WAGNER LEIT by NEW AMSTERDAM OPERA

Terina Westmeyer, Maestro Keith Chambers, Maestro Thomas Bagwell, Janara Kellerman, Hyona Kim, Megan Nielson, Kirsten Chambers, Thomas Hall, Melissa Citro, Heather Green, Tyler Smith and Errin Brooks

A late afternoon of Wagner on a cool Autumn afternoon seemed like a great idea and drew us up to Riverside Theater, the comfortable venue within Riverside Church where New Amsterdam Opera makes its home. But we can't help recalling that Wagner's own concept was that of "gesamtkunstwerk"--a work bringing together all the arts, aural and visual.

Planning a few arias in concert version gave us an opportunity to hear some new singers and to hear some others with whom we are acquainted and who are now essaying the Wagnerian repertory, with some interesting results. But we missed the staging, the costumes, the drama, and the sets. That most of the singers were on the book made attempts at acting look just plain silly. Supposed lovers rarely made eye contact!

At this point, let us give props to dramatic soprano Terina Westmeyer who sang Brunnhilde in "Wotan's Farewell" with dramatic baritone Thomas Hall as her father. The two sang without music stands for which we were grateful. We have favorably reviewed Ms. Westmeyer as Lady Billows in Britten's Albert Herring at the Bronx Opera and as La Badessa in Puccini's Suor Angelica. Three years ago we loved her singing of Verdi.

But we have not been present for her Wagner and we were delighted with the power of her voice and the tonal beauty. We see a lot of Wagner in her future and hope to hear more of it. Mr. Hall did not sound beautiful but he followed this scene with Siegfried's confrontation with Erda in which he sounded far better. Perhaps he just needed to warm up.

Erda was sung by mezzo-soprano Hyona Kim, whose dark chocolate sound was excellent for the role.  Ms. Kim first appeared on our radar screen four years ago when she won the Joy of Singing Award. Indeed, she is a superlative lieder recitalist who has been making inroads into the operatic repertory. She is such a fine actress that she dissolves into the part, as she did when she sang Suzuki in Puccini's Madama Butterfly with Martina Arroyo's Prelude to Performance and Wokli in his Fanciulla del West with New York City Opera.

We are also familiar with the work of mezzo-soprano Janara Kellerman whom we enjoyed greatly in the role of Preziosilla with New Amsterdam Opera's recent production of Verdi's Forza del Destino. Her plush sound was enjoyed and noted in the role of Mamma Lucia in Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana with Martha Cardona Opera and Santuzza with New Amsterdam Opera. It was a thrill to hear her expand her repertory into Wagnerian territory.

Soprano Megan Nielson has delighted us as Tatiana in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin with Utopia Opera and as Nedda in Opera Ithaca's production of Leoncavallo's Pagliacci. We also remember her performance as the eponymous Suor Angelica presented by Chelsea Opera. Yesterday, she showed a lot of promise in Wagnerian territory singing Elsa in a scene from Lohengrin, with Ms. Kellerman adding some interesting texture as the conniving Ortrud and Mr. Hall as fellow conniver Telramund.

Tenor Errin Brooks seems to have gotten his huge instrument under better control and did well as the rejected Erik with soprano Heather Green as Senta in a scene from Der fliegende Hollander.

New to us is tenor Tyler Smith whose sizable instrument was colored with tenderness in the "Liebesnacht" from Tristan und Isolde with the beautiful soprano Kristin Chambers as his scene partner. We liked the way he modulated, successfully employing dynamic variety.  We have enjoyed Ms. Chambers more in other roles such as Fidelio. Ms. Kellerman lent gravity to the situation as Brangäne.

Mr. Smith appeared once again in the final scene of the program in which he has awakened the sleeping Brünnhilde, sung by soprano Melissa Citro.

We found no fault with the German. Alles klar!

Accompanists for the evening were beyond superb. Both Maestri Keith Chambers and Thomas Bagwell elicited most of Wagner's orchestral magic on the piano. Often, when the singers fail to connect with us (usually due to flipping pages on the music stand) our attention shifted to the piano and we heard things in the score that we might have missed.

A highlight of the evening was the presentation of New Amsterdam Opera's first Pathfinder Award to Maestra Eve Queler who broke the glass ceiling for female conductors. Ms. Queler is a girl after our own heart, and we are calling her a girl because she has never lost that youthful quality that we so admire.

We have so many memories of hiking up to the highest level of Carnegie Hall, where the sound is best, to be introduced to rarely performed and forgotten operas and new singers--right up until last year's production of Donizetti's Parisina d'Este. Ms. Queler founded Opera Orchestra of New York in 1971 when there were no female conductors. Brava Eve!

She has plenty of European fame that we haven't experienced but we tend to personalize things and the above describes our Eve Queler. Just one more note of interest is that she has shared all of her scores with New Amsterdam Opera. Dare we hope that we will hear repeats of these rarely produced operas?  Let us hope!

