Review: McCartney's Liverpool love song is a visual treat, but it needs a tweak

First things first.

Sir Paul McCartney was not at Music Hall to see the fully staged production of his “Liverpool Oratorio.”

For weeks, Cincinnati Opera had encouraged its friends and patrons to let McCartney know how much Cincinnati would love to have him pop in and visit with us. But it wasn’t meant to be.

McCartney did send a recorded message, though, making his apologies for being unable to join us.

“I love the piece,” he said at one point, “and I love that you’re doing it in Cincinnati. So I hope you have a great evening. Thank you very much for putting it on.”

Admittedly, McCartney’s visit had been a long shot. But the message he sent was a thoughtful one. And in the end, we were at Music Hall to hear and see the show itself.

First, a little background . In 1990, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra asked McCartney to write a piece to celebrate the orchestra’s 150th anniversary the following year.

Working with composer Carl Davis, McCartney created a semi-autobiographical, 90-minute work called “Liverpool Oratorio.” It opens with a boy named Shanty being born into a working-class family in 1942 and attending a boys’ school.

But that is as far as the biographical material goes. “Liverpool Oratorio” was never intended to be about the Beatles or Wings or any of McCartney’s other pop-music ventures.

What sets the Cincinnati performances apart from other presentations is that instead of presenting the music in its original oratorio form – basically, an unstaged concert presentation – Cincinnati Opera transformed the work into a fully staged opera.

The result? Decidedly mixed.

Mind you, there is a good deal to like about this production. Leslie Travers’ set designs manage to be both monumental and intimate. The entire stage is draped with an enormous map of 1942 Liverpool with its skyline – often in postwar tatters – drifting in and out of the background. But the various scenes are played out in smaller spaces in the foreground – a tiny childhood home, a crowded office, an orderly classroom.

McCartney’s music is often tuneful, though not in a pop-music sense. In his pop songs, he had to think of 3-minute musical arcs. And he was a master with them. Here, though, scenes are longer and, ideally, more probing. It doesn’t always work out that way, though, as McCartney’s lyrics are sometimes painfully flimsy. But then, opera has rarely been known for its enlightened lyrics.

The work is built around four principal singers. And they are among the production’s greatest assets – tenor Andrew Owens as Shanty, McCartney’s alter ego, Jacqueline Echols McCarley as Mary Dee, Shanty’s great love, and Kevin Short in a trio of significant roles. Most intriguing of the group is Kayleigh Decker, whose acting is as compelling and character-filled as her vocal prowess.

The subject matter may be built around one man’s bumpy journey through life, but the production itself is enormous, involving not just the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, but also a 45-voice chorus, and 18 members of the Cincinnati Boychoir.

There is also a small ensemble of dancers from Cincinnati Ballet intended to add a dramatic underscoring to many of the scenes. The dancers are wonderful, especially Simone Muhammad and Marcus Romeo. If only the group weren’t so limited by Michael Pappalardo’s unimaginative and simplistic choreography. The dancers and the production deserve better.

Early on in the production’s planning stages, someone – I can’t remember who – said the music was crying out to be staged as an opera. Having seen it onstage, I’m not sure that was right.

The transition from oratorio to full-fledged opera hasn’t been a smooth one. An opera has greater dramatic demands than an oratorio. An oratorio, by definition, is immobile. And opera? Not so at all. The change in format calls for tweaking.

In its life as an oratorio, the pace of McCartney’s storytelling wasn’t so much of an issue. But as an opera, the story needs more dramatic verve. Since the creators chose not to make revisions, it was left to stage director Caroline Clegg to smooth over those dramatic shortcomings.

Unfortunately, she hasn’t managed that. As a result, this production of “Liverpool Oratorio” is visually striking, but dramatically static. It just needs more life on the stage.

Will that happen? Could McCartney be coaxed to return to this work more than 30 years after composing it to revise and reshape it? Hard to say. I wouldn’t bet on it. But this story has good dramatic bones. It would be fascinating to see what an older and more mature McCartney would do to turn it into a more effective theatrical experience.

'Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Oratorio'

• When : through July 27.
• Where : Springer Auditorium, Music Hall, 1243 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine.
• Tickets : $28-$285.
• Information : 513-241-2742; www.cincinnatiopera.org .

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Review: McCartney's Liverpool love song is a visual treat, but it needs a tweak