’s dreamy, idealistic arias, and her supple top range provided more than enough power to carry the opera’s major climaxes. The changes to the opera, especially Treemonisha’s romance with and marriage to Remus, only implied in Joplin’s score, made the character more human than idealized savior.

The role of Remus, written by Joplin for a tenor, had to be adjusted somewhat for baritone Justin Austin to sing it. While not ideal musically, the change made sense in terms of casting: the earnest Austin, tall and imposing, proved a sinewy presence. Sneed, while doing away with the duet between Monisha and Ned (“I Want to See My Child”), showed the growing love between Remus and Tremonisha by giving them a hummed duet as they returned to the community, to the tune of “Marching Onward” from the opera’s final number.

Kevin Short as Ned  and Tichina Vaughan as Monisha in WNO’s Treemonisha. Photo: Elman Studios

Tichina Vaughn brought a burnished mezzo-soprano and dignified stage presence to the motherly role of Monisha, with some potent high notes along the way, for a solid WNO debut. Bass-baritone Kevin Short gave humor as well as authority to her husband, Ned, with some of the opera’s most lyrical moments. His big aria in Act III, “When Villains Ramble Far and Near,” had a Sarastro-like gravitas, even venturing down to a rich low D at the conclusion.

Among the supporting cast, tenor Jonathan Pierce Rhodes continues to show a broad acting range. After his turn as a trans woman, among other roles while a Cafritz Young Artist, Rhodes displayed both strutting confidence and vulnerability as the leader of the conjurers, Zodzetrick. In another change to Joplin’s libretto, in this adaptation, Zodzetrick does not take advantage of Treemonisha’s insistence on mercy by going back to his old ways but is sincerely converted.

Both tenor Hakeem Henderson and baritone Nicholas LaGesse had impressive turns, as Andy and Parson Alltalk, respectively. In Sneed’s adaptation, Alltalk is not in league with the conjurers as in Joplin’s libretto. 

Director Denyce Graves, who portrayed the conjurers more as practitioners of an African or Caribbean folk religion, insisted that the staging was “not meant to mock spiritual tradition or folk belief.” Both the Parson and the conjurers, in fact, seem pious in their own ways.

The most obvious change to the score was heard at the opening of Act I, when banjo player DeAnte Haggerty-Willis took the stage to play a number before the Overture. The banjo, Joplin’s mother’s instrument, added a lovely, authentic aura throughout the evening. Sneed himself, seated at an onstage upright piano like the spirit of Scott Joplin, joined the opening number and added musical touches to the orchestral fabric throughout the performance. Sneed’s orchestration used a limited number of strings and modest woodwinds and brass, restricted by Lisner’s small pit. Kedrick Armstrong, appointed as music director of the Oakland Symphony in 2024, held things together at the podium with a calm hand.

The choral numbers, sung by the supporting cast, had a pleasing heft in the small but resonant acoustic. Sneed moved the chorus “Aunt Dinah Has Blowed de Horn” from its position at the end of Act II to open Act I, now sung by Treemonisha’s community instead of the plantation she and Remus pass through on their way home. That piece followed Joplin’s lengthy overture, which Graves decided to accompany with a pantomime. That regrettable choice, too often made by directors these days, was made worse by depicting the story of Treemonisha’s adoption, thus making redundant Monisha’s later narration of those same events.

Graves, who has embarked on a second career as a talented opera director, nonetheless created a visually appealing and dramatically cogent production. The paisley-like vine patterns covering Lawrence E. Moten III’s set pieces recalled the tree central to the plot, as well as the wreaths worn by the girls in the community. The vibrant lighting designed by Jason Lynch brought out different hues in those patterns, suiting each scene’s mood.

The choreography by Eboni Adams, performed by four elegant dancers as well as the cast, added another lively aspect to this worthy staging. The adaptation moved Joplin’s ballet, “The Frolic of the Bears,” to the start of Act II, where it served instead as an expression of the conjurers’ folk beliefs. All in all, this is a worthy staging of an American monument, kicking off a series of three American works to conclude the WNO season in style.

Treemonisha runs through March 15. washnatopera.org

Photo: Elman Studios