HYDROGEN JUKEBOX

William Remmers and Cast of Utopia Opera's production of Hydrogen Jukebox

There are a few people on Planet Opera whose artistic judgment is so superior that we will follow them anywhere-- and that sometimes leads to terra incognita, which was the case last night at the fine intimate Lang Recital Hall of Hunter College when Maestro William Remmers conducted Hydrogen Jukebox from the keyboard.

What was this musical "entertainment" that wandered so very far outside of our conception of opera? This collaboration between "beat poet" Allen Ginsberg and minimalist composer Philip Glass could be considered an oratorio, or a song cycle; but does it matter? It held out attention for two hours and roused the sizable audience to an enthusiastic standing ovation.

Credit for the success must be shared with Stage Director Gary Slavin who turned abstract poetry into theater. Along with Maestro Remmers, supertitles were designed artistically, appearing and dropping off the screen, sometimes in phrases and at other times word by word.

Ginsberg and Glass met by chance in 1988 and collaborated so successfully that they undertook this work, which premiered at the Spoleto Festival (the one in Charleston, South Carolina) two years later. The work has been produced a number of times, most recently at Tri-Cities Opera and at Chatauqua.

The text included poems from Ginsberg's oeuvre written over several decades from the 50's through the 80's. Much of it is socio-political, dealing with anti-war sentiment, environmental despair, and the sexual revolution.  Some of it is of a more personal nature, exploring the poet's drug use and interest in Buddhist philosophy.  Most of it paints a verbal portrait of a dystopian world, one in which our leaders seem not to care and our media bury important news beneath superficial stories of so-called celebrities.  Hmmmm.  Does this sound resonant? prescient?

The able cast comprised sopranos K.C. Peck and La Toya Lewis, mezzo-soprano Kristin Behrmann, tenor Matt Hughes, and baritones Nathaniel Sullivan and Jeff Goble. Everyone sang finely with commitment and acted with ensemble spirit but we were glad to have the surtitles since English (in our opinion) does not "sing well". We wished that the spoken text had also been awarded titles.

We found ourselves more fascinated by Glass' music than by Ginsberg's text. The repetition of the interval of a minor third is haunting and the instrumentation is novel to our ears. We do recall liking Glass' music long ago as the soundtrack to the Qatsi Trilogy, films that shared Ginsberg's dystopian view of the world.

The scoring involved two keyboards, played by Maestro Remmers and Brian Victor. There were two players of wind instruments and we spotted saxophones of all registers and a flute; there was a stunning solo on the baritone saxophone.

Most remarkable was the percussion which provided infinite textures for which Tyler Mashek and Shelby McKay-Blezinger were responsible. We particularly enjoyed their work in "Numbers in Red Notebook; To Aunt Rose" which dazzled us rhythmically.

There were two other musical moments that stood out for us. One was when Ms. Lewis performed an "aria" based on the poem "Cabin in the Rockies" and the other was when Maestro Remmers left the keyboard and moved to the onstage piano for the bluesy hymn-like "Wichita Vortex Sutra".

If we have succeeded in intriguing you, there will be two performances today, both matinee and evening.

It has been said that artists hold a mirror up to show us who we are; it seems we are not a pretty sight! But we are left wondering why so much of 19th c. music is so pleasing to the ear! We are sure there were wars and industrial revolutions and disease and upheavals.  If anyone can answer this in the comment section below, we will be grateful for your insights.

We think of Utopia Opera as The Little Engine that Could. There is nothing one can throw at Maestro Remmers that he can't catch and run with. His audience votes for what they want him to produce for the following season.

This is Utopia Opera's 7th season and we are particularly looking forward to Flotow's Martha and Sondheim's Passion.  Fans have voted for Thea Musgrave's Harriet, the Woman Called Moses, which will require a larger theater with an orchestra pit.  Go for it William!

(c) meche kroop

NEW YORK THEATER BALLET

Amanda Treiber and Steven Melendez (Photo by Yi Chun-Wu)

We are suckers for beauty whether it be aural or visual.  We always go for the "up close and personal" approach, as opposed to sitting in a huge theater far away from the action. Intimacy is what appeals to us.  And so it was that we found many delights in last night's performance by the estimable and long-enduring New York Theatre Ballet, founded by Artistic Director Diana Byer. They performed for the second year at New York Live Arts, a marvelous performing space in Chelsea. Seating is comfortable and sightlines are unobstructed. All the music was live!

The first half of the program thrilled us.  The curtain raiser Chemical Bond, choreographed by Milissa Payne Bradley of San Francisco, was set to music by Gabriel Fauré (Sérénade op. 98, Après un Rêve) performed beautifully by Michael Scales on piano and Amy Kang on cello. Ballerinas Amanda Treiber and Mayu Oguri were partnered by Joshua Andino-Nieto.

It is amazing how the limited vocabulary of positions and steps of classical ballet can be combined in countless ways. There was nothing radical in Ms. Bradley's choreography but it struck us as beautiful and satisfying. That we didn't want the piece to end testifies to its worth.

Ms. Treiber and Ms. Oguri projected an air of delicate femininity while Mr. Andino-Nieto danced and partnered with sureness and strength. Costume design by Sylvia Taalson Nolan was superb. The women's costumes were pale and short, the better to allow full appreciation of their extensions. Floaty patches fluttered as they moved and delighted the eye. Pointe work was lovely.

The second work, Such Longing was choreographed by Richard Alston and restaged by Martin Lawrence. One could not choose a better composer for ballet than Frédéric Chopin and Mr. Scales played the Mazurkas, Etudes and lone Nocturne  with style and variety. The choreography reflected so much about Chopin's nationalistic pride, touched by modesty and sorrowful moments.

The four dancers--Steven Melendez, Amanda Treiber, Michael Wells, and Elena Zahlmann--danced in various combinations, portraying Chopin's many moods just as Mr. Scales colored his piano playing. The lifts were particularly lovely. The costumes were in somber hue and the women's dresses longer than we would have wished. We like legs!

Jerome Robbins' Antique Epigraphs, as staged by Kyra Nichols, was set to two lovely Debussy pieces: Mira Magrill's flute gave voice to Syrinx at the beginning and the end while Michael Scales and Zheng Ma performed the four-handed Six Epigraphes Antiques.  Now how lovely was that!

The piece has achieved legendary status but appeared rather dated with Florence Klotz' floor-length costumes a bit shopworn and ill-fitting but in lovely muted hues. We could not keep from thinking about "Ode to a Grecian Urn", and there was one group scene that made us think of Ravels "Song of the Mastic Gatherers" from his Five Popular Greek Melodies.

The second half of the program left us in the dust. We have been avoiding modern dance for some time now because of the herky-jerky movements that we find just plain ugly. We don't like to see dancers in street clothes rolling around on the floor or running around the stage making meaningless gestures.  We are reminded of exercise classes at health clubs.

To see classically trained dancers in such a work displeases us.  We cannot say that Song Before Spring is bad, only that it is not at all our taste.  Zhong-Jing Fang and Steven Melendez choreographed the work which was set to music by Philip Glass and performed by NY STEEL-- a dozen enthusiastic percussionists playing steel drums, led by Josh Quillen. 

We did not grasp what the choreography was aiming for nor did we understand the interactions between the cast members. Occasionally there was a tender gesture but for the most part we saw a lot of meaningless gestures.

We prefer to forget all about it and joyfully remember the beauty of the first half of the program.  We are just so happy that chamber ballet exists at all!

(c) meche kroop