FALLING FOR FALSTAFF

 

Juilliard Opera Theater's production of Falstaff 

(photo by Maria Baranova)

One can always count on Juilliard Opera to produce a musically superb production with the young singers showing great artistic promise and the Juilliard Orchestra doing great credit to the music. In this case it was Maestro Joseph Colaneri's baton putting the musicians through their paces with a lively interpretation of Verdi's score.

Writing music with a comedic tilt is just as difficult as directing and performing comedy and Verdi's score manages to be light-hearted but never trivial. Much of the comedic influence can be heard in the wind section.

Let us now credit some winning performances. Minki Hong is not the huge mountain of a man that we have come to expect in the role and if he were wearing a "fat suit" it was not very padded. Nonetheless he gave a fine interpretation of a lovable rascal and employed his baritone instrument to fine effect.

As far as those "Merry Wives of Windsor" (from which Shakespeare play Verdi's librettist Arigo Boito drew, along with material from King Henry IV), each one brought something very special to their respective roles. As Alice Ford, Page Michels used her vocal and dramatic skills to create a believable character, as did Sophia Baete who employed both vocal and thespian artistry as Meg Page.

Lauren Randolph created a Mistress Quickly like no other and Shiyu Zhuo made an adorable Nannetta. We completely relished their plotting their revenge against the Fat Knight, as he is called.

The men were equally exceptional with Titus Muzi admirably limning the character of the jealous Ford. Falstaff was not written with any emphasis on arias but his "È sogno? o realtà?" was a special moment.

As Fenton, Adam Catangui was so cute in his duet with the adorable Ms. Zhuo (the photo above shows them together) that one just wanted to see them wed at the end of the opera. And yes, the voices were fine with color suited to the character.

It was difficult to see the young Chester SeungYup Han as Dr. Caius, the unpleasant elderly suitor intended for Nannetta's hand; however he sang as well as everyone else and we have no complaints on that regard. Nathan Romporti took the role of Bardolfo and Pistola was played by Lin Fan--both fine and funny.

Having dispatched our encomia for the superb singers, let us express our distaste for the production. We most definitely belong to the Werktreue camp, and not the Regietheater camp. Director Marcus Shields is entitled to his artistic philosophy; we read his notes following the performance and found them to be self-referential doublespeak. We are not lacking in intellect but his theories made no sense to us. We prefer our performances to be true to the story, including time and place.

In Mr. Shields production we are in a bare white room with a rectangular hole cut into it and a trap door in the floor. There are two nondescript chairs but singers generally sat on the floor, thanks to Scenic Designer Frank J. Oliva. The final scene in Windsor Park was a great relief. It was performed in near-dark allowing us to use our imagination.

Costume Designer Avery Reed seemed to have no concept whatsoever.  Some of the costumes appeared to be of the 1960's but nothing related to the characters or the story.

Several irritating or disappointing moments come to mind. When the women try to hide Falstaff from Ford and the enraged mob, they put him in what seems to be a pillow case, reminding us of the final act of Rigoletto. The Thames is not even suggestd when servants carry him offstage. When Mistress  Quickly comes to manipulate Falstaff with her "Reverenza!" she has been presumably directed not to manipulate but to seduce by means of weird twerking motions. We could go one and on but we won't.

Was it funny? The audience's laughter seemed to line up with the projected titles rather than with the action onstage. We felt disgruntled until the final scene which we did enjoy to some extent. We were moved to consult our prior reviews of Falstaff, going back to 2012 when Martina Arroyo's Prelude to Performance (much missed) gave us a magnificently directed and costumed production which she repeated a few years later. Santa Fe Opera did a decent historically accurate production which suffered only from an excess of stage business. Del'Arte Opera did a minimalistic production that worked by means of dramatic validity. Until last night we had never felt so turned off. The performance was only rescued by the voices.

In sum, the operagoer should not need Director's Notes. The work should speak for itself. Verdi's rich orchestration and Boito's clever lyrics are sufficiently humorous and humanistic to not require such directorial interference.  We would say "Keep your theories in a book and keep your directorial arrogance off the stage!" Oh we feel so much better getting that off our chest!

