HAVING A BALL

Chorus of Amore Opera's Un Ballo in Maschera 

Not that it has much to do with Verdi's 1859 masterpiece, but the life of the 18th c. King Gustav III of Sweden is fascinating. Not too many people know that he was an enlightened ruler who championed the arts in Sweden and also made his nation the first to recognize The United States. Whether he was a member of the LGBTQ community (as was rumored) is however of no interested to us.

French writer Eugène Scribe wrote a libretto about him in 1833 for an opera by Daniel Auber; it was called Gustave III; 10 years later Saverio Mercadante wrote another entitled Il Reggente. Giuseppe Verdi used Antonio Somma as his librettist to tell the tale and Somma, as was customary in those days, adapted Scribe's libretto. As one might expect, liberties were taken to make the historical account more stage worthy and to provide a romantic interest.

Verdi's opera had a difficult birth. The topic of regicide was considered too fraught and the censors rejected it. After a lengthy legal battle, the story was transported across the Atlantic Ocean to Boston with Gustav replaced by the Governor of Boston called Riccardo. The names of all the characters were changed as well.

In last night's gripping performance by Amore Opera, the work took place in Sweden with the names of the characters retained from the "Boston" version. The performance was completely satisfying for a devotée such ourself, and also compelling for the "noobie" we brought with us. Anytime we win a convert to opera we feel like celebrating. Several rows of the jam packed Riverside Theater were occupied by high school students who seemed similarly captivated.

What made the performance so special can be attributed to Nathan Hull's finely detailed direction and a a triumph of casting. Verdi asks a lot of his singers and these artists rose to the occasion, giving 100%.

As the conflicted King we heard fast-rising tenor José Heredia whose thrilling artistry revealed both vocally and dramatically the dilemma he faced. Here is a ruler who is light-heartedly basking in the adoration of most of his subjects and in denial about the threat posed by some unhappy ones. He is lusting for the wife of his loyal secretary, here called Renato. From his first aria "La rivedrà nell'estasi" we were captivated. The barcarolle he sang whilst pretending to be a fisherman "Di' tu se fedele" truly rocked our boat.

The object of his passion is here called Amelia and the intensity of Aida Carducci's performance matched that of Mr. Heredia. Her lengthy scene at the gallows gave her the opportunity to color her generous voice from terror all the way to a confession of love in response to the King's pleading. Still, it was in the scene in which her husband vents his rage and threatens her life that we witnessed the full range of her vocal power. We were quite moved when she begged to have a last embrace from her child in "Morrò, ma prima in grazia".

The King's secretary and best friend (here called Renato) was performed by the always excellent baritone Robert Garner, who seems to be getting better and better. His rage at his faithless wife was chilling. We were impressed by the change in voice and body when his affection for the King changed to the vengefulness of a betrayed husband.

As the page Oscar, soprano Allegra Durante played an important role throughout and we noticed her fine acting right from the first scene. Her voice was just right for the part and her teasing "Saper vorreste" was in the spirit of French opéra comique, providing just the right setup for the tragedy to follow.

Furthermore we were wowed by Sarah Knott's performance as the witch Ulrica. The mood in that scene was abetted by Lighting Designer Duane Pagano's lighting artistry playing upon Richard Cerullo's set design, not to mention Verdi's sinister music. Her "Re dell'abisso, affrettati" was powerful enough to summon any demon and the final "Silencio" took her to the bottom of her range without difficulty and made us shudder.

The two co-conspirators Samuel and Tom were played by bass Nicholas Hay and baritone Charles Gray with the appropriate degree of nastiness and the sailor who asked Ulrica to tell his fortune was played by baritone Muir Ingliss.

The always excellent chorus was directed by Susan Morton. The orchestra was conducted by Maestro Douglas Martin and we particularly enjoyed the English Horn which accompanied Ms. Carducci's scene at the gallows. The harp made welcome additions to the aural tapestry from time to time--especially during the duet at the gallows; it seduced our ears just as the King seduces Amelia into confessing her love. The percussion was stirring and effective.

There were so many moments of aural bliss too numerous to mention but one stood out; it was the trio at the end of Scene 2 in which the overtones of each voice built on the others and filled the theater with magic.

