COSI FA MANHATTAN SCHOOL OF MUSIC

José Maldonado, Victoria Crutchfield, Thomas Muraco, Shaina Martinez, WooYoung Yoon, Polixeni Tziouvaras, Dongwei Shen, Sungah Baek, and Juan Lázaro

When Tom Muraco puts on an opera, you tend to show up out of FOMO.  To miss one would leave you feeling cheated out of a predictably delightful experience. The operas are astutely chosen, the talented students are wisely cast, and the bare bones style of production allows one to focus on the music. In this case, we had an intense exposure to Mozart's masterpiece of romantic entanglement--Cosi fan tutte.

Maestro Muraco himself conducted and the score for two pianos and harpsichord continuo (actually an electronic keyboard) was devised by the three keyboard artists themselves--Sungah Baek, Juan Lázaro, and Yixin Tan. The three did a great job and we were able to hear compositional elements that we missed when the work was presented with full orchestra. Actually, we think we heard more music.  Could it be that some music that is generally cut was restored?  Or did our ears deceive us? There is enough music in this opera for two operas!

The students of Manhattan School of Music are as fond of Maestro Muraco as we are. We sat next to the podium as he conducted and can attest to the fact that he knows every word in the libretto and every note of the score. His love for music and for his students was equally obvious.

As Don Alfonso, the older cynic who sets the crazy plot in motion, José Maldonado might have stolen the show, were the other artists not as fine as they were. His huge Falstaffian presence and voice, augmented by seemingly natural dramatic chops, created a real character. Every glance and wry smile, every barb carried weight.

His partner in crime, the wily Despina was performed by soprano Yesul Yeon whose slender voice was well focused and whose comic chops matched those of Mr. Maldonado. Her featured aria "Una donna a quindici anni" was very well done. We loved the way she exaggerated the rolling of her "r"s.

Since the theme of Lorenzo da Ponte's libretto was fiancé swapping, the opera requires four engaging singers that we can care about, even while laughing at their puerility. As Fiordiligi we had the shining soprano Shaina Martinez who successfully negotiated the wild skips of "Come scoglio". Legend has it that Mozart wrote it thus to make the soprano he disliked bob her head like a chicken, due to the way she sang high and low notes!

As her sister, we heard marvelous mezzo-soprano Polixeni Tziouvaras, who did herself credit in her aria "Smanie implacabili".  Mozart made sure that each singer had an aria. Her voice harmonized beautifully with that of Ms. Martinez, especially in "Prenderó quel brunettino". Mozart made sure that there were also plenty of duets, trios, quartets, etc.

Tenor WooYoung Yoon has a pleasant ringing tenor and created a fine Ferrando; we enjoyed his voice most in "Tradito, schernito"; he had some splendid duets with baritone Dongwei Shen who excelled as Guglielmo. His aria "Donne mie, la fate a tanti" was beautifully rendered in all of its angst. The voices of the two men blended as successfully as those of the women.

One of our favorite ensemble pieces, "Soave sia il vento" was gorgeously sung by Mr. Maldonado, Ms. Martinez and Ms. Tziouvaras. We could not have been more pleased with the musical elements.

But what about the production elements.  As we indicated, this is a bare bones production and Director Victoria Crutchfield did well for the most part in the interactions among the singers. We loved the way the chorus (all excellent, by the way) moved the "furniture" (just a bench, a table, and some chairs) with Despina in charge, pounding the floor to summon the furniture movers for a scene change, which always seemed to involve lifting things over her head.

Our only quibble was with a few anachronisms. Probably to avoid the cost of costuming, the action seems to have been moved to the present, what with the cell phones and contemporary clothing. So why did the women carry 18th c. parasols?  The "Albanians" became "hipsters from Williamsburg and Tribeca".  Anyone from New York would know that Tribeca is populated by very wealthy Wall Streeters. You'd be hard pressed to find a hipster there.  Better to have used Bed-Stuy or Bushwick.

For those of us who understand Italian, hearing one thing and seeing titles saying something else creates a momentary lapse of concentration and involvement. A "brunettino" is a man with dark hair, NOT a man in spectacles! These disjunctions are occurring more and more as operas are squeezed into time periods that do not fit.

Minor criticisms aside, it was a fun evening and made us realize that we have more in common with the 18th c. Viennese than with the 19th c. audience which found this opera vulgar and scandalous.

There will be a repeat performance on Sunday matinée with a different but presumably equally talented cast.

(c) meche kroop

FOUR SCENES-FOUR MOODS-FOUR LANGUAGES

Finale from Falstaff  performed by Manhattan School of Music Opera Theater

After our delightful evening at Juilliard last night it seemed like time to show Manhattan School of Music some love.  MSM has a great deal of depth in its vocal department, one of the top training programs in the world, and attracts talented young singers from all over the USA and worldwide. Over 40 countries are represented. Their list of alumni looks like a Who's Who of the opera world.

Last night the MSM Opera Theater, of which the esteemed Dona D. Vaughn is Artistic Director, presented four opera scenes, apparently chosen for variety of mood and language, and to show off the special skills of the current crop of graduate students. There wasn't a disappointing voice to be heard.  As a matter of fact, the vocal glories were abundant.

