Usher House is orchestrally minimal, with most of the focus left on exposed vocal lines. The differences extend to the opera’s musical idioms. His sister Madeline, whom he “loves too much”, is buried alive without his knowledge by the jealous doctor. Roderick is oppressed by isolation and forebodings rather than a discrete magical influence. An interdict by Edward the Confessor hangs over the Ushers, and Madeline’s pure resistance to Primus’ temptations results in the completion of the interdict and the fall of the house. Primus manipulates Madeline (and, in one scene, Poe) like a puppet and schemes to re-establish the House with a focus on the mystical secrets of life and death.

Getty’s piece takes a magical horror turn, with the noble Roderick and Madeline Usher and their honorable visitor Poe fighting the dark forces of Doctor Primus, possibly the resurrected founder of Usher House.

Neither opera stays true to the Poe short story on which they are based.

Both short operas are suspenseful and engaging. Yet these two American premières (Getty’s Usher House and Orledge’s completion of Debussy’s La Chute de la Maison Usher) are so distinct, dramatically and musically, that they never seem repetitive. It would seem like a dreadful idea to present the same story twice in quick succession, as San Francisco Opera’s The Fall of the House of Usher double bill promises to do.

San francisco opera 2015