THE SUBLIME AND THE RIDICULOUS

Anthony Robin Schneider, Jarrett Ott, Matthew DiBattista, Liv Redpath, and Terrence Chin-Loy (photo by Ken Howard for Santa Fe Opera)

Liv Redpath and Amanda Majeski
(Photo by Ken Howard for Santa Fe Opera)

Richard Strauss' 1916 opera Ariadne auf Naxos offers countless delights as well as a wonderful message--comedy can overcome tragedy and love can eliminate grief and stress. The richest man in Vienna is throwing a dinner party and has commissioned an opera to entertain his guests.  Unbeknownst to the unwary young composer, he has also engaged a comedy troupe starring the flirtatious and fickle Zerbinetta. This is enough to throw the arrogant and temperamental stars of this opera seria into a frenzy of disdain and scorn.

When the Major Domo announces in the plummiest of British accents (spoken dialogue was in English) that both troupes will perform simultaneously in order to finish in time for the fireworks, the composer and singers go ballistic. It is time for the young composer to face the reality of the music business! On a happier note, he and Zerbinetta fall for one another.

The show must go on with poor Ariadne singing in Act II (now in German) about her wish to die.  Theseus has loved her and left her, abandoned on a lonely island. She longs for Mercury to come and take her to the "other side". Zerbinetta and her troupe dance and sing and try to cheer her up, to no avail. Zerbinetta even tries to talk to her woman to woman about taking new lovers. Eventually, the young god Bacchus arrives on Naxos and becomes smitten with her. In a lovely directorial touch (Tim Albery) the Composer arrives at the side of the set and appears delighted at the apparent success of his opera. He is joined by Zerbinetta and the two couples are seen embracing in tandem.

As Zerbinetta, 2017 Apprentice Singer Liv Redpath simply stunned us with her glorious coloratura and engaging stage presence. Every note and every gesture served to illuminate her delightful character. She was far more appealing than the dour Ariadne, sung by South African soprano Amanda Echalaz. Ms. Echalaz was effective in Act I as the imperious prima donna but in Act II, her performance as Ariadne lacked the beauty and color we have come to expect in this role. Tenor Bruce Sledge distinguished himself by getting through this challenging role with beauty of tone and lovely phrasing.

The other Amanda in this tale of two Amandas surprised us. We have never been a great fan of Amanda Majeski, but in the travesti role of The Composer, usually sung by a mezzo-soprano, she absolutely shone and was totally convincing in her artistic despair and in her budding romance with Zerbinetta.

Zerbinetta's troupe of commedia dell'arte players was performed with great lively style by Apprentice Artists--Jarrett Ott, Anthony Robin Schneider, Matthew DiBattista, and Terrence Chin-Loy, whose singing and dancing (!) added so much to the evening's delight.

Sarah Tucker, Samantha Gossard, and Meryl Dominguez (photo by Ken Howard for Santa Fe Opera.

Accompanying Ariadne on the isle of Naxos were three lovely ladies portraying the nymphs Echo (soprano Sarah Tucker), Najade (soprano Meryl Dominguez), and Dryade (mezzo-soprano Samantha Gossard). Strauss gave them some beautiful harmonies and they gave some beautiful singing to the audience. We got to thinking about Mozart's three ladies and then about Wagner's Rheinmadchen. We can think of no greater treat than three female voices in harmony. And those gals can really sing!

Smaller roles were all well handled. Kevin Burdette's Major Domo was a study in pomposity and self-importance. Rod Gilfrey portrayed the Music Master in a piece of luxury casting. Jarrett Logan Porter played the wigmaker, so badly abused by the temperamental tenor. Brent Michael Smith was the scurrying footman and Jesse Darden played an Officer. Brenton Ryan made a fine dancing master.

Maestro James Gaffigan did a swell job with Strauss' lavish orchestration and Tim Albery directed with a sure hand. Jodi Melnick's choreography for Zerbinetta's troupe was delightfully different and done in vaudeville style with the men sporting walking sticks. Who knew those guys could dance!!!!

Set and Costume Design by Tobias Hoheisel was highly unusual. The set for Act I was realistic and accurate to the period. We were shown a corridor in the rich man's home with a series of doors to dressing rooms.  Except, in a droll turn, one of them turned out to be a broom closet. During the overture, we could see the arrival of all the artists and get a good idea of their personalities.

