HYDROGEN JUKEBOX

William Remmers and Cast of Utopia Opera's production of Hydrogen Jukebox

There are a few people on Planet Opera whose artistic judgment is so superior that we will follow them anywhere-- and that sometimes leads to terra incognita, which was the case last night at the fine intimate Lang Recital Hall of Hunter College when Maestro William Remmers conducted Hydrogen Jukebox from the keyboard.

What was this musical "entertainment" that wandered so very far outside of our conception of opera? This collaboration between "beat poet" Allen Ginsberg and minimalist composer Philip Glass could be considered an oratorio, or a song cycle; but does it matter? It held out attention for two hours and roused the sizable audience to an enthusiastic standing ovation.

Credit for the success must be shared with Stage Director Gary Slavin who turned abstract poetry into theater. Along with Maestro Remmers, supertitles were designed artistically, appearing and dropping off the screen, sometimes in phrases and at other times word by word.

Ginsberg and Glass met by chance in 1988 and collaborated so successfully that they undertook this work, which premiered at the Spoleto Festival (the one in Charleston, South Carolina) two years later. The work has been produced a number of times, most recently at Tri-Cities Opera and at Chatauqua.

The text included poems from Ginsberg's oeuvre written over several decades from the 50's through the 80's. Much of it is socio-political, dealing with anti-war sentiment, environmental despair, and the sexual revolution.  Some of it is of a more personal nature, exploring the poet's drug use and interest in Buddhist philosophy.  Most of it paints a verbal portrait of a dystopian world, one in which our leaders seem not to care and our media bury important news beneath superficial stories of so-called celebrities.  Hmmmm.  Does this sound resonant? prescient?

The able cast comprised sopranos K.C. Peck and La Toya Lewis, mezzo-soprano Kristin Behrmann, tenor Matt Hughes, and baritones Nathaniel Sullivan and Jeff Goble. Everyone sang finely with commitment and acted with ensemble spirit but we were glad to have the surtitles since English (in our opinion) does not "sing well". We wished that the spoken text had also been awarded titles.

We found ourselves more fascinated by Glass' music than by Ginsberg's text. The repetition of the interval of a minor third is haunting and the instrumentation is novel to our ears. We do recall liking Glass' music long ago as the soundtrack to the Qatsi Trilogy, films that shared Ginsberg's dystopian view of the world.

The scoring involved two keyboards, played by Maestro Remmers and Brian Victor. There were two players of wind instruments and we spotted saxophones of all registers and a flute; there was a stunning solo on the baritone saxophone.

Most remarkable was the percussion which provided infinite textures for which Tyler Mashek and Shelby McKay-Blezinger were responsible. We particularly enjoyed their work in "Numbers in Red Notebook; To Aunt Rose" which dazzled us rhythmically.

There were two other musical moments that stood out for us. One was when Ms. Lewis performed an "aria" based on the poem "Cabin in the Rockies" and the other was when Maestro Remmers left the keyboard and moved to the onstage piano for the bluesy hymn-like "Wichita Vortex Sutra".

If we have succeeded in intriguing you, there will be two performances today, both matinee and evening.

It has been said that artists hold a mirror up to show us who we are; it seems we are not a pretty sight! But we are left wondering why so much of 19th c. music is so pleasing to the ear! We are sure there were wars and industrial revolutions and disease and upheavals.  If anyone can answer this in the comment section below, we will be grateful for your insights.

We think of Utopia Opera as The Little Engine that Could. There is nothing one can throw at Maestro Remmers that he can't catch and run with. His audience votes for what they want him to produce for the following season.

This is Utopia Opera's 7th season and we are particularly looking forward to Flotow's Martha and Sondheim's Passion.  Fans have voted for Thea Musgrave's Harriet, the Woman Called Moses, which will require a larger theater with an orchestra pit.  Go for it William!

(c) meche kroop

IT WOULD BE A CRIME TO MISS!

