A CLOSE SHAVE, A NOT-SO-ILL WIND, AND SOME GLITTERY GAIETY

The highly gifted cast of MESS:IES event

Two back-to-back events at Brooklyn's Paper Box, featuring the same cast, revealed to us just how talented and versatile is every member of the Mise-en-Scène Ensemble. Having seen each singer in a variety of roles and different languages in such temporal proximity gave us a new appreciation, quite different from hearing them weeks or months apart. 

Furthermore, being exposed to brief scenes from operas we never enjoyed (like Berg's Wozzeck)--up close and personal--allowed us to experience more dramatic impact than we ever experienced from a distance.

Last night's opener involved tenor Andrew Stenson as the arrogant, callous, and narrow minded Herr Hauptmann getting a very close shave from military barber Wozzeck, portrayed intensely and convincingly by baritone Will Liverman. Berg's difficult atonal music only served to highlight the painful position Wozzeck occupied in his world.

Another riveting scene from Wozzeck involved soprano Jacquelyn Stucker as Marie, putting up with the taunts of mezzo-soprano Renée Rapier as her neighbor Margret.

The famous and famously wonderful Verona Quartet gave a luminous account of the Adagio from Janáček's String Quartet #2.  Although this is nothing like the composer's more accessible music for Vixen Sharp-ears, our ears picked up snippets of folk tunes that were most agreeable.

A particularly powerful scene from Massenet's Werther was enacted by Ms. Rapier as the conflicted Charlotte and tenor Ian Castro as the eponymous Werther. Charlotte gives in to her feelings for Werther and then, filled with shame, rejects him. Charlotte, in her flustered state is discovered by her husband Albert (baritone Theo Hoffman) who then orders pistols to be delivered to Werther. Never on the stage of a major opera house have we felt so involved with Charlotte's ambivalence, Werther's despair, or Albert's jealous rage. For us, these three major singers provided the highlight of the evening.

Accompanied by Mr. Nielsen, soprano Felicia Moore portrayed the grieving Elettra with great depth of feeling in the aria "O Smania" from Mozart's Idomeneo.

That was not the end of the Mozart. We loved the scene from Cosi fan tutte in which the lovers are separated under false pretenses, with Don Alfonso (Erik van Heyningen) laughing up his sleeve at the prank of his own devising. Ms. Stucker sang Fiordiligi, Ms. Rapier sang Dorabella, Mr. Castro sang Ferrando, and Mr. Hoffman sang Gugllielmo. It's a funny scene and Paul Curran's direction added a few additional humorous touches. Mozart's exquisite harmonies in "Soave sia il vento" were well handled and Mr. Reynold's piano added to the enjoyment.

We heard several excerpts from Bernstein's Candide, the seldom heard "Nothing More Than This", poignantly sung by Mr. Stenson, and the ironic "Glitter and Be Gay" delivered with brilliant fioritura by coloratura soprano Brandie Sutton, both accompanied in very different colors by pianist Chris Reynolds.

And the closing number "Make Our Garden Grow" was performed by the entire cast with several singers doubling up on roles; doubling up on the piano were Mr. Reynolds and the excellent Adam Nielsen. Those four hands made a lot of music. Maestro Glen's conducting was astute throughout.

It was a sell out crowd with many new faces, which bodes well for the future of the company. Word has certainly gotten out! We can scarcely wait for the next MESS event.

(c) meche kroop

GETTIN' MESSIE

Maestro Lachlan Glenn at Paper Box-- M.E.S.S. Event

The streets were messy as all get-out last night but "Messies" (members of Mise-en-Scène Studios) and their friends somehow got themselves to the depths of Brooklyn for the first of two events at Paper Box. Co-founders star tenor Ben Bliss and Maestro Lachlan Glenn welcomed the huge crowd and introduced a magnificently varied program of opera, dance, and instrumental music. The program had something for everyone and everyone seemed wildly enthusiastic.

It is a wise idea to introduce young people to opera, not as a lengthy ordeal to endure, but rather a small taste to relish, with the expectations that those exposed to world class singers in small increments will want to hear more. It seems to be a great approach and even a seasoned opera-goer such as ourself found the program both entertaining and stimulating.

