WORTH A SECOND SHOT

Casey Candebat as Max in Heartbeat Opera's  Der Freischütz (photo by Andrew Boyle)

We cannot recall ever returning to an opera during the same run to hear a different cast. This "first" for us came about because there was so much going on musically, dramatically, and scenically that we couldn't grasp it all in one visit. In all honesty, if we weren't completely booked we would see it again. And again.

To get the singing on the table right away, the "Red" cast was just as fine as the "Green" cast we heard a few days ago. Tenor Casey Candebat employed his fine instrument and persuasive acting to create a sympathetic "underdog" whom we wanted to see succeed. As his dangerous "friend" Kaspar, baritone Daniel Klein was chilling.

Soprano Katherine Whyte evoked similar sympathy as the anxious bride-to-be Agathe, singing with full and luxurious tone. As her cousin Ännchen, Nicole Haslett delighted with her high-lying tone and cheerful personality. In fact, their duet was one of the highlights of the evening with the two personality styles contrasting as much as those of Tatiana and Olga in Eugene Onegin.

The other singers were as mentioned in our prior review of the "Green" cast, contributing their superb characterological interpretations and fine singing. 

We came to opera through our interest in theater and therefore are always paying attention to theatrical values. The direction by Louisa Proske and Chloe Treat could not have been more effective. There were many small touches that we became aware of by taking a new vantage point on the opposite side of the theater. 

The overall situation was that of "theater in the square" with the entire black box theater utilized to create an immersive situation, making us feel somehow complicit in the story. We forgot our liberal tendencies and felt like a member of this Southern small town, recalling our youth in North Florida where there were barbecue joints and honky-tonk roadhouses and what we called "cracker houses" similar to the set created by Sara Brown, who must be some kind of genius.

She created a building that served as a roadhouse, but which converted, by the raising of shades, into one of those "cracker" houses. We could peer inside and see a woman sewing, perhaps sewing Agathe's wedding veil. We could see the religious statues and cross, reminding us of what it's like to be surrounded by fundamentalists with their superstitions. We could see the bridesmaids preparing for the wedding. We could see Agathe and Ännchen sitting on the porch, as they do in the South. We could feel the tension of a community that values their guns and hunting; we felt the toxic masculinity of the gun culture that makes life difficult for a man who can't compete on that level.

We had a better view of Samiel (Butoh dancer azumi O E) lurking in the shadows, emerging from her identity as a member of the community (the seamstress), removing the mask and revealing her evil origins and later rolling under the house to hide. Does evil lurk everywhere?

We were nearly shaking in our seat during the Wolf Canyon scene. Oliver Wason's lighting contributed greatly to the eerie effects of the smoke and azumi's dancing (as Samiel) heightened the terror. The musical contributions of Daniel Schlosberg were amplified by the electronic alterations wrought by William Gardiner. It was far more effective than any horror movie we have ever seen.

Our position gave us a better view of the chamber orchestra and the versatility of the musicians in realizing Mr. Schlosberg's reduction of the orchestral score. If we haven't previously made it sufficiently clear, the music is astonishing in its variety and complexity. There was gentle folk music for the female chorus with each bridesmaid singing a different verse. Claire Leyden's verse included the unrolling of her hair curlers in rhythm with her charming singing. This was just one of countless little moments that struck us as original and memorable.

What also became visible from our new vantage point was that one of the figures appearing in Max's terrifying visions in Wolf Canyon was his own "shadow". If, dear reader, you are wondering whether we figured out the ending, we still have not. Max's "shadow" (the intense Eric Delagrange) reappears and seems to both confront the community with their collective guilt and also offer clemency and the end of gun culture; but he carried a machine gun and seemed brutal. We will need to think about this some more.

In any case, what you experience depends upon where you sit. Perhaps if you sat higher up near the positions taken by the Sheriff and the Governor, you would have had a different experience. It is quite revolutionary for the action to take place in the midst of the audience!

Good storytelling doesn't shrink from moralizing. Bullying leads to desperation and desperation leaves people open to manipulation by evil forces. Punishment can be leavened with mercy and forgiveness.

There are four more performances and hopefully a few tickets left. Please don't miss this revolutionary take on a rarely seen opera!

