The Opera Theatre of St. Louis production of Conrad Susa's Transformations

I think it's appropriate that the background essay on the third Opera Theatre of St. Louis production this year - Conrad Susa's Transformations, based on poems by Anne Sexton - is written not by a music or art historian but by noted psychiatrist Virginia Masters Johnson. That's because Transformations is as much a series of psychotherapy sessions as it is an opera. It's a fascinating piece, but I often felt like an unwilling voyeur, seeing the intimate side of someone I really didn't like very much.

Sexton's life was "not an 'appy one", as they say in Pirates of Penzance. One of three sisters from a dysfunctional family, she was probably sexually abused as a child and grew into a deeply troubled, manipulative, and sexually and emotionally confused adult for whom the production of poetry was as much a form of therapy as an act of creation. She committed suicide in 1974, one year after the opera's premiere.

The poems in Transformations are re-tellings of classic Brothers Grimm fairy tales, "transformed" into stories about various types of madness and self-destruction. Incest in "Briar Rose" and "Rapunzel", addiction in "Godfather Death", and so on. But they're also filled with humorous asides and imagery drawn from the pop culture of the '50s and '60s. Susa creates a musical analog of this with a score for a small seven-piece combo that makes frequent references to various pop musical styles. It mirrors and amplifies the text brilliantly, and is performed with impressive skill by members of the symphony, directed by John DeMain.

Would that Kieth Warner's direction did the same. Unfortunately, Warner has chosen to not just highlight the themes in the libretto, but hang big, bright lights on them and pound them home with all the subtlety of Moe poking Curely in the eye. Unlike Susa's or Sexton's, Warner's pop culture references are heavy-handed and obvious. A little of this is funny - his mocking use of Disney images in "Snow White", for example - but it soon becomes tiresome and even annoying. Set designer John Conklin provides a nearly bare stage for all this excess, with a series of numbered doors at the back, through which characters and set pieces move, appear, and disappear.

Overseeing the action on that stage is OTSL veteran Sheri Greenawald as a narrator who is both Sexton and The Witch in the fairy tales. In what must be the most taxing role of her career, she takes the Sexton/Witch through a shattering range of emotional highs and lows, finally burning out in a sadly prophetic longing for death. Greenawald is ably assisted by an ensemble cast who take on various roles during the evening. All of them are required to stretch both their acting and physical muscles to a degree not usually seen in the standard operatic repertoire, and they come through with flying colors, even though their intonation isn't always as clear as it could be.

Although it's more likely to appeal to fans of Sexton's poetry than to the average opera-goer, Transformations is an odd and maybe even unique work, and if the production weren't so cluttered with gimmicks it would be a "must see". If you do attend I strongly suggest reading the poems on which it is based first. You'll find some of them on the web, and the book itself ought to be in local libraries.

Transformations continues in rotating repertory with three other operas through June 26th at the Loretto Hilton Center on the Webster University campus. Call 314-961-0644 for ticket information.