A TALE OF TWO JIMS

James Gandre, President of Manhattan School of Music, at Centennial Opening Day Celebration

Last night we shared in the celebration of Manhattan School of Music's Centennial, an all day celebration of which we were able to attend only the evening concert at the spacious and acoustically magnificent Riverside Church. Participating were the MSM Symphony Orchestra which performed brilliantly under the baton of Roderick Cox, and the MSM Centennial Chorus, brought to equivalent brilliancy by Music Director Kent Tritle.

The evening began with a warm welcome by President Gandre who spoke briefly but engagingly about the history of the school. It became clear just how valuable the school is to the music community by the packed house and the applause after nearly every sentence.

The program was well chosen.  John Corigliano, alumnus and former faculty member, composed the "curtain raiser"--"To Music" in 1994 for the centennial of the Cincinnati Symphony, an orchestral adaptation of his "Fanfares to Music", written for double brass quintet.  After a quiet opening, the piece exploded with energy. The orchestra was augmented by brass fanfares emanating from either side of the audience, producing a "surround sound" effect. 

At first we could barely recognize the melody of Schubert's 1818 lied "An die Musik" but then--there it was! Everything sounds different without the voice but we are sure we heard fragments of the same melody in the main event of the evening's program-- Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.  This is not so far fetched since at that point in time Beethoven was still working on what would be his final symphony.

The massive choral forces of the MSM Centennial Chorus were not heard until the final movement, a setting of Friedrich Schiller's "An die Freude" which Beethoven rearranged to suit his own purpose. The passion and complexity of this movement never fail to dazzle us; the intense involvement of the students "kicked it up a notch". This is a very international group with so many Asian and Latin American students joining young singers from all over the USA. And we spotted one from our neighbor to the north and one from Down Under!

Not to short change the initial three movements, but it was the finale that left us breathless. The finest moment for us was when renowned bass and faculty member James Morris (whose Wotan has never been equalled) introduced the vocal part of this movement. He intoned the words and we got goosebumps, ready to receive Schiller and Beethoven's message of joy.

A stellar lineup was on hand to sing the other parts; all are alumni of MSM and reminded us once more of MSM's value to the music community. The soprano parts were sung with bright ringing tone by Elaine Alvarez.  Ronnita Miller's burnished mezzo-soprano and Bryan Register's tenor rounded out the foursome.

What a celebration! There are so many fine events on the MSM calendar too numerous to mention but there will be another celebration for the long awaited re-opening of the Neidorff-Karpati Hall in November.

(c) meche kroop

LES BELLES ET LES BEAUX

Olivia Betzen and Sean Kroll

What an interesting concept to program a season whose theme was inspired by the writings of Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais! The excellent Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble generally comes up with a highly worthwhile summer season. The program is always a win-win situation. 

Young singers in the early stages of their careers get everything they need to advance to the next level.  They profit by coaching and collaboration, intense role preparation involving not only singing but dramatics, stage deportment, diction, and whatever else it takes to bridge the gap between academic training and flourishing career. All at no charge!

But the audience benefits as well.  One can purchase low-priced tickets and enjoy high-value entertainment.  Productions are often conceived with originality and flair. Take, for example, last nights concert which celebrated the characters created by Beaumarchais. For the rest of this week, we will be reviewing Paisiello's Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, and Titus' Rosina. Something familiar, something unfamiliar, and something treasured since we started attending opera.

But the scenes and arias presented last night will not be heard again this season because they were selected to highlight the characters rather than the operas that we will be hearing. It was a broad ranging program which included some spoken dialogue from Beaumarchais' plays as well as music from the operas based on those plays.

We heard some fine voices that we will look forward to hearing more of for the next three nights. The results of the artists' hard work was quite evident. Everyone sang well and the diction, even in English, was well above average.

There were a few scenes that stood out. Chief among them was Jay Chacon's performance of "Ja för fan det" from Inger Wikstrom's Den Brottslige Moderne. We are completely unfamiliar with this opera but online search reveals only that it was composed in 1939 and the composer is a Swedish woman. It was a captivating performance and we will search further when the season ends and we have time. The aria was melodic and intense.  The vocal line followed the Swedish language in a way that contemporary American composers seem to be unable to achieve.

