JUILLIARD DOES MOZART

Bass Alex Rosen, Tenor Matthew Swensen, Mezzo-soprano Kelsey Lauritano, and Soprano Julia Wolcott

Concertmaster Carter Coleman, Maestro Gary Thor Wedow, Soprano Felicia Moore, and Collaborative Pianist Yun Wei

Mozart would have been completely satisfied with last night's dazzling evening which comprised his music, both sacred and secular. Where else but at Juilliard would one find the depth and breadth of talent in the vocal and instrumental areas to fill out such an ambitious program!

The first half of the program was devoted to secular music. Although our favorite Mozart symphonies remain his final two, there was plenty to enjoy in his Symphony No. 38 in C Major (the "Linz"). We have no idea why all the musicians, save the cellists and the tympanists, played in a standing position; if any readers have insight into this unusual configuration we hope they will comment below. We enjoyed most the melodic Andante and the spirited Presto Finale. 

But the pleasure of the symphony was far overshadowed by the knockout performance of the concert aria "Ch'io mi scordi di te?...Non temer, amato bene". Soprano Felicia Moore is as ample of voice as she is of stature, commanding the stage and owning the work. Her resonant voice filled Alice Tully Hall with overtones, the very molecules of air vibrating. There was plenty of bloom on top with substantial weight in the lower register. 

Ms. Moore has such command of technique that she was able to submerge herself in the text and to lean into certain notes with consummate expressivity. The various sections were differentially colored, lending the work enormous dramatic impact.  As her piano partner, Yun Wei's delicate hands flew over the keys, successfully limning Mozart's elaborate embellishments, also negotiated accurately and tastefully by the singer.  What a performance!

FLIGHT OF THE DOVE

Xiaomeng Zhang, Natalia Kutateladze, Dimitri Katotakis, Kelsey Lauritano, Jakub Jozef Orlinski, Steven Osgood, Rebecca Farley, Amanda Lynn Bottoms, Nicolette Mavroleon, Matthew Swensen, and Cody Quattlebaum

Jonathan Dove's Flight arrived safely at Juilliard International Airport this week, piloted by Steven Osgood and James Darrah;  all singers aboard merit a champagne toast in the Arrivals Lounge! The flight originated at Glyndebourne in 1998 and made 85 stops across Europe, Australia, and the USA. Arrivals were met with laughter and much applause.

Is there anything the singers of The Juilliard Opera cannot master?  We think not! Composer Jonathan Dove was fortunate in having as librettist April de Angelis who based the story loosely on the real life tale of an Iranian refugee who was stranded for 18 years at Charles de Gaulle Airport in 1988 due to immigration bungling. The story is irresistible and inspired a 2006 Steven Spielberg film starring Tom Hanks, entitled Terminal.

Our hero is a refugee who (we learn toward the end of the opera) smuggled himself to London in the wheel of a plane; his less fortunate brother fell "like a frozen star", bearing the refugee's papers. After we giggled through most of the opera, this revelation added a note of tragedy; Shakespeare's comedies also added tragedy to the mix.

The role was sung by countertenor Jakub Jozef Orlinski whose otherworldly angelic voice was perfect for the part. His physicality augmented his vocal artistry to evoke feelings of sympathy, not exactly felt by the motley group of passengers in the departure lounge, each of whom is obsessed with his/her own problems.

Soprano Nicolette Mavroleon and tenor Matthew Swensen beautifully portrayed a bickering couple on their way to a resort where they hope to rekindle the romance they once enjoyed earlier in their marriage. She is going by the book--a marriage manual--and wanting more sexual adventure.  She gets more than she bargained for.

Diplomat Xiaomeng Zhang, a mellifluous baritone, has accepted a post in Minsk but his very pregnant wife, sung by mezzo-soprano Natalia Kutateladze backs out at the last minute, terrified of the new responsibility of motherhood and the loss of her freedom. Her water breaking onstage was probably a dramatic first. Any woman who has been pregnant would understand her ambivalence.

Cabin personnel mezzo-soprano Kelsey Lauritano and baritone Dimitri Katotakis have the hots for each other and their attempts to copulate provide even more humor. Their singing was as enthusiastic as their lovemaking.

