BRITTEN AND THE BARD

 Curtain call at Manhattan School of Music for Benjamin Britten's "A Midsummer Night's Dream"

We lost count of the number of times we have seen the Shakespeare play but the production we saw last night of Benjamin Britten's operatic adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream  best captured the spirit of the work. Shakespeare's text in iambic pentameter has its own music and, in our opinion, does not inspire memorable vocal lines. However, Britten's instrumental music creates a soundscape that evokes a world of fantasy and magic. The opening scene gave the chamber orchestra, so well conducted by esteemed Maestro George Manahan, frequent glissandi that tickled the ear.

The success of the production rests firmly on the professional level performances of the Manhattan School of Music Graduate Opera Theater and the Director John de los Santos who has a long list of professional successes but is known to us mainly through his work at MSM and New Camerata Opera. His work on this piece is marked by originality, creativity, and imagination. It is also marked by some ribaldry and naughtiness of which Shakespeare would have surely approved.  (Ask us about the toilet plunger and the ass' ass.)

We did not miss the opening scene of the play which takes place in an Athenian courtroom. The opera begins in the forest, the land where fairies lead their magical lives and play tricks on mortals. The gods in Wagner's Ring Cycle display as many characterological defects as the humans; similarly the fairies in Britten's opera are beset by romantic problems just like the mortals.

Titania, played by the tiny powerhouse soprano Sofia Gotch-Caruana, does not want to relinquish the changeling infant to her demanding husband Oberon, played with appropriate majesty by Haolun Zhang whose ethereal counter-tenor, effectively accompanied by the celeste, fulfilled the role with excellence.

The lovely Hermia (mezzo-soprano Ya Gao) has fled Athens with her beloved Lysander (tenor Isaiah Traylor) because of parental disapproval. The couple are so adorable together that we are cheering for them right from the start.

In contrast, poor Helena (soprano Madison Marie Fitzpatrick, well remembered from last year's Caccini opera) is pursuing Demetrius (baritone Ross Macatangay) who rejects her because he is in love with Hermia and wants nothing more than to take Hermia away from Lysander.

That Shakespeare created this romantic mess five centuries ago gives us pause. His work endures because of his keen insight into human behavior which seems not to have changed in half a millenium!  How do you think this romantic situation can be resolved? By the help of the fairies of course!

Oberon enlists the help of the sprite Puck, a non-singing role that was well spoken and extremely well-danced by Johannes Linneballe who made use of the entire stage as his playground. We saw no choreographer listed in the program; shall we assume that this gifted member of the graduate vocal program self-choreographed?

Shakespeare himself said "The course of true love never did run smooth"; so, of course, Puck's performance of Oberon's instructions is mistaken and the bewildered Helena winds up fighting off two lovers and poor Hermia is abandoned. Of course, things are set aright but the complications, emphasized by the music, keep us involved.

Thinking about Wagner's Ring Cycle and the gods interfering with the lives of mortals, we notice also a setting apart of a less genteel and less educated working class, i.e. the "rustics" who win a competition to provide entertainment for the wedding of Theseus Duke of Athens (the smooth-voiced baritone Donghoon Kang) and Hippolyta Queen of the Amazons (the regal Xiaowei Fang).

The six "rustics" provided comic relief and a welcome break from the romantic struggles of the Athenian upper classes. Outstanding among them is Benjamin R. Sokol as Bottom the Weaver who wants to play every part in the play within the play, another grand insight of the Bard.  Don't we all know someone like that? Mr. Sokol garnered plenty of laughs during the process of casting Pyramus and Thisbe but even more when he is transformed into an ass and becomes the love object of Titania who has been tricked by her manipulative husband. Did we mention how well he sang?

The other rustics were also excellent: William Velasco de Jesús as Flute, reluctantly playing Thisbe in drag, Xingxiang Liu as Snout, Gregory Gropper as Starveling, Jon Carr as Snug, and Liyuan Liu as Quince, trying to direct the project. Each performer evinced a different personality.

In contrast, the fairies comprised a unified chorus and worked more as an ensemble. We heard Suzana Ikeda, Margaux Frohlich, Nadine Nagyeong Li, Abigail Williams, Zixuan Zhang, and Morena Galan.

In the final scene, order is restored and Britten has his fun lampooning the golden age of opera with the performance by the rustics of "Pyramus and Thisbe" including murder and suicide. The bored Athenians gently decline to see the Epilogue. "All's well that ends well", as they say. All are successfully matched and we have been royally entertained by this superlative cast. We are left hoping that they enjoyed themselves as much as we did.

