INFIDELITY AND BETRAYAL

Amanda Majeski, Jarrett Ott, Rod Gilfry, Ben Bliss, and Emily D'Angelo
(Photo by Ken Howard for Santa Fe Opera)

It was at the tail end of the Enlightenment when Mozart and Da Ponte created their puzzling masterpiece Cosi fan tutte, puzzling because it has one foot in comedy and the other in tragedy. It must have scandalized the opera-going public at that time. As late as the 20th c. audiences might have understood the shame experienced by cheating fiancées; but 21st century morality has changed and partner swapping no longer shocks or shames.

Given Mozart's marvelous music and an attractive young cast, we expected a captivating telling of the tale, especially since we have previously enjoyed the fresh takes on Händel's operas provided by Stage Director R.B. Schlather. To say we were disappointed would be a gross understatement; in fact we were appalled by this meretricious production.

We frequently closed our eyes during the "important" arias so we could focus on the glorious voices. It was indeed a casting coup to have engaged these artists who were excellent vocally and who worked well as an ensemble, apparently doing their best to give Mr. Schlather what he wanted.

Tenor Ben Bliss, possessor of a gorgeous instrument, could have melted anyone's heart with his "Un'aura amorosa". His voice has expanded in the past couple of years without losing any of its tonal luster. It was amazing that Fiordiligi could hold out for so long!

Baritone Jarrett Ott has a compelling stage presence and sings with baritonal beauty that was never lost in this low lying tessitura. Mozart did not give him a memorable aria but "Non siate ritrosi" was given a fine delivery. He was memorable in his seduction of Dorabella.

The role of Dorabella was performed by the excellent young mezzo-soprano Emily D'Angelo who possesses an instrument of distinctive texture. We particularly enjoyed her performance of "Smanie implacabili" for its gorgeous vocalism and over-the-top dramatics.

The soprano role of Fiordiligi was performed by Amanda Majeski who readily conquered the wide skips of the showpiece aria "Come scoglio".  However we were distressed by a hard edge in her voice that sounded shrill. In duets and ensembles this feature created an unpleasant imbalance in the harmonies. Also, her ornamentation could have been crisper in its articulation.

Baritone Rod Gilfry is always a welcome presence, even when he portrays un unlikeable character like Don Alfonso. How can one like an older man who treats his young friends as puppets to play with!  We call him guilty of entrapment.

Soprano Tracy Dahl got a lot of laughs as Despina and we loved the particular timbre of her high soprano. It was particularly funny that her height brought her barely to the shoulders of the other artists. "Una donna a quindici anni" was given plenty of sass.

We always enjoy Mozart's duets and ensembles, especially "Soave sia il vento". The esteemed conductor Maestro Harry Bicket led the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra in a lively reading of the score, also giving the lyrical moments plenty of space.

We also noticed that moments of comedy were enhanced by leaving an extra beat of silence right before a humorous line. We don't know whether Mo. Bicket or Mr. Shlather was responsible for this but it worked well.

Now, about the production--we found it illogical, incomprehensible, and just plain ugly. It would take forever to relate every single instance of directorial waywardness but let us name a few. In Act I, all four of the young lovers were directed to move jerkily around the stage, roll on the floor, fight, and bounce off the walls. 

Despina has a magic wand to "heal" the poisoned "Albanians" (who in this case were silver-clad cowboys) and appears to use it to advance Don Alfonso's machinations. If "magic" is involved, it undercuts the theme of human foibles and succumbing to the pull of romantic variety. In this production the women can't really take responsibility for their lapses although they do feel shame.

The final scene was particularly confusing. Don Alfonso makes all four young lovers kneel as if preparing for an ISIS beheading; then he pours water or some other liquid on their heads. 

Characters were often onstage when they were not supposed to be. Don Alfonso had no justification for announcing the return of the fiancés just when everyone was partially deshabillé.

Terese Waddens' costume design furthered the confusion. The young men first appear in what seems to be tennis whites, as do the young women. The men then appear dressed as cowboys, so that when they next appear as the "Albanians" the only apparent difference is that their moustaches are gone. This makes it even more preposterous that the ladies don't recognize their fiancés.

Despina is costumed in an unflattering housedress and later in a spangled evening gown that harmonizes with those of her employers robbing her of her special role in the plot. No attempt was made to convince anyone that she was a notary or a doctor.

