Susannah @ Sarasota
Rushing from Miami, to catch the last one of the season, which we saw in 2025 @ St. Pete.
Susannah (1955), by Carlisle Floyd
The Story
At the center is Susannah, a young woman living in a tightly wound church community. Her beauty draws the attention of men and the resentment of their wives—a familiar, combustible mix.
One day, while bathing in a creek, she is seen by a group of older men. What begins as voyeurism quickly becomes accusation. Rumor spreads. Suspicion hardens into hostility.
Enter the preacher, Olin Blitch, who demands that Susannah confess her supposed sins. She refuses—there is nothing to confess. The community turns on her.
Later, in a chilling turn, the preacher visits her alone and rapes her. Realizing afterward that she was innocent, he seeks absolution—not by admitting his crime publicly, but by urging the church to forgive her and asking God to forgive himself.
Susannah’s brother, Sam, learns the truth and kills the preacher.
Themes & Impact
What makes Susannah endure is not the plot itself, but its moral architecture.
The community demands confession from the innocent, yet extends forgiveness to the guilty—so long as he holds authority. The preacher’s private guilt is treated as spiritually manageable; Susannah’s imagined sin is treated as socially intolerable.
The opera becomes less about religion than about power: who defines sin, who is forced to carry it, and who is allowed to escape it.
Calling it hypocrisy is accurate—but perhaps not sufficient. It’s a study in how moral systems can be bent to protect the structure rather than the truth.
Audience Experience (A Note)
We didn’t sit in our usual subscription seats this time, which changed the experience more than expected. Sitting next to someone using a respirator that emitted a steady mechanical noise was distracting—especially since similar devices can be virtually silent. Not a fault of the production, but it did affect immersion.
Bottom Line
A strong production of a still-unsettling American opera—one that uses a small, rural story to expose a much larger pattern of judgment, control, and selective redemption.
基督教教会的虚伪
苏珊娜年轻漂亮和哥哥相依为命. 村里的男人喜欢她 女人嫉妒. 无稽之谈 造谣生事 她不检点. 要她承认
“我没做错 为什么要承认?”
教会社区避讳她.
教会传道人去动员她承认. 邪心泛滥 强奸了她. 发现她还是处女
自己请求上帝宽恕
他也请求教民原谅她
哥哥打猎回来知道后
开枪打死了强奸犯.
这部歌剧所探讨的,与其说是宗教,不如说是权力: 究竟由谁来定义罪恶,谁被迫背负罪孽,而谁又能得以逃脱.
将其斥为“虚伪”固然准确,但或许仍显不足.这实际上是一次对道德体系的剖析——揭示了道德体系如何被扭曲,转而服务于维护既有的结构,而非捍卫真相.
Dinner in Sarasota’s Element is good. What kind of auto is this?
