WALL STREET GREED! POLITICAL CORRUPTION! RACISM!

Cast of Bonfire of the Vanities....(Photo credit- Lucas Syed)

Let us begin by saying that we had a helluva good time at Bonfire of the Vanities, a contemporary opera based on Tom Wolfe's 1987 page-turner about Wall Street dishonesty and greed, political opportunism and corruption, and the prevalent racism. Has anything changed in 3 decades? The fact that very little about the story needed to be changed seems to answer the question.

Readers may be astonished that we found so much to like in a contemporary opera sung in English. We don't even need all the fingers of one hand to enumerate the contemporary operas that we enjoyed.  Mostly, we are sitting there gritting our teeth and wishing to escape. So let's take a closer look at the grounds for success. 

First and foremost is Stefania De Kenessey's eclectic music. There is not a whiff of academia about it; it is clearly written to appeal to contemporary musical tastes of the public, not to critics; it is totally accessible and melodic.  One can't help recalling that the titans of the golden age of opera wrote for the PEOPLE and addressed contemporary concerns, whether they were obliged to disguise the theme or not.

The 18-piece chamber orchestra played well under the baton of the excellent Daniela Candillari who successfully captured the mood of the scene, whether serious or funny. There is nothing inherently funny about the themes of the opera but there is usefulness in humor. Art holds a mirror up to society and it is easier to accept what we see when we are able to laugh at ourselves.

So, leavened with some funny lines and absurd situations we are able to laugh at greedy hucksters designing bond issues in which people borrow from themselves (we can't claim to have understood the finance logic), mothers singing lullabies to their children on their iPad's while shopping for luxury goods, rich white folk fawning over and throwing money at black hucksters pleading the cause of philanthropy, furious landlords recording tenants who are abusing rent control, frustrated lawyers looking for guilty white folks to skewer, and alcoholic reporters ready to distort the truth to succeed in tabloid journalism.

Indeed, in the entire story, there is only one honorable character--the one who cannot be found in Mr. Wolfe's book--Tamara Kilmore, an Afro-American attorney who defends the hero Sherman McCoy because SHE BELIEVES HE IS INNOCENT. As sung by the terrific Adrienne Danrich, she is the one character who steps out of our preconceived notions and acts like a fully realized human being.

Randal Turner does an excellent job of portraying the (anti)hero and even evokes sympathy for a man who must lose everything to find his soul. Like so many wealthy people he is unable to really see those outside of his race and class. He has never developed empathy. He just wants to be Master of the Universe. How ironic that he lives on credit and has no money! People who work and save are, in his eyes, objects of contempt.

As his wife Judy, Ann-Carolyn Bird is believable. Will she or won't she stand by her douchebag of a cheating husband??

We particularly enjoyed the characterization of Arthur Ruskin. Benjamin Bloomfield did a superlative job and we were sorry that he was killed off in the first act. In the book he lasted longer, but that was just one of a few alterations of the plot made when the book was adapted as an opera.

As his floozy wife Maria who had sex with anyone and everyone who could serve her interest, we heard Ying Jie Zhou, who was pretty and sexy but whose voice was a bit on the weak side and whose acting was riddled with cliché. The role might have been better cast.

As the cynical Assistant District Attorney who wants to advance his career by nailing a guilty white male, Glenn Seven Allen turned in a superlative performance. We loved his duet with Ms. Danrich. Another excellent characterization was that of Kyle Van Schoonhoven as the alcoholic tabloid journalist Peter Fallow. 

As the hospitalized youth Henry Lamb (sacrificial lamb?) whose injury sparked the racial conflagration, Aaron J. Casey gave a fine performance.  We liked him best in his soliloquy which became a moving ensemble piece.

Kevin Maynor's Reverend Bacon, a characterization that was probably meant to represent Al Sharpton., had no problem bilking the Rich White Folk or the two pastors (Matthew Tuell and Brett Mutter) who gave him money to establish a day care center for Poor Black Kids. He was masterful at pushing the racial guilt buttons. 

Matthew Tuell reappeared heavily disguised as the landlord Kovitzky who garnered a lot of laughs.

What about the libretto? Michael Bergmann, who also directed, wrote short punchy lines that did well in terms of colloquiality and in terms of working with the music. We have observed that ponderous texts in the English language yield incomprehensible music but in this case the short rhyming lines, bordering on doggerel (NOT meant as criticism!) worked extraordinarily well.