© meche kroop

SHAKEN AND STIRRED

Cast of Heartbeat Opera's production of Der Freischütz

We count on Heartbeat Opera to take an opera and shake it up; we count on Heartbeat Opera to stir our feelings. With a very rare exception we enjoy the process and we always leave provoked in some way, ready to reconsider issues that were previously given the "already/always" treatment. (If you are so inclined, dear reader, take a look at our review of their production of Beethoven's Fidelio by entering it in the search bar.)

Last night at the Rose Nagelberg Theater of the Baruch Performing Arts Center we saw Carl Maria von Weber's 1821 opera Der Freischütz, an opera that we had never seen and, therefore, felt no investment in preserving in its original form, as we would with, say, La Traviata. As a matter of fact, we avoided reading anything about the opera beforehand, and especially not the Director's Notes. We firmly hold the position that a work of art should speak for itself! This one spoke loud and clear.

The story is based upon a German folk legend with supernatural elements and contains spoken dialogue which, we posit, puts it in the category of singspiel, like Die Zauberflöte. For this production, the story was moved up from its original setting (as we have since learned) in 1648 Germany to contemporary United States.

It appears to be post-Afghanistan or post-Iraq and takes place in what must be a Red state since all the men are armed and very much attached to their guns. We sensed that the hero Max and his buddy Kaspar are veterans. The townspeople are a nasty bunch and infected with toxic masculinity. The chief forester Kuno of the original has been changed to a sheriff whilst Max and Kaspar seem to be his deputies.

Max wants to marry Kuno's daughter Agathe but Kuno insists that his prospective son-in-law be the best shot in town; Max seems to have lost his groove and suffers humiliation at the hands of the locals; their particular form of torture seems to be a form of waterboarding (learned in Iraq, we presume).

Max is now ripe for the machinations of Kaspar who promises to solve his problems--with a little supernatural help. Let us leave the story here for awhile so we can give credit where it is due. 

Friedrich Kind's original libretto has been adapted by Co-Artistic Director Louisa Proske who, in our eyes, is some kind of artistic genius. Dialogues were written by Michael Attias; we have no idea how closely they hew to the original German but they succeed in telling the story and making it work.

The music is as von Weber wrote it and it is magnificent. Music Director Daniel Schlosberg has scored the work for piano/keyboard/accordion (which he played himself), violin and viola (played by Concertmaster Jacob Ashworth), another set of higher strings, a cello, a guitar, and several winds played by three additional musicians. There was a great deal of sound coming from seven musicians!

Never having heard the orchestral version, we have no basis for comparison but what we heard was glorious to the ear and filled with interesting harmonies and sonorities. From the first wind chorale, we were completely drawn in.

We might add that the supernatural scene taking place in the Wolf Canyon involves some electronic input (credited to William Gardiner) that felt just right. The direction of this scene (Direction by Ms. Proske and Chloe Treat) was the most chilling scene we have ever witnessed at the opera, thanks to some special effects like visions, smoke, and a very talented Butoh dancer named azumi O E who enacted the part of Samiel with twisted body and twisted hands. The entire effect was cinematic and would have been right at home in a horror film.

We realize we have yet to mention the singers who were uniformly excellent in their acting as well as singing. Tenor Ian Koziara made a sympathetic "underdog" and we truly felt for him. Poor Agathe was portrayed by soprano Summer Hassan who excelled at being the tortured bride-to-be, anxious about Max and the upcoming wedding. The scene in which her bridesmaids come to help her with her toilette was a marvel.

We loved soprano Jana McIntyre as her cousin Ännchen; she had quite a lot to sing and sang it well. We enjoyed the contrast between Agathe's heavy hearted singing and Ännchen's cheerful singing.  Von Weber's vocal lines and rhythms beautifully limned each character.

The manipulative Kaspar was powerfully sung and acted by bass-baritone Derrell Acon. Baritone Quentin Oliver Lee sang the role of the Governor, and also that of one of the locals named Kilian. Sheriff Kuno was portrayed with strength by bass Kevin McGuire.

We were happy to see bass Eric Delagrange in a role at the end that puzzled us. As deus ex machina, he is supposed to be a holy hermit but in this iteration he seemed threatening. We are going to have to think about that issue for awhile.