© meche kroop

NUN-PLUSSED

 

Curtain Call for Dialogues des Carmelites

We were privileged to have attended opening night of Juilliard Opera's outstanding production of Francis Poulenc's mid 20th century masterpiece Dialogues des Carmélites, for which he wrote both score and libretto. The choice of this opera, telling a disturbing story taking place during the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution, struck us as particularly timely inasmuch as we are on the verge of an upheaval in our own country. It certainly illustrates the consequences of unbridled anger between political factions with horrifying effects on innocent victims.

This is a fictionalized version of the story of the Martyrs of Compiègne, Carmelite nuns who, in 1794 during the closing days of the Reign of Terror  were guillotined in Paris for refusing to renounce their vocation.

Poulenc chose to set the work tonally giving the orchestra great variety of coloration. The vocal lines are predominantly recitativi  and follow the intonation of the French language, making us wonder how that could be accomplished within an ill-advised translation into English. Poulenc himself wished the work to be performed in the vernacular of any given country and indeed the work premiered in Italy--in Italian. Here in the USA, it has been given in French and in English so we were very happy that Juilliard elected to perform it in French.

So if there is nothing like an aria or duet to be enjoyed, one can still appreciate the melodic nature of the spiritual choruses, most notably the Salve Regina in the final scene as the nuns ascend the scaffolding to submit themselves to the blade of the guillotine. As the blade successively falls with a chilling thud, the voices are reduced until there are only the last two martyrs, the former aristocrat Blanche de la Force, excellently sung by mezzo-soprano Ruby Dibble, and the always cheerful Sister Constance, effectively portrayed by Moriah Berry.

A remarkable piece of acting was offered by mezzo-soprano Lauren Randolph as Madame de Croissy, the Prioress of the convent who dies a very unspiritual death, suffering such physical agony that she upsets the two young postulates. Before dying she puts Mother Marie of the Incarnation (well sung and acted by mezzo-soprano Anna Kelly) in charge of Blanche who has been recognized as needing emotional and spiritual support.

Indeed, Ms. Dibble, by means of vocal coloration as well as acting, made it perfectly clear in the opening scene that she was emotionally fragile . The political situation was discussed during that scene by the Marquis de la Force (superbly sung by the rich-voiced bass-baritone Son Jin Kim) and his son the Chevalier de la Force (beautifully sung by tenor Michael John Butler) who would later visit his sister in the convent with an offer of help that she refuses.

Maestro Matthew Aucoin marshaled the forces of the Juilliard Orchestra in a fashion that brought out the varying colors of each section and infused the overall performance with feelings of foreboding and terror, except for the aforementioned religious choruses. We heard some fine solos by a clarinet and great work from the brass section. If we are not mistaken, there were moments reflecting his earlier post WWI short ironic works.

Louisa Muller's direction was tight and straight to the point, fortunately avoiding anything superfluous. It was exactly the way the story needed to be told, holding one's interest throughout and leaving us feeling grief at the end. We do recognize that some very religious viewers might have found the ending spiritually uplifting. We recall a production in Santa Fe in which the director had an actual guillotine right onstage and as the blade fell, cabbages rolled across the stage. It was so convincing that patrons ran fleeing from the theater! It was a relief to be spared such realism.

Kara Harmon's costumes for the first scene had the aristocrats accurately clad in late 18th century glory, as were the soldiers who came in the last act to evict the nuns from their convent. The nuns were, well, dressed like nuns.

Wilson Chin's set design comprised just a few period pieces of furniture for the first scene and a very modern box-like structure with transparent walls to serve as the various rooms of the convent.

Before closing we would like to mention at least some of the other singers that contributed to the success of the evening. Soprano Jasmin Ward impressed as the new Prioress Madame Lidoine. In some "luxury casting" other sisters included Kate Morton and Naomi Steele. Yihe Wang did double duty as a servant and a doctor. Jin Yu was notable as the Chaplain. Jailers and soldiers included Zhongjiancheng Deng, Yoonsoo Jang, Lin Fan, Nazrin Aslan Alyman and Jack Hicks. 

© meche kroop