The initial entry was the opening scene from Britten's The Rape of Lucretia in which tenor Andrew Stenson narrated and three Roman soldiers discussed the fidelity of the women left behind. Tenor Will Liverman as Prince Tarquinius and baritone Theo Hoffman as Junius are soured on wives and lovers who betrayed them. They are envious of Collatinus (bass Erik van Heyningen) whose wife is faithful. Fueled by alcohol and testosterone, the two soreheads plot to get Collatinus' wife to betray him as well. The singing was powerful on all accounts and the direction by Paul Curran made the scene all too believable.

Following an interlude of "Danse Russe" from Stravinsky's ballet Petroushka, played "one piano four hands" by four of the best hands we know (two belonging to Adam Nielsen and two belonging to Chris Reynolds), we witnessed a scene from Berlioz' Béatrice et Bénédicte that had as much estrogen as the prior scene had testosterone.

Felicia Moore wielded her clarion soprano instrument deftly in fine French as she expressed her love for Claudio. The role of Ursule, her lady-in-waiting, was sung by the marvelous mezzo-soprano Renée Rapier.

A less familiar aria from John Corigliano's The Ghosts of Versailles-- "Long Live the Worm"-- was sung with intense gesture and vocal expressiveness by Mr. Stenson, accompanied by Mr. Reynolds. This must be Mr. Stenson's "signature area" because we don't recall being quite that riveted by Bégearss' nasty aria on prior hearings.

The format of MESS events allows for a break between sets so that guests can enjoy socializing, drinking, and eating--in this case bespoke crepes. Food for the tummy as well as the ears!

The well known final quartet from Verdi's Rigoletto is a "can't fail" number as long as you have great singers in all four fachs. In this case, Gilda was sung by soprano Jacquelyn Stucker with the eponymous jester portrayed by Mr. Liverman. The pair cowered below stage, eavesdropping on the onstage pair--the lascivious Duke (Ian Castro) working his charms on the innkeeper's sister Maddalena (Ms. Rapier). It was absolutely thrilling.

We got an advance taste of the entertainment scheduled for next Spring, a program involving Indian dancer Preeti Vasudevan and singer Roopa Mahadevan, wearing traditional garments and bringing a lot of color to the evening.  See photos on our FB page Voce di Meche.

The final scene from Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier is another scene we love and here we had soprano Brandie Sutton as Sophie and the versatile Ms. Rapier as Octavian. Ms. Moore appeared again lending vocal and gestural dignity to the role of the Marschallin. The three voices harmonized so beautifully and Mr. Reynolds created an entire orchestra in the piano. The "silver rose" theme came through gently but clearly.

An interlude of the third movement of Mozart's String Quartet #23 in F Major, performed by the superb Verona Quartet, was followed by the Finale of Act II of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor.  In this scene, poor Lucia (Ms. Stucker) is being reluctantly married off to the unwitting suitor Arturo (Mr. Stenson) by her desperate brother Enrico (Mr. Liverman). Lucia's true love Edgardo (Mr. Castro) arrives at a crucial moment and bloodshed is threatened with Raimondo (Mr. Van Heyningen) trying to keep the peace. The other singers for the evening composed the chorus. Again, the direction was astute and the scene was not only finely sung but believably acted.

Maestro Glen has been known to us for years as an outstanding pianist but just wait until you witness his conducting acumen! 

There were excellent titles for the operas in foreign languages but there were also useful brief summaries of the scenes in the program.

Tomorrow's event promises to be just as compelling with the same superb singers on hand. Tonight proved just how versatile these artists are and we have no doubt about their ability to handle all the goodies on tomorrow's program.  We don't want to give everything away but let's just say there will be something wonderful from Bernstein's Candide and something by Mozart that everyone will love.

(c) meche kroop

EAR CANDY EYE CANDY

Anna Christy as Morgana in Handel's Alcina (photo by Ken Howard)

We love our Handel operas with their melodies tumbling out "time-signature over final barline". To hear a perfectly cast group of singers and the perfect orchestra under one (semi-outdoor) roof is a matchless experience. Last night, Harry Bicket, renowned conductor of Early Music, led a spirited reading of Handel's Alcina, one marked by clarity and precision without any loss of emotional range.

