WE GOT WHAT WE VOTED FOR!

Melanie Ashkar, Jeremy Moore, Milica Nikcevic, Noelle Currie, Eric Alexieff, and Megan Nielson

We are happy knowing that we were among those fans of Utopia Opera who voted for Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. For those of you readers who don't know, Utopia Opera is unique in producing their season by audience vote. This is Utopia Opera's sixth season and it has been a glorious one with the final entry giving us a unique up front and personal view of a long-cherished opera which premiered in Moscow in 1879.

We love this opera because it gives us a glimpse of a highly structured society, one from long ago (1820) and far away (Russia). Nonetheless, we are seeing human nature as it is and always has been--just constrained by the mores of that time and place. We all can recall the naivete with which we approached our first love. We all know people whose pride gets in the way of self-fulfillment. We all have broken off friendships for trivial reasons.  We have all known the pain of jealousy when our beloved has put someone else ahead of us.

But this is not a "whatever" society; this is a society in which "honor" is taken seriously and revenge is serious and often fatal.. "Feeling pissy" and "walking away" are modern inventions. Tatiana falls hard for her sister's fiance's friend. Onegin is a city slicker and she is a country mouse. She overcomes her shame and shyness and bares her soul in a letter to him. He gives her a "Dutch uncle" speech in response.  Not brutal but honest.

At her name-day party, the eponymous Onegin flirts with sister Olga.  Her fiance Lensky takes offense and challenges Onegin to a duel.  Lensky is shot and dies.  Onegin lives an empty sad life for a few years until he runs into Tatiana once more. She is now wed to the elderly Prince Gremin and rejects Onegin whom she still loves.  How old-fashioned to put honor ahead of love!

Of course, Alexander Pushkin's verse novel offers a great deal more elaboration but we will concern ourself with the opera as it is performed. As testament to the power of the story we offer our personal experience of fretting over what happens to poor Olga and whether Tatiana might reconsider when Gremin dies!

As testament to the power of Tchaikovsky's music we confess that we are still playing the themes in our head!  In this case, Jonathan Lyness' orchestral reduction was performed by 11 musicians under the baton of Dmitry Glivinskiy who brought out every ounce of Russian soul in the string quartet which sat at audience level, with the wind instruments and keyboard on one side of the raised stage. Aside from an occasional pitch problem in the strings, the music sounded just fine.

The singing was good all around with soprano Megan Nielson making a winsome Tatiana and Melanie Ashkar using her lustrous mezzo-soprano and spirited dramatic instincts to create a very believable feckless younger sister Olga. Jeremy Moore used his mellow baritone to create an Onegin who seemed to represent a more modern sophisticated fellow rather than the arrogant selfish fellow of the Pushkin poem. We favor this interpretation because he must have some good qualities to win the affection of the sensitive Tatiana. And because we have good feelings about men who do not deceive women!

As the poet Lensky, tenor Chris Georgetti gave his all and elicited audience sympathy with a finely wrought "Kuda, kuda". How interesting that the most famous aria from this opera, heard often at competitions, was not given to the "hero". Tatiana's "letter scene" is equally famous but rather long and not as often performed.  (Coincidentally, we just heard  and reviewed it the previous night.) We thought Ms. Nielson sang it very well with many shades of coloration.

Milica Nikcevic was fine as Madame Larina, as was Noelle Currie in the role of the nanny Filippyevna, although looking much too young to be a grandmother. Steven Fredericks had the right voice (bass) and appearance to create the dignified Prince Gremin who has been rejuvenated by his young wife. Indeed Tatiana has by the end of the opera matured into her station in life and Ms. Nielson conveyed that vocally and dramatically.

Finally, let us mention tenor Eric Alexieff whose performance as Monsieur Triquet was very fine without indulging in any over-the-top foppery. One of the highlights of Benjamin Spierman's direction was that very scene in which his musical encomium to Tatiana resulted in her embarrassment and some tolerant eye-rolling among the assembled guests.

There were some other enjoyable touches in the direction of the second act including the flirtation between Olga and Onegin, the confrontation between Onegin and Lensky, and Lensky's aria in which he kneels down on the ground when thinking about the possibility of going to his grave.  If Mr. Spierman was responsible for the choreography of the country ball and the city ball, props to him for that as well.