The set for Act II was abstract with a pair of curved architectural elements enclosing Ariadne's "cave" which was shaped like a shallow bowl colored red. Thomas C. Hase's lighting design worked its magic.

Ariadne wore a long black dress, suited to her grief.  Zerbinetta and her troupe were not costumed in traditional commedia dell'arte garb but sported garments suited to the early 20th c. Zerbinetta herself looked like a model for Poiret.

We cannot close without mentioning our thought that Strauss often worked through his personal issues through his operas. In this case, he and his librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal almost came to blows as they worked out the necessary compromises to get this opera on the page and on the stage. Could we not notice similar attempts at working through issues in his Capriccio and in his Intermezzo?  In these cases, art surely imitates life!

(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

DOUBLE FEATURE

Brenda Rae, Anthony Michaels-Moore and Erin Morley (photo by Ken Howard)

Erin Morley (photo by Ken Howard)

How could one make a marriage out of a 1786 Mozart singspiel and a 1914 Stravinsky fairy tale?  With great imagination!  Did the pairing work?  It depends upon who you ask.  Director Michael Gieleta has presented Le Rossignol as a production of the eponymous impresario of The Impresario and his company of performers.  The two wildly divergent works are bound together by the same cast and by the same scenic elements transformed in shape and purpose.

We have previously seen Mozart's Der Schauspieldirektor but never like this.  The hijinks occurring between the frustrated impresario and his three sopranos are here performed with much additional dialogue and interpolations of additional music by Mozart.  For some reason it is given in English.  Some of the dialogue is clever and some isn't.  It comes across as a backstage farce.

Before the opera even begins, we are treated to images of Salome with Jochanaan's head and a Tosca stabbing a Scarpia.  The stage is filled with performers of various disciplines, notably a troupe of very good dancers and three sopranos vying for parts in the new production of Le Rossignol.  The time is 1914 and the place is probably Paris; the impresario himself speaks with a Russian accent and is likely a fugitive from the Revolution.  The Countess who has supported his company is assassinated in front of our very eyes and Mr. Yussupovich fears he will have to close up shop.  Baritone Anthony Michaels-Moore handled the role well both dramatically and vocally.

His business manager Otto van der Puff (bass Kevin Burdette) proposes that Mr. Y produce operas that the public enjoys instead of radical experimental works.  Ahem!  They compromise.  There will be a Don Giovanni but there will also be this new work by Stravinsky.  And that's what we get in the second half of the program.  But not before we hear the three divas perform audition arias.  Soprano Erin Morley is filled with self-confidence as Adellina Vocedoro-Gambalunghi.  Soprano Brenda Rae has an enormous amount of fun as the over-the-top Transylvanian Vlada Vladimirescu who has brought along her husband, sung by the fine tenor Bruce Sledge.

Stepping in to replace the deceased Countess is financier Heinrich Eiler (bass-baritone David Govertsen) who wants his mistress Chlotchilda Krone (contralto Meredith Arwady) to be cast.  If the names of these three divas don't make you laugh then their shenanigans will.  Ms. Arwady is particularly funny as she sings Mozart's male roles in several registers.  We were reminded of Ira Siff's La Gran Scena Opera Company, gone but not forgotten.

After the intermission, we see the same singers onstage in the same roles but a transformation takes place as the clever set design (James Macnamara) is converted into the setting for Le Rossignol.  The piano becomes a boat and Mr. Sledge becomes a fisherman.  The outrageous Poiret-influenced costumes are stripped away and Ms. Morley becomes the eponymous nightingale.  The impresario is dressed as a Chinese emperor and Ms. Rae becomes a cook.  The costumes by Fabio Toblini are as sumptuous in the Stravinsky as they were in the Mozart.

The myth taken on by Stravinsky is that of a nightingale who sings so sweetly that she brings tears of joy to the eyes of the listener.  And that is EXACTLY what Ms. Morley achieved.  Most of her part is without words, a divine vocalise.  The cook will get an important position in the Emperor's court if she brings this splendid creature.  The nightingale does enchant the Emperor and the entire court until some Japanese envoys bring a mechanical bird (the lovely dancer Xiaoxiao Wang) that astonishes everyone.

