EARLY HALLOWEEN

  The priceless Creatine Price

Who else but Andrew Ousley of The Death of Classical could have created such an extraordinary event (a fortnight ahead of our favorite holiday) already pushing the envelope of entertainment, artistry, and spookiness. Thousands of celebrants rambled around the multiply branching pathways of Greenwood Cemetery in dark of night to participate in the revelry. Absent a full moon, these pathways were lit by strings of lights. Celebrants strolled through with flashlights and cellphones to guide them, helped along by volunteers who were always willing to guide them to the next event.

These events comprised performance art, videos, various types of music, and, best of all, our favorite male mezzo-soprano Creatine Price in full outrageous drag, offering the "Habanera" from Bizet's Carmen and "Stride la vampa" from Verdi's Il Trovatore. When not singing, Ms. Price served as DJ for those who wished to let it all hang out on the dance floor. We think Ms. Price will forgive us for blowing her cover; under that fabulous wig and gown we recognized Jordan Weatherston Pitts!

Attracting a huge crowd were the members of the Bindlestiff Family Circus offering sword swallowing and tightrope walking. A beautiful female taxidermist demonstrating the conversion of a deceased black crow into a stuffed one captured our curiosity and attention. A woman in Victorian attire danced with a bloody garment, attended by a man manipulating body parts. Mausoleums were decorated with swirling projections. Various types of music filled the air with sound. We hope, Dear Reader, that you will see our Facebook and Instagram entries (also as "Voce di meche") since, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. So stop reading already and go look at the pictures!

We believe tonight's final event has been sold out but you never can tell. If you can snag a ticket you will have the time of your death life.

© meche kroop

DON GIOVANNI IN NEW YORK

Jordan Weatherston Pitts, Ashley Galvani Bell, Helena Brown, Tyler Putnam and Natalie Rose Havens surrounding Ricardo Rivera

Aristotle claimed that Art Imitates Life; Oscar Wilde claimed that the converse was more likely to be true. Let us say that both positions are valid. Last night, Divaria Productions presented a fascinating exploration of how the extravagant lives of librettist Lorenzo da Ponte and singer Manuel Garcia influenced and were influenced by the opera Don Giovanni.

We have always suspected that the rebellious Mozart saw himself in the unrepentant Don Giovanni who refuses to bow down to the father figure--the Commendatore. But we hadn't given much thought to da Ponte's identification with the libertine character of that anti-hero. Nor did we know anything about the connection with the Garcia family and the opera's first production in New York.

Thanks to the diligent scholarship and astute writing of Andrew Bell, the scripted production of Don Giovanni in New York left us with much to think about, as well as some memorable performances dancing around our brain. If the facts were stretched a bit for dramatic purposes, our rejoinder is "Se non è vero è ben trovato". Much of the dialogue was drawn from the memoirs of the Garcia family and those of Signor da Ponte.

The performance took place in the Old St. Patrick's Cathedral in Soho, of which da Ponte was a parishioner. It is a fact that the Garcia family was brought to the United States by da Ponte who was responsible for introducing Italian opera to New York. 

The Garcias opened Don Giovanni at the Park Lane Theater on this exact date (May 23rd) in 1826! (We do believe a French opera by Grétry was performed in the Louisiana Territory in 1784). Mr. Bell tells the story of this production, using excerpts from the opera to illuminate the inner feelings of the characters.

The many layered story we witnessed comprised several strands. By all accounts, both Garcia and da Ponte led scandalous lives with many ill-advised sexual liaisons. Furthermore, Garcia terrorized his daughter Maria so thoroughly that she escaped from him by marrying a much older man and quitting singing. (That she left this husband and resumed a highly successful singing career in Europe is not germane to this story.)

Garcia cheated on his wife, a singer also, with another member of the cast. Mr. Bell's script plays off the characters of the opera and there was drama aplenty. The astute lighting by Anthony Tornambene went a long way toward making clear which were real scenes between the characters and which were scenes from the opera and which were scenes showing memories of the characters.