We love Verdi and we don't get enough of him. It is difficult to find voices hefty enough to sail through the orchestra and also beautiful; we are glad that Mr. Hull was able to find them. 

There will be two more performances--one tonight and another Sunday afternoon. If you too love Verdi, get yourself up to Riverside Theater!

(c) meche kroop

CHRISTMAN OPERA COMPANY'S DOUBLE HEADER

Rachel Barg, Sooyeon Kang, Theodore Christman, Madison Marie McIntosh, Jennifer Allenby, Alyssa Brode, and Nobuki Momma

Theodore Christman has been on our radar screen for two and a half years,  since Madison Marie McIntosh performed a song cycle he wrote and accompanied at the piano. Mr. Christman writes music that is accessible and tuneful; it is anything but academic. We were very enthusiastic.

We have since heard a couple of short operas he composed which he customarily pairs with a well known opera by a "dead white male". Yesterday, at the National Opera Center, we heard two of his one-act operas--a reiteration of Adriana McMannes and a new opera entitled A Metamorphosis.

The first is is an Upstairs/Downstairs tale in which a widower falls in love with his daughter's governess. The obstacle to their marriage is the widower's mother-in-law who spreads ugly gossip about the governess' mental stability. Fortunately she is made to retract her words and the tale has a happy conclusion.

A new director, Mark Watson, has changed the tone of the work and pushed it in the direction of over-the-top comedic melodrama, with exaggerated gestures. Marvelous mezzo-soprano Madison Marie McIntosh gamely gave the director what he asked for with no sacrifice of her prodigious vocal skills. She was particularly excellent with the coloratura work in the second act, in which she batted her eyelashes in time with the trill. Her love duets with the miscast tenor Kevin Courtemanche produced some lovely harmonies.

Reprising her role as Mrs. Fowler was Sarah Knott, a very different sort of mezzo-soprano who relished her role as the mother-in-law from hell. Soprano Eugenia Forteza made a fine showing as the disagreeable Mrs. Tonti who employed Adriana.

The flaw in the work was Anna  Winslow's libretto. The story seems to belong to a different epoch, one in which the rumor of mental illness might lead to ostracism and when a woman making an overture toward a man would be shocking. We couldn't help thinking of Britten's comedy Albert Herring, the libretto of which is also "old fashioned" but consistent, whereas this libretto is uneven in tone. Furthermore, many of the words seemed tortured into submission in order to fit the vocal line, especially in the recitativi.  Mr. Christman's music deserves better!

The second work on the program, A Metamorphosis, also seemed burdened by an anachronistic and awkward libretto. A woman named Arinyae (mezzo-soprano Rachel Barg) runs a theater named Shadowland as a sort of commune, providing food and shelter to homeless teens, in exchange for their services as actors and artists. 

The framing device was a lonely old woman named Juniper who is reflecting back on her youth as a part of this group. In this role, Ms. McIntosh used bodily gesture as well as vocal color to portray both the elderly woman and the teenager she recalls. Her singing was exceptional.

But the story is muddled with an unnecessary sub-plot about the members of the group dealing drugs by delivering paintings to Buzzman, the owner of a lamp store played by Mr. Courtemanche, who was more believable in this role than he was as a romantically inclined widower.

One of the members of the group named Peter (sung by the fine baritone Nobuki Momma) falls in love with the daughter of an insect-obsessed drug addict client (bass baritone Sean Kroll); her name is Clover (bright voiced soprano Alyssa Brode) and she joins the theater commune as well, to the dismay of Juniper who also loves Peter.  

There is also an overdose by Soka (soprano Jennifer Allenby) and Ariyae's death with the theme of soul possession. Does this sound like too many threads for a one-act opera?  It did to us! A retrospective view of the 60's is a great idea but this tale did not succeed.

The piano score was played to perfection by Music Director Marijo Newman. We do not know whether Mr. Christman has orchestrated the works but that would surely be something to look forward to. We would like to see his music get the libretto it deserves. 