Mezzo-soprano Amanda Lynn Bottoms used her lovely voice to portray une femme d'un certain age who has come to the airport to await a young lover she had met on vacation, a man who will never come. As funny as she is, her plight is a sad one as she sings of her loneliness.

Credit all the above artists for their gorgeous singing, fine acting, and sympathetic portrayals.

Not so sympathetic is the ice cold Controller, sung with steely tone by soprano Rebecca Farley. She seems to oversee the action and does not like people at all.  She would like to have The Refugee's attention all for herself.

The Immigration Officer was portrayed by bass-baritone Cody Quattlebaum who does not sing until the last scene but was worth waiting for; he even relents a bit in his authoritarian posturing after listening to The Refugee's tale of woe.

The problem of refugees is even more severe now than when the opera was written, making the presentation of this work even more timely. The Refugee wants to make friends very badly--to win favors from the passengers of course--and uses all kinds of manipulative strategies to gain his ends. People turn their backs and a blind eye toward his hunger and loneliness.

The work is powerful.  We laugh and we cry.

Mr. Dove's music is infinitely more accessible than most contemporary operas. Conductor Steven Osgood made the most of the superlative musicians of The Juilliard Opera. The sound of planes taking off and the sound of the storm that interrupted the expected stream of departures were particularly well orchestrated and performed.

Director James Darrah's sure hand provided laughs aplenty in the well-considered stage business. He is endlessly creative.

Ellen Lenbergs designed the spare modern airport lounge, lit by Cameron Jaye Mock. Adam Larsen was responsible for the video projections of blue sky, clouds, and hopeful dawn when the storm ends. Mattie Ullrich's costumes were colorful and well suited to the characters. The Older Woman was particularly colorful as she worried about being conspicuous.

It is rare that we experience a contemporary opera in a positive fashion. There were no arias that we could walk out humming. But the diction was clear (with surtitles for when it wasn't) and the ensemble work was glorious. We would even consider seeing Flight again at some point in the future, which is more than we could say for other contemporary works. Still, we couldn't imagine a production as successful as this one.

(c) meche kroop

STEPHANIE BLYTHE MASTER CLASS at JUILLIARD

Stephanie Blythe

Stephanie Blythe is our hero, or heroine, if you will. You may know her as the highly acclaimed mezzo-soprano, but she is also an acclaimed master teacher.  Her direct "no nonsense" approach to teaching never fails to offer the student useful pointers. The proof of the pudding is the change one hears in the half-hour allotted to each student.

What is remarkable about the audience is how supportive they are, partly mirroring her supportive attitude and partly reflective of the overall mood we have noticed within Juilliard's Vocal Arts Department.

Each of yesterday's participants has a special vocal quality that Ms. Blythe never failed to praise.  But she made the point that a beautiful sound is not enough; she points the student toward maximum artistry and connection with the audience.  This artistry does not come from histrionics but from simplicity and understanding of the text.

Two of the composers represented in the program were present in the audience.  We wondered what the young singers felt.  Probably a lot of excitement and some additional pressure.  They didn't seem to show any anxiety however. The singers were apparently encouraged to choose their own songs. Each one had prepared by intensely studying the text--extremely important in art song performance.

First on the program was bass-baritone Cody Quattlebaum who performed John Musto's setting of James Loughlin's "Rome: In the Café" from the cycle Viva Sweet Love. Mr. Quattlebaum clearly had spent time with the text and we particularly enjoyed his reading of it. There is a haunting mystery about the subject observing a woman in a café and the drama of her daily appearance to meet a man who attempts to console her as she weeps.

Mr. Quattlebaum was rather eloquent as he described his learning the text and his thoughts about it.  Ms. Blythe coached him on spinning the tone, even on the shortest notes, advice we would hear again and again. As we keep hearing, it is the BREATH that connects the notes.  Ms. Blythe spoke about string instruments and bowing, a useful metaphor indeed; phrases must have direction.