Dorabella at first looks very feminine with long hair. Toward the end she appears wearing a man's suit and very short hair. Why?

Paul Tate De Poo III's minimalistic set design was similarly ill advised. Flat architectural elements had square spaces cut out of them through which characters emerged in somersaults or fell through. The floor had a similar square hole through which characters emerged or descended. None of these movements served the plot. There were no props except for Despina's magic wand.

Perhaps Mr. De Poo and Ms. Wadden were just giving Mr. Schlather what he wanted, just like the singers. But the overall effect added nothing to our understanding of the characters. We speculate that Mr. Schlather wanted his audience to focus on the psychology of the characters and the emotional effects of their interaction. This is not the way to do it!

When we see a production that honors the intent of the librettist and composer and is given a specific context of time and place, we in the audience do the work of finding parallels with our own time and place, as well as differences. It gives us a feeling of participation and a sense of understanding of our place in history.

On the other hand, a barren production like this one was devoid of context. Such abstraction leaves us feeling alienated and disconnected, when we should be identifying with the characters and caring about their destinies.

So...Mozart 10: Schlather 2!  It was the production which was guilty of infidelity and the audience which was betrayed!

(c) meche kroop

 

LET'S GET CANDIDE

Leonard Bernstein's Candide at Santa Fe Opera (photo by Ken Howard for Santa Fe Opera)

If you think you've seen and heard Candide, guess again. If you want to experience this brilliant work in all its glory, you'd do well to get yourself to Santa Fe, New Mexico for one of the two final performances of the season.

The success of this production rests on many shoulders. We scarcely know where to begin but Maestro Harry Bicket's superb conducting resulted in applause almost as vociferous as that received by the presence in the audience of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg!  The light-hearted music composed by Bernstein seemed to underscore the dark humor of the book, based on the satirical 18th c. novella written by Voltaire. As in Mozart's music, a melody in a major key may drift momentarily into a minor key; Bicket's attention to these shifts made for a poignant listening experience.

The scholarship of dramaturg Matthew Epstein, Senior Artistic Advisor at Santa Fe Opera, must have involved some intense activity in choosing which scenes and dialogue to include and what to leave out. The work itself began its life in the middle of the 20th c. and was not successful. It took many decades and the inclusion and later exclusion of a parade of lyricists to ensure its ultimate success. The version we saw last night, one of four extant iterations, is the Old Vic version, an expansion for the Scottish Opera of the Hal Prince/Hugh Wheeler version.

This is an exception to the maxim that "too many cooks spoil the broth". Voltaire's novella provides enough material for a variety of treatments. We will not get into a discussion of Candide's fluid identity. We will call it an opera as long as it is presented unamplified. Although we heard this version recently at Carnegie Hall with a fine cast and all the original music, the voices were badly amplified and we missed all the clever lyrics. Last night, the talented cast was quite intelligible and were supported by excellent titles, in case one missed a word.

In this story of innocence betrayed and reality accepted, we are exposed to countless trials and tribulations; we witness the heroes of the story pursuing their ideals and surviving their hardships. Perhaps this is one of the reasons that the public has such affection for the work.

The literary work upon which it is based is Voltaire's 1759 novella, a satiric attack on war, religious persecution, and the positivist philosophy of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz who claimed that whatever happens in this world is divinely ordered and for the best.

What we didn't know was that one of the episodes is based upon true events. In Lisbon, the horrendous death toll of an earthquake resulted in religious persecutions meant to "appease God". Well!  If that doesn't sound like some contemporary stuff going on in the Middle East we will eat the score for breakfast!

If anyone doesn't know the story, it involves the picaresque adventures of an innocent youth named Candide and his beloved Cousin Cunegonde who were tutored by one Dr. Pangloss, a stand-in for Leibniz. The two survive the horrors of war, shipwrecks, deceits and betrayals, as well as the aforementioned auto-da-fe;  they get continually separated and reunited more than once until at the end they decide to have a quiet life with modest pleasures.

Director Laurent Pelly conceived the work in almost cartoon style with highly exaggerated gestures; although we personally did not care for this style, the audience loved it; we do admit that it made the somber end more impactful--kinda like a punch in the gut. There were quite a few moist eyes to be seen and sniffles to be heard.

