THIS FLUTE'S A HOOT!

Aaron Blake, Ashley Milanese, Karolina Gumos, Ezgi Kutlu, and Evan Hughes
(photo by Stephanie Berger for Lincoln Center)

We avoid reading reviews, talking to other people, and perusing the program notes before a performance so that we can experience each opera with fresh eyes and ears, uninfluenced by the opinions of others. Last night, thanks to the Mostly Mozart Festival, we were thoroughly enchanted by a revolutionary approach to Mozart's 1797 singspiel Die Zauberflöte. We do not use the word "enchanted" lightly. We were transported to a new world, an amalgam of silent film tropes, cartoons, scientific illustrations, live action, animation, and projections.

May we coin a term here?  "Imaginuity" might serve. This remarkable production was conceived by the entity 1927  from which Suzanne Andrade and Barrie Kosky Co-Directed, with animation designed by Paul Barritt. Esther Bialas was responsible for Stage and Costume Design and Diego Leetz designed the lighting. It was our first time witnessing live artists interacting with surreal projections. Welcome to the future!

Since opera is all about music, let us begin with that aspect. Maestro Louis Langrée conducted the superb Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra with suitable panache. If there were folks in the audience who had never been exposed to Mozart's music, as unlikely as that is, they were surely won over.

The singing was topnotch all around, although there were moments when we thought the voices were lightly amplified. We first heard bass-baritone Evan Hughes at Juilliard Opera in 2012 as Don Alfonso in Mozart's Cosi fan tutte; we wrote about him often over the next couple years, remarking on his mobile face and flair for comedy. 

Since then, he has made quite a name for himself abroad so it was particularly exciting for us to see and hear him once more after this lengthy interval. One couldn't ask for a better performance. With costuming and body movement reminiscent of Buster Keaton, he cut quite a figure. His sonorous voice has only gotten deeper and broader. He remains an astonishing performer.

Tenor Aaron Blake has been on our radar for about six years since winning an award with the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation. The performances that most stick in our mind are his singing Schubert's "Erlkönig" with impressive coloring of the various voices and his performance of the lead role in Gregory Spears' Fellow Traveler.

Last night he made a winning Tamino, singing earnestly and sweetly. We might add that we would never have recognized either of these two highly admired gentlemen behind all that makeup!

His Pamina was performed by the adorable soprano Vera-Lotte Böckert who was costumed to appear very much like Louise Brooks in a black bob and a black dress with large white collar, white stockings, and black Mary Jane shoes. She invested the role with fine singing and acting, a worthy counterpart to her Prince Tamino.

What shall we say about the Queen of the Night? She was portrayed as a spider catching the unwary in her web and stabbing at them with her 8 spindly legs. It wasn't until the curtain call that we were able to see her face and body. It was hard to believe that all that exciting sound came out of the tiny person of coloratura soprano Aleksandra Olczyk; she has a thrilling sound and very accurate fioritura.

We have never cared for the role of the pompous Sarastro but last night we very much enjoyed him, as portrayed by Wenwei Zhang whose voice descends into the very bottom of the register without any loss of volume or color.

We adored the the Three Ladies, as performed by Ashley Milanese, Karolina Gumos, and Ezgi Kutlu--dressed in 1930's finery. We always love the scene in which they fight over Prince Tamino; last night they were accompanied by animated hearts; long cigarette holders were used to puncture and deflate the hearts of the other two.

Papagena was played by Talya Lieberman who didn't have much to do but was depicted as filling an animated house with dozens of animated "Papageni". She never appeared as an old crone to fool Papageno. We don't know why that scene was cut.

Costumed and made up like Nosferatu, Johannes Dunz made a creepy Monostatos. We noted that the same audience that tittered over Mozart's sexism had no reaction to his racism!

Although their names are not credited in the program, the Three Boys, members of the Tölzer Boys Choir, were adorable and harmonized beautifully.

In many of the scenes, faces were visible through holes and bodies were created in some kind of projected animation. We have no idea how this was accomplished and didn't even try to figure it out. It was more fun to just accept this aesthetic as a fantasy world in which pink elephants lounged in martini glasses, elevators descended through the circles of hell in the Trial by Fire, and chubby little bathing beauties represented Papageno's magic bells.

We could go on and on describing the many sight gags but let us share just a few more. Tamino gets swallowed by the dragon and is depicted in the belly of the beast surrounded by lots of bones; the Queen of the Night hurls red daggers at Pamina when she wants her to kill Sarastro; when Papagena counts to three before committing suicide, the animation plays a game of "hangman" with each number accompanied by additional strokes.