The direction of Act I was not quite as interesting. There is a very special moment when Filippyevna teases Tatiana by pretending to not know which neighbor was going to be the recipient of her letter. By playing it straight, an opportunity was missed to tell us something about their relationship. We also didn't get much of a sense of the comradeship between Filippyevna and Madame Larina.  We did, however, get the warmth of the relationship between the two sisters.

The only major flaw in the production must be attributed to the costuming. We do not expect authentic period attire in a low budget production but we could think of ways to suggest an earlier time period that would have worked well.  Jeans and shirts just seemed wrong. We don't know a woman who doesn't possess a peasant style blouse and a long skirt!  Anything would have been better than the "just walked in off the street" attire. In the ballroom scene of Act II, all the women wore long gowns and that seemed much better.

It also struck us as wrong that Filippyevna looked more glamorous than Madame Larina.

Cutting the large chorus of serfs permitted the work to be performed in just over a couple hours. We were very impressed by the talent of the cast and how effectively the tale was told. We will see this opera over and over again but we doubt whether we will have the same feeling of intimacy with the characters as we did through Utopia Opera.

There is one more performance tonight at Hunter College at 7:30 and we strongly recommend it!

(c) meche kroop

RAPE!

Ben Cohen, Devony Smith, Hanne Dollase, Eldric Bashful, Gary Slavin, William Remmers, Mary-Hollis Hundley, Elizabeth Bouk, Stan Lacy

Maestro William Remmers is game to tackle any opera for which his audience votes. That is one of the unique qualities of Utopia Opera. We have certainly thrown some curve balls at him but he always hits them.  With Benjamin Britten's Rape of Lucretia, he hit it out of the park.

This is not an easy opera to love. The story is both brutal and tragic. The victim Lucretia, suffering from a combination of shame and guilt, pays the dramatic price by stabbing herself. We live in a world containing places where women are killed because of such loss of honor.  But Britten's librettist Ronald Duncan examines the story from the perspective of mid-20th c. Christianity.  In 21st c. New York City it carries an unsettling confrontational load, making us aware of that which we would avoid.

The work itself is largely declamatory with no beautiful arias to comfort us. The music is dissonant and perturbing, although powerful in its effect. However, there are moments of great beauty elicited by Mr. Remmers astute conducting of his 13-piece chamber orchestra. Tomina Parvanova's harp shimmers as Lucretia enters. There are some stunning harmonies in a duet of bass clarinet (Jeffrey Hodes) and horn (Brad Shaw).

Serving as narrators and guides for the audience are tenor Eldric Bashful, whose readings were as dramatic as his singing was lovely, and soprano Mary-Hollis Hundley, whose richly timbred instrument delighted us at the George London Competition.

As the eponymous Lucretia, mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Bouk made a noble but vulnerable heroine. We have been seeing a lot of this rising star lately--not only as a Utopia Opera regular, but also at Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble. Her voice and acting are equally impressive.

As her two servants, the old nurse Bianca (mezzo-soprano Hanne Dollase) and the maid Lucia (soprano Devony Smith) made significant contributions to the evening's success. Their trio with Ms. Bouk in Act I and their "flower" duet in Act II provided some of the lovelier vocal sounds.

As the despised libertine Etruscan Prince Tarquinius, baritone Stan Lacy created a loathsome character who despises the whores he can have so easily and is stimulated by the thought of taking the only faithful wife in Rome. The rape scene was superbly staged by Director Gary Slavin, as was the rest of the opera.

The Prince kisses the sleeping Lucretia who is dreaming of her husband Collatinus and therefore responds. Is she complicit? In 21st c. America, men have to ask permission to take liberties. In 500 B.C. one supposes that men took all the liberties they wanted since women were property.