As the possessor of a low voice, Ms. Blythe had some special tips for Mr. Quattlebaum and also for mezzo-soprano Kelsey Lauritano who followed with Ricky Ian Gordon's  "X" from the cycle Late Afternoon.  There was no doubt that Ms. Lauritano has a deep feeling for Jean Valentine's text about a brother who died of AIDS and parents who didn't want his name on the AIDS quilt; she had found the cycle herself and chose to learn the song.

Her coaching involved allowing a bit more head voice in the mix to carry the sound. She was asked to sing the song with intimacy and simplicity. We have never heard it put this way before but we loved the concept that eye contact creates an active audience.

Tenor Matthew Swensen performed "The Lake Isle of Innisfree",  Ben Moore's setting of a text by William Butler Yeats.  He sang it with the most beautiful sound which Ms. Blythe praised--but she wanted him to look at the audience more and connect. She initiated a valuable discussion of rubato and the "give and take" which that score marking indicates; the singer must take time here to take us to the place of tranquility of which Yeats wrote.

She further advised more attention to the dynamic markings of the song.  Other points included smiling with the heart instead of the mouth and not furrowing the brow. There was a valuable trick offered--running a piece of Scotch tape across the brow so that one can be made aware of this bad habit and correct it.  Now that's something everyone can try!

The final entry on the program was soprano Julia Wolcott's performance of "Orinda Upon Little Hector Philips" from Ben Moore's cycle So Free Am I. The sad text by 17th c. poet Katherine Philips is a eulogy to her babe who died. The text is difficult to speak, let alone to sing--especially at the upper register of the soprano range. 

We loved the sound of Ms. Wolcott's voice but had to look up the text online. Ms. Blythe's coaching was, of course, to pay more attention to enunciating the text! There was also the suggestion to use less histrionics. 

There was more discussion of vibration and taking time to spin the tone, especially on the short notes--and where did we hear that advice before! When taking a breath, the singer should maintain the space of the prior phrase--all great advice.

Pianists for the master class were excellent: Michal Biel, Katelan Terrell, and Adam Rothenberg.

Ms. Blythe is a champion of contemporary music, of which we are not.  When she summed up the afternoon she expressed her belief that music recently written speaks to us today. It has not so far spoken to us, however!  Yet we acknowledge that what we heard today was more successful at reaching us.  We think of it as perhaps a whisper that may grow in volume as in Rossini's "La calunnia" sung by Don Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia.

It was a truly valuable experience, for the audience as well as for the singers. Ms. Blythe stressed the fact that singers could try out what she offered and "take it or leave it".  We hope they will take it!

(c) meche kroop

THE MASTERY OF WILL KELLEY

Will Kelley

It is incredibly rewarding to witness artistic growth and especially so when an artist you have been enjoying for some time is achieving a master's degree. We arrived at Juilliard last night rain-soaked and wind-blown but by the end of the recital our frown had turned upside down, a phenomenon that will be familiar to music lovers.

Mr. Kelley is an outstanding collaborative pianist, as we already knew.  But last night was an opportunity to hear him work with several different singers and a cellist heretofore unknown to us. He subtly adjusted his prodigious technique to suit each and every circumstance.

First on the program, he was joined by countertenor Jakub Jozef Orlinski and tenor Matthew Swensen for Benjamin Britten's Canticle II: "Abraham and Isaac" which we saw performed last year at Chelsea Opera. (Review archived). We are never fond of bible stories but this is one of the most immoral and despicable of all. In our opinion, true morality is doing what is right regardless of what one is told, whereas doing what you are told regardless of what is right is nothing more than obedience.

Personal distaste for the subject matter aside, the three artists performed magnificently with Mr. Swensen as the misguidedly obedient father and Mr. Orlinski portraying the heartbreakingly obedient and trusting child. Even with scores in hand they acted with body as well as voice; Mr. Kelley modulated his playing to fit every mood change. The harmonies of the final duet were strikingly accomplished.

The next work on the program was Francis Poulenc's Sonata for Cello and Piano. Mr. Kelley pointed out that both the Britten and the Poulenc were written contemporaneously in the post WWII period. This was an excellent opportunity to hear Mr. Kelley partner with another instrumentalist, a new experience for us. 

