WE GOT WHAT WE VOTED FOR!

Melanie Ashkar, Jeremy Moore, Milica Nikcevic, Noelle Currie, Eric Alexieff, and Megan Nielson

We are happy knowing that we were among those fans of Utopia Opera who voted for Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. For those of you readers who don't know, Utopia Opera is unique in producing their season by audience vote. This is Utopia Opera's sixth season and it has been a glorious one with the final entry giving us a unique up front and personal view of a long-cherished opera which premiered in Moscow in 1879.

We love this opera because it gives us a glimpse of a highly structured society, one from long ago (1820) and far away (Russia). Nonetheless, we are seeing human nature as it is and always has been--just constrained by the mores of that time and place. We all can recall the naivete with which we approached our first love. We all know people whose pride gets in the way of self-fulfillment. We all have broken off friendships for trivial reasons.  We have all known the pain of jealousy when our beloved has put someone else ahead of us.

But this is not a "whatever" society; this is a society in which "honor" is taken seriously and revenge is serious and often fatal.. "Feeling pissy" and "walking away" are modern inventions. Tatiana falls hard for her sister's fiance's friend. Onegin is a city slicker and she is a country mouse. She overcomes her shame and shyness and bares her soul in a letter to him. He gives her a "Dutch uncle" speech in response.  Not brutal but honest.

At her name-day party, the eponymous Onegin flirts with sister Olga.  Her fiance Lensky takes offense and challenges Onegin to a duel.  Lensky is shot and dies.  Onegin lives an empty sad life for a few years until he runs into Tatiana once more. She is now wed to the elderly Prince Gremin and rejects Onegin whom she still loves.  How old-fashioned to put honor ahead of love!

Of course, Alexander Pushkin's verse novel offers a great deal more elaboration but we will concern ourself with the opera as it is performed. As testament to the power of the story we offer our personal experience of fretting over what happens to poor Olga and whether Tatiana might reconsider when Gremin dies!

As testament to the power of Tchaikovsky's music we confess that we are still playing the themes in our head!  In this case, Jonathan Lyness' orchestral reduction was performed by 11 musicians under the baton of Dmitry Glivinskiy who brought out every ounce of Russian soul in the string quartet which sat at audience level, with the wind instruments and keyboard on one side of the raised stage. Aside from an occasional pitch problem in the strings, the music sounded just fine.

The singing was good all around with soprano Megan Nielson making a winsome Tatiana and Melanie Ashkar using her lustrous mezzo-soprano and spirited dramatic instincts to create a very believable feckless younger sister Olga. Jeremy Moore used his mellow baritone to create an Onegin who seemed to represent a more modern sophisticated fellow rather than the arrogant selfish fellow of the Pushkin poem. We favor this interpretation because he must have some good qualities to win the affection of the sensitive Tatiana. And because we have good feelings about men who do not deceive women!

As the poet Lensky, tenor Chris Georgetti gave his all and elicited audience sympathy with a finely wrought "Kuda, kuda". How interesting that the most famous aria from this opera, heard often at competitions, was not given to the "hero". Tatiana's "letter scene" is equally famous but rather long and not as often performed.  (Coincidentally, we just heard  and reviewed it the previous night.) We thought Ms. Nielson sang it very well with many shades of coloration.

Milica Nikcevic was fine as Madame Larina, as was Noelle Currie in the role of the nanny Filippyevna, although looking much too young to be a grandmother. Steven Fredericks had the right voice (bass) and appearance to create the dignified Prince Gremin who has been rejuvenated by his young wife. Indeed Tatiana has by the end of the opera matured into her station in life and Ms. Nielson conveyed that vocally and dramatically.

Finally, let us mention tenor Eric Alexieff whose performance as Monsieur Triquet was very fine without indulging in any over-the-top foppery. One of the highlights of Benjamin Spierman's direction was that very scene in which his musical encomium to Tatiana resulted in her embarrassment and some tolerant eye-rolling among the assembled guests.

There were some other enjoyable touches in the direction of the second act including the flirtation between Olga and Onegin, the confrontation between Onegin and Lensky, and Lensky's aria in which he kneels down on the ground when thinking about the possibility of going to his grave.  If Mr. Spierman was responsible for the choreography of the country ball and the city ball, props to him for that as well.

The direction of Act I was not quite as interesting. There is a very special moment when Filippyevna teases Tatiana by pretending to not know which neighbor was going to be the recipient of her letter. By playing it straight, an opportunity was missed to tell us something about their relationship. We also didn't get much of a sense of the comradeship between Filippyevna and Madame Larina.  We did, however, get the warmth of the relationship between the two sisters.

The only major flaw in the production must be attributed to the costuming. We do not expect authentic period attire in a low budget production but we could think of ways to suggest an earlier time period that would have worked well.  Jeans and shirts just seemed wrong. We don't know a woman who doesn't possess a peasant style blouse and a long skirt!  Anything would have been better than the "just walked in off the street" attire. In the ballroom scene of Act II, all the women wore long gowns and that seemed much better.