Bass Steven Fredericks sang the role of Collatinus, a Roman general of a peaceful and forgiving nature. His fellow general Junius (baritone Ben Cohen) has a slimy nature. He is envious of Collatinus' military glory and jealous of Collatinus' successful marriage.  Spurred on by the humiliation of being cuckolded by his own wife, he manipulates Tarquinius into a midnight gallop to Rome to ravish Lucretia. Although not equal to "The Ride of the Valkyries", Britten came up with some powerful music for this episode.

The libretto is interesting for its magnificent metaphors, i.e. "Thirsty evening has drunk the wine of light". However there were times when the metaphors made no sense and seemed excessive. Great contrast was made between the creativity of women and the destructiveness of men.

Last season we enjoyed a production of this opera at Juilliard. It was powerful then and it was again last night. Part opera, part play with music, and part oratorio, the work stands up to repeat performances.

We will have to wait until December to see and hear more from Mr. Remmers when he is tackling a genre with which he is very familiar--Gilbert and Sullivan's Princess Ida. Watch for it!

(c) meche kroop

THE BRONX IS UP

Steven Fredericks, Gilad Paz, Caroline Tye, Terina Westmeyer, Halley Gilbert, Heather Roberts, Christopher Grundy, and Erik Bagger

Albert Herring proved that Benjamin Britten could create comedies that were just as successful as his dramatic masterworks such as Peter Grimes and Billy Budd. A turn-of-the-last-century English village is shocked to discover that chaste young women are in perilously short supply, so bashful Albert is crowned "King of the May Festival," only to launch a night of revelry that leaves his elders aghast and his chums impressed.

The libretto, adapted by Eric Crozier from a short story by Guy de Maupassant, offers splendid opportunities for storytelling involving a motley collection of colorful characters inhabiting a small English village at the turn of the 20th century.

Britten's music, written in 1947 for a chamber orchestra (The English Opera Group), provides excellent opportunities for musicians to show their stuff, limning the stunning orchestration and sneaking in several musical references such as a motif from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde when Albert drinks the spiked lemonade.

The opera was an excellent choice for the Bronx Opera.  They have been producing opera for nearly a half-century but this is the first time we have reviewed their work.  The weather was bitterly cold and perhaps the best compliment we can pay them is that the evening was well worth the two-hour round trip.

The venue, the Lovinger Theater at Lehman College, is absolutely perfect with fine sight lines and acoustics, and an orchestral pit that descends below stage level. Musical values were splendid all around.  The dozen musicians were individually and collectively superb and finely balanced under the expert baton of Michael C. Haigler.  There was one long duet for alto flute (Lisa Arkis) and bass clarinet (Monte Morgenstern) which took our breath away.  The singers were also well-balanced, particularly in the sextet of Act I, Scene 1.

The singers were exceedingly well cast.  Each singer created a character with a distinctive personality--the aristocratic and domineering Lady Billows (Terina Westmeyer) commanded the stage with a room-filling Wagnerian soprano and a walking stick, justified by a limp; her much put-upon housekeeper Florence Pike (Caroline Tye) kept things in order with a low and resonant timbre; the straw-hatted schoolteacher Miss Wordsworth (Halley Gilbert) who used her fine soprano in a very funny scene leading her three students in a musical encomium to Albert; the controlling Mrs. Herring (Heather Roberts) who kept poor Albert tied to her apron strings with a fine mezzo; and the flirtatious Nancy (Yselle Blum) whose equally fine mezzo managed to captivate her boyfriend Sid, Albert, and the audience.

Among the men, we enjoyed tenor Erik Bagger's portrayal of the eponymous hero--at first under his mother's thumb, shy and stooped over, later intoxicated and silly, and finally joyful and liberated.  Steven Fredericks employed his rich bass to portray Superintendent Budd of the police force; Tenor Gilad Paz made an excellent conciliatory Mayor Upfold; baritone Christopher Grundy was perfect as Vicar Gedge and had admirable diction. Baritone Steven Eddy portrayed Sid, the butcher's assistant who plotted with Nancy to lead poor Albert down the primrose path.

The singing and acting could not have been better but the diction could have been improved.  The men fared better on this account than the women, with Ms. Blum being an exception.  This is a common problem when operas are sung in English.  The Bronx Opera chooses to perform all of its operas in English and one would think that the goal were to make the story clear to the audience.  In fact, the synopsis in the program made the story clear but a significant part of the dialogue got swallowed.  Fortunately, the acting was so effective that the humor succeeded.  Titles would have been welcomed.