Pelly's costume designs for the principals were as colorful and sweet as candy. The excellent chorus, comprising Santa Fe Opera Apprentices led by the always wonderful Susanne Sheston, sang clearly, and were dressed in period costumes executed in fabric that emulated printed words on a page. Chantal Thomas' set design was minimalistic but also reflected the work's literary origins. Projections by 59 Productions augmented the simple set.

As the eponymous Candide, tenor Alek Shrader was given several more arias than were assigned to the character in either the Broadway version or the New York City Opera version (both of which we enjoyed). He was convincing in his portrayal and his light tenor was musical throughout; we particularly enjoyed "It must be so".

Soprano Brenda Rae sang and acted up a storm. Cunegonde was never an innocent and Ms. Rae's delivery of "Glitter and Be Gay", one of our favorite coloratura arias, had just the right edge of irony to it.

Jarrett Ott, one of our favorite baritones, has become a regular at Santa Fe Opera; we loved his performance in the role of Maximilian to which he brought his own style ,substance, and wit.

It was very satisfying to witness mezzo-soprano Gina Perregrino, well remembered from Manhattan School of Music and International Vocal Arts Institute, fulfilling the promise we observed over the past six years. Her performance of Paquette was as on-point dramatically as it was vocally.

As The Old Lady, mezzo-soprano Helene Schneiderman tackled this wonderful role with gusto. There were no flaws in her portrayal but there was something about the performance that begged for more presence.  Perhaps it was the costume which failed to limn the character. 

In the customary doubling of roles as the storyteller Voltaire and the character of the indestructible Doctor Pangloss we heard Santa Fe Opera regular Kevin Burdette, whose resonant bass rang out with authority. We didn't even recognize him in the roles of Martin and the slave/valet Cacambo.

Anthony Robin Schneider appeared as the Grand Inquisitor, and also as the Baron with only his face showing through a hole in his portrait. Similarly, Kathleen Reveille's brief appearance as the Baroness was also as a face in her portrait. This same technique was used when The Old Lady arrived in Spain and sang "I am easily assimilated" with her head appearing atop a parade of costumes painted on a board each with different Spanish costumes. In the latter case it was merely distracting

With a couple roles apiece, bass-baritone Erik van Heyningen and tenor Abraham Bretón impressed as the two rivals for Cunegonde's sexual favors; the former portrayed the Cardinal Archbishop of Paris whilst the latter took the role of Don Issachar the Jew.

Tenor Richard Troxell also sang several roles and was so successfully costumed that we didn't recognize him.

It was an altogether stunning Santa Fe Opera premiere and we recommend it highly--not only for Bernstein's magnificent music (Oh how we loved the fugue-like quartet for Candide, Cunegonde, Maximilian, and Paquette!) and the clever lyrics, but also for the highly resonant stance of Voltaire against religious excess, silly philosophies, war, and greed.

(c) meche kroop

THE THREE BARITONES

Glen Roven, Jarrett Ott, Steven LaBrie, and Tobias Greenhalgh

Glen Roven is a composer, pianist, and impresario. His recording company has just released a new CD-- Remember starring three rising stars of the opera world; last night a celebration was held at Weill Recital Hall. Mr. Roven mentioned that this is the first recording for each of these "exploding stars". 

Each of the three celebrated baritones are well known to us from Juilliard, Brooklyn Art Song Society, Santa Fe Opera, and from competitions they have won.  What a treat to hear them all together! As pointed out by Amy Shoremount-Obra, there was a lot of testosterone backstage!  And a lot of handsomeness, we might add.  We are not fond of the designation "Barihunks" but we cannot think of a better description.

From the informative program notes by pianist Michael Brofman, we learned that the baritone fach originated in the bel canto period.  Who knew! More reason to appreciate Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti.

The program opened with three guest artists with low voices, men who are more advanced in their career arcs.  Arranged by Mr. Roven, Ouverture dei Baritoni involved baritones Robert Wesley Mason and Kyle Pfortmiller, along with bass Branch Fields performing a medley of operatic hits in unison and also sequentially. We were delighted to hear arias by Mozart, Verdi, Rossini, Bizet, and also some Broadway tunes. There was even a cancan performed to the "Toreador Song" from Carmen and choreographed by James Gray. What fun! 