Dialogue was mostly replaced by silent movie titles. Music was interpolated from other works by Mozart, although at one point we heard music that didn't sound like Mozart at all. All of these alterations served the telling of the tale and we'd like to think that Wolfgang Amadeus would have loved it.

It is difficult to describe something so visually fluid but we consider it a ground-breaking work in the same way as Disney's Fantasia was in the last century. We will happily attend any future performances by 1927. Our sole disappointment  was that there were hardly any children in the audience! If any production could initiate youngsters into the world of opera, it would be this one.

(c) meche kroop

MOSTLY MOZART GOES GLASS

Shmuel Katz, Ilya Finkelshteyn, Philipp Marguerre, Friedrich Heinrich Kern, Max Blair, and Jasmine Choi

Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival had us in their grasp for five hours last night, with a compelling evening of music. We do not customarily indulge our ears to such an extent with non-vocal music, but we had a very good reason. We wanted to hear as much as possible of the glass harmonica, and what an opportunity this was!

Most of you have probably had the experience of rubbing a damp finger on the rim of a wine glass and hearing an unusual tone. Probably this is what inspired the polymath Benjamin Franklin to invent the glass harmonica. Until last summer, we had really only heard this instrument playing a chilling duet with the eponymous Lucia in the Donizetti opera Lucia di Lammermoor. Whenever a company substituted a different instrument we recall being greatly disappointed.

Last summer in Santa Fe, we heard glass harmonicist Friedrich Heinrich Kern play in a recital and were thrilled to learn of the versatility of this exotic and unique instrument. It is almost as exotic and unique as the theramin, another instrument which has captivated us.

Mr. Kern gave us an up close and personal look at his instrument and a demonstration of how the sound is produced and we were hooked.  When we heard he was performing with the Mostly Mozart Festival we were overjoyed at the opportunity to learn more. One of the things we gleaned is that this is an instrument that "plays well with others". Another is that it has a two and a half octave range.

Our evening began with a brief recital involving Mr. Kern and his colleague Philipp Marguerre. We sat on the front row the better to observe the techniques involved in producing the ethereal sound, one which makes us think of fantasies and outer space exploration, especially when detached from Lucia's chilling fioritura in the mad scene where it suggests a state of unreality.

We observed how color and dynamics can be varied as well as the length of the notes. Even staccati can be produced, although, for the most part, the plentiful overtones hang in the air for prolonged periods of time. The two artists performed an Adagio Mozart wrote and we found the harmonies to be particularly eerie. We do not think Mozart wrote the piece for two players; we read that he wrote it for a blind artist.

We also heard a Sonata by Johann Gottlieb Nauman, a contemporary of Mozart.  Apparently, the instrument was popular in the Classical period. Mr. Marguerre performed a solo by Théodore Lack from a later period that was adapted for the glass harmonica and Mr. Kern played a 20th c. solo by Fred Schnaubelt.

The second event of the evening featured Maestro Louis Langrée in summer casual attire leading the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra. The concert began with a rather brisk rendition of the Overture to Bernstein's Candide, a concise and tuneful work, energetic and almost raucous.

The centerpiece of the evening was Emanuel Ax's splendid performance of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 17 in G major, a work beloved by Bernstein. The applause was so insistent that Mr. Ax rewarded his fans with a Nocturne by Chopin, a piece of unsurpassed loveliness.

And then came the work we had been anticipating--Mozart's Adagio and Rondo in C minor for glass harmonica(s), flute (Jasmine Choi), oboe (Max Blair), viola (Shmuel Katz) and cello (Ilya Finkelshteyn). Even without the glass harmonicas, this combination of instruments would be interesting and unusual! Our ears were in an extraordinary state of shock, a pleasant shock.

The final work on the program was Gershwin's 1928 work An American in Paris, performed in a new critical edition by Mark Clague. We would have had to hear both versions side by side to detect the differences. Suffice it to say we enjoyed it immensely and allowed each of the many varied episodes to evoke memories of our own time spent in Paris. There is all the chaos of a large city alternating with quiet moments which, for us, represented The Tuileries and the quietness of l'Orangerie and Monet's water lilies (prior to the museum's renovation).