Julian Schwarz' playing was just as fine as Mr. Kelley's; the two seemed to have a superb partnership and both navigated the many moods evinced within the four movements. The first was light-hearted; the second was lyrically somber and marked by gorgeous glissandi and a peaceful conclusion; the third was downright frisky by way of staccati given a Gallic shrug; and the fourth exhibited tension, ponderousness, then a music hall type franticness. Whew!

The second half of the program brought us to more familiar territory. By this time we had decided that Mr. Kelley chose his partners well and mezzo-soprano Caitlin Redding was just the right singer for a quartet of early songs by Arnold Schoenberg and three selections from Cinq poèmes de Baudelaire set by Debussy.  

Among the Schoenberg songs we loved the evocative "Erwartung" and the sensual "Schenk mir deinen goldenen Kamm". It has taken many hearings for us to appreciate Schoenberg but the artistry of Ms. Redding and Mr. Kelley brought us farther along the path.

Among the Debussy selections, our favorite was "Le jet d'eau" in which Mr. Kelley's piano limned all the rippling and splashing of the fountain.  Indeed we decided that Debussy did for fountains what Beethoven did for moonlight.

The final part of the program comprised four selections from Sergei Rachmaninoff's Six Romances, Op. 38 for which soprano Christine Price was an excellent choice.

The more we listen the greater is our admiration for the art of Collaborative Piano. It is not enough to be an excellent pianist; there is so much involved in matching the other artist's tempi, coloring, and dynamics.  We'd say that Mr. Kelley has mastered the art!

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GENDER QUEER BAROQUE

Jacob Thoman, Alexander McKissick, Sean Lammer, Samantha Hankey, Jakub Józef Orliński (photo by Rosalie O'Connor)

The playing area was filled with nymphs and satyrs, gods and goddesses--strange figures to be sure; and yet their concerns are our concerns today.  The social media generation did not invent unfulfilled romantic longing, sexual dalliances overcoming chaste intentions, rejection, cross-dressing, lesbian love, romantic deception, nor vengeful wives. There was something particularly thrilling about seeing ourselves onstage in a work dating back nearly four centuries.  Not just thrilling but moving as well. Love and sex will always be with us until the robots take over!

A particularly fine cast at Juilliard brought Francesco Cavalli's 1651 opera to vivid life.  It is difficult to believe that this marvelous work lay dormant until 1970.  How fortunate we are that it was discovered and revived.  It lets us in on what the mid 17th c. Venetians expected from a rather new popular art form. Cavalli was there at the birth of opera.

Impresario/librettist Giovanni Faustini had created many operas with Cavalli; this one was their penultimate production. The story was derived from Ovid's Metamorphosis and recounts the story of Jove pretending to be the goddess Diana in order to seduce the beautiful chaste Calisto. The tale is padded out with the love story between the real Diana and the shepherd Endimione. In every case, chastity falls under the weight of sexual desire. 

Let us describe a few of the vocal and dramatic treasures in the production, which was directed and choreographed by the wildly talented polymath Zack Winokur. The wily Mercurio (fine tenor Michael St. Peter) convinces Giove (authoritative baritone Xiaomeng Zhang) that persuasion is no match for deception when trying to seduce a woman. Their duet was musically gorgeous and also quite humorous. 

In the title role, the beautiful soprano Angela Vallone impressed with the grace of her movement and the beautiful tonal quality of her voice as she sang about wanting to lead a chaste life, devoted to the goddess Diana. In a clever bit of stage business, Giove transforms himself into Diana and the exceptional mezzo-soprano Samantha Hankey completely convinced us by means of vocal coloring and masculinized body movement. The two women had a tender duet before entering a cave to exchange chaste kisses (which led to much more).

When the real Diana appears her voice and gestures are very different and there is no doubt that she is the real thing. When Calisto refers to their makeout session, Diana is outraged by the inference and tosses Calisto out of the virginal sisterhood. 

Diana, on her part, is secretly in love with the shepherd Endimione who expresses his longing for her in the most exquisite aria. Countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński was the perfect choice for this role, appearing innocent and singing with the sweetest sound.