The female chorus was superb, comprising Emily Donato, Jessica Harika, Claire Leyden, and Siobhan Sung. No less superb were the men: Phillip Bullock, Michael Celentano, Cory Gross, Patrick Lord-Remmert, and Anthony McGlaun.

The set by Sara Brown was remarkable. The Rose Nagelberg Theater was converted into a small town with the audience on three sides, making us feel very much a part of the action and therefore complicit. A house was constructed in one corner with shades that rolled up, giving us a view of the action inside. Wolf Canyon was created with "smoke and mirrors", a miracle of lighting by Oliver Wason. Beth Goldenberg's costumes were on point.

The amount of creativity that went into this provocative production impressed us enormously but what really mattered was the effect the production had on us, since it related so deeply to contemporary issues: military PTSD, gun culture, toxic masculinity, superstition, etc.

We were so affected by it that we plan to return to hear the other cast and to sit on the other side to get a different perspective and perhaps some additional insights.

© meche kroop

OH THE INTIMACY OF IT ALL!

Chunfeng Li, José Rubio, Eric Delagrange, Jeff Byrnes, and Dángelo Diaz (photo by Jen Joyce Davis)

Regular readers will recall the high esteem in which we hold Martina Arroyo's Prelude to Performance which has been providing training and performing experience to young artists for the past dozen years. So let us get down to the specifics of last night's La Bohème--the anti-Zeffirelli version. We do not mean to express the slightest dissatisfaction with that version and would despair if the Met replaced it, as it has regrettably done to so many of Zeffirelli's masterpieces.  We only want to suggest that P2P has provided a different way of looking at this intimate story--a story of growing up and accepting reality.

P2P's annual performances always accomplish miracles by focusing on the interactions between the characters, who seem to grow before our very eyes. In the horseplay of Act I, Scene I (pictured above) we see a group of young men sharing a garret in Paris, unable to afford food and wood for the fire.  We do not need modern dress or contemporary slang to identify with their predicament. They joke and tease and cheer each other up. They pull a fast one on their landlord Benoit (a hilarious performance by Eric Delagrange) by getting him tipsy, drawing him into a confession of sexual escapades, and then mock-shaming him.  So puerile!  So believable! How can one not think of the young men who converge upon NYC and cram themselves into a tiny space, just for the stimulation of living here! 

Director Ian Campbell did not miss a single trick in illuminating the personalities of the frustrated writer Rodolfo (Dángelo Diaz), the equally frustrated painter Marcello (Jeff Byrnes), the unshaven philosopher Colline (Chunfeng Li) and the musician Schaunard (José Rubio) who seems to be the provider of sustenance.  

When Schaunard is relating the amusing story of how he earned money to bring home the bacon, no one pays attention because they are only interested in stuffing their famished mouths. Joking about saintliness and placing a large round platter behind the head to look like a halo in a religious painting was another clever touch. Every bit of Puccini's well-considered orchestration was employed to support the onstage action.

When Mimi (Jessica Sandidge) enters to get a light for her candle, the entire mood changes and the frisky tunes turn lyrical. Anyone who has had the experience of meeting a potential lover will recognize the verisimilitude of this scene in which Rodolfo sings about himself in boastful terms and Mimi, visibly impressed, searches modestly for something to relate about her own life, and gradually opens up emotionally and vocally.

Eric Delagrange, Claire Coolen, and Jeff Byrnes (photo by Jen Joyce Davis)

In Act II, the wealthy fop Alcindoro (Mr. Delagrange, revealing significant versatility) is outraged by the behavior of Musetta.  We have never witnessed a production that so cleverly used Puccini's music.  Three admirers of Musetta successively present her with roses (yellow, of course) just before her big aria--all set up by Puccini's score and realized by Mr. Campbell.  

She inches her chair ever closer to the man she really loves (Marcello), leaving poor Alcindoro sitting at the table by himself. This "relationship" makes one think of the wealthy older men and the nubile young women who meet on the website "Seeking Arrangements". Sugar Daddies and Sugar Babies. Everything old is new again.

Even Mimi's character is revealed a bit more in this scene as she flirts with a gendarme--and Rodolfo's jealousy emerges.  He has just bought Mimi a bonnet and now that he has invested in her he needs to protect his investment. 