Let us not fail to credit the excellent costume design of Ashley Soliman. The fairies were fantastical with extravagant attire whilst the Athenians were costumed in contemporary streetwear with the rustics in contemporary workmen's attire. The Duke and his bride were appropriately elegant. Abbey Wiker's scenic design was simple but effective with multi-leveled playing areas and vertical sliding elements that altered perspective.

We are also left reflecting upon how often Shakespeare's works have inspired operas. The ones that came to mind first are Verdi's use of Macbeth, Othello, and The Merry Wives of Windsor. We also thought of Thomas' Hamlet. We will think upon this more and invite you Dear Reader to make any additions in the comments below. Obviously Italian opera of the 19th c. had far more interesting vocal lines which we attribute to the musicality of the language, as opposed to Shakespeare's iambic pentameter.

© meche kroop

FRENCH--FINE AND FUNNY

Yeong Taek Yang

Anna Maria Vacca and Huiying Chen

What a delightful night we spent at Manhattan School of Music! We are not sure we perceived it in exactly the same way as Director John de los Santos intended, but without reading his notes in advance (as is our wont) we felt free to enjoy the connection among the three French works in our own fashion.

The evening began with the one-act opera by Massenet entitled Le Portrait de Manon. How did we not know that this charming piece existed! The curtain rose on a most apt set by Ann Beyersdorfer which you can see from the photo above. Chevalier des Grieux has aged 20 years. (In this production he appears to be much older and we had no clue that he was suffering from syphilis as mentioned in the Director's Notes.)

We did see from Georges Boyer's libretto that he was grumpy and disillusioned with love, to the despair of his young ward Jean who wants to marry the lovely Aurore, ward of his friend Tiberge. Learning that she is a niece of the deceased Manon turns des Grieux around.

This slim story offered gorgeous music referring frequently to the original Manon.  Under the skilled baton of Maestro Pierre Vallet, the Manhattan School of Music Symphony created a richly textured background against which stood out a few soloists, particularly oboe and harp. Massenet's melodic music was just right for the members of the Graduate Opera Theatre.

We were greatly impressed by the performance of Yeong Taek Yang as the unhappy Chevalier. With fine vocalism and acting, he created a character that was believable and sympathetic against all odds. As Aurore, we found the brilliant soprano instrument of Huiying Chen absolutely ravishing. There was a freedom and clarity to the high lying tessitura and a winsomeness to her acting that had us rooting for her. In the breeches role of Jean, Anna Maria Vacca was convincing. The duet sung at the fountain in which the pair discuss means of suicide was magnificently harmonized and the music let us in on the hyperbolic drama of adolescents.

As the Chevalier's impecunious friend Tiberge, Moses Sunghyun Park gave a similarly fine performance. We might like to add that the French diction was excellent all around. Although our French speaking friend found fault we were delighted to have understood every word.

The eponymous portrait served an excellent purpose in joining the Massenet work to the Ibert work to follow. Following the curtain call for the Massenet, we saw a parade of women, dressed in the most gorgeous costumes of successive periods, ending with a character from the 1920's who would appear after the intermission in the Ibert piece. It was a brilliant device although the connection from the fin de siecle to the Roaring 20's seemed a bit jarring.  It was accompanied by Gabriel Fauré's Pavane in F# minor, op. 50, the choral version which gave the large chorus an opportunity to be heard, if not seen.

The Ibert piece Angélique was a real audience pleaser with plenty of imaginative eye candy. It reminded us of Francis Poulenc's Les mamelles de Tirésius which was composed two decades later but with the same absurdity. We don't find it necessary to apologize for the theme of Nino's libretto--trying to sell a disagreeable wife. It is a piece of a certain period and not meant to be taken seriously.

As the nagging aggressive wife, Emelia Petersen gave a stellar performance, performing a seductive vocalism from an open window.  Zhenpeng Zhang as her henpecked husband Boniface was funny.  James C. Harris was excellent as Charlot, Boniface's entrepreneurial friend. The three suitors that he rounded up were French clichés.  As the Italian, Benjamin Ruiz Scott was voluble; as the Englishman, Isaiah Traylor was pompous; as the American, Benjamin R. Sokol toted an outsized rifle and sported animal skins. We thought perhaps Nino was thinking of Davy Crockett.

The unsuitably named Angélique was dispatched to hell where even the devil didn't want her. Hang Su made a very fine devil indeed.The costumes were droll and the choreography clever. If you asked us about the music we couldn't tell you a thing!  With that much distraction onstage, we can't remember the music at all but we do recall that the spoken dialogue was in English and the singing was in 

French.

It is difficult for us to think of the piece as opera or even as operetta. It struck us more as cabaret, which is not a criticism. It was, after all, very entertaining.

© meche kroop