Margaret Garner

As an avid reader of Morrison’s works since I was 13 years old (I dare say I read The Bluest Eye way too early), I’m always enthralled and often carried away (albeit unwillingly at times) to the worlds of Morrison’s dynamic, and often times, fragmented characters.  Unfortunately, I found myself caught up in the “hype” surrounding Morrison’s libretto, and thus I lost track of the fact “Margaret Garner” is not Beloved set to Classical Opera form or Negro Spirituals, but rather it’s the real-life story—the real tragedy of the woman whose haunting legacy inspired Morrison’s Nobel-prize winning novel. And for that, shame on those of who us who expected more of Beloved and less of Margaret Garner’s story.

In many ways, the idea of using the highly stylized European operatic form to tell the story of slavery seems counterintuitive. Given the apparent Africanisms within the Black music, oral, and religious traditions, how is it possible to tell our stories within the stuffy constraints of opera? Truly, tragedy is at the core of most operas, but the story of slavery—the story of our ancestors seems almost impossible to encapsulate within this musical tradition. Yet, leave it to the literary genius of Morrison to push the boundaries of African-American consciousness to make even opera yield to the complexities of the Black slave experience. Her libretto, accompanied by Richard Danielpour’s musical score is an opus to one woman’s unyielding struggle against enslavement, and one man’s obsession with imagined superiority, entitlement, and the power to wield violence against the enslaved Africans he “owned.” Margaret’s story then, is deeply entwined with that of her captor’s—Edward Gaines— the man who “owned” Margaret and her children.

Margaret Garner at the Detroit Opera House

This opera has all of the elements of other operas—the beautiful diva who pours out her heart and story in the dramatic score; the handsome love interest—in this case it’s Margaret’s husband, Robert; the sinister villain capable of the most dastardly crimes; and the chorus, always reminding us of the mood upon us and preparing us for tempest awaiting.  Tracie Luck, the beautiful mezzo-soprano channels Margaret and we are given access to the mind, heart, and motives of a woman whose greatest love forced her to commit the greatest crime: the murder of her two children.

Throughout most of the opera, Margaret wears a white dress with a red scarf tucked in her pocket—symbolizing her life and independence. Once Gaines becomes hell-bent on not only “having” Margaret, but also forcing her to accept her fate as his slave and concubine, he snatches her scarf away, foreshadowing Margaret’s fate. Yet when Robert hatches a plan for he and Margaret and their two daughters to run away, Margaret imagines that her life could be far better with freedom, singing, with her arms wrapped around her children, “I’ll have it all.”

Sensing Margaret and Robert’s hope that freedom awaits them, we want them to make it, but we know otherwise. After a major snag in their plan ends with Robert killing the cruel overseer, the fugitive family finds themselves in hot pursuit by Edward Gaines, who has the “law” on his side. Eventually, they are caught, and Robert is beaten and killed. Watching the ordeal, Margaret refuses to submit, knowing that she will have to go back to a life of bondage, rape, and uncertainty regarding her own children. Refusing that fate, she does what most people deem unfathomable, when she kills her two children. Margaret is tried for theft and destruction of Edward Gaines’ “property”—her very own children.  She is found guilty on all counts, and the opera closes with her swinging from the Hangman’s noose.

“Margaret Garner” is beautifully written, but almost too tragic to watch play out even in a dramatic musical form that employs tragedy as one of its most central tropes. Each of the performers was successful at bringing their characters to life—almost too real. And while the chorus did its job of setting the mood, at times, their presence was a distraction. Yet, overall, Luck (Margaret), Timothy Mix (Edward Gaines), and Gregg Baker (Robert Garner) are phenomenal enough to make even this tragedy a success.
 
That night after seeing “Margaret Garner”, I did not fight with my youngest child about sleeping in her own bed. When she curled into me and wrapped her hands on each sides of my face, I thought of Margaret. Did she sleep with her little girls just as I am sleeping with mine? Was it the reality that this very special and symbiotic relationship would one day be snatched from her, like a quilt on a bed that drove her to murder her girls? Did she love her children as I love mine? And if so, how could something like love—the greatest feeling one could ever know—drive us to do the most unthinkable? I looked at my daughter, smelled the sweetness of her breath, recalled her birth, and every birthday since visualized her graduation from eighth grade, high school, and college, on her wedding day, and at the birth of her own child, and her freedom to experience life in any way she imagines and then I knew. 

Patricia Williams Lessane, Ph.D.  is a cultural anthropologist. She resides in Chicago.
Photo: John Grigatis/Detroit Opera House