(c) meche kroop

FALSE DIMITRIJ/TRUE DIMITRIJ

It is the Time of Troubles in Russia--the interregnum between the death of Ivan the Terrible and the establishment of the Romanov Dynasty--at the turn of the 17th c.  One would never know this from the staging of Dvorak's nearly forgotten opera Dimitrij, taking place in the magnificent Fisher Center of Bard College, as part of the annual Bard Summerscape.

The singers sport contemporary attire and the only clue that we are in Russia is the writing on the rear wall of the set which, according to our best source, means "Victory Begins Here". But Director Anne Bogart (significantly, an alumna of Bard College) has written in her program notes that she was thinking of the unsettled time following the dismantling of the Berlin Wall. We would have greatly preferred to experience this story the way Dvorak and librettist Marie Cervinkova-Riegrova intended and to figure out the resonances on our own without being spoon fed.  Frankly, art requires no explanation.  If one needs program notes to explain your thinking, you have failed.

Fortunately, the musical values were exemplary and there was no failure on the part of the American Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Leon Botstein, who is famous for championing forgotten works.

To see one of Dvorak's ten operas, composed two decades before his famous Rusalka, was a rare opportunity, well worth the six plus hours on a bus. We were not so sure during the overture when the gorgeous music was not trusted but was accompanied by a child running around in circles.  Nor were we terribly thrilled during the static first act which did offer some superb choral writing and served to introduce the characters and their supporters.

Dimitrij arrives with his Polish wife, the noblewoman Marina, and an occupying Polish army intent on getting him on the Russian throne. On the other side we have the boyar Shuisky and Basmanov, followers of Boris Godunov, the death of whom has left the country in a state of chaos. Godunov's daughter Xenia is under the protection of Shuisky. For Dimitrij to access the throne he must be accepted by the widow of Ivan the Terrible, the Tsarina Marfa.

It was not until the successive acts that we were able to appreciate the gifts of the singers. We were thrilled to hear some fine arias and duets that were well worth a second hearing.

 As the eponymous Dimitrij, tenor Clay Hilley demonstrated a strong and clear tenor sound which appeared to be well suited to the heldentenor fach. His dramatic chops were equally sound and he generated sympathy for the character who, according to this version (playing fast and loose with history as opera often does) is unaware that he is not the son of Ivan the Terrible.  Indeed, in this version, he is the son of a peasant who has been raised to believe he is who he claims to be.  This makes it easy for us to sympathize with him.

Soprano Melissa Citro made a beautiful and hateful Marina. Her ample soprano has a steel core and her acting was convincing.  She is sufficiently beautiful to convince us that she would capture Dimitrij's love whilst her portrayal of self-interest, arrogance, and jealous rage were so believable that we were happy to see her dispatched. She behaved in such a way as to alienate the Russian people by refusing to accept the Orthodox faith in favor of her native Catholicism. We hope to see this splendid soprano soon in one of her several Ring Cycles.

As Xenia, soprano Olga Tolkmit used her somewhat smaller but highly focused instrument to convey the ambivalence her character must feel when wooed by the new tsar, who has just turned away from his narcissistic wife. Her petite stature and vocal colors contributed to her vulnerability; her death, ordered by the vengeful Marina, was a terribly tragic moment.

Mezzo-soprano Nora Sourouzian made a marvelous Marfa. Her voice is rich and dense with coloration and she totally convinced us of her inner struggle. She knows that Dimitrij is not her son but she believes his ascension to the throne will be good for Russia and publicly recognizes him as her offspring.  It is only at the end when the Patriarch (played by Peixin Chen with booming bass and imposing stature) asks her to swear on the cross that she collapses in fear of damnation.

We were completely satisfied as well with the performances of baritone Levi Hernandez as Shuisky and bass-baritone Joseph Barron as Basmanov. Under the direction of James Bagwell, the chorus was also fine. We could not have imagined better casting or a better realization of Dvorak's magnificent score. We believe this is the first time the opera has been performed fully staged in the United States.

We only wish the production team had given it a more Russian look and one that was authentic to the period. David Zinn's set was peculiar, looking like a recreation hall in a church. It had to serve as the gates of Moscow, the Kremlin, the tombs, Shuisky's house, and Dimitrij's lodging. The lackluster setting was helped by Brian H. Scott's evocative lighting.

As far as Constance Hoffman's costume design, if she had been told to create costumes of contemporary casual she succeeded, but it appeared as if the cast were told to rummage through their closet for any old thing.  No praise there!

The men just wore suits and ties, making it difficult to tell one from the other without opera glasses.  Only the Patriarch was appropriately costumed, looking just as one might have imagined. Marina's wedding costume went beyond casual contemporary but was neither flattering nor appropriate.

We were grateful that the opera was performed in Czech and loved the way the vocal lines parallelled the sound of the speech. Language coach was Veronique Firkusny. There will be a few additional performances and the opportunity to hear this opera is worth the trip.

We will close with an interesting tidbit reminiscent of the "flap of a butterfly's wing" theory.  The terrible famine in Russia in the early 17th c. which added so greatly to the country's turmoil, was attributed to a climate change wrought by the eruption of a volcano in Peru!

(c) meche kroop