Ariosto's 16th c. epic Orlando Furioso visited an 8th c. realm of sorcery and knighthood; it was the source material for many future theatrical works, including Handel's 1735 opera, one that achieved instant success in that epoch and which is given frequent productions in our era. We have reviewed Alcina at least three times in as many years. (All archived).

The story concerns the knight Ruggiero who has fallen under the spell of the beautiful and seductive sorceress Alcina who turns men into animals and rocks when she tires of them. His fiancee Bradamante who, in the Ariosto poem is always rescuing her fiance from some peril or other, has come to the magic island with Melisso, Ruggiero's former tutor, disguised as her brother Ricciardo. The pair must break Alcina's spell. Of course, they succeed.  But not before a lot of deception, betrayal, and some gender bending fun, as Alcina's sister Morgana falls in lust with "Ricciardo".

The singers were uniformly superb and highly invested in their assigned characterizations. As the eponymous sorceress, soprano Elza van den Heever employed her powerful pipes to limn the wide-ranging emotions of the titular character. She is in turn loving, seductive, manipulative, vengeful, defeated, and vulnerable. 

As her sister Morgana, Anna Christy fulfilled the demands of the high-lying tessitura with crystalline clarity and an undeniable facility with the coloratura passages. She imbued the character with plenty of humor in counterpoint with the serious mien of Alcina.

One could not have asked for a better Ruggiero than mezzo-soprano Paula Murrihy who must sing accurately whilst wandering around the stage in a state of confusion and bewilderment. We enjoyed her performance so thoroughly that we are arranging to attend a solo recital next week  presented by Performance Santa Fe. It is never taken for granted that a trouser role will be performed with such believability.

As his abandoned lover Bradamante, the marvelous mezzo Daniela Mack must be convincing in the gender bending role of Ricciardo, her very own brother, such that her revelation to Ruggiero as his beloved can delight the audience as well as astonishing Ruggiero. Her dramatic performance equalled the success of her vocal performance.

On her quest to liberate Ruggiero from the clutches of Alcina, she has assumed this disguise and is traveling accompanied by the tutor Melisso; the role was splendidly sung by bass-baritone Christian Van Horn, whose powerful and resonant sound was blissfully interposed among that wealth of female voices.

Tenor Alek Shrader's lovely sound was similarly welcome as he brought to life the character of Oronte, Alcina's general. Oronte is the lover of Morgana and when Morgana falls for the disguised Bradamante, he gets cast off and only reunites with her at the end when she pleads for forgiveness.

It is said that there are no small roles, and soprano Jacquelyn Stucker's winning and convincing performance as Oberto, a young boy looking for his father on Alcina's enchanted island, won a huge and well-deserved round of applause from us and the rest of the house. We felt sad for her character who never found his father!

We were particularly overwhelmed by the music of Act II when there were fewer distracting high jinx onstage. Bradamante's aria was followed by one of Ruggiero's in response. The famous "Verdi prati" in which Ruggiero bids farewell to the enchanted island, always moves us to tears. Alcina's expression of despair over her loss of power was similarly affecting.

If melodies sound familiar, it is because Handel never thought twice about recycling arias from other operas. His inventiveness comes into play in his accurate characterizations and in his liberal and creative use of ornamentation in the ritornelli. As a matter of fact, one of director David Alden's touches that we most enjoyed was his having the singer deliver an aria with the A-B-A sections performed from three different vantage points.

His direction, from our point of view, was "too much of a muchness". Handel's operas seem to lend themselves to wild adaptations (see our prior reviews) and there seems to be a tendency to not trust the music to entertain a modern audience without an elaborate "concept". Perhaps the directors are right because the operas are long and the plots often confusing. We observed that the audience loved the onstage high jinx and laughed out loud.

Mr. Alden's concept was that of replacing the enchanted island with an abandoned theater and Ruggiero's enchantment that of someone escaping a mundane reality. We couldn't avoid thinking of Wagner's Tannhauser in which the eponymous knight is held captive by the goddess Venus in the Venusberg. Duty vs. desire is a common theme in opera.