Guest artist soprano Amy Shoremount-Obra performed John Duke's Four Poems by Emily Dickinson, using her generous instrument, lovely phrasing, and crisp enunciation to bring out Mr. Duke's appealing vocal line and Ms. Dickinson's deeply felt text. Andrew Rosenblum's piano did justice to Mr. Duke's many moods bringing out the tumultuousness of "Heart, we will forget him!" and the sweetness of "Nobody knows this little Rose".

She also performed Mr. Roven's duet "The Promise" with Mr. Fields; the texture of the two voices blending and overlapping was quite attractive but Jane Hirshfield's poetry went by without our comprehension.

Tobias Greenhalgh provided a preview of an aria from John Adams' Dr. Atomic, which we will be reviewing this summer at Santa Fe Opera. His performance was a deeply felt and expressive one but we cannot say that John Donne's text wanted to be set to music.

The remainder of the program comprised selections from the new recording.  Mr. Roven related that all the works on the CD were written by living composers. This is probably a big drawing card for many music lovers since Weill Recital Hall was packed. Contemporary vocal music is just not our taste, as regular readers already know. We keep listening and hoping to find something we like but it rarely happens. We were surprised to have liked the John Duke settings as much as we did. 

Accompanied by Mr. Brofman, Mr. Greenhalgh sang Four Surreal Songs by Mr. Roven, settings of text by Paul Éluard. Mr. Greenhalgh has a firmly centered baritone and used every color in his vocal palette to make sense of rather senseless poetry. We liked some of the piano writing, especially the descending arpeggi of "Arc of Your Eyes".

Accompanied by Adam Nielsen, Steven LaBrie exhibited a great deal of vocal power, an interesting texture, and some fine French diction for Benjamin C.S. Boyle's  Le passage des rêves, a setting of text by Paul Veléry.  We liked Mr. Nielsen's delicate piano in "La dormeuse".

Lori Laitman's setting of text by Joan Joffe Hall "The Joy of Uncreating" did not ring our bell. We wondered whether the poet of "Illumination" was writing of the experience of waking from a coma; the piano part was far more appealing than the vocal line.

Jarrett Ott's appealing baritone served well for Jake Heggie's Of Laughter and Farewell. Vachel Lindsay's text "Under the Blessing of your Psyche Wings" rhymed and scanned and we wished the vocal line had done more with it. The piano part, played by Daniel Zelibor, for "By the Spring, at Sunset" was more appealing than the vocal line.

Jennifer Higdon, composer of the opera Cold Mountain, which we heard at Santa Fe Opera, set excerpts of Walt Whitman's poem "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" and created a piano and baritone arrangement specifically for Mr. Ott and dedicated the work to him. We kept wishing that we could catch the fragrance of our favorite flower, the one for which we visit Lilac Walk in Central Park every May. We did not. We couldn't keep from thinking about "Le temps des Lilas" by Chausson which gives us an olfactory thrill.

Fortunately, the final work on the program appealed to our ears to a far greater extent. Mr. Roven took to the piano himself for his composition "Remember", setting of a text by the 19th c. English poet Christina Rossetti. Perhaps it was the fact that the sentiment was meaningful and comprehensible; perhaps it was the fact that the text rhymed and scanned; perhaps it was the sound of all three baritones together. (Mr. Roven pointed out that the recording was made with each artist recording in a different city and tracks assembled later. But we were privileged to hear them singing it together for the first time!)  In any case, it ended the recital on an auspicious note.

The enthusiasm of the audience makes us want to encourage you to buy the CD, if contemporary music is to your taste.  On our part, we prefer to hear the artists singing other material. We'd love to hear Ms. Shoremount-Obra sing some Wagner. We yearn to hear Mr. LaBrie as Escamillo. Mr. Greenhalgh's Eugene Onegin would throw us into a joyous delirium. As far as Mr. Ott, well, we are going to hear him sing Maximilian in Bernstein's Candide within 3 months in Santa Fe.  Watch out for the review!

(c) meche kroop

FINAL DISPATCH FROM SANTA FE

Kasia Borowiec and Jarrett Ott in a scene from Eugene Onegin
(photo by Bobby Gutierrez)

Our last night in Santa Fe was happily spent watching the apprentices show their stuff.  And what stuff they showed!  We were given to understand that the nine scenes were chosen to highlight the individual talents of the apprentices. We have nothing but plaudits for the singing, but we were not always in tune with the staging and costuming.