It also struck us as wrong that Filippyevna looked more glamorous than Madame Larina.

Cutting the large chorus of serfs permitted the work to be performed in just over a couple hours. We were very impressed by the talent of the cast and how effectively the tale was told. We will see this opera over and over again but we doubt whether we will have the same feeling of intimacy with the characters as we did through Utopia Opera.

There is one more performance tonight at Hunter College at 7:30 and we strongly recommend it!

(c) meche kroop

ALCINA ADDICTED

Ginny Weant, Anna Slate, Zen Wu, Melanie Ashkar, Chloe Schaaf, Eric Alexieff, Kevin Miller, and members of the Chorus

OperaRox is a company that is new on our radar screen but has achieved a major success in a very short period of time. The black box theater on MacDougal Street was completely sold out last night, seats occupied by a mostly very young and very appreciative audience. The hallway was filled with folks clamoring to get seats but there were none. You are hereby advised to show up early for Sunday's matinee performance wait list, or to attend the covers' performance.

OperaRox, like many other small companies springing up around NYC these days, has a mission that is a win-win all around. Young artists get the opportunity to learn a role that will serve them well when seeking work in the future, and audiences get to hear a fresh take for a modest ticket price.

Director Maayan Voss de Bettancourt has credited Jennifer Choi for a highly original concept which gave us this fresh take on Handel's Alcina, an opera we get to hear about once a year. The opera was Handel's first production for the London stage and premiered in 1735, and then lay dormant for two centuries! The story is based on an episode from Ariosto's 16th c. epic poem Orlando Furioso.

It concerns the knight Ruggiero who has fallen under the spell of the beautiful and seductive sorceress Alcina who turns men into animals and rocks when she tires of them. His fiancee Bradamante who, in the Ariosto poem is always rescuing her fiance from some peril or other, has come to the magic island with Melisso, Ruggiero's former tutor, disguised as her brother Ricciardo. The pair must break Alcina's spell. Of course, they succeed.  But not before a lot of deception, betrayal, and some gender bending fun, as Alcina's sister Morgana falls in lust with "Ricciardo".

The unique concept devised by Ms. Choi was to present Alcina's power as a metaphor for addiction. The inhabitants of the island seem to be heavy into alcohol and prescription pharmaceuticals. Bradamante and Melisso have an antidote on hand to destroy Ruggiero's benighted state and restore him to the brave and loyal knight they know him to be. Of course, he has to go through some withdrawal symptoms first! Once the illusions are destroyed, the island's denizens are restored to humanity and Alcina's power is destroyed.

The concept worked well, thanks to some fine acting on the part of the young artists. The dramatic success was equalled by the fine musical values.  Music director Dmitry Glivinskiy employed an orchestration devised by himself, Friedrich Chrysander, and Producer Kim Feltkamp. He himself played the keyboard with Katie von Braun on violin and Spencer Shen contributing some fine work on the cello.

Ultimately, of course, the success of an opera rests upon the shoulders of the singers and we found much to like in the performances. As the eponymous Alcina, soprano Zen Wu let out all the stops in a fiery and convincing performance. We got to see her seductive side in several arias and a very angry side in the cabaletta "Io sono regina". The role calls for vocal fireworks and we surely got them.

An interesting feature of the opera is that a pair of lovers comprises two mezzo-sopranos and, in a casting coup, we heard two very different voices in that fach. The role of Ruggiero is a trouser role and was beautifully and lyrically sung by Chloe Schaaf who impressed us with "Verdi prati", arguably the most famous aria of this opera.

Interestingly, it was Melanie Ashkar playing Bradamante who had the weightier mezzo, perhaps signifying that she is the stronger member of the couple. We loved the rich texture of her voice and also her acting as she tried to deal with the seductiveness of the lustful Morgana. We liked her anger when her fiance failed to recognize her.

As Morgana, Anna Slate turned in a fine sexy performance and performed "Credete al mio dolore" with great humility as she tries to win back Oronte whom she threw over for the cross-dressed Bradamante.

The role of Oronte was well sung by Eric Alexieff who has the sweet kind of tenor that we love to hear.

The wise tutor Melisso was sung by bass Kevin Miller.

We particularly enjoyed the sweet soprano of Ginny Weant who portrayed Oberto, a youth trying to get Alcina to release her beloved father from his captivity.

Handel even managed to write a trio for Ruggiero, Bradamante, and Alcina in which the three voice blended beautifully.

Costuming was simple but apropos. There were no sets to speak of but the stage was littered with bottles of booze and pill bottles. Lighting was subtly effective. Titles were accurate and peppered with colloquialisms.

Although the run is sold out, we understand that Sunday evening will offer a performance by the covers. We do hope that some of you can get squeezed in by arriving early for the waitlist. We'd consider it worth your while.

(c) meche kroop