Sarah Marvel Bleasdale, Joshua Miller, Duncan Harman, and David Pasteelnick in Utopia Opera's production of Sondheim's Assassins

Stephen Sondheim's 1990 musical Assassins was originally presented Off-Broadway by Playwrights Horizons (we were there) and remounted on Broadway in 2004, garnering 5 Tony awards. It is just as relevant today, if not more so, largely due to the intransigence of the NRA and the vehemence of their followers.

Utopia Opera's decision to present it as their season opener was based, as these decisions are, on votes from the audience. This show got more votes than any other show that was nominated. 

Although some of Sondheim's oeuvre seem quite kin to opera, this one is more like a revue. Although the topic of presidential assassination is a highly serious one, the show gives it a gloss of black humor and Sondheim's music is unmatchable. His dialogue is twice as clever as it needs to be.

With slim biographical data to go on, the characters in the show are fully realized by John Weidman's excellent book: paranoid schizophrenics, disaffected immigrants, woefully misguided idealists, pathetic victims of an exploitative society, and all-around loonies.

The parts were brilliantly cast, effectively enacted, and well sung by a cast that seemed to bring serious vocal training from both the operatic camp and the Broadway camp. Happily, the voices were not amplified.

The versatile William Remmers stepped down from the podium to assume the role of The Proprietor in vaudeville guise, ready to provide guns to the would-be killers. It was a knock-out characterization.

The Balladeer who tells the story of the American Dream and narrates the proceedings was portrayed by Chazmond J. Peacock, in fine voice.

Joshua Miller made a strong impression as John Wilkes Booth--not only in the scene in which he is wounded and tries to justify his murder of President Lincoln, but later when he "inspires" and goads the others to attempt their heinous acts. Of all the performers, his English diction stood out.  We missed not a single word.

Lauren Gismondi made a marvelous Emma Goldman, both looking and sounding exactly right. Her scene with Leon Czolgosz (a fine Duncan Hartman), the killer of William McKinley, was one of our favorites.

For humor we had Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme (Kayla Ryan Walsh) carrying on about her "love affair" with Charles Manson, and Sara Jane Moore (Sarah Marvel Bleasdale gleefully interacting, then hilariously messing up their intended assassination of President Gerald Ford.

Matthew Hughes portrayed the pathetic Giuseppe Zangara who tried to kill FDR, and David Pasteelnick enacted the manic Charles Guiteau who did away with James Garfield. He laughed all the way to the hangman's noose.

Michael Matthias excelled as the patently delusional Sam Byck who failed to rid us of Richard Nixon. Zachary Barnes was fine as John Hinckley, Jr. who tried to kill President Ronald Reagan to make an impression on Jodie Foster!  Jeff Goble was excellent as the weak-willed and suicidal Lee Harvey Oswald, falling under the influence of John Wilkes Booth's spirit.

The 13-piece orchestra, heavy on the brass, was conducted by Benjamin Weiss. Sondheim made good use of the American idiom and at one point quoted Leonard Bernstein. Although the instrumental balance was fine, we felt the volume frequently overpowered the voices, including Mr. Remmers' introduction.

It is also fair to point out that the enunciation was not always as clear as it might have been, particularly on the part of The Balladeer. Sondheim's lyrics are so important that we wanted to hear every word. It occurs to us that surtitles are just as important for English as they are for foreign languages.

Utopia Opera is a perfect example of substituting creativity and imagination for a big budget; they have done so much with paltry resources. There was no scenery to speak of but the costuming (Eric Lamp and Angel Betancourt) seemed quite apropos to the periods. It was quite a challenge to mount a show like this and much credit goes to the company for doing such a fine job. Mr. Remmers himself directed.

It is arguably the job of the artist to hold a mirror up to society and reflect us back to ourselves.  At this performance we felt entertained, enlightened, squeamish, and a bit ashamed of our violent history.  We need to experience our dark side before we can change it. The show has been produced overseas and we can only imagine how Europeans must judge our outmoded infatuation with firearms and revenge.

