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

DER ZIGEUNERBARON

Maestro Kynan Johns and cast of Der Zigeunerbaron at Manhattan School of Music

There is still time to get tickets to today’s matinee performance of Johann Strauss, Jr’s Der Zigeunerbaron, otherwise known as The Gypsy Baron. To miss it would be a terrible shame. For some reason we have had a succession of operettas on our “dance card” lately and, the more we see and hear, the more we love this largely neglected art form. In operetta we find gloriously tuneful music, amusing situations, colorful characters, and ultimately the satisfaction that can only be felt after a couple hours of smiling.

We do not have enough superlatives to describe this weekend’s production of Der Zigeunerbaron by the Manhattan School of Music Opera Theater. There wasn’t a single mediocre voice onstage; every singer performed his/her role with fine voice, excellent dramatic instincts, and the kind of gusto that comes only from having fun.  It would be a toss-up between us and them as far as which group was having more fun. We can only say that we had a grin from ear to ear for over two hours and are still smiling

Johann Strauss, Jr.'s music for this 1885 work has enough melodies for the next ten operettas and The Manhattan School of Music Opera Orchestra, under the baton of Maestro Kynan Johns, did complete justice to the wonderful orchestration of these melodies and to the plethora of rhythms found in the Hungarian dances. The overture alone was worth ten times the price of a ticket. What an abundance of themes, both lyrical and energetic, not to mention the waltzes that made us want to get up and dance.

The story is charming but has a serious aspect in that it involves the maltreatment of gypsies by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which makes it relevant today. The hero Sandor Barinkay (the terrific tenor Philippe L'Esperance) is the son of a deceased land-owning liberal who has spent his youth as an adventurer and has just returned to find his father's land occupied by a swamp, a ruined castle, a pig farmer (the hilarious Jose Maldonado), and a gypsy encampment.

The gypsy woman Czipra (marvelous mezzo-soprano Yunlei Xie) has a beautiful daughter Saffi (winning soprano Angela Joy Lamb) who has a crush on Sandor but he is contracted to marry Arsena (vibrant coloratura Yujia Chen) the also beautiful daughter of the former swineherd who has become the Prince of Pigs, a man who is indeed larger than life.

But Arsena rejects Sandor out of love for Ottokar (fine tenor Michael St. Peter) who is the son of her governess Mirabelle (substantial mezzo Lisa Barone) who discovers her long lost husband Count Carnero (baritone William Huyler, who created a marvelously pompous character--Deputy Chairman of the Privy Commission for Morality) after 25 years.

It's unusual for the guy to get the girl in Act I, but of course there are complications--buried treasure, a war with Serbia, a violation of the laws of morality, etc, What would opera be without such complications!

As the recruiting officer of the Hussars Count Homonay, baritone Christian Thurston sang with fine tone and style and was the deus ex machina that restores order.

Bass-baritone Andrew Henry made a virile Pali, leader of the gypsies.

Chorus Master Miriam Charney made sure that the chorus was as high in quality as the principals. Don't miss the send-up of Il Trovatore's "Anvil Chorus "!

There were so many fine moments too numerous to mention but as a lover of duets we confess to be blown away by the Act II duet between Czipra and Saffi, which turned into a trio. Also lovely was the duet betwen Arsena and Mirabella.

It is interesting that Ignaz Schnitzer, on request by the composer, based his libretto on the romantic novel Saffi by Hungarian novelist Mor Jokai. The libretto was in German and everyone's German diction was superb, thanks largely to German Diction Coach Mariann Barrett. We loved that it was sung in German with dialogue in English which was mostly clear, thanks to Robert Blumenfeld.

Linda Brovsky's direction was admirable and so was Sean McKnight's choreography. Elizabeth Hope Clancy designed the most splendiferous costumes. The set by Donald Eastman included a gypsy wagon in front of which Czipra did her fortunetelling by means of cards and palmistry.  Dave Bova's wigs appeared attractive and authentic.

It is difficult to believe that the singers are all candidates for the degree of Master of Music. Everything about the production was at a professional level. This is something we always expect to find at Manhattan School of Music but those new to the institution will be pleasantly surprised.

(c) meche kroop