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music by Kurt Weill, libretto by Maxwell Anderson, directed by Guillermo Silva-Marin

Voicebox: Opera in Concert, Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre, 427 Bloor Street West, Toronto

March 21, 2026

Stephen Kumalo: “And sometimes it seems maybe God’s gone away / Forgetting the promise that we heard Him say”

On March 21, Voicebox: Opera in Concert concluded its 2025/26 season with the Canadian premiere of Lost in the Starsby Kurt Weill to commemorate the composer’s 125th anniversary. Despite its general neglect, this, Weill’s final stage work before his death in 1950, proved to be extraordinarily powerful, both musically and dramatically. The audience justly greeted the passionate finale with a roar of acclaim.

Maxwell Anderson based his libretto on Alan Paton’s bestselling novel Cry, the Beloved Country (1948). The story is set in South Africa just before the system of apartheid is introduced. Its focus of the plot is Stephen Kumalo, an Anglican priest in the small village of Ndotsheni. Stephen and his wife Grace are worried that they have received no news of their son Absolom since he left to work in Johannesburg. When Stephen learns that his sister Gertrude may have fallen into bad ways, he journeys to Johannesburg to find out the truth. In Johannesburg, Stephen goes from place to place following various leads to find Absolom. He discovers that Absolom is in jail for murder in a robbery he plotted with two friends. The irony is that Absolom has unknowing shot his friend, a White man, Arthur Jarvis, whose father is Stephen’s neighbour James.

Stephen is counselled to have his son plead not guilty since there is not enough proof to link Absolom to the murder. But Absolom is so crushed by what he has done he has confessed, and Stephen, who has always stood for the truth doesn’t see how he ask his son to lie. On the morning of Absolom’s execution, James Jarvis, who had previous been a spokesman for White superiority, comes grief-stricken to visit Stephen, finally realizing that they are both alike in suffering the loss of their sons.

Lost in the Stars is the last in Weill’s project to create a “Broadway opera”, an work of music theatre that would have the heft of an opera but would be musically accessible to a broad range of people. For Lost in the Stars, Anderson created a chorus that were not simply a group of backup singers but who functioned as a Greek chorus, setting scenes and commenting on the action. As in Greek tragedy he gave the Chorus a Leader. Together they represent South Africa itself as it looks on the tragedy that Stephen Kumalo suffers.

The music ranges in style from mid-century operatic to hymns, dramatic ballads, blues, Zulu-influenced songs and even boogie-woogie. This huge range of styles is unified by Weill’s sense of rhythm and his masterful, typically tart orchestration. The Voicebox presentation had the great advantage of employing an orchestra of the same size and makeup as in the original production.

Anderson’s libretto does have its peculiarities. Unlike what would be usual in an opera or musical, some of the most important characters have only speaking, not singing roles. This includes Absolom as well as Grace Kumalo and James Jarvis. One of the most dramatic scenes in the opera, James attempt to reconcile with Stephen, is entirely spoken. Allowing only certain characters to sing has the effect of making the drama appear to be of the individual, Stephen, as witnessed by the entire nation, the Chorus and its Leader.

The production was particularly well cast. With his rich, resonant baritone and fine acting, American Leroy Davis made an ideal Stephen Kumalo. He delivered all his songs/arias with a barely suppressed emotion that only increased their power. This was particularly true with the title song “Lost in the Stars” that concludes Act 1 and the urgent prayer for guidance “O Tixo, Tixo, Help Me” (“Tixo” being the Xhosa word for the Supreme Being).

Canadian tenor Ryan Allen was an excellent Leader of the Chorus. He brought out the figure’s nobility and strength while the Leader’s moods, reflecting those of the choral passages, played across his face moving from pride to anger to sadness.

While Absolom has no songs, his pregnant girlfriend Irinia, later wife, is given two. Canadian soprano Ineza Mugisha gave passionate accounts of both “Trouble Man” and “Stay Well” and even on stage in silence continued in her role acting Irinia’s utter devastated when Absolom is condemned to death.

These three are the opera’s principal soloists. Two other characters are given one solo each. Mezzo-soprano Francesca Alexander stepped out from the Chorus to give a full-throttle performance as Linda, a singer in a shantytown that Stephen visits. For her song “Who’ll Buy?” with its lyrics full of double entendres, Alexander employed her head voice, as one might expect from such a singer in such a place, and fittingly brought the house down.

Another great success Grade 7 student Julian Bredin as Stephen’s nephew Alex. Bredin has a lovely strong soprano and is completely at home on stage. His rendering of “Big Mole” was vivid and joyful and provided one bit of bright light amid the darkening gloom the story.

Some members of the cast were actors ony. One was Martin Gomes as Absolom, who in his few appearances was able to convince us of his character’s troubled but essentially good nature. Several members of the chorus had solos in place in the chorus while some came to the stage apron in speaking parts. Most notable was Sean Curran as James Jarvis, Stephen’s bigoted neighbour. After assailing Stephen with the most vile racist speech, Curran accomplished the seemingly impossible task of making Stephen and us believe that Jarvis on the morning of Absolom’s execution, had had finally seen the light and wished to become friends with Stephen. It may be odd the pinnacle of drama in an opera should be spoken rather than sung, yet Jarvis’s complete self-abasement before Stephen and Stephen’s wary but finally trusting acceptance of Jarvis as a friend was the most moving section of the work.

The 21-member Opera in Concert chorus prepared by Robert Cooper sang beautifully throughout and indeed served collectively as one of the opera’s majors characters. Its account of “Cry, the Beloved Country” is still ringing in my ears.

Joel Goodfellow led the 11-member Opera in Concert Orchestra with verve and precision. He was adept at highlighting the tang of Weill’s harmonies and in negotiating Weill’s frequent changes of tempo and musical genre.

The presentation of Lost in the Stars was not what one typically expects at an opera in concert. There were no music stands with soloists dutifully seated behind them waiting their moment. Rather, Voicebox Artistic Director Guillermo Silva-Marin staged the action in front of the orchestra on stage with five boxes serving as seating when dramatically needed. The performers, some without scores in hand, made entrances and exits and would interact with each other as in a fully staged performance. This movement and these interactions all contributed to making the work more vivid and helped refute any notions of the opera’s unstageworthiness.

One left the performance enlightened and uplifted, privileged to have seen a rarity and surprised that such an effective work should even count as a rarity. This was truly another triumph for Voicebox: Opera in Concert.

Christopher Hoile

Photos: Leroy Davis as Stephen Kumalo; Ryan Allen as Leader of the Chorus; Ineza Mugisha as Irina; Julian Bredin as Alex. © 2026 Emily Ding.

To contact Voicebox: Opera in Concert visit www.operainconcert.com.