Production values were way beyond what one would expect from a small company. Professionalism of the highest degree was noted in the fluid direction by Rod Gomez, the perfect costuming by Peter Fogel and the effective sets by Meganne George. Simple elements combined to create Lady Billows' black and white parlor with its Victorian silhouettes and Mrs. Herring's grocery with its colorful baskets of fruits, vegetables and flowers.  Lighting by Joshua Rose contributed a great deal, especially during scene-changes which recreated the images of the Victorian silhouettes.

We haven't seen Albert Herring since the Santa Fe Opera performed it 4 1/2 years ago with an all-star cast.  The production we saw last night was in no way less impressive.  If you live in the Bronx you may wish to catch today's matinee.  Otherwise there will be two more performances next weekend at Hunter College.

(c) meche kroop

OH, SUSANNAH!

Shannon Jones and Steven Fredericks (photo by Kate Hess)

Carlisle Floyd's l955 opera Susannah premiered at Florida State University where Floyd was on the piano faculty; we are trying to imagine how the audience of that day took it.  While not exactly "backwater", Tallahassee (home of FSU) is rather far from liberal New York and the 1950's were not exactly famous for sexual liberation.

The opera was produced again at FSU in 2005.  "Autres temps, autres moeurs." We noticed on the FSU website that the university will not tolerate sexual violence. Could it be that the opera affected university culture?

Last night we attended a fine performance by Utopia Opera, the fans of which vote on which operas should be presented for the upcoming season.  No opera is too challenging for Director William Remmers.  Coming in November will be L'Italiana in Algeri.

The story is a brutal one and much of the music is brutal as well.  There is a great deal of dissonance in the orchestra, except for the welcome interludes of lyricism given to the folk music, some of which was composed by Floyd to sound like folk music, as in "The Trees on the Mountain", beautifully sung by soprano Shannon Jones, who turned in a lovely multidimensional performance as the eponymous heroine.

The poor girl, just 18 years old, is an orphan, raised in dire poverty by her much older devoted brother ; they seem to survive on what he can hunt and trap.  The repressive fundamentalist religious community she inhabits in rural Tennessee is, as one might suspect, composed of small minded people who judge her harshly on account of her lovely appearance and the alcoholic tendencies of her brother Sam, brilliantly portrayed by tenor Adam Klein (who also served as dialect coach).  

A quartet of church women (Jennifer Allen, Mary-Hollis Hundley, Mary Molnar and Sarah Marvel Bleasedale) gossip about her at a church square dance while their husbands, elders of the church (Glenn Friedman, Brian Long, Victor Ziccardi and Matthew Walsh), are paying more attention to her than their wives would like.  The green-eyed monster is a dangerous beast indeed!

A new preacher Olin Blitch (superb bass-baritone Steven Fredericks) comes to town hell bent (pun intentional) on saving souls, using every manipulative trick in the book to frighten the congregation with threats of eternal damnation.

The quartet of elders, searching for a suitable creek for baptismal purposes, espies Susannah bathing NUDE!  Overcome by lust, they cover up their feelings with indignance and accusations.  The acting in this scene was particularly fine; their words expressed outrage but oh, how they stared.  They even persuade her friend Little Bat (tenor Mitchell Roe) to lie and accuse her of seducing him.

Blitch tries to get her to confess but she isn't buying it; she knows she is innocent. When her brother is away for the night, Blitch rapes her with disastrous consequences.  No spoilers here!

Polymath William Remmers (both Stage Director and Music Director, not to mention engaging M.C.) led the orchestra of twenty with a huge sound that threatened to overwhelm the small sized Lang Hall.  But they did not drown out the three principals who had large intense voices and forceful personalities.

The chorus was notably excellent, singing religious hymns in the revival scene. The scenery, as usual, was sparse--a gun rack (hint) and a rocking chair.  Costumes were suggestive of the time and place.