In place of orchestral accompaniment, we had four hands at two pianos--a pair belonging to Jorge Parodi and another to Scott Rednour. Maestro Vlad Iftinca conducted sans baton; he clearly was involved with every singer and every phrase, using both hands to bring out everyone's best.

What made the evening so enjoyable, aside from the splendid singing, was the professionalism of all concerned. Director Laura Alley never fails to honor the piece and does not torture the libretto to fit into a self-serving "concept".  The pieces were staged with a minimum of props but nothing was missed. Costumes were not lavish but were appropriate and tasteful. We ourselves prefer creativity and imagination over distracting extravagance.

The program opened with "The Presentation of the Rose" from Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier, one of our favorite operas. The nouveau riche Herr Faninal (resonant baritone Shuo Yang) is excited about his daughter's marriage into nobility. Young Sophie (crystalline voiced soprano Yesul Yeon) considers her obligations as a wife, whilst her chaperone Marianne (lovely mezzo-soprano Madalyn Luna) tries to keep Sophie's exuberance in check.

Octavian arrives in the person of the marvelous mezzo Hongni Wu in travesti who falls instantly in love with the beautiful Sophie. The two singers created marvelous chemistry together which made the scene work beautifully.  Even if you never saw the opera you could tell that Sophie will never ever marry the old Baron Ochs to whom she is affianced. The duet between Ms. Yeon and Ms. Wu told us everything we needed to know. We observed that Maestro Iftinca was in love with both of them!

An abrupt change of mood took place for the second scene which we believe was actually the entirety of Ned Rorem's 1951 opera A Childhood Miracle. The libretto by Elliott Stein was based on a creepy Hawthorne story in which two little girls (convincingly portrayed by mezzo-soprano Charlotte Merz and soprano Kristina Brost) play in the snow and build a snowman (tenor Elijah Graham) which comes to life.

Their mother (mezzo-soprano Monica Talavera) is sitting indoors with her sister Emma (mezzo-soprano Polixeni Tziouvaras) doing needlework and gossiping. Father (bass-baritone Andrew Henry) is upset to see his daughters with a strange man and insists that he come indoors where he melts. The daughters run outside into the snowstorm and turn into snow, or something else which wasn't exactly clear.

It is our opinion that magic realism is best done by Latin Americans, like Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Perhaps some Victorian touches would have helped.  The story seemed more tragedy than miracle. Still, the singing and acting were exemplary and Rorem's writing was more musical than most 20th c. writing. Thanks to English diction coach Kathryn LaBouff, every word was clear.

The mood turned again to a more somber contemplative scene from Gluck's Iphegénie en Tauride. Gluck's music gave us plenty of variety, expressing the mood of the ocean from calm to stormy. If the lovely mezzo-soprano portraying Iphegénie (Yunlei Xie) has not had ballet training we would be rather surprised since her physical movement was as graceful as her phrasing. 

In this scene of prayer for protection, she is surrounded by a chorus of Priestesses and we were impressed by the unison feature of their singing and movement. French coach Elsa Querón must get some credit! There is a lot of depth in this chorus and evidence of intense rehearsal. The two chief priestesses were sung by sopranos Si-Yeon Kim and Sasha Gutiérrez Montaño. The staging here was particularly lovely with the chorus dressed in black and carrying candles.

The final work on the program was the final scene from Verdi's Falstaff, fortunately not updated to the 1950's, as it is in "the big house". We think José Maldonado absolutely owns the role of The Fat Knight. His voice is as expansive as his girth and his acting conveyed every nuance of terror, humiliation, abject self-realization, and finally humorous self-acceptance.

The cast seemed to be having as much fun onstage as we experienced in the audience. We cannot deny that we enjoyed seeing ill-behaved men getting their comeuppance at the hands of some aggrieved women, nor can we deny drawing an analogy with the present day politics.  Plus ça change!  It is so much more fun when the director doesn't shove it down your throat.

The old Dottore Caius (Mr. Graham) gets married to Bardolfo (tenor Samuel White) disguised as Nannetta (soprano Hee So Son) who gets to defy her father's choice and marry the man she loves--Fenton (tenor Philippe L'Esperance). But not until they get to sing a beautiful duet. We have admired Mr. L'Esperance's voice on prior occasions.

The role of Ford was sung by baritone SeokJong Baek who always turns in a fine performance. Soprano Celeste Morales made a fine Alice whilst Meg was sung well by mezzo Elizabeth Harris. Mezzo Michelle Blauman did justice to the role of Mrs. Quickly and bass-baritone Matthias Villwock took the role of Pistola.

The staging was great fun, especially when the huge Falstaff is rolled around the stage with the entire cast prodding him with sticks. If Falstaff isn't fun we feel we've been shut out of something that Verdi and his librettist Arrigo Boito intended. This scene left us grinning from ear to ear.

The evening was perfect, although we could have enjoyed a few more scenes. The time seemed to fly by.

(c) meche kroop