TAKE THIS GIRL TO BROOKLYN!

Dan Saunders, Nathan Gunn, Ying Fang, and Aaron Blake

The stars came out in the sky overhead just as the opera stars finished their concert at Brooklyn Bridge Park. We cannot say which shone more brightly. The concert is part of The Metropolitan Opera Summer Recital Series. Unwilling to spend hours waiting in line to attend the recital in Central Park we made the trek to Brooklyn where cheerful opera goers with amazingly quiet children gathered to share an experience that could only win more converts to opera.

It would be impossible to listen to these three superstars, accompanied by Dan Saunders at the piano, and not become a convert. Each one brought something unique and special to this program comprising predominantly famous arias and duets of the canon, with some American musical theater added at the end.

Soprano Ying Fang dazzled us the first time we heard her and she has grown in artistry since then. Ms. Fang has it all--a sparkling coloratura of remarkable flexibility, and a gracious stage presence that can only add to her physical beauty. At the opera, one is not supposed to care about appearances but between us, dear reader, eye candy is always a plus. A tasteful and flattering gown completed the picture.

We witnessed great emotional variety from this stunning artist who seems to lose herself in whatever character she portrays. Whether it be the perky Pamina sharing a moment with Papageno (Nathan Gunn, whom we will get to later), Zerlina responding to an importuning Don Giovanni (Mr. Gunn again), the lovely Lauretta begging her father to enable her marriage, the seductive Alcina (although "Tornami a vagheggiar" is sometimes sung by Alcina's sister Morgana), the aristocratic Adina, the pleading Servilia, the wistful Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, or the love besotted Maria from West Side Story--all these characters she portrayed would be immediately identifiable. What astonishing versatility!

It would be impossible to choose our favorite but we must make note of her vocal artistry in the Händel; the fioritura was perfect and the ritornello after the plaintive B section was incredibly exciting. We would also like to mention the Chinese song she chose as an encore, translated as "The Bridge". Not only was the vocal line marvelously melodic but the piano accompaniment was rich in texture. What an appropriate choice since we were in full view of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge!

Baritone Nathan Gunn is a regular at The Metropolitan Opera but we are quite sure we first heard him many years ago singing a Schubert song cycle accompanied by his wife Julie. He brings to the stage an authoritative presence and a mellow voice that seems able to make the most of whatever role he assumes. He too slips readily into a variety of characters. We enjoyed his winning Papageno, his seductive Don Giovanni, the yearning Zurga, the irrepressible Figaro, the reminiscing Pierrot, the fantasizing Billy Bigelow, the loyal Lancelot, and the excited Tony.  

Each one received full vocal and dramatic value. Perhaps our favorite was Billy's soliloquy from Carousel in which Mr. Gunn's voice, gesture, and face altered with each new emotion and each new idea.

Tenor Aaron Blake made a fine addition to the program, filling in for an ailing Ben Bliss. What we liked best about Mr. Blake was that his immersion in each character was so intense that we felt we were seeing everything through the eyes of each one. As Nadir, in his duet with Mr. Gunn, we could see the crowd of worshipers and the beautiful but inaccessible Leïla. As the tormented Lensky, we felt his anguish. In the famous "Dein ist mein ganzes herz", the passion could be cut with a knife. We don't think we have ever seen a better Nemorino as he swigged from a bottle and did a crazy jig around the stage. Don Ottavio's challenging "Dalla sua pace" was marked by some fine embellishments in the repeat when he filled in the notes of the scale. His encore "O Sole Mio" was filled with garlic.

The only thing that we would like to see Mr. Blake accomplish would be floating the high notes, since he tends to push the volume in the upper register. We noted Mr. Gunn's floated high notes in Pierrot's "Tanzlied" from Korngold's Die Tote Stadt and loved the ethereal quality, much as we loved the pingy sound of Ms. Fang's upper register. 

It was a glorious night and well worth the trek to Brooklyn!