There will be two shows today, matinée and evening--similarly on Sunday. Can you allow yourself to be entertained and changed at the same time?

(c) meche kroop

THE OTHER CINDERELLA

Zen Wu, Melissa Serlluco, Ryan Slone, Jeff Goble, Caroline Tye, Alison Cheeseman, and Hayden DeWitt

When thinking about operatic versions of Cinderella, most people think of Rossini's La Cenerentola. But Massenet's 1899 opera Cendrillon offers many delights, including a luscious score with many fine arias and ensembles and a libretto (by Henri Caïn) that hews more closely to the original Perrault story which was already two centuries old. It can be taken as a tale of a highly dysfunctional family.

Papa Pandolfe (warmly portrayed by Jeff Goble) has taken as his second wife the harridan Madame de la Haltière (the over-the-top Caroline Tye) who has brought with her two spoiled daughters Noémie (Zen Wu) and Dorothée (Melissa Serluco). Pandolfe's daughter Lucette (Alison Cheeseman) is adored by her father, who feels guilty for neglecting her, and barely tolerated by her step-family.  This feels so relevant today when "blended families" are quite common.

William Remmers' Utopia Opera operates under a rather unique concept. Audience members vote online for the operas they want to hear the following season. We are consistently amazed by how Maestro Remmers rises to every challenge and comes up with a solution to the problem of combining entertainment and professionalism on a miniscule budget.

Although we always enjoy ourselves and admire the creativity, last night we were wildly impressed by the superlative performances of every performer and the innovative direction of Mr. Remmers who truly knows how to tell a story and to tell it well. We were engrossed and enchanted.

Although there is no scenery and barely any props, the story is told and told well. Costumes are of the "let's put on a show" variety. We imagine cast members rummaging through closets and coming up with something to express the characters they are portraying.  Most original of all was the black tie,  top hat , white silk scarf, and cigarette holder of The Fairy Godmother. The description sounds odd but, trust us, it worked incredibly well. Her fairy spirits dressed completely in white.

Lucette appears first in dowdy clothes of nondescript color and later in a shimmery garment with sparkly shoes. The henpecked Pandolfe wears a velvet jacket. Member of Lucette's step-family wear lavish ball gowns.

We first saw Cendrillon at the Santa Fe Opera ten years ago in a beautiful Laurent Pelly production with Joyce Di Donato in the title role-- and again two year ago at Juilliard with Julia Bullock. We were delighted both times but there was something about the intimacy of the Utopia Opera production that will stay in our mind.

There are a number of unforgettable scenes that one is not likely to forget!  You must see for yourself.

Massenet's music is deliciously romantic; Remmers' 19-member orchestra did the score justice once Mr. Remmers' baton brought them all together and achieved balance between the strings and the winds. We were particularly taken by the English horn solos of Zachary Rosalinsky which accompanied the love duets. The love duet between Pandolfe and Lucette was just as fine as that between her and Prince Charming.

Ms. Cheeseman made a winsome Lucette, one we could care about. We could feel compassion for Mr. Goble's Pandolfe who just made a bad marital decision. We could laugh at the domineering step-mother and the ridiculously entitled and sulky step-sisters. But we were most enthralled by the otherwordly magic of Angela Dinkelman's Fairy Godmother whose costume played so strongly against our expectations. Massenet gave her the best music and she didn't let him down!

Even the chorus was well-rehearsed. The fine direction led to camera-perfect stage pictures such that we have spent hours editing down the multiplicity of shots. And we must mention the fine French diction that was totally understandable.  Our companion told us that the titles were down for a period and we never noticed!

If you have been tempted to share our joy by attending, you will find the Lang Recital Hall at Hunter College to have superb sight lines and you will be amazed at the ridiculously low ticket prices. This same cast will perform next Saturday night, with a (likely just as fine) second cast performing tonight and next Friday night. You won't be disappointed!

(c) meche kroop