We did not know that the work is the second most produced American opera (after Porgy and Bess); we knew of it only through performances of "Ain't It a Pretty Night" heard in recital and in competitions.  For us, that was one of the highlights, along with "The Trees on the Mountain" and the charming "Jaybird", sung in duet with Mr. Klein.

With our preference for 19th c. works in foreign languages, we are unlikely to visit it again so are pleased that we had the opportunity to hear it last night.  There will be another performance tonight and you may be pleased to attend.

What sticks in our mind is how contemporary the theme is--men of the cloth are still misusing their power over the young. Will this ever end?

(c) meche kroop

YES, WE ARE IN KANSAS

Chad Kranak and Joanie Brittingham (photo by Robert J. Saferstein)

Aaron Copland's The Tender Land premiered sixty years ago at the now defunct (and sorely missed) New York City Opera.  If it has been performed since then we have missed it and are doubly glad that the Chelsea Opera decided to revive it for the final work of their tenth anniversary season.  Originally written for television, its intimate nature makes it far more suitable to a small company like Chelsea Opera.

Like most 20th c. operas, it strikes us as a play with music--and what fine music it is indeed.  With the impressive Maestro Samuel McCoy on the podium, the excellent Chelsea Opera Chamber Orchestra comprising thirteen musicians filled St. Peter's Church with Copland's accessible music.  The score reduction is attributed to Murry Sidlin.

The opera was well cast with soprano Joanie Brittingham starring as the young Laurie Moss; her petite stature gave no evidence of the substantial size of her voice but went a  long way toward convincing us that she was perhaps 18 years old and about to graduate high school.  She successfully colored her voice to sound young and then (spoiler alert) added more mature coloration when she stands up to her possessive family and leaves home for the wider world outside the farm.

Her splendid performance was matched by tenor Chad Kranak in the role of Martin, an itinerant farmhand who stops by the farm and wins her heart.  Mr. Kranak also has a lovely instrument and his love duets with Ms. Brittingham were, well, lovely.  His "should I stay or should I go" ambivalence was well reflected in his singing and acting.

Accompanying Martin is his drifter buddy Top who is the "player" in that duo, always on the make, a less winning character perhaps but the voice of reality which Martin needs to hear.  Baritone Peter Kendall Clark, often seen/heard at Chelsea Opera, did not pander to the audience but used his ample sound and dramatic presence to bring out every unlikable nuance of the character. 

The production was anchored by mezzo Leonarda Priore, co-founder of Chelsea Opera, who totally convinced as Ma Moss who worries about her two daughters.  We have heard Ms. Priore in recital but it is on the stage that her talent best expresses itself.  We were moved by her aria (actually, a folk song) "Long Time Ago", sung with beauty and deep feeling.  The piano accompaniment was done by polymath Assistant Conductor Dean William Buck, composer and conductor and co-founder of the excellent Brooklyn-based Loft Opera.

Another superb performance was delivered by bass Steven Fredericks as Grandpa Moss whose ample rumbly voice was perfectly expressive of the loving but controlling patriarch of this family, often making us wonder how they all have his name and why there is no father around.

In the role of the postman Mr. Splinters, tenor David Kellett fit right in with the Depression Era and the Midwestern locale.  Only Evelyn Carr as younger sister Beth stood out as being stagey and actorish.  The ensemble of friends and neighbors were excellent.

The libretto by Horace Everett is burdened by every cliché one could imagine from that time and place.  Nonetheless, who could not identify with a young woman's coming of age, spreading her wings and leaving home for the world outside?

There were some special moments in the evening beside Ms. Priore's solo--a chorale "The Promise of Living" with tenor joined by soprano and then additional voices one by one was thrilling to hear. 

The budget of Chelsea Opera is small (donations always welcome) and production values are modest.  A picket fence and a table and a chair made up the set; a rocking chair on the porch would have made sense.  More might have been done with the lighting to suggest the time of day but these are small quibbles.  Costumes were rustled up from the TDF costume collection and were appropriate to time and place.

There is only one more performance today at 4:00 PM and there may still be a few tickets available.  Last night the house was packed in spite of the deluge outside and the back-breaking pews inside. Bring a cushion!

© meche kroop