MUSIC OF LATIN AMERICA AND SPAIN

Martin Fett, Juan Pablo Horcasitas, and Carla López-Speziale

Perhaps all of the events of the Latin American Cultural Week were wonderful but, lured by the promise of hearing songs of Spain and Latin America, the only program we attended was the one last night held at the lovely performance space of The Diller-Quaile School of Music in Carnegie Hill.

The program was devised for piano, cello, and voice. The pianist was Juan Pablo Horcasitas; the cellist was Martin Fett, and the voice belonged to the lovely mezzo-soprano Carla López-Speziale.  Interestingly, they all came out of Manhattan School of Music, whose students we are constantly reviewing.

Mr. Horcasitas "plays well with others" and teaches at the Diller-Quaile School of Music as well as performing worldwide as a soloist and collaborative pianist and as a conductor. He also released his first solo CD called "Among Songs and Dances". In this case he was the backbone of an interesting and varied program.

Since art song in Spanish is high on our list of favorite musical delights, let us focus on this part of the program. The Mexican born Ms. López-Speziale has an understandable affinity for this music and it shows in her vivid interpretations. There was no shortage of brilliance in the upper register and a great depth and security in the lower register. Moreover, she has a delightful stage presence, engaging the audience with her descriptions of the songs before she sang them.

As many times as we have heard Manuel de Falla's Siete Canciones Populares Españolas, we never tire of them due to their variety of moods and rhythms. Perhaps our favorite is the mournful "Asturianas" but we also love the gentle lullaby "Nana" and the bitter "Polo" in which Mr. Horcasita's forceful playing drove the sentiment right to the gut.

The Argentinean Carlos Guastavino belonged to the 20th c. but never ignored the value of melody. "Milonga de dos hermanos" is a tragic tale of fraternal rivalry pushed to extremes.  Our favorite song of the group was "La rosa y el sauce", a lament for love lost. The text of "Se equivocó la paloma" lost us in its symbolism, but we enjoyed the lively "Mi viña de Chapanay" in which Mr. Horcasita's piano emphasized the lively story related by the singer in both voice and gesture.

Like De Falla, Xavier Montsalvatge came from Spain but belonged to a later generation. His Cinco canciones negras are about Cuba and paint a most interesting picture, not all of it happy.  The angry "Cuba dentro de un piano" was given a strong introduction by Mr. Horcasitas who sustained the vigorous rhythm throughout.  The music reflected the nostalgia found in the text.

"Punto de habanera" was filled with charm but "Chévere" was brutal. "Canción de cuna para dormir a un negrito" is almost always our favorite of the cycle but "Canto negro" was filled with high spirits.

Mr. Horcasitas and Mr. Fett performed the "Intermezzo" from Enrique Granados' Goyescas and De Falla's rhythmic "Danza ritual del fuego" from El amor brujo. We've never heard these pieces arranged for piano and cello but we did say that Mr. Horcasita "plays well with others"!

As far as Astor Piazzolla's "Le grand tango", we know that the work has been adapted for several combinations of instruments but we found this particular adaptation more "interesting" than enjoyable.

As far as the contemporary song cycle by S. Zyman, who was in attendance, entitled Solamente sola, we found little for our ears to embrace. The text was as obscure in English as it was in Spanish and dealt with various forms of solitude.

As encore the three artists gave a stirring performance of "Besame mucho", the popular song composed in 1940 by the Mexican composer Consuelo Velázquez.  Having endured for nearly 80 years, it can be considered a classic!

We have a quibble that has nothing to do with the excellent performances. There was no note in the program advising the audience to hold their applause between songs and no announcement made either.  This led to constant applause interrupting each song cycle--an interruption we would have been happy to eliminate.

(c) meche kroop

GOYESCAS

The cast of Bare Operas' Goyescas

Enrique Granados' "opera" Goyescas has lain dormant for a century, just like Sleeping Beauty. We put opera in quotes because the way we experienced it was as a dance/ song/ theater piece. The marvelous music pulls it all together. Maestro Sesto Quatrini himself did the arrangement for his 14 piece orchestra which played Granados' music as beautifully as one might hope for.  Music Director Laetitia Ruccolo really knows the piano, the instrument for which the music was originally written.

Granados was inspired by the paintings of Francisco Goya who depicted the bohemians of the 18th c.  --the  majos and majas of Madrid.  Librettist Fernando Periquet y Zuaznabar was obliged to fit the text to the melodies of Granados' previously written suite for piano.

The story is a simple one. One of the majos, the bullfighter Paquito, flirts with Rosario a woman of the upper classes, angering his girlfriend Pepa and enraging Rosario's high-born boyfriend Fernando. Fernando will let Rosario attend their dance but only if he comes as her protector. At the dance, the intrusion is resented and insults are exchanged. Paquito and Fernando fight; Fernando dies in Rosario's arms.