If this sounds confusing, well, it was a bit. It would have been helpful to have read the extensive program in advance to understand why scenes from the opera were drastically out of sequence.  It would also have helped to have better acoustics. The cathedral is highly resonant which served the singers better than it did the actors portraying the characters of Da Ponte and the Garcias. We missed a lot of the dialogue but heard enough to get the gist of the story.

The singers were well cast and we enjoyed the arias and duets, even out of sequence. We wondered whether this would be more meaningful to people who knew the opera or to those who did not.

The vocal part of Don Giovanni was sung by the very physical baritone Ricardo Rivera (our favorite Escamillo) who was as compelling vocally as he was dramatically. His sidekick Leporello was superbly portrayed by bass Richard Bernstein who gave as fine a performance of "The Catalogue Aria" as we have ever heard. 

In this story, the nascent production at first lacked a tenor to play Don Ottavio, but they found one in Jordan Weatherston Pitts who performed "Dalla sua pace" with gorgeous tender tone and fine phrasing. Bass Tyler Putnam, well remembered from multiple performances at Santa Fe Opera, was effective as Masetto and chilling as the Commendatore in the final scene of the opera.

The female parts were similarly well cast and sung. Soprano Ashley Galvani Bell made a superb Donna Anna and sang a melting "Non mi dir". Her duet with Mr. Pitts "Fuggi crudele, fuggi" was masterful.

As Donna Elvira, the big beautiful sound of Helena Brown was perfect. We have reviewed her performances many times in the past five or six years and have sometimes called her a mezzo because there is so much texture in her tone. Her "Mi tradi quell'alma ingrata" was riveting and delivered within the context of Garcia's wife berating her husband for seducing the singer performing Donna Anna.

The role of Zerlina was sung by mezzo-soprano Natalie Rose Havens whom we well remember as Lola in Martha Cardona Opera's Cavalleria Rusticana. Her "Vedrai carino" was here sung with a different emphasis--the singer is thinking of her real-life lover, not Masetto.

The speaking parts were as follows: Michal Gizinski created the persona of da Ponte who narrated the evening. Anton Armendariz Diaz created the character of Manuel Garcia, the singer imported from Spain to introduce opera to New York City. The role of his browbeaten daughter Maria was performed by Paulina Cossio and her fiancé was performed by Jon Faughnan. Their marriage was accompanied by Jared Lamenzo, the Basilica organist.

Mozart's score was given to the New Asian Chamber Society, a string quartet augmented by the piano of Music Director Nicolo Sbuelz. To say that the music was marvelous would be an understatement. 

Direction was by Mr. Diaz. No costumer was credited but the entire cast looked great and we felt transported back to the 1820's.

The performance will be repeated in Sag Harbor at the Bay Street Theatre on September 22. And yes, it would be worth the trip! Not only for Mozart's music and the fine performances, but also for new insights into the manner in which we identify with literary characters and/or project our own characters onto them.

(c) meche kroop

FLOAT LIKE A BUTTERFLY; STING LIKE A BEE

Matthew Singer, Mackenzie Whitney, Banlingyu Ban, Jordan Weatherston Pitts, Siobahn Sung, and Noah Spagnola

Until last night, there were five extant versions of Madama Butterfly, an opera with which Giacomo Puccini couldn't stop tinkering. Our scholarship is insufficient to describe for readers the exact differences among them but we do believe that the original version of 1904 was the one in which librettists Illica and Giacosa did not shrink from portraying Lieutenant Pinkerton as an arrogant and exploitative chap, a depiction that was later softened.

