A PROVOCATIVE POPPEA FOR OUR TIME

Cast of Poppea presented by BARE Opera

Bare Opera surely has their finger on the operatic pulse of 21st c. New York City, especially the pulse of young opera goers. Instead of waiting four long hours to hear "Pur ti Miro", the ravishing duet between Nerone and Poppea that concludes Monteverdi's last and greatest work, L'incoronazione di Poppea, the audience got the main points of the opera with as much glorious music as one would wish for, in the space of two hours.

Instead of sitting and yawning, staring through binoculars, the audience members were seated on three sides of the playing area, giving everyone an "up close and personal" involvement with the morally challenged characters whose lust and ambition resonate so well with our present time.

Instead of lengthy and abstruse program notes trying to justify the director's "concept", director David Paul wisely allowed the work to speak for itself. His focus was on the main characters of the drama. The Prologue and extraneous characters were eliminated and certain scenes were played out to highlight the eroticism. For example, Nerone and Poppea play out their drama in bed, for the most part.  And Nerone's homoerotic "song competition" with Lucano became a boxing exercise with a "happy ending". It was clear which man was the "top"! 

Let it be noted, before anyone protests the cuts, that there is really no definitive score remaining from the 1643 Venetian premiere. The opera was reworked several times (like Puccini's Madama Butterfly) before it was lost to oblivion for two centuries.  Since its "rediscovery" it has been performed frequently.

Musical values were excellent and, although the program was strictly "bare bones", we suspect that Maestro David Moody was responsible for the arrangement and the judicious cuts. His boutique baroque ensemble gave us everything we wanted. The string quartet was augmented by a bass, theorbo, and baroque guitar. A piano with a soft sound replaced the harpsichord.  If there were Baroque period purists in the audience, they did not complain. Nor did we. We loved every moment.

For those who do not know the story, it bears no resemblance to the history of 60 AD. The libretto was written by a wealthy poet by the name of Giovanni Francesco Busenello, a leading musical dramatist of the 17th c. One might call his writing that of a cynical realist. It has been suggested that the work, which premiered in Venice during the 1643 Carnevale season, was meant to draw a contrast between Venice and the morally inferior Rome, thus the glorification of lust and ambition depicted in Ancient Rome.

Nerone (Ariadne Greif) has tired of his wife Ottavia (Briana Hunter) and would like to put his mistress Poppea (Maria Lacey) on the throne. Ottone (Vivien Shotwell) is in love with Poppea and suffers intense jealousy, intense enough to try to kill her. Drusilla (Alexandra Smither) is in love with Ottone, enough to help him with his plot and enough to join him in exile when he is pardoned at the end of the opera.  All of the major characters had splendid voices and used them well, particularly in the melismatic passages and in the concitato genere, demonstrating ease with the Baroque style of singing.

Bass Christian Isaiah Simmons made a marvelously dignified Seneca who endured a death far more violent than he did in history. David Charles Tay in female travesti, created the character of a housemaid/confidant to Poppea, wise and nurturing, and with a marvelously resonant voice that made us think "That's what a castrato must have sounded like". We hope, of course, that Mr. Tay did not pay the price!

Timothy Stoddard played the parts of Lucano, most arresting in the boxing/sex scene with Nerone, and of Liberto. Anne Marie Stanley and Max Potter portrayed Nerone's henchmen. The casting was absolutely perfect.

Briana Hunter's Ottavia was sympathetic, in spite of her murderous impulses.  She was tied to the bed by her ankle and sang movingly about the plight of women who give birth to the very people who enslave them. We were happy that she got a second chance to live in exile.

There was no set to speak of in the cold brick-walled playing space at the Blue Building. Plenty of heat was provided by the acting which took place predominantly in two beds--the huge one for the romantic couple and a narrow one for poor Ottavia.

Costume design by Sara Jean Tosetti was contemporary. Poppea wore a mini-length shift which was covered by a diaphanous floor length vest for her coronation. Nerone wore a flashy red jacket. Ottavia wore a leopard print dress.  If we'd read about it beforehand we might have expected to disparage the look-- but actually, everything worked well with the story, even the punk looks adopted by Ottone and Nero's henchmen.

Titles were effectively projected onto beams in the ceiling. Lighting by Anthony Tornambene effectively highlighted the part of the playing area where the action was taking place.

We were completely absorbed for two hours with not a single longueur. We rarely get to see an adaptation that works this well.  More credit to the innovative Bare Opera and their visceral take on this work, bringing a four centuries old opera into the modern age.

(c) meche kroop

BUONA NOTTE

QuinnKelsey and Georgia Jarman (photo credit: Ken Howard for Santa Fe Opera

It was indeed a "buona notte" at the Santa Fe Opera when a perfect storm of casting and direction created a Rigoletto to Remember. Although there was no actual weather event as there was five years ago here, when Mother Nature provided real live lightning and thunder for Act III, there were fireworks aplenty onstage.

Baritone Quinn Kelsey's portrayal of the eponymous character was both chilling and moving.  Like every other character in this work, his complexity was captured by the artist and one couldn't help but think of Shakespeare's characters, always so multidimensional. Warped in body and spirit, Rigoletto expresses his rage at his condition by verbally attacking the courtiers comprising the court of the licentious Duke of Mantua--provoking, embarrassing and humiliating them under the protection of the Duke. But he has a soft and tender side as well, expressed in his duets with his lovely daughter Gilda. Mr. Quinn's rich baritone and expressive skills worked as well in his mocking mood as they did in his tender scenes with Gilda.