Video projections by Doug Underdahl succeeded in creating a New York City atmosphere. Costumes by Christina Hribar were perfect for Reverend Bacon and for the ghetto kids. For the "social X-rays" at the cocktail party and the Wall Street hustlers, they seemed only approximate. Hair and makeup by Ron Wolek were particularly effective for Mr. Bloomfield and Mr.Tuell.

Having updated the work by 30 years, iPads and cell phones could be introduced without detriment and nothing was lost. 

The 3 1/2 hours (including two intermissions) flew by without a single longueur. This is what contemporary opera should be--and that's entertainment! It doesn't matter whether you call it opera or American musical theater. The voices were almost all good and they were unamplified.  And that's more than enough for our satisfaction.

Finally, let us add that the theater at El Museo del Barrio is the perfect size for this type of work, and that the acoustics were fine. In addition to clearly enunciated English (much easier because of the way the language was employed) the excellent titles were useful in case one missed a word here and there.

(c) meche kroop

TRIFECTA

Julian Milkis, Abdiel Vazquez, and Anastasiya Roytman

Scintillating soprano Anastasiya Roytman generously shared her Carnegie Recital Hall debut with two other superb artists in a compelling program that included not only our favorite Wagner and Mahler songs but contemporary American songs that we actually enjoyed!

The last time we heard and reviewed Ms. Roytman we opined that she needed a larger hall (than Scorca Hall at the National Opera Center) to show off the size of her voice and we are delighted to report that she scaled her wonderful instrument to the size and acoustics of Weill Recital Hall.

And a lovely instrument it is and well suited to the chosen material. No wonder that she has achieved acclaim worldwide! She has a gracious stage presence and makes good use of body and facial expression to get a song across, without resorting to excessive theatrics. It's all in the voice, which is most important.

Richard Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder, WWV91 are settings of the poetry of his beloved Matilda Wesendonck; they are filled with passion and deep feeling which Ms. Roytman successfully communicated with superb control of dynamics and phrasing. The songs offer many opportunities for changes of color, also exploited by Ms. Roytman; she seemed totally present with the text and able to communicate the depth of feeling to the audience. We especially enjoyed "Schmerzen" but also admired the buildup of intensity in "Träume" where Wagner's phrases ascended the scale.

Her astutely chosen piano partner, Abdiel Vazquez, demonstrated a particular resonance with Wagner and contributed a solo piece--Tausig's arrangement for piano of "Isolde's Liebestod" from Tristan und Isolde--an arrangement we had never heard before but long to hear again as it has been echoing in our mind's ear all night.

Gustav Mahler's Rückert-Lieder offer the same opportunities for a variety of moods and colors and delight us no end.  Here, they were given an almost operatic treatment with each song seeming like an aria with all emotional bases covered. Ms. Roytman effectively negotiated the large skips in "Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder!". But our personal favorite was the powerful "Um Mitternacht" which was given a suitably powerful delivery.

Ms. Roytman's diction achieved a remarkable sense of legato in the phrasing, so difficult to achieve in German. Our only small critique is that there needs to be more attention paid to consistency of pronunciation of the "ch", a problem experienced by most non-German singers.

The big surprise of the evening were songs by contemporary composers that were neither "academic" nor derivative. We are always thrilled when our preconceived notions are overcome. Alexey Shor, present in the audience, wrote the music and lyrics for "Coming of Age Trio" and "Ode of Persistence Trio". This world premiere included the stylish clarinet playing of Julian Milkis and gave Ms. Roytman the opportunity to show a different aspect of her artistry.

The first song had an episode in which she performed a vocalise with the clarinet which was remarkable. Mr. Shor's text rhymed and involved the coming of Spring; the music was melodic and strangely melancholic. The second song was playful and the text was about an ambivalent woman who succumbs to a persistent suitor.

The second big surprise comprised some jazzy songs by Stefania de Kenessy, whose music was so fine that we immediately arranged to see her new opera next weekend--Bonfire of the Vanities at Museo del Barrio. "Four Laughs Only" was exactly that--laughing accompanied by clarinet and piano. "Trio in 4 Movements" included humming and nonsense syllables (WA-WA) which completely avoided the problem of making the rhythms of the English language musical.

We would like to commend Ms. Roytman for one more thing. She never used a score! Mostly, when we hear contemporary music, the stuff is so obscure that the singer is on the book.  Not so here! This allowed her to communicate directly with the audience and to express the joy of this original music.

As encore the artists gave us an improvisatory version of "Summertime" from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess in which all three artists let loose.  It was a fine end to a fine evening!

(c) meche kroop