Life > November 3, 2005

By Kristen Guth

Old Gold & Black Reviewer

The Secrest Series performance of Scott Joplin’s opera Treemonisha on Oct. 27 in Wait Chapel was well attended by students, faculty and other Winston-Salem residents. 

The three-act opera was presented with energetic stage presence from The Paragon Ragtime Orchestra & Singers and created a beautiful balance between Joplin’s story, words and music, which are all his original work.

As the second Secrest Artists Series event of the year, the ragtime opera centered on the way in which formal education enables individuals to promote goodness in society. 

As an auto-biographical reflection of Joplin’s childhood, this theme has equivalent poignancy for the academic setting of the university community.

Joplin published Treemonisha in 1911, consciously constructing the story to parallel his own adolescent education.  As a young boy, Joplin had access to a piano owned by a white household for which his mother worked. 

Gradually, he taught himself the musical basics on the piano, leading to his musical career.  The protagonist of Treemonisha likewise acquires an education through her parents’ labors in a white-owned home. 

The Paragon Ragtime Orchestra, an 11-member group, began the program by playing a well-mastered rendition of Joplin’s overture.  The music flowed skillfully from the staff lines on the sheet music down through the performers’ fingers and over the chapel’s balcony, delightfully entrancing the audience with exuberant jazz orchestration.

Although the group was small in number, the accuracy with which each member executed their individual parts contributed to the gorgeous melodic overlays that Joplin initially penned almost a century ago.

The cast and Treemonisha Octette successfully brought together the plot line through powerful voice projection and dance, conveying excellent dramatic emotion overall. 

The title role of Treemonisha was sung by Rita Addico-Cohen, whose high voice and impressive command of the stage propelled the opera forward.