Then it was Maestro Langrées turn to reward the enthusiastic audience for their fervor. He sat at the piano and played Gershwin's final composition from 1937--music for the film Shall We Dance. He was accompanied by a string quartet, a bass, and a wild clarinet solo. Wild, but not as wild as the audience!  A happier exit crowd we have never seen!

But our night was not yet over. We moved on to the Kaplan Penthouse for a post-concert recital. To any reader who has not attended an event there, please accept our encouragement. One gets to sit at tables with some very interesting music lovers, sip wine, and experience live music up close and personal, just the way we like it.

We enjoyed Mr. Ax even more in this venue. His sensitive performance of Debussy's "Pagodes" was luminous. The Piano Sonata in F major by Mozart held our attention throughout from its Bach-influenced Allegro movement to the final Rondo.

The most unusual piece at this late-night recital was Piazzolla's "Tanti Anni Prima"; this was not a tango but a delicate and sensitive duet played by Mr. Ax and Mr. Marguerre. Mr. Kern also got to play a duet with Mr. Ax--Gershwin's glorious "Summertime" from Porgy and Bess. Y'all know how we favor anything related to the opera!

Mr. Kern and Mr. Marguerre also played an Adagio by Haydn and Mozart's "Ave verum corpus".

But the encore rang the most bells for us--the deeply moving lied by Mozart--"Abendempfindung". This always makes us weep when we hear it sung.  Last night we heard the words in our head whilst the artists gave it a different flavor.

We hope more composers will write for this rare instrument. Mr. Kern and Mr. Marguerre are part of a group called Sinfonia di Vetro, a glass music ensemble.

(c) meche kroop

MOZART AND THEN SOME

Opening Night of Mostly Mozart

Sometimes in life we get more than we bargained for, more than we expected, more than we hoped for.  We were thrilled with the idea of six singers, all of whom we have cherished and written about, having their simultaneous debuts with the Mostly Mozart Festival. They are all rising stars and they would be onstage together performing the solo roles in Beethoven's Fantasia in C minor, also known as the Choral Fantasy--a work we have never heard performed. What excitement!

We will get to the astonishing features of the rest of the program but we will start at the end, as we sometimes do.  Brilliant young pianist Kit Armstrong distinguished himself in the prolonged opening of the work. Beethoven's wild energy was captured by Mr. Armstrong's lightning fast fingerwork in the rapid scale passages and the lyrical moments were rendered with expressive introspection.

Beethoven distributed some splendid solos to the wind instruments and we particularly admired the lengthy flute solo and the clarity of the clarinet solo. Louis Langree's conducting style is emphatic and balletic, effectively limning all the voices of Beethoven's orchestration.

The six vocal soloists we came to hear were outstanding in their handling of the vocal lines, overlapping and weaving together in a tapestry of gorgeous sonic brilliance. One could not have asked for better singing than that delivered by sopranos Janai Brugger and Brandie Sutton, mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano, tenors Miles Mykkanen and Jack Swanson, and bass Adam Lau. Once young artists have reached this level of international fame, we have less opportunity to write about them and were doubly thrilled.

When we planned our attendance, we paid no attention to the rest of the program and were therefore non-plussed by our experience of the Young People's Chorus of New York City, a group of which we were previously unaware. Artistic Director and Founder Francisco J. Nunez must be some kind of wizard to have pulled such performances from these youngsters.

The lovely young ladies of the chorus were flatteringly dressed in royal blue dresses with red petticoats peeking out from under the skirts and matching headbands. The voices were, of course, far more important than the garb but it would have been churlish not to mention how visually attractive a picture they presented as they entered down the side aisles and took their places onstage.

The program opened with a stunning performance of the Kyrie K.90, written by the teenage Mozart. The harmonies were absolutely exquisite. But the piece that mostly astonished us was Marcos Leite's arrangement of Tres Cantos Nativos dos Indios Krao. There seemed to be no extant translation and none was necessary. What we heard (and we did NOT read the program in advance) were the sounds of a rainforest and a coming storm, just as effectively rendered as in Beethoven's Sixth Symphony.

The young singers used their bodies in unison to create all kinds of natural sounds emulating birdcalls and finally raindrops falling. They clapped their hands and tapped various parts of their bodies to create a miraculous soundscape, the beauty of which brought tears to our eyes.

The thought came to us that talent knows no age. These youngsters seemed to represent a mosaic of our wonderful New York City with complete diversity of size, shape, and color.  Glorious!  We need not worry about the future of music!