Comic relief was provided by three nymphs of the sisterhood--all portrayed by men in a delightful gender bending bit of casting. Two of the nymphs (Sean Lammer and Jacob Thoman) were borrowed from Juilliard Dance, as was Nicholas Jurica and Evan Rapaport who, with Mr. Lammer, comprised the three Furies from hell. But oh, that third nymph! We always knew that tenor Alexander McKissick had comedic talents, but here he rose to new heights as Linfea, one of the sisterhood who would very much like to give up her virginity.

In spite of her desperation, there is no way Linfea is going to settle for the importuning of Satirino (the fine mezzo-soprano Caitlin Redding, sporting goat horns and hooves).  He is a member of the clutch of satyrs, of which the leader is the god Pane, marvelously portrayed by tenor Matthew Swensen. As Silvano, one of the satyrs, bass-baritone Cody Quattlebaum turned in a fine and physical performance. One of the funniest scenes was the one in which the nymphs win a battle with the satyrs.

Act II brought on new delights as Giunone, the jealous wife of Giove, appears with her furies bearing her aloft under her huge golden skirt, in a stunning bit of stage business. Soprano Julia Wolcott gave her all to the revenge aria in which she instructs women not to put up with philandering husbands but rather to take revenge.  Her particular revenge is to transform Calisto into a bear.

The singing was so fine all around that we could not have imagined better casting. Surely it helped that Cavalli wrote such singable music. As far as the orchestra goes, it was a small chamber orchestra, such as it was in its own time. Juilliard415 is the school's principal period-instrument ensemble and they did full justice to Cavalli's writing, conducted by the renowned Stephen Stubbs. There were theorbos and lutes, guitars and violins, cello, bass, harpsichord and some percussion used for dramatic effect. The bass stood out, playing with force and providing emphasis.

The costumes by Austin Scarlett were stunning. The nymphs wore soft graceful gowns; the satyrs really did appear goatlike; Giove was regal, Giunone was imposing in her golden gown, and Mercurio had appropriate wings on his head and feet.

Scenic design by Charlap Hyman & Herrero comprised backdrops painted like woodlands with a few screens for characters to hide behind when spying on one another. Misha Kahn's golden chandelier and sconces looked just right. Marcus Doshi's lighting design was effective.

The overall result was an evening that was not only entertaining but thought-provoking. We wondered why human nature has not evolved in four centuries! We can only imagine what this opera looked like in Venice in 1650 but we can be fairly certain that the librettist put onstage dilemmas that were familiar to his audience.

Our feeling of connection with the 17th c. left us feeling very joyful;  a time and place that, while very distant, was made to seem so familiar.

(c) meche kroop

HE MADE US CRY

Daniel Fung and Matthew Swensen

If we don't get weepy when hearing Franz Schubert's masterpiece Die Schöne Müllerin, we generally feel there is something wrong with the singer. There was nothing wrong with the performance given by tenor Matthew Swensen at Juilliard yesterday.  And there was everything right about it.

We live in an epoch of "whatever"; not even a teenage "emo" boy would kill himself over a romantic disappointment.  But Wilhelm Müller's German Romantic poetry has genuine pathos; it is not manipulative like so much that we hear today that is over-sentimentalized

Müller's poetry rhymes and scans; it inspired some of Schubert's most cherished melodies. When we hear contemporary composers utilizing contemporary texts, we cannot exult.

From the very first poem we can identify with a young man filled with enthusiasm over the possibilities he will encounter on his wanderjahre. We can feel excited when he finds work and when he falls in love. We can share his exultation over winning his love object. We hurt when he is tossed aside for a more promising love object.  We feel compassion when he seeks comfort in nature, even as he plans to end his life.  We feel all this because of Schubert's prodigious gifts. But we feel it only when the singer immerses himself in the text and the music.

This was accomplished by Mr. Swenson. No emotion was left unexplored.  It was not just that each song has a different emotional tone; there are shifts within each song and changes from major to minor as the moodily sensitive narrator has new thoughts about his situation, each producing a new feeling.