We acknowledge that the libretti we heard yesterday did rhyme and scan, which is admirable, but they were clunky and often unsingable. We think a one-act opera should focus on a simple story and be told clearly. English is spoken in short phrases that are "punchy"; it is difficult to be lyrical in English. Broadway lyricists seem to have mastered the art. So should opera lyricists!

(c) meche kroop

A NEWBORN ARRIVES!

Madison Marie McIntosh as the dying Dido and Constance Rogalski as Belinda in Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas

It is indeed a privilege to be present for a birth and we were honored to be among the guests witnessing the birth of a new opera company--the Christman Opera Company. Although no mission statement was present in the program, we gather that the mission is for fledgling opera composer Theodore Christman to present his work to the public while balancing the program with a long-established piece.

Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas has been kicking around since the 1680's, which certainly qualifies it as long-established. We are not sure why so many small companies have presented it in the past year (Heartbeat Opera and Utopia Opera, among others); it is neither the anniversary of Purcell's death nor birth. Since we have already written a great deal about the opera's history, we leave it to you readers to use the search bar so that we may focus on the performances.

The musical values were successful all around with singers chosen for their fine vocal artistry, accompanied by Musical Director Lochlan Brown conducting a fine string quartet from the piano. Mr. Brown was responsible for the excellent reduction of the score.

As the unfortunate Dido, Queen of Carthage, Madison Marie McIntosh could be heard expanding her wide range from the stratospheric coloratura reaches down to a richly textured and strong lower register. The final "When I Am Laid in Earth" was heartbreaking.

As her handmaiden Belinda, Constance Rogalski exhibited an attractive crystalline soprano but failed to make the text clear. This task is nearly impossible with that high tessitura and we longed for surtitles to maximize comprehension. Beier Zhao nicely complemented Ms. Rogalski as another handmaiden.

A riveting performance as the Sorceress was delivered by Eowyn Driscoll whose richly resonant voice filled out the text beautifully. Her two accomplices, Raquel Nobile and Sarah Knott completed the trio of tricksters and we could not keep from thinking of Shakespeare's "weird sisters" as they plot to bring Dido down. We observed that somehow Ms. Nobile's diction made the text rather clear, in spite of the high range, especially when she doubled as the faux-Mercury, leading Aeneas astray. What a terrific trio!

John Ramseyer sang the role of Aeneas and sang it well.  All that was needed to make it a fine performance was a measure of dramatic investment, especially in his interaction with the woman he is wooing and abandoning.

A fine performance was given by Thomas Massey who sang the notoriously humorous "Sailor's Song". He exhibited not only fine vocal skills but a lot of personality.

The chorus contributed a great deal and comprised Shawn Palmer, Clayton G. Williams, and Hajeong Lee, as well as whomever was not singing front and center.

The second half of the program introduced us to Mr. Christman's new opera Adriana McMannes, with libretto written by Anna Winslow (who also was director for the entire evening). We have complained a great deal about contemporary opera being devoid of melody and not being entertaining. We had no such complaints last night.

Mr. Christman's writing offered tuneful vocal lines suggestive of mid-20th c. popular music--much in the same way that Johannes Brahms incorporated folk tunes into his serious music.  This is anything but "academic" music and totally accessible, a point noted by our operatic-newbie companion who enjoyed it enormously.

The story is an Upstairs/Downstairs tale in which a widower falls in love with his daughter's governess. The obstacle to their marriage is the widower's mother-in-law who spreads ugly gossip about the governess' mental stability. Fortunately she is made to retract her words and the tale has a happy conclusion.

Ms. McIntosh demonstrated her versatility in the role of Adriana with Mr. Ramseyer as her intended. His Broadway style in this role did not mesh perfectly with her operatic vibrato. 

We were delighted to have another opportunity to see more of Ms. Knott who did a marvelous interpretation of the bibulous mother-in-law from hell. And likewise, seeing Ms. Nobile as Adriana's imperious boss was another treat as she delivered some very funny lines. This was also a great scene for Ms. McIntosh who came across as a modern day Cinderella.

Mr. Brown accompanied on the piano. We know of no plans to orchestrate the score but it was fine just as it was performed. We will eagerly await his next offering!

(c) meche kroop