But we haven't seen so much humping and jumping onstage in quite some time and found it distracting and excessive. The beasts (Alcina's ex-lovers) were portrayed by some truly excellent break-dancers (choreographed by Beate Vollack) whom we would have enjoyed at another time and place in which we could have given them our full attention. There was continual shtick that we found unnecessary and did not appreciate the moments that made no dramatic sense.

Updating an opera requires that the dramatic sense be maintained; it doesn't work for us if the story is "shoe-horned" into a concept. Taken moment by moment there were a number of valid images.  For example, when Alcina loses her power, the symbolic fuschia gloves fall to the floor.  But when dozens of them rain down from above it seemed to be overkill.  And why was Morgana pushing a baby carriage? And were the rows of people sitting back to back and jiggling up and down supposed to be on a train?  So many moments didn't make sense to us. We felt as if high vocal art was competing with low sight gags.

The setting (Gideon Davey) had something like a baroque proscenium on the left and a painting of a huge wave (like a Japanese woodcut) on the right.  From time to time a wall with seven doors descended. People rushed in and out as frequently as in a French farce.  Mr. Davey's costumes leaned toward contemporary streetwear with Morgana and Oronte dressed as theater ushers. At one point Morgana was dressed like Bette Midler.  

Oh well, the music was great! Handel's music will live on and Mr. Alden's concept will vanish.

(c) meche kroop

APPRENTICE SCENES FROM SANTA FE OPERA

Mary-Hollis Hundley and Jacquelyn Stucker in a scene from Mozart's Nozze di Figaro  (photo by Bobby Gutierrez)

One of the best musical events taking place in Santa Fe in August takes place right in the gorgeous opera house a short drive north of the center of town.  We are speaking of the Apprentice Scenes, of which there are two evenings.  The first one took place on August 14th and the second one will take place on August 21st.  We always organize our visits to The City Different to include both evenings. It is our chance to hear the stars of tomorrow and we wouldn’t miss it for the world

Under the direction of David Holloway, the Apprentice Program carefully selects emerging talents whose stars are on the rise in the operatic firmament. Many of them are invited back for a second year of training and some of them will appear in subsequent summers in one or more of the five main operas.

The first of the two evenings provided many delights along with exposure to young artists, some of whom are new to us and others whose careers we have been following for the past few years. Some we know from competitions, some from their schools, and some from other programs.

These young artists also serve as members of the chorus or in small roles in the five operas presented over the summer.  But in the Apprentice Scenes, we get to see them in starring roles—as exciting for us as it is for them.  And not just for us, but for the crowd that packs in for the same reason as we do.  As an added bonus, the tickets are incredibly reasonable for such fine entertainment.

Most entertaining of the eight scenes presented was the final one on the program, which left the audience smiling. We long ago lost count of how many times we have seen Mozart’s Nozze di Figaro without ever losing our appreciation and enthusiasm for this divine comedy. In this case, the entire cast sang and acted in such a manner that brought out all of librettist Da Ponte’s humor. 

The scene chosen was the one in which the angry jealous Count and the anxious Countess return to the Countess’ boudoir to expose the hidden Cherubino.  The two sopranos were equally superb with Jacquelyn Stucker portraying the spunky Susanna and Mary Hollis-Hundley creating a lovely and dignified Countess.  As the furious Count, Jorge Espino went from rage to embarrassment to puzzlement. 

Arriving on the scene later were a quartet of characters, each with a different agenda but joined in a delightful dance. Bass-baritone Andrew Simpson made a very funny Antonio. Tenor Stephen Carroll portrayed the slimy Don Basilio; mezzo-soprano Nadia Farad enacted Marcellina with bass James Harrington as Don Bartolo.  

Kyle Long’s direction was delightful, eliciting every ounce of humor from the crazy situation. Maria Noel Nieto’s costumes were beautiful and accurately representative of Mozart’s period.