This is not the frothy plot of a zarzuela; it reminded us of how many operas have men killing each other, or at least threatening each other, over a flirtatious woman. Eugene Onegin comes to mind and Cavalleria Rusticana, among several others. We are here dealing with more than simple jealousy, however, since class issues are involved.  We wondered what would happen today if some Wall Street types crashed a party in the projects.

The four leads came across rather well with the standout being tenor Sean Christensen who sang with a full-throated tenor, much enlarged since we last heard him sing. Furthermore he seemed every inch an aristocrat, sneering disdainfully at the punk/majos.

Soprano Lauren Yokabaskas sang the role of Rosario and sang it well; she convinced us that she loved Fernando, even if she didn't convince him!  What was missing was an understanding of why and how she was flirting with Paquito or why she even wanted to attend the party. But the librettist didn't give us anything to go on. She was lovely in the wistful aria about the nightingale in the third scene and the subsequent duet when Fernando arrives, just before the fatal duel.

Hee-Pyoung Oh has a substantial baritone instrument and was quite convincing as the tough majo Paquito. He swaggered and threatened in a menacing manner which was quite different from the subtle threat and menace he portrayed when we heard him a couple months ago, singing the role of Giorgio Germont.

Molly Boggess as Pepa exhibited a fine mezzo-soprano and snarled in jealousy as her relationship with Paquito was threatened.

The work was fortunately sung in Spanish but our Latin American companion had as much trouble as we did understanding the Spanish. He also observed that the translation (by Angela Marroy Boerger) was often inaccurate. But the titles (Briana Hunter and Enrico Lagasca) were essential.

We agree with Bare Opera's goal of instituting innovations that make opera fresh and visceral, achieving intimacy in unorthodox spaces. Their first production took place in an art gallery. This production took place in a long narrow space (Bat Haus in Bushwick). The room was arranged so that everyone had a great view and a sense of intimacy, with the long side of the room providing a very wide but shallow playing space. Characters entered and exited by means of a staircase since there were no "wings". The orchestra was at the far end of the space. It all worked just fine. To our delight, we observed the mostly young audience enjoying themselves. Bare Opera is doing something right, selling out six performances. Tomorrow's matinée will have some of the same cast members and some different ones.
There was a stunning curtain raiser that served to set the mood. Excerpts from Isaac Albéniz' 1886 Suite Española filled the air with rhythm and color and the sounds of a guitar, imitated but not present. Stunningly choreographed by Liz Piccoli, who also served as Assistant Director, three dancers interpreted five of Albéniz' tributes to cities in Spain. Although our taste in dance runs heavily toward classical ballet, we were surprised to find so much to like in the dancing of Sharlane Conner (the girl in white), Tiger Brown (the girl in red) and Vivake Kamsingsavath (the boy in rags).

The dancing was varied and seemed to ride on the surface of the music as if it were being created spontaneously.  Ms. Conner is delicate but intense and uses her hands beautifully.  Ms. Brown is fiery and athletic with great leaps. Mr. Kamsingsavath showed great ease with the moves of hip-hop but made them artistic in "Castilla". There was a tender duet between him and Ms. Conner in "Granada". There was an interesting use of a rope as the three dancers seemed to work out their relationship with one another.  In "Asturia"  (our favorite) they were crowned with headgear made of tiny lights. In "Aragon", the crowns came off and the dancing became frisky and playful.

As much as we liked the dancing in Suite Española, we did not care for the dancers invading the space of Goyescas any more than the majos and majas enjoyed the invasion by the aristocrats.  We found it distracted us from the singing.

We were not pleased by the costuming. Obviously Costume Designer Laura Kung was going for a certain look but the costumes were not especially attractive and required even less attractive undergarments. Neither were we taken by her costumes for the women in Goyescas. According to the program notes, she had in mind the designs of Balenciaga for the aristocrats but we doubt that the audience would have been familiar with his work of that epoch. Fernando's black suit and shirt seemed just about right but Rosario's costume with loose plaid pants looked unflattering.

Stage Director Jonathan Warman elected to set the work in 1980, or at least to be inspired by Pedro Almodóvar's films of that period, when Franco's death in 1975 initiated repercussions of anarchic freedom, individuality, and the new wave of punk.

This is only the second production by Bare Opera which attempts to, and has succeeded at, providing a fresh modern take on the opera experience. Visual arts are put on equal standing with music. That doesn't mean that the set was lavish. There was only a small platform and a large banner proclaiming "Juventud Socialista Unida"...United Socialist Youth, as we translate it.

So yes, it was rather bare in framework but the dancing and singing made it a fine evening!

(c) meche kroop