Last night at Baruch Performing Arts Center, the adventuresome and uncommonly successful Heartbeat Opera presented an adaptation of this masterpiece that was radical and ultimately highly affecting. Two issues about Madama Butterfly have always struck us and the production team managed to hit both nails right on their heads. The first issue is that we have never perceived this opera as a love story; au contraire, we have interpreted the story as one of child abuse. A grown man makes a "temporary marriage" with a fifteen-year-old girl and abandons her.

The second issue is our wondering, every time we have seen the opera, what would happen to a racially mixed two-year-old, torn from his mother and taken away by a couple he never met to a foreign land with a completely different culture. This is still happening today with international adoption agencies providing babies for childless couples here in the good old USA. By making little Sorrow important to this performance, Heartbeat Opera has opened up the story and made it both contemporary and also larger than the little house occupied by Cio-Cio San and her maid Suzuki.

The story opens with little Sorrow (Noah Spagnola) flung on his bed and googling on his laptop. He wants to know where he came from and what happened to his mother.  We don't know what his father and adoptive mother have already told him. He observes the unfolding story from the sidelines and at times he enters the scene, to join his mother and Suzuki as they look out at the harbor for his father's ship, and later to wipe the white paint from his mother's face--or perhaps her tears. At the end he tries to hold onto her.  When he returns to his bed he holds a pillow over his face. We feel his grief.

Our tears welled up too at several points in this emotionally devastating production. We thought the production team had eliminated Act I but it would show up after Act II as a dream or memory of Cio-Cio San in her long night of waiting. The performance began with Act II.  Butterfly believes that Pinkerton will return and tries to convince the skeptical Suzuki. Sharpless, the Consul, also tries to burst her bubble but she resists, believing only that he is coming back. Sharpless is dismayed when she brings out the baby, now 2 years old. Goro the matchmaker/pimp fails to interest her in Prince Yamadori, who was eliminated from the production, along with the Bonze and the Sisters, Cousins, and Aunts.

Then the events of 3 years earlier are replayed.  There is the unmitigated arrogance of Pinkerton, the typical Ugly American. He is enchanted and filled with lust.  Under her wedding kimono, we see Butterfly as a schoolgirl, dressed much in the fashion that is popular now in Japan. Pinkerton does not pin her to a board as a lepidopterist would but binds her in place with red ropes.

In Act III, Butterfly is not just sad but angry. She wields her dagger violently slashing out at the air.  She realizes she has been deceived. We imagine she is lashing out at Pinkerton. We see her give up her child but we are not sure if she kills herself.

This revolutionary reimagining of a classic was directed by Ethan Heard who is Co-Artistic Director of Heartbeat Opera. For the adaptation of the libretto, he was joined by Jacob Ashworth. who also accomplished the excellent translation with dramaturg Peregrine Heard. Movement was directed by Emma Crane Jaster with Momo Suzuki coaching the Japanese movement. Jacob Ashworth was Music Director and Conductor of a chamber orchestra comprising a string quartet plus an extra cello and a harp which contribute enormously to the texture. Daniel Schlosberg was responsible for the arrangement.

Now that you have a mental picture of what this team accomplished, let us add that the singing lived up to the production. We have not yet arrived at a position of appreciating color-blind casting so the fact that Butterfly and Suzuki were Asian was a big plus.  It would not have been so if their voices were not so first-rate.

Banlingyu Ban made a superb Butterfly with a soaring soprano and dramatic skills that conveyed the many shades of feeling that her character underwent, from childish excitement to the depths of despair. Siobahn Sung's pleasing mezzo and self-effacing acting made her the perfect supportive Suzuki. Their relationship made sense and was totally believable.

Mackenzie Whitney's performance as Pinkerton, the entitled and arrogant Lieutenant, may have been a bit over the top, but that just fed into our prior belief as noted above. He sang "Addio fiorito asil" quite well, convincing us that he was just a self-centered lout with his mostly phony remorse. We would love to hear his tenor in a sympathetic role. We were feeling so negative about the character, it was difficult to focus on the voice!