Similarly superb was the scene from Modest Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, effectively directed by Matthew Ozawa, in which Grigori (tenor Andrew Marks Maughn) arrives at an inn close to the Lithuanian border. He is traveling in the company of two monks—Misael (tenor Stephen Martin) and the hilariously drunken Variaan, perfectly portrayed by bass David Leigh. 

Thanks to Russian opera we get great roles for brilliant basses!  We loved the brilliant bass Onay Kose in the role of Nikitch, the illiterate police officer. In a serious work like Boris Godunov, it is particularly welcome to have some comic relief; here, the monks took turns translating the arrest warrant to point the finger of suspicion toward the other.  Mezzo-soprano Mariya Kaganskaya made a fine Innkeeper with a lovely voice and stage presence. Nicole Grebb’s costumes were perfect.

Kathleen Clawson directed the scene from Giuseppi Verdi’s Stiffelio in which the hero confronts his unfaithful wife. We were so pleased to see tenor Cooper Nolan—well remembered from his starring roles at The Manhattan School of Music some years ago—as the enraged eponymous minister.  As his cheating wife, soprano Rebecca Krynski Cox, also remembered from MSM, went through several emotional phases without compromising her fine vocal technique. We liked Phoebe Miller’s authentic costume design  which, along with the wonderful singing, created a fine opener for the evening.

We enjoyed a wonderful trio of tenors in Gioachino Rossini’s Armida—the scene in which the knight Rinaldo (Peter Scott Drackley) must be rescued from the spell of the sorceress of the title. Benjamin Werley sang Ubaldo and the role of Carlo was taken by Adam Bonanni, whose crystal instrument soared. The three voices in harmony created a unique sound. Kyle Lang directed effectively and Jeni O’Malley’s costumes were splendid with Rinaldo lounging in linen and the two rescuers storming in wearing impressive armor.

The sorceress Armida is not present in this scene but in a scene from G. F. Handel’s Alcina, the eponymous sorceress is very much present.  Personified by the beautiful soprano Jacquelyn Stucker, Alcina is a force to be reckoned with as she uses every trick in the book to win the knight Ruggiero away from his beloved Bradamante.  The two mezzo-sopranos were excellent with Kirsten Choi as Bradamante and Briana Hunter giving an equally fine performance as Ruggiero. Director Jordan Fein staged the romantic triangle quite cleverly making use of a swiveling chaise longue.

So we were rather puzzled by Mr. Fein’s clumsy staging of Verdi’s La Traviata. Jailene Torres’ costumes disappointed equally. Violetta (Rebecca Nathanson) is supposed to be in her sickbed at dawn with Annina sitting vigil at her bedside.  But NO!  Violetta enters in a contemporary ball gown with Annina in street clothes.  The undressing made no sense and the collapsing and rising from the floor was not congruent with the libretto or the music.

The scene was abruptly truncated at an awkward place, but not until Alfredo was lying on the floor on top of the dying Violetta!  The staging was so disruptive that it interfered with our appreciation of the singing, although the entrance of Alfredo brought in the arrestingly pure tenor of Galeano Salas, almost making us forget the sins of direction.  We want to hear more of mezzo-soprano Evanna Chiew who sang the role of Annina and sang it well under adverse circumstances.

Those who favor contemporary opera probably enjoyed Matthew Ozawa’s staging of John Adams’ Nixon in China. We didn’t enjoy the opera some years back at the Metropolitan Opera, and didn’t enjoy it any more upon second hearing. Although the instrumental music, reminiscent of Philip Glass’, is interesting, the vocal lines are not. The singers are asked to deal with the difficult diphthongs of English at the very worst part of their range. Furthermore, intellectual sparring does not strike us as the right topic for an opera.  We most enjoyed the trio of Chinese secretaries—Evanna Chiew, Kristen Choi, and Nadia Farad.  If one can have three tenors, why not three mezzos!

The scene from Kismet struck us as silly.  Although we adore Alexander Borodin’s music, the work belongs on the Broadway stage— even with the finely trained operatic voices of Chelsea Davidson, Stephen Carroll, Jorge Espino, and James Harrington. We generally love to hear Broadway musicals performed in an opera house with trained voices, but the libretto here is just not worth Borodin’s music.

(c) meche kroop