Not only were the aisles put to use for conducting, entrances, and exits--but also the balconies, giving us a "surround sound" experience with overlapping voices in the other numbers they performed--"Hark, I Hear the Harps Eternal" and "Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel".

The Young People's Chorus was joined by the Children's Chorus for Maestro Nunez' own arrangement of "Ah vous dirai-je maman".  They were also wonderful. We thought a golden opportunity was missed to pair that with Mozart's own variations on that childhood tune.

The encore was the finale of Bernstein's Candide, a true crowd pleaser.

There were features of the programming that bothered us. Splitting up symphonies into their component movements may have been common in the 18th c. but we failed to appreciate the dissection of Mozart's "Haffner" symphony.  To our ears it was disruptive and we object to the loss of continuity and the feeling of completion we usually experience when a symphony is brought to its conclusion.

Still, we agree that the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra played beautifully under Maestro Langree's dramatically wielded baton. There were places in the first movement with such suspended energy that we wanted to stage it in our mind's eye as a scene in an opera, a scene ripe for explosion.

Although the program notes, which we finally read when we returned home, tried to justify the interpolation of songs by the Young People's Chorus between the movements with an overall theme of youthful energy, we thought that was working very hard to justify a peculiar decision.

There was one further decision that didn't sit well with us.  We adore Bernadette Peters on the Broadway stage but choosing her as host for the evening was not a fortuitous one. Her baby-doll voice was over amplified and her reading of the narration was frequently incomprehensible. Additionally, a host should be able to name the conductor and the composer without reading from cards.  Sorry, not sorry, dear readers--but we calls 'em as we hears 'em.

(c) meche kroop

OUR HEARTS ILLUMINATED!

 "The Illuminated Heart"--Selections from Mozart's opera performed at the 50th Anniversary of Mostly Mozart

Not even the rainy weather could dampen the spirits of the glittery members of the sell-out crowd gathered to celebrate the opening-night program of Mostly Mozart, Manhattan's yearly summertime orgy of music-making.  It was an auspicious beginning with a veritable cornucopia of talent onstage and a conducting genius in the pit.

Maestro Louis Langrée got the evening off to a rousing start with the lively overture to Le nozze di Figaro, inarguably one of Mozart's best operas, although even his less wonderful offerings will never be neglected. Onstage, we had a servant girl doing chores, tossing laundry into a basket in time with the chords--a most effective bit of stagecraft. She wiped the walls on which words were projected; as she did so the words disappeared. This was probably the finest moment for the visuals.

Mozart was a master of melody and a champion of characterization. A great artist can sing one of his arias and, in a holographic miracle, the entire opera takes shape before your very eyes. There was no shortage of great artists onstage last night.

Capturing our heart was soprano Nadine Sierra for whom we have a special fondness, having started reviewing her work when she was considered "promising". Her promise has been fulfilled. She delights the ear with her silvery soprano and involves one with the inner life of the character she portrays.

As Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, deceitfully promising Count Almaviva her sexual favors, there was no doubt in how she felt about her employer and his unwelcome advances. When he pulled her onto his lap, you could just tell that she was physically aware of his arousal (to put it delicately). Her scene partner, baritone Peter Mattei, conveyed all the blindness and feelings of entitlement that Lorenzo Da Ponte intended in the brilliant duet "Crudel! Perchè finora".

Ms. Sierra was brilliant in every role-- but the role which totally blew us away was one we'd never heard before from an opera which Mozart never finished. We were so enthralled by "Ruhe sanft, mein holdes Leben" from Zaide that we longed to see Ms. Sierra perform the role in its entirety; we were sad to learn that only parts of it survive.  So...a superb concert piece it will remain. Ms. Sierra produced such a finely wrought decrescendo that we held our breath.

Soprano Christine Goerke blew us away in another manner.  She is a veritable force of nature and sang Elettra's aria of rage "O smania! O furie! ...D'Oreste, d'Aiace" from Idomeneo. Her steely soprano cuts through an orchestra like a knife through butter and swells to fill the farthest reaches of any theater. Her emotional commitment drags you into the aria and all its pain.

A fine showing was made by soprano Anna Maria Martinez and mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack as sisters Fiordiligi and Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte; their voices blended beautifully in Mozartean thirds in "Ah, guarda sorella" and later, with Mr. Mattei as Don Alfonso, in "Soave sia il vento".

