Edition: U.S. / Global  MUSIC REVIEW; A Little Chamber Opera
Written for Full Orchestra  Published: June 5, 2001  Carlisle
Floyd's one-act opera ''Markheim,'' based on a short story by
Robert Louis Stevenson, seems like a nice little chamber opera.
The score gets the job done in workmanlike fashion, with set
pieces broadly characterizing each of the four characters:
Creach, the pawnbroker in whose shop the action takes place;
Tess, his pretty young maid; Markheim, a dissolute aristocrat;
and the Stranger, a Mephistophelean figure who promises him a
life of pleasure. An offstage chorus sings Christmas carols --
to rather unseasonal music -- as a final Victorian touch. It's
not, in fact, a chamber opera, since it's written for full
orchestra; but if it were reorchestrated for a smaller ensemble,
this would be a fine piece for conservatory students to cut
their teeth on.  It was a little hard to tell from the
production by the Center for Contemporary Opera, which opened at
the Kaye Playhouse on Thursday night. I