We also heard arias from Massenet's Chérubin which we have never seen performed. Elizabeth Bouk sang "Je suis gris" with high spirits and fine bright sound. Alessandra Altieri sang "Lorsque vous n'aurez rien à faire" from the same opera in fine French. But our personal favorite was the Spanish inflected "Vive amour" sung by Ashley Alden.

Selections were heard also from John Corigliano's  The Ghosts of Versailles. Christopher Lilley impressed with his powerful voice and cynical attitude in "The Aria of the Worm". He was equally repellent (dramatically) in "Bégearss and the Revolutionary Women".

From Rossini's version of the Barber of Seville, we heard "La calunnia" well sung by bass Michael Spaziani --cheek by jowl with Mozart's "In quegli anni" sung by Korland Simmons, a tenor with a nice ring to his voice. How interesting that the two composers conceived of the character of Don Basilio in such disparate fachs!.

We did not relate to Darius Milhaud's "La mère coupable"; this will not go down in our book as an opera we are dying to see!

But Rossini's magical sextet "Freddo ed immobile" always tickles us. The entire evening was directed by Desiree Alejandro with Jeremy Weissmann as pianist and music director.

We are very much looking forward to hearing all these excellent young artists for the next three nights. The performance space has excellent sight lines and acoustics. Check it out!  Nagelberg Theater at Baruch College. Very worth your while!

(c) meche kroop

A TOAST TO THE GHOSTS

Let us raise our glasses to the ambitious folks at Manhattan School of Music Opera Theater who have given us a dazzling production of John Corigliano's The Ghosts of Versailles.  Having missed the production at the Met in 1991 we were most eager to see what a contemporary librettist (William M. Hoffman) could do with the Beaumarchais characters so beloved in Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Mozart's Nozze di Figaro.  To our knowledge, no one had previously created an opera from the final play of the Beaumarchais trilogy entitled La Mère Coupable.

In the play, Count Almaviva and the Countess are living in Paris.  The Countess, twenty years earlier, had an affair with Cherubino and has a son named Léon whom the Count has never accepted.  Never mind that he himself had an affair with a noblewoman and has a daughter named Florestine!  The goose is sauced while the gander goes free, unwilling to forgive his wife.  Naturally these two young people fall in love and wish to marry, which the Count opposes.

This plot is used by Hoffman in a most unusual way.  He layers the story with an invention--Beaumarchais is enamored of Marie-Antoinette, here called Antonia and wants to rewrite history and save her from the guillotine.  When Figaro rebels against what is written for him, Beaumarchais must enter the opera within the opera and thereby loses his creative powers.

MSM has spared no expense or effort in mounting a production that works on every level.  In the opening scene the ghosts of the aristocracy are asleep and look very much like statues of alabaster but they soon come to life and sing.  The stage is often filled with the ghosts, including Antonia herself, observing Beaumarchais' play, and later figures of the revolution bent on convicting and beheading the aristocracy.

Astute direction by renowned director Jay Lesenger makes this confusing tale work seamlessly.  Steven Osgood on the podium elicited some fine playing of Mr. Corigliano's unusual music which is, stylistically, all over the map.  Sufficient credit must be given to set designer Steven Capone and costume designer Daniel James Cole , to hair and makeup coordinator Amy Jean Wright as well as to choreographer Francis Patrelle.

Master's degree candidates performed their roles with uniform excellence.  We especially enjoyed the Figaro of baritone Nickoli Strummer who had a great aria in Act I, soprano Cree Carrico's equally great aria as Antonia, tenor Aaron Short's performance as the hypocritical villain Bégearss, baritone Gideon Dabi as Beaumarchais, tenor Brett Sprague as Almaviva, soprano Rebecca Krynski as the Countess and Kaitlyn Costello-Fain as Susanna. 

Some special moments stood out: simultaneous duets between Antonia and Beaumarchais alongside the Countess and (long dead) Cherubino, the latter sung by countertenor Anthony Bucci; an amusing duel (choreographed by Rod Kinter) between ghosts who realize they can't die; and an hilarious scene at the Turkish embassy with a Pasha and a dancing girl named Samira, sung by Rachelle Pike whose rich mezzo was well used in a faux folk song that had us in stitches.  Florestine was sung by Nicole Haslett and Léon by Mingjie Lei.  They did make a handsome couple.

The amount of care invested in this production was evident and the result can be considered an unqualified success.  The Met could not have done it better.

(c) meche kroop