In the final scene from Tchaikovsky's masterpiece Eugene Onegin, Kasia Borowiec sang Tatiana with a fine tone and deep emotional involvement as she attempted to resist the blandishments of the eponymous Onegin, with whom she had been so infatuated a few years earlier.

Jarrett Ott took the role of the now lovesick Onegin in both hands and made it his own with his superb baritone and impassioned acting. The scene was directed by Jordan Fein. We could imagine no rationale for Nicole Grebb's dressing of Ms. Borowiec as a 1950's prom queen and robbing her of the 19th c. dignity that the role requires.

Similarly, the third act of Puccini's La Bohème was beautifully sung by Alexandra Razskazoff as the ill-fated Mimi and Jessica Jones as the fickle Musetta. We liked Benjamin Werley as Rodolfo and significant contributions were made by Nicholas Davis' Marcello. 

Kyle Lang directed in the manner of film noir-- with costumes of the 1930's designed by Maria Nieto--a period just as remote from today's audience as the time in which the story took place, but with uglier clothes and hairstyles. To what end we could not fathom. Nothing was added to our understanding of the four bohemians.

Beautiful period costuming was provided by Krista Intravanuovo for Cendrillon in which Alyssa Martin captured all the delicacy of Massenet's deliciously Gallic tunes, with her suitor, the pants role of Le Prince Charmant, portrayed finely by mezzo-soprano Pascale Spinney. The harmony of their voices was stirring and we felt squarely in the fairy tale epoch, thanks to Matthew Ozawa's direction.

Similarly, there was an authentic feel of time and place given to his direction of the scene from Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor--a confrontation between Lucia's lover Edgardo (tenor Derrek Stark) and her controlling brother Enrico (baritone Jared Bybee). The voices were well matched and the characterizations apt.  We believed every moment. Caleb Howell designed the wonderful clan costuming.

Where Mr. Ozawa lapsed was in his staging of Tannhäuser which struck us as unsuitable to piano accompaniment.  One could barely identify it as a work of Richard Wagner. The men were dressed in suits (Sharne van Ryneveld) and it felt like a corporate meeting.  That being said, we heard some fine singing, especially from tenor Tyson Miller's Walther and bass Önay Köse's Biterolf. Tenor Cooper Nolan did well in the title role with David Leigh as the Landgrave, Adrian Smith as Wolfram, Andrew Maughan as Schreiber, and Andrew Bogard as Reinmar. 

Kathleen Clawson directed a fine scene from Rossini's Guillaume Tell, another case in which the apposite costuming (Cheyenne Smith) added to the believability. Baritone Andrew  Paulson made a fine Swiss patriot, helped along by Andrew Simpson as Walther, in convincing the wayward Arnold to return to the cause.  This role was superbly sung by tenor Carlos Santelli. Everyone's French sounded just fine.

Ambroise Thomas' Mignon impressed us on all accounts.  Sarah Coit was effective and moving as the unfortunate heroine and sang with a lovely free soprano. Carlos Santelli's fine tenor was heard in the role of Wilhelm Meister with bass-baritone Alan Higgs as the kind minstrel Lothario and baritone Nicholas Davis as the gypsy who sells Mignon to Herr Meister.  The scene was directed by Kyle Lang with the perfect costumes by Tommy Cobau. It made us yearn to see the entire opera!

Bellini's Norma is one of our favorite operas and we were presented with two lovely harmonizing voices--the soprano of Tracy Cantin as the eponymous Druid priestess and the mezzo-soprano of Olivia Vote as her handmaiden Adalgisa. In this moving scene from Act II, Norma tries to persuade Adalgisa to look after her children. Why director Jordan Fein decided to set this gorgeous duet in the room of the children is a mystery and why they were in vaguely 20th c. costumes (Morgan Warner) is beyond me. It added nothing in terms of insight and detracted from the verisimilitude of the scene.  The presence of a pistol was just plain jarring.

There was also a scene from a contemporary opera--Joby Talbot's Everest which premiered last year at The Dallas Opera. In spite of fine singing by tenor Tyson Miller as the expedition leader Rob, with mezzo-soprano Corrie Stallings as his wife and Mr. Bybee as Doug--the scene left us as cold as the climate on Everest and we have no wish to see the rest of the opera. Call us a Philistine if you wish but so many contemporary operas lack memorable vocal lines.  Give us romance, give us passion, give us murder, give us suicide, give us arias!

