Deciphering Octavia Butler’s books has never been easy, and the operatic version of “Parable of the Sower” with music and lyrics by Toshi Reagon and her mother, Bernice Johnson Reagon, is no less challenging or engaging. Rather than a hard copy playbill, the audience had to scan a barcode to determine who the performers were and, most importantly, what the opera was about. Many of the older members of the audience were not accustomed to this new process. Moreover, they were not sure when the performance actually began, when to applaud, or when the exact ending of the show was. There was perhaps some uncertainty about the actors running from the stage and down the aisles, particularly when they were confused with late arrivals searching for their seats in the packed David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center Thursday evening.
One thing for certain you cannot quibble about is the powerful musical score, an olio of gospel and spiritual songs, folk, contemporary pop, and a dollop of hip-hop. The protagonist, Lauren Olamina, a woman possessed with an unusual trait of hyper-empathy like a Corsican twin, has a voice of special resonance, at times a throaty quaver, and then a mellifluous swell of passion. She is the literal embodiment of the hurt her neighbors have endured. Her delivery often blends with the chorus and diverts dramatically from the sermon-like tonality exuded by Jared Wayne Gladly (Rev. Olamina).
When Toshi asked for a show of hands of those familiar with the “Parable of the Sower,” only a few were seen, but more were apparently aware of Butler’s literary legacy.
Butler (1947-2006), was a trailblazing sci-fi or Afrofuturism author, and her far-seeing prescience was never more phenomenal than in the “Parable of the Sower,” practically to the very day (her book published in 1993 begins on July 20, 2024). It highlights some of the current social, political, economic, and post-apocalyptic dystopic suffering, mass shootings, police abuse, poverty, climate change, and racism. The opera has grown considerably since I first saw it in Abu Dhabi at the invitation of my nephew who was associated with the NYU campus there in 2017.
Since then, the show has grown exponentially, with a finer distillation of the narrative and plot, to say nothing of the expansive cast, which, when many of them began mounting the stage at the conclusion, might have again puzzled the audience. Much of this perhaps emerged from the imagination of the Reagons and the production’s co-directors Signe Harriday and Eric Ting.
But their joining the regular cast members underscored the Reagons’ vision of a “congregational” motif, a veritable community sing guided by a young woman determined to rescue her followers from the detritus and malevolence of so-called modern-day America. Lauren is determined to lead them to “a new world a coming” as one of the songs promises. Those ardent fans of Toshi and her mother’s Sweet Honey in the Rock must have felt a warm kinship in the music that was decisive in keeping viewers in touch with the intricate unfolding of events, where the repetitive cry of “God is Change!” is heard.
There were moments that may have escaped even the most devoted readers of Butler’s books, but when the choir swelled in voice and number at the end of the opera, there was every indication that Lauren had fulfilled her mission to Earthseed and the Reagons, and the energetic, symphonic crew had accomplished what Butler envisioned those many years ago when she wrote, “So today, we remembered the friends and the family members we’ve lost. We spoke our individual memories and quoted Bible passages, Earthseed verses, and bits of songs and poems that were favorites of the living or the dead. Then we buried our dead and we planted our trees.
“Afterward, we sat together and talked and ate a meal and decided to call this place Acorn.”
Whether Earthseed or Acorn, the opera is a magnificent tribute to Butler and honors her vision in word, deed, and most memorably in song.