The rowdy children and their put-upon mothers were well-portrayed as the children begged for toys from Parpignol (portrayed by Sergio Stefani).

In Act III, the scene opens at the city gates with a passive-aggressive Sergeant (a most believable Thomas Petrushka) who is going to take his sweet time drinking his coffee while the tradespeople are kept waiting in the cold. Does this not remind us of civil servants of today?

Mimi has come to find Marcello to get some advice. Rodolfo's affections have cooled. Marcello confronts him and, like any young man of today, he first blames Mimi for being a flirt, but finally owns up to his deepest fear-- she is terribly sick and he cannot even express the fear that she will die and leave him.

Mimi is hidden in the shadows eavesdropping and one can witness her dawning realization of the extent of her illness. We get to see her inner strength of character. We feel the grief of young people whose lives will be terminated before they have time to have lived them.  This act was a masterpiece of direction and acting.

Dángelo Diaz and Jessica Sandidge (photo by Jen Joyce Davis)

In Act IV, Rodolfo and Marcello pretend to each other that they don't care about their lost loves but their private thoughts are revealed both musically and lyrically. Who cannot relate to these attempts to deny loss! We get to see Musetta's noble character that underlies her superficial histrionics.

When Colline clutches the overcoat he will pawn we know he is bidding farewell to far more than a piece of clothing.  Can we all remember a time when we suffered a nearly unbearable loss and just knew that our lives would never ever be the same?

This group of six young people will be reduced to five. In some ways, their lives will be diminished but in other ways they will have grown up.  The final tableau when, one by one, they realize that Mimi has died was a stark one and perfectly matched Puccini's tragic music.

We have dealt at such length with the characters themselves because that is what struck us most. A sterling production like this one causes us to relate to people of other times and places. P2P's productions are always authentic. Mr. Campbell's direction served the libretto of Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. There was no pandering to "modern audiences".  There was no self-serving egotism.

  

But let us not neglect the musical and production values which underlay the excellence of the drama. The singing was of the highest order and always supported the characterization. Ms. Sandidge's lovely soprano was appropriately colored between moments of joy and moments of anxiety and pain.  It was a knockout performance.

Another knockout performance was that of Ms. Coolen whose robust soprano sailed over the orchestration and was accompanied by all the right gestures of a woman accustomed to manipulating men. Her delivery of "Musetta's waltz" had an astonishing diminuendo that was spun out beautifully for a time in which we held our breath!

Mr. Diaz' tenor has a wonderful timbre and he established good chemistry with Ms. Sandige. Like many young tenors, he will have to learn not to push for his high notes but rather to work on floating them. 

Mr. Byrnes uses his baritone instrument well and impressed us with his sincerity and musicality.

We have nothing but admiration for the way Mr. Li's bass resonated in his "Vecchia Zimarra" and for Mr. Rubio's recounting of the tale of the parrot and the poisoned parsley.

Mr. Delagrange delighted and Mr. Petrushka evoked some knowing nods.

Maestro Willie Anthony Waters led his orchestra with clarity of line but occasionally overwhelmed the singers. There were times when we wanted him to just lighten up.

Noby Ishida provided for a very well trained chorus.

Charles R. Caine's costume designs were just about perfect.

April Joy Vester's set utilized something resembling large shoji screens as background which served well as garret windows but were just confusing in the Café Momus scene as well as the scene taking place at the city gates. However, it did allow for short intermissions! The furniture in the garret was appropriately minimal.

Joshua Rose's lighting was effective, indicating when the fire in the stove was burning hot or dying down.

Italian diction was excellent, with much credit to Italian coach Sergio Stefani. We never noticed when the titles vanished for we-don't-know-how-long. Every word was crystal clear.

This most remarkable success came out of six weeks of intense work in every aspect of performance and the establishment of a true ensemble feel. All this training is provided at no cost to those accepted into the program; and this year, for the first time, the generosity of patrons permitted stipends for the performers. 

There will be another performance with this same wonderful cast on Saturday night. And on Friday night and Sunday matinée, other members of this program will perform Johann Strauss' Die Fledermaus. We can scarcely contain our excitement.

(c) meche kroop