(c) meche kroop

ALL HAIL THE DON AT SANTA FE OPERA

Leah Crocetto as Donna Anna in Mozart's Don Giovanni (photo by Ken Howard)

Nothing matches the thrill of opera when everything comes together.  Apt casting, effective conducting, great singing, respect for time and place, colorful costuming and sets that "stay out of the way".  Last night at the Santa Fe Opera, we saw and heard a Don Giovanni that will remain in our memory, thanks to all the above conditions being met.

Mozart's music is sublime from the portentous opening chords in D minor, leading to a stunningly melodic overture replete with upward and downward scale passages; this lets us know we are in for quite a ride.  Mozart even inserts a private joke toward the finale; the Don enjoys listening to the Count Almaviva's aria "Non piu andrai" from Mozart's own previously written opera Nozze di Figaro. And just listen to the party scene when we hear a sedate minuet for the aristocrats and a lively peasant dance simultaneously!

The opera premiered in Prague in 1787 toward the end of The Enlightenment. The social order was shifting and aristocrats were fair game.  Lorenzo Da Ponte's radical libretto included attempted rape, murder, licentious sexuality and freedom of expression. It also reflects upon an interesting aspect of Mozart's character; Mozart was quite a rebellious rascal himself and refused to repent his behavior, although a controlling father would have had him do so. 

The eponymous Don was portrayed by bass-baritone Daniel Okulitch who not only sang with gorgeous tone and phrasing, but who commanded the stage with great power and presence.  This Don seems to have some self-awareness and has a sense of humor, even when abusing his servant Leporello. We particularly enjoyed his "Champagne Aria" and his serenade "Deh vieni alla finestra"--in which he employed very different coloration.

Leporello was portrayed by bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen. Mr. Ketelsen, making his debut with the Santa Fe Opera, was just as effective at drawing laughs from the audience as he was at singing. Does anyone not love the "Catalogue Aria"? He portrayed the character as easily bought and ultimately eager to find a less troubling master.

The role of Massetto was given an interesting twist by second-year apprentice Jarrett Ott. This young baritone has star quality written all over him. He not only has a steadfast tone but the ability to create a believable character.  Massetto is usually portrayed as a clumsy simpleton but Mr. Ott's peasant exhibited strength and will, leading to all kinds of interesting variations on the theme of his relationship with Zerlina. He could be a worthy rival to Don Giovanni and was only held back by the power of the aristocracy.

Lithuanian tenor Edgaras Montvidas is new to us and to the SFO as well. His tone has more texture to it than that we usually hear in the role of Don Ottavio, which made his duets with Donna Anna that much more interesting. He performed both of his arias with feeling--"Dalla sua pace" and "Il mio tesoro". The lavish applause was probably 90% for his lovely singing and 10% bonus for being completely unflappable when the heavens delivered a torrential downpour that swept through the partially open house.  Too bad the storm didn't wait for the scene when Don Giovanni gets dragged into hell!

As the Commendatore, Soloman Howard, also making his SFO debut, used his booming bass and stage presence to create a terrifying figure.

Lest you think that the men carried the show, let us reassure you that the three female parts were brilliantly sung and played. As Donna Anna, soprano Leah Crocetto, first heard at SFO in Maometto II six years ago, was a revelation. Her tone is substantial in size but creamy in texture. Her "Non mi dir" in Act II was deeply affecting.

Keri Alkema's Donna Elvira was equally compelling; her soprano was variously colored as she went from loving feelings to angry ones. We especially enjoyed her aria "Mi tradi quell'alma ingrato".

The role of Zerlina is a great one and Welsh soprano Rhian Lois was absolutely adorable. This role is her American debut and it was an auspicious one. She has one of those sweet light instruments that falls pleasantly on the ear.  She excelled in both arias--"Batti, batti, o bel Massetto" and "Vedrai carino". Her duet with Mr. Okulitch, the famous "La ci darem la mano" was pure delight.

If you surmised that the ensembles came across marvelously well, you would be as right as the rain that doused the house.

Mozart's magnificent score was well played by the orchestra, under the baton of John Nelson. Apprentices graced the stage as liveried servants and (strangely) nuns.