Matthew Singer's mature baritone was just right for the rather more sympathetic role of Sharpless, who has to clean up Pinkerton's messes. His scene with Butterfly was particularly fine.

Jordan Weatherston Pitts' tenor was pressed into service as the whiny slimy Goro--an excellent performance.

The final trio was overwhelmingly gorgeous. Actually, there was not a single musical moment that was any less.

Reid Thompson's set looked like a cage and was highly effective, as was Oliver Wason's lighting.

Valerie Therese Bart's costumes were perfect--the schoolgirl under the kimono showed us just what a 15-year-old girl would look like behind the "Orientalist" fantasy provided by geishas.

There were two choices of props with which we disagreed. When Sharpless comes to break the news to Butterfly, she brings out a doll that should have been much larger to signify a 2-year-old child.  And the new Mrs. Pinkerton was wheeled onstage as a life-size mannequin. She might have better been left to the imagination.

Those two tiny quibbles aside, we recommend this outstanding revisionist Butterfly without reservations. Those new to opera can get a good feel for the musical magic that helps to tell a story in a brief 90 minutes. Experienced opera goers will get a fresh take on an old warhorse. Do go!

(c) meche kroop

OUR HEART BEATS FOR HEARTBEAT OPERA

The cast of Queens of the Night: Mozart in Space

Our customary Halloween Party lost out to Heartbeat Opera; when Co-Artistic Directors Ethan Heard and Louisa Proske plan an event, it takes precedence over anything else we might be doing. We know of no other organization in NYC that has its finger on the pulse of opera-curious young people. It gives us great pleasure to hear a sell-out crowd of 20-somethings hootin' and hollerin' for opera.

How does Heartbeat Opera do this?  Somehow, without diluting the art form, they manage to expand it to include elements that appeal to the young. They choose casual venues (this time the wonderful performance space National Sawdust in trendy Billyburg).

They cast excellent young performers (sopranos Jamilyn Manning-White and Marie Marquis, mezzo-soprano Kristin Gornstein, tenor Jordan Weatherston Pitts, and baritone John Taylor Ward). They have a crew of talented designers (Jon Carter, Miodrag Guberinic, Reid Thompson, Oliver Wason, and Joey Moro). They have excellent Co-Music Directors (Jacob Ashworth and Daniel Schlosberg.

The singing is topnotch and Mozart's music was arranged for string quartet plus bass and keyboard-- which worked well in the wide shallow space with a wide shallow stage. The musicians were clustered at one side of the stage with the rest of the stage available for all manner of fun stagecraft. 

The concept was something about aliens in space with the robot being portrayed by the petite dancer/choreographer Emma Jaster. There was liberal use made of the language of space travel in the script--re-entry and lift-off, control panels and pods, aliens and robots. Costuming and make-up (by MAC) was extravagant and candy-colored wigs completed the colorful imagery. There was unlimited imagination and creativity in evidence.

We got fresh takes on many Mozart standards. If the genius were alive today we think he would have gotten a kick out of Papagena and Papageno discovering sex through touching elbows. He would have laughed out loud seeing Tamino in a dress and wig. He would have thrilled to the fantabulous costume of the dragon, portrayed by Taurean Everett.

But what would he have made of the dragon lip-syncing to Aretha Franklin's version of "Nessun dorma"? We were giggling inside imagining him saying something racy about "that Puccini fella".

Well, everything else was Mozart and if the Puccini got a huge hand, Ms. Manning-White's Queen of the Night garnered an even larger one. 

The event was a benefit and even the fund-raising effort was memorable. We watched a captivating performance that raised $2000 in less than 10 minutes! This young company (just over 2 years old) deserves our support. The future of opera lies with young people and they are drawn in by adventure, creativity, color, imagination, and vitality.  Heartbeat Opera has it all.

Bizet's Carmen and Puccini's Madama Butterfly will be re-invented by Heartbeat in May.  We will be there!  See you there!

(c) meche kroop