We couldn't help recalling what we learned from Ms. DiDonato's master class yesterday--the part about feeling the harmonies under the vocal line and coloring it appropriately. We particularly admired, in "Am Feierabend",  the way he colored the words of the Miller and the words of the Miller's daughter.

With a performance this intense, one tends to forget all about technique; the artistry trumps everything. Still, we noticed that Mr. Swensen has an unusual instrument.  It is not that sweet tenor we hear in so many young voices--the Nemorino, the Fenton, the Tamino.  No, this is a more substantial voice with a lot of texture and overtones. Perhaps we have a Duke here, a Rodolfo, an Alfredo.

Shall we indulge in a bit of nit-picking? To take this performance from a 4 star to a 5 star, we would want Mr. Swensen to stop holding onto the piano.  In all fairness, he did not do it all that much; but it made a big difference every time he released his hold and stepped forward to the audience. And just one more thing.  On occasion, he tended to drop the final consonant.  Otherwise, his German was excellent and the vowels were accurate.  But we like the final crisp endings to a word and a sentence. We speculate that he was so involved emotionally that he forgot.

As far as Daniel Fung's collaborative piano, he played it as well as one would hope. Although they performed very well as a team, we missed the sense that the two of them were breathing together. It is a small point but we are looking for that fifth star!

(c) meche kroop

TWO TERRIFIC TENORS...AND MORE

Grace Canfield, Allison Porter, Cristobal Arias, Katelan Terrell, Cristina Stanescu, Caitlin Redding, Matthew Swensen, William Kelley, Sora Jung ,Ho Jae Lee, Nathan Raskin

It was another thrilling early evening liederabend at Juilliard and the hall was packed. Five superb singers joined with five collaborative pianists for a pleasant respite from the Xmas shopping chaos outside.  The performances were all excellent; we would expect no less.

It's possible to admire all the artists and yet to single out a couple that for one reason or another affect us more deeply.  We suspect it has something to do with the mood we are in or the choice of material. We sometimes hear an artist on another occasion and have very different feelings.  So...here goes.

We were absolutely enchanted by two tenors, which, in itself is remarkable because we get very turned off if a tenor pushes his high notes.  (We actually feel the tension in our own throat and it hurts!) What a surprise to learn that Cristobal Arias is just a sophomore in the Vocal Arts Department. He performed Beethoven's song cycle An die ferne Geliebte, and he performed it magnificently.

This cycle is Beethoven at his most melodic and the melodies have been running through our head all night. Unlike Schubert's cycles, this one does not tell a story. Rather, all the songs revolve around the central theme of longing for a distant beloved. They are best sung simply without spurious dramatic effects and this is exactly how they were performed. 

Mr. Arias has a gentle sweet tone and made liberal use of dynamic variety from the very start. In "Leichte Segler in den Höhen" he sang with marcato emphasis and in "Diese Wolken in den Höhen" he sang with a lovely lilting quality. He ended the cycle with intensity and passion. We were, as they say, "feelin' it".

The cycle was performed without breaks and his piano partner Katelan Terrell was delightful in the interludes which knit the songs together. We loved the way she captured the nature sounds and it was clear that she was enjoying herself.

The second tenor was quite different but equally impressive. Accompanied by Ho Jae Lee, he sang a trio of songs by Francis Poulenc whom we are coming to appreciate more and more. His instrument is a rich one with an interesting velvety texture and a pleasing resonance; his technique is flawless. His involvement in the material was intense and sustained right through the silences. He drew us into the text from the very beginning and by the time he got to the setting of Appolinaire's "Bleuet" we were close to tears.  That's communing with the audience!

We also heard three fine women whom we enjoyed a great deal. The glamorously gowned soprano Grace Canfield, ably accompanied by Nathan Raskin, has a bright sound that opens at the top like a parasol. She sang two selections from Liszt's Tre sonetti del Petrarca--"Pace non trovo" and "I' vidi in terra", and she sang them with intensity and urgency.

Soprano Allison Porter, accompanied by Sora Jung, introduced us to some early 20th c. French songs by Louis Beydts. The texts of the cycle Chansons pour les oiseaux were mostly nonsensical and Ms. Porter succeeded in bringing out the humor with her bubbly personality.

