Commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera Guild and Opera Memphis, ““Different Fields’’ opened last week at the New Victory Theater in New York (it moves to Tennessee in April). It’s a modern morality tale of shattered hopes and heroes, framed in the relationship between a troubled 12-year-old, Casey, and his idol, Aaron James. Aaron is a football star in search of his lost innocence, a gambler who must throw a game to repay a debt but finds redemption in confession. A cornball concept, but it works, largely because Reid and Sarah Schlesinger, whose libretto is strong and smart, understand and don’t underestimate their young audience.
““Different Fields’’ should be taken on its own modest terms: 75 minutes long, 6 singers, an orchestra of 11. With wafts of Copland and various doyens of the musical theater, it sometimes lurches from aria to aria, but it’s rich in melody and atmosphere. (The debt collector gets sinister music; Aaron’s farm reminiscences are a hoedown.) At a performance for schoolchildren, the biggest hand came after Casey’s mother (played with cool fire by Theresa Hamm-Smith) sang, ““Who is there left for our kids to admire?’’ Touche. No, touchdown.