(c) meche kroop

ON COLD MOUNTAIN

Isabel Leonard and Nathan Gunn in Cold Mountain at Santa Fe Opera (photo by Ken Howard for SFO)

You read Charles Frazier's best-selling novel.  You saw the movie with Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, and Renee Zellweger. Do you want to see the opera premiering this season at the Santa Fe Opera?  Yes, you do! You want to hear mezzo-sopranos Isabel Leonard and Emily Fons create the roles of Ada Monroe and Ruby Thewes, two characters who bond in sisterhood and change each other's lives for the better.  You want to hear baritone Nathan Gunn as the war-weary defector W.P. Inman and you want to hear tenor Jay Hunter Morris as the slimy villain Teague. They were as excellent dramatically as they were vocally.

Will you want to see this opera a second time?  Probably not.  And why is that?  Like so many contemporary operas in English, the language itself has not inspired award-winning composer Jennifer Higdon to write any memorable vocal lines, indeed, not any melody whatsoever.  And what is opera without melody?  A play with music is what it is. We were reminded of the soundtrack of a film. We have only good things to say about Ms. Higdon's instrumental writing which is highly textured and interesting.  Even in its dissonant passages illuminating battles, it is accessible.  But the vocal lines are strictly conversational and without lyricism. They might as well have been spoken.

We sensed a number of missed opportunities. When Pangle and Storbrod appeared onstage with a banjo, we became all excited, hoping that Ms. Higdon would have chosen an unorthodox path by including a banjo in the orchestra and by employing some folk tunes indigenous to that part of the South. No such luck! And when apprentice soprano Chelsea Basler (in an excellent performance as Sarah) sang to her baby, her vocal line did not even begin to suggest a lullabye, although we heard some lovely sounds coming from the harp. When the group of men-starved young women (beautifully sung and acted by apprentices Heather Phillips, Shabnam Kalbasi, Megan Marino, and Bridgette Gan) try to seduce Inman and Veasy (Roger Honeywell), we longed for more seductive music.  We were thinking of the Rhinemaidens!

Miguel Harth-Bedoya's conducting cannot be faulted and the orchestra sounded crisp and clear. The chorus sang magnificently, as usual, under the direction of Susanne Sheston. We particularly enjoyed the chorus of dead soldiers at the end which was quite moving.

Dramatically, everything worked. Leonard Foglia's effective direction had us experiencing Ada and Ruby's hardship on the home front in alternation with Inman's frightening and tortuous efforts to evade the Home Guard and come home to the waiting Ada. Librettist Gene Scheer wrote some fine texts that added to the drama and hewed closely to the spirit of the novel.

The scenic design by Robert Brill was a chaotic jumble of wooden planks, appearing somewhat dangerous for the artists, but fortunately there were no mishaps.  The set  worked best when some planks were repurposed as a boat in which Inman is crossing a river, a boat which sank. David C. Woolard's costumes were superb, giving us a good picture of the stylish but helpless Charleston lady that Ada had been and the capable farm woman she became under Ruby's tutelage and exhortation.

As a matter of fact, the relationship between the two women was more interestingly portrayed than Ada's relationship with Inman. For the latter, there is only a brief scene of their meeting and then their final ill-fated reunion for which we yearned to hear a more lyrical and tender duet. (This parallels the construction of the novel, of course.) Still we were intrigued by the idea that two very different women could form such a loving and worthwhile bond.  Ada teaches Ruby to read and to appreciate some of the finer things in life while Ruby teaches Ada to be independent and strong.

As Ruby's father Storbrod, bass Kevin Burdette turned in his usual fine performance.  Tenor Jay Hunter Morris not only sang magnificently as Teague, but created a character of menace who chilled us to the bone.

The Civil War was indeed a disgraceful event in our nation's history and, after a century and a half has passed, we observe that the wounds have still not healed.  That makes the topic eminently suitable for a great American opera. Our dismay over the evils of war will always be relevant to contemporary times.  The topic of damaged lives strikes very close to home as we deal with veterans of wars in the Middle East. So this is a valid subject for operatic treatment.  We only wish that the music had reflected our musical history as well.

(c) meche kroop