And finally, mezzo Caitlin Redding performed a trio of selections from Claude Debussy's settings of Cinq Poèmes de Baudelaire. They are a far cry from the no nonsense realistic depiction of longing in the Beethoven cycle; au contraire, they are filled with metaphor and imagery.  Similarly the music is radically different from Beethoven's direct illumination of a feeling but rather indirect and impressionistic. William Kelley performed well as piano partner.

The singers were coached by Cristina Stanescu who deserves to be pleased as punch.

Now wasn't that a better way to spend an hour than shopping??  You betcha'!

(c) meche kroop

 

DOUBLE BILL AT JUILLIARD OPERA

Samuel Levine and his baby factory in Les Mamelles de Tirésias--photo by Nan Melville

Cast of Der Kaiser von Atlantis--photo by Nan Melville

Neither work on Juilliard Opera's double-bill is frequently performed; both deserve to be. The program notes written by the wildly imaginative director Ted Huffman describe in detail the resonances between the two one-act operas. To us, they are both parables about war.  Francis Poulenc's wildly funny opéra bouffe, Les Mamelles de Tirésias,  was produced in 1947 but based upon a surrealistic 1917 play by Apollinaire.

Although it was written about World War I, it was perfectly suited to the post-World War II period. War tends to waste a country's resources, both capital and human; following wars there is an understandable "baby boom" as the countries involved must replace the population. As Shakespeare put it--"The world must be peopled".

The moral urging of Le Directeur who opens the show is to produce babies. In this role, baritone Theo Hoffman employed his fine baritone and considerable comedic acting skills.

In an interesting gloss on feminism, the heroine Thérèse, dissatisfied with her role as a woman, decides to become a man and takes the name Tirésias. She sacrifices her breasts, grows a beard, snatches a man's moustache, and plots to enter several male dominated professions. And this was long before gender altering surgery was performed.  How very prescient! Soprano Liv Redpath sang beautifully with a clear high soprano and generated sympathy for her character's ridiculous ambitions.

This abandonment of her wifely duties leaves her husband (Le Mari) no choice but to become a woman and make babies. Samuel Levine could not have been any better in this role, fighting off the advances of Le Gendarme who arrives on horseback. Fan Jia's baritone was perfect for this role. We have heard him sing in French before but had no idea he was a skilled comic actor.

You may be wondering how Le Mari made the babies.  Tens of thousands of them! He started what looked like a baby factory, that's how. And he decided to produce babies who would grow up to be in professions he needed. Again, a prescient idea to imagine in vitro pregnancies. And also a barbed reference to parents who try to control their offspring's life choices.

As two embattled friends arguing over gambling we heard the excellent tenor Matthew Swensen (Lacouf) and the equally excellent baritone Xiaomeng Zhang (Presto). We have no idea what these characters had to do with the story but the entire piece is surreal.

We recall seeing this opera at Juilliard about 3 years ago and we remember that it was cleverly directed and costumed--but also very different from this production. Samal Blak was responsible for the Scenic and Costume Design which was highly original. The very long credenza achieved multiple identities, even that of the baby factory from which Mr. Swenson crawled out in diapers. A large entrance area upstage contained a two-dimensional horse for Mr. Jia's arrival. Costumes were appropriate for the late 40's and were occasionally shed. It isn't often that one gets to see tenors in diapers, tenors in dresses,  baritones in boxers, and sopranos in scanties.

The libretto contained much wordplay that one might have missed if one did not speak French. Let us just say it was raunchy in spots. Director Ted Huffman did not miss a single opportunity for a sight gag and the audience shared some marvelous belly laughs.

Poulenc's music is eclectic and there was much jazz to be heard and references to other composers' works. We heard quite a bit of dance music--waltz and polka rhythms abounded. In the pit there was a lively young woman conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson, who brought out every ounce of delight in the score. In a serious moment we believe we heard presages of Dialogue des Carmélites which Poulenc would compose a decade later. The Juilliard Orchestra has no peer and performed beautifully under Ms. Wilson's baton.