Gilda is also a complex character. She is the very incarnation of innocence, having been sheltered from the world by her overprotective father. She too has another side.  She hides some very essential facts from her father and lies about the fact that  she has been oourted by the Duke himself in the guise of a poor student named Gualtier Malde. Soprano Georgia Jarman used her gorgeous instrument and consummate phrasing to show the tender caring of daughter for father in their duets together. Her admirable coloratura skills were employed for her flights of fioritura in the famous aria "Caro nome". Her prodigious vocal skills were complemented by total immersion in her character. We believed her and cared about her.

The Duke  is a more consistent character, imbued as he is with licentiousness and depravity.  But the tenor assigned this challenging role, Bruce Ledge, needs to hide his true character and convince Gilda that he is a poor student feeling the most honorable feelings toward her. Yet Verdi's music tells us everything we need to know about this scumbag. Ledge delivered his "Questa o quella" and "La donna e mobile" with the same spirit as that with which he tossed women onto the floor.

As Sparafucile, the hired assassin who is too ethical (!) to cheat a client, bass Peixin Chen made a fine chilling appearance and, as his sister Maddalena, mezzo-soprano Nicole Piccolomini made a fine showing with one of the most powerful voices we have heard recently in this fach. It was easy to see how she could overpower her reluctant brother in her wish to spare the life of the Duke, who has managed to work his seductive magic on her as well.

Gilda's caretaker Giovanna, sung by mezzo Anne Marie Stanley, was given an unusual emphasis. She was portrayed as a poor wretch, hungry enough to lick the crumbs off Rigoletto's plate. Her resentment toward her master was so great that she not only betrayed him by accepting bribes from the Duke but also from the courtiers who abducted her charge.  To add insult to injury, before her treachery can be punished, she gathers her few belongings, spits on her master and runs off.

Baritone Jarrett Ott stood out as a fine Marullo, one of the courtiers, and veteran Robert Pomakov's sturdy base lent emphasis to the aristocratic Count Monterone whose daughter (Andrea Nunez) has been disgraced by the Duke. Bass Calvin Griffin was fine as Count Ceprano whose wife, portrayed by Shabnam Kalbasi, is also in the Duke's sights. It is always a pleasure for us to see and hear so many fine young artists getting a chance to shine onstage.

Musical values were superb all around with Maestro Jader Bignamini leading a propulsive account of Verdi's score.  The evening seemed to fly by all too quickly but never felt rushed. The fine points of Verdi's orchestration were fully realized. Today's audience would scarcely believe that this major hit from Verdi's middle period (premiered in 1851) was perceived as revolutionary in its compositional innovations and was also subject to great difficulties from the Austrian censors who were occupying the north of Italy. They saw Francesco Maria Piavi's libretto (adapted from Victor Hugo's play "Le roi s'amuse"), as highly immoral.

We could just imagine how they might have reacted to Director Lee Blakeley version of 2015!  He chose to set the work in the period of The Risorgimento, Verdi's own time, also the time of the Counter-Reformation and the Restoration of the Catholic Church.  In Blakeley's version, the court is wildly lascivious and seems to be in full orgy mode at all times. Along the same lines, Sparafucile's tavern is actually a brothel with Maddalena performing sexual duties along with other "sex workers". Although one might interpret this as overkill, the concept did work as a manifestation of extreme depravity.

Other directors have updated the work from the 16th c. There was a Mafia version by Jonathan Miller, there was the Doris Dorrie version set on the Planet of the Apes (!) , the Linda Brovsky version set in Mussolini's fascist Italy, the Las Vegas version by Michael Mayer and, most recently,  Lindy Hume's version set in Berlusconi's paparazzi-driven world. For our taste, Mr. Blakeley's version suits us best. We can believe that Monterone's curse la maledizione was received with credulity and fear during that period, but not in the 20th c. We are waiting for a version set in Hugh Hefner's Playboy Mansion so we can howl with laughter.

We found the Scenic and Costume Design by Adrian Linford to be a bit distracting and unsatisfying. A rather undersized revolving stage permitted the audience to see the court, Rigoletto's house and Sparafucile' tavern in rapid succession.  This made for a speedy evening without lengthy intermissions and kept the drama moving forward.  But the set itself was crowded and puzzling. Why would the Duke tolerate threadbare furniture? Why is everything atilt? There was an overall emphasis on poverty: Giovanna seems to be starving and Sparafucile is dressed in rags like a hobo. Some characters are dressed according to the mid 19th c. and others seem to be wearing contemporary streetwear.

In sum, the Santa Fe Opera has mounted a real winner that scored well in the areas we value most highly--Verdi's tuneful yet character-driven music given its full due, and the high level of characterization and drama that led us to experience the involvement we so greatly appreciate.The casting was astute; the singers all had fine voices and enacted characters one could believe. The chorus, comprising apprentices directed by Susanne Sheston, added enormously to the musical value and to the drama.

(c) meche kroop