Ms. Martinez was riveting as Donna Elvira in "In quali eccessi, o Numi...Mi tradi quell'alma ingrata" from Don Giovanni. We loved the way she colored each section differently as she went through all the emotions of a woman scorned by a man she can't stop loving.

When mezzo-soprano Marianne Crebassa sang "Parto, parto, ma tu, ben mio" from La clemenza di Tito we realized that one may readily think of it as a duet with clarinet. Jon Manasse's clarinet echoed the vocal line in such an artistic fashion we wondered why we had never heard it so clearly before. Ms. Crebassa also did credit to herself in a duet with Ms. Sierra from the same opera--"Ah perdona al primo affetto".
  
As a matter of fact, there was much in Maestro Langrées conducting that brought new clarity to old favorites.  It was also admirable the way he controlled his Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra so that they supported each singer.  No one was drowned out.

A rewarding performance of the difficult "Dalla sua pace" from Don Giovanni was given by Matthew Polenzani; he was at the very top of his form both vocally and dramatically. The phrasing, the coloring, and the timbre joined with his tasteful gestures to create a picture of a man besotted and submissive to his adoration of the ambivalent Donna Anna.

Only baritone Christopher Maltman failed to impress with a somewhat lackluster "Champagne Aria" from Don Giovanni and a charmless "Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja" from Die Zauberflöte.

These were just the highlights of the evening which ended with the Finale of Le nozze di Figaro--bringing us back full circle.

As much as our heart was illuminated, the faces of the singers were not. We wish we could be as enthusiastic about the direction, design, and illuminations of Netia Jones or the lighting of Andrew Hill-- but we cannot.

On the positive side, there were some charming moments of direction that were dramatically valid. Projections succeeded at creating the illusion of depth in the hall's shallow stage; costumes effectively suggested 18th c. silhouettes while highlighting the cut and fabrics of contemporary times. But many of the projections were weak or non-specific, or unsupported by the story.  If mixed media is going to replace sets then it had better be more effective.

Happily, that minor disappointment did nothing to tarnish the luster of the voices. After an intermissionless 90 minutes, we left fulfilled.  But we would have gladly returned for another 90!

(c) meche kroop

ERIN GO ROSSIGNOL

Erin Morley (photo by Carlo Allemano)

We have been thrilling to Erin Morley's voice for a few years now, both in recital and in opera. This young artist has a distinctive coloratura instrument with a clarion tone that is both brilliant and focused. As the eponymous Rossignol in the Stravinsky opera, she brought down the house at the Santa Fe Opera last summer and delighted the New York audience on Richard Tucker Day shortly thereafter with some mesmerizing Mozart.

Last night at Avery Fisher Hall, she brought us more Mozart (of course, since it was a Mostly Mozart night) and impressed us with her ability to throw herself into a concert aria with as much dramatic intensity as if she were performing the entire opera. Every phrase had direction, meaning and purpose.

The opera Il Curioso Indiscreto by Pasquale Anfossi,for which Mozart contributed the two arias, has long since been forgotten while the arias remain for our delectation. In the first aria, "Vorrei spiegarvi, oh Dio!" the heroine rejects a suitor and attempts to send him back to the woman who loves him.

In last night's performance, Ms. Morley's stunning artistry was accompanied by oboe soloist Randall Ellis and a sea of pizzicato strings. Clearly she was immersed in the drama and brought the audience right along with her.

In the second aria, "No, che non sei capace", the heroine must defend her honor from false accusations. The wide leaps and over-the-top fioritura would be a challenge for any coloratura but Ms. Morley tackled them fearlessly, thus earning the name we will forever attach to her--Le Rossignol.

We enjoyed Maestro Louis Langrée's conducting, particularly the way he stirred up the drama in the orchestra in between vocal phrases and brought it back down when Ms. Morley was singing. They seemed to have a fine partnership.

The second highlight of the evening was Emanuel Ax's performance of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 14 in E-flat major. His attack was firm and assured as his fingers flew over the keys, with every scale passage articulated, which is more than we could say for the string section of the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra. Their playing seemed somewhat flabby, especially in the curtain-raiser, the overture to Der Schauspieldirektor which we enjoyed last summer in Santa Fe.

The program closed with Mozart's Symphony No. 34 in C major, K. 338. Although there are passages that presage his later more accomplished symphonies, this one failed to ignite much excitement. In both the piano concerto and the symphony, we preferred the lyrical playing of the slower second movements.

(c) meche kroop