The real live nightingale flies off; the Emperor is enraged and banishes her.  But when he is on his deathbed she returns and promises to sing 'til dawn if Death will return to the Emperor his symbols of power.  She succeeds and is offered a grand reward but the only reward she wants are the tears in the Emperor's eyes.  The opera is beautifully sung in Russian.

We loved the story.  Our thoughts ran along the lines of how in today's world we have been seduced by the faux, the virtual, the mechanical/electronic.  We need the real and the natural to heal.

Not everything worked.  We found the projections of modernist art to be ugly; they distracted from the gentle beauty of the myth and the music.  The dancers, wearing fake moustaches and glasses and rolling around on the floor dressed in knee breeches didn't make any sense whatsoever.  Sean Curran was the choreographer.

Conductor Kenneth Montgomery went all the way in limning the shimmering textures and dramatic orchestration of Stravinsky's score.  If we have nothing to say about the Mozart it is because the action onstage was so distracting that the music got very little notice.

As the myth concludes, the dancers are stripped of their lavish Oriental costumes and returned to their 1914 clothes, bringing the entire affair to a mostly satisfying conclusion.

(c) meche kroop

WOW-METTO

Luca Pisaroni

Patricia Bardon

Bruce Sledge

Leah Crocetto

The Santa Fe Opera has come through with another major success--a totally fulfilling production of Rossini's Maometto II.  There has been some extensive scholarship involved in bringing this masterpiece to the stage, in light of the plethora of extant  versions, but what matters to us in the audience are the musical and dramatic values.  And of those, not an element can be faulted.

As the titular hero, bass Luca Pisaroni gives us vocalism and dramatic energy in spades.  His Maometto is compelling--virile, dominant, vengeful and arrogant--a warrior who also has moments of tenderness, all of which is reflected in his multihued voice and total commitment to the role as he strides around the stage looking every bit the conqueror. Soprano Leah Crocetto has a coloratura of warmth and color; her fioritura is spot on.  We wind up caring deeply for her character Anna, the daughter of a Venetian commander Erisso, so perfectly portrayed by tenor Bruce Sledge.  Mr. Sledge's voice is strong but always pleasant to the ear and modulated to suit the mood of the scene.  Mezzo Patricia Bardon won our admiration in her vivacious and accurately sung portrayal of Calbo whom Erisso has chosen as husband for his daughter.

What Erriso and Calbo don't know, but are soon to learn, is that Anna has fallen in love with Maometto who has deceived her into believing that he is a Venetian nobleman.  Her anguish over this deception and its effect on her father and the risk to the Venetian efforts to hold onto the citadel at Negroponte make up the plot which sweeps us along in a great current of Rossinian melody, here so marvelous interpreted by Maestro Frederic Chaslin, leading the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra.  This opera is considered to be quite inventive for its time and also sadly neglected.  Most operagoers think of comedy when they think of Rossini, but he has created some valuable tragic operas, of which this is surely one of the most important. He has given some beautiful melodic lines to the woodwinds and, at times of battle, to the brasses.

We have been impressed all season with the performance of the chorus, comprising apprentices who have been whipped into shape by chorus master Susanne Sheston.  Peggy Hickey's choreography for the "Ninja warriors" was most interesting and added to the totality.  David Alden's direction was straightforward and kept the action moving along.

Last night's performance also had a contribution from Mother Nature.  Peals of thunder accompanied Ms. Crocetto and the astute lighting of Duane Schuler was abetted by bolts of lightning.  In the final act, as the libretto speaks of fleeing the approaching storm, a handful of audience member did exactly that.  We were happy to stay and revel in the gorgeous duets and trios as the cast of four worked through their complex issues with one another.  Once again we have duty trumping love.

The interesting set by  Jon Morrell comprises sliding curvilinear walls recreating the citadel and the church where Anna prays over her mother's ashes. Corinthian columns are in evidence, as is an engraving of a quote from Petrarch claiming that Venice is unique in its support of liberty and peace.  Maometto's tent is suggested by a roof supported by a spear.  Costumes also by Jon Morrell  are interesting with Maometto's warriors dressed in black like Ninja warriors.  Maometto's costume outshines everyone else's; he looks like Gengis Khan.  The women are in soft robes as might have been worn in Rossini's day.  There appears to be no definite commitment to the Byzantine period but it didn't seem to detract from the theme.

We hope to hear more Rossini in years to come!

(c) meche kroop