Thankfully, director Ron Daniels did not try to impose any weird concepts on this work, which is firmly rooted in the late 18th c. It is indeed a dramma giocoso and the direction milked every ounce of humor from the libretto. This served to make the final horror even more powerful as the Commendatore dragged the Don to a fiery hell, in which the stagecraft worked quite well.

This is not to fault Mr. Daniels but no director has ever made clear why a woman would pursue a man who tried to rape her. In this production, the Don is not wearing a mask so it became confusing when it took so long for her to recognize him as her father's killer.

The costume design by Emily Rebholz added much to the visual impact. Costumes seemed to be modern interpretations of 19th c. styles and were uniformly flattering.

Scenic design by Riccardo Hernandez was spare--just a few sconces on the wall and a huge sculpture of a head which occupied a substantial amount of onstage real estate. It was supposed to suggest a death mask but we didn't perceive it as adding anything to the otherwise perfect production.

However, Marcus Doshi's lighting design compensated for the lack of sets. In the party scene, the lighting was warm, as if the room had been lit by thousands of candles.

(c) meche kroop

ALREADY EMERGED

Rachel Sterrenberg and Jarrett Ott--Opera Philadelphia Emerging Artists

 

 

Once opera stars are "playing in the major leagues" we can no longer call them "emerging artists". What a pleasure it was to spend an hour listening to two artists already assuming major roles with Opera Philadelphia whose Emerging Artists Program is only in its second year and already a success.

Soprano Rachel Sterrenberg and baritone Jarrett Ott are both graduates of Curtis Institute. Mr. Ott is well known to us but Ms. Sterrenberg is new to us. We foresee a glorious future for both of them.

Since we love opera and we love duets, it comes as no surprise that our favorite part of the program was the father-daughter duet from Francis Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites--"Je vois qu'il n'y a heureusement". Mr. Ott's rich baritone and paternal concern coupled with Ms. Sterrenberg's purely voiced religious convictions had us believing the scene even taken out of context.

Their closing duet "We'll Go Away Together" from Kurt Weill's Street Scene was a more joyful one and no less enthralling.

Happily, there was more Poulenc on the program.  Happily, because both artists showed a facility with French and also because we are coming to appreciate his music more and more these days. Mr. Ott sang "Fameux représentant de toute autorité" from Les Mamelles de Tirésias. His interpretation was considerably different from the one heard at Juilliard last week. It's always interesting to hear what different artists do with the same material.

Ms. Sterrenberg performed his La Courte Paille and performed it with grace, charm and humor. We loved the lullabye "Le sommeil", the waltzy "La reine de coeur" and the adorable "Le carafon".

The remainder of the program was in English and the very first thing we observed was that EVERY WORD WAS CLEAR! Both of these artists must have had superior training in English diction. Of the Ned Rorem songs, our favorite was the evocative "Early in the Morning" from Evidence of Things Not Seen. It was beautifully sung by Ms. Sterrenberg and reminded us of being very young in Paris.

The romantic "A Glimpse" was given a special thrill by Mr. Ott's perfect vibrato.  Collaborative pianist Grant Loehnig was most impressive in "The More Loving One".  "For Poulenc" is a setting of text by Frank O'Hara and came from the 1968 cycle Four Songs.  Ms. Sterrenberg conveyed all the loneliness and disappointment in a way that touched our own feelings.  And isn't that what a song recital is all about?

Also included was John Musto's Shadow of the Blues, the four songs of which Mr. Ott delivered in an admirably non-fussy way, letting the irony, sadness, and bitterness speak for themselves.

Should you be inclined to give Jennifer Higdon's Cold Mountain another shot, you will hear Ms. Sterrenberg as Sara and you might hear Mr. Ott as Inman since he is covering the role. Worth a trip to Philadelphia?  We think so!

The program was part of a series--Opera America's Emerging Artist Recital Series. It is worth joining this valuable institution if only for the tickets to this series!

(c) meche kroop

APPRENTICES APPRECIATION AT SANTA FE OPERA

Apprentice Scenes Evening at Santa Fe Opera....Richard Strauss' Die schweigsame Frau

It was another star-spangled Sunday evening at the Santa Fe Opera.  Some of the stars were above in the sky and some were onstage showing off their natural talents and what they learned during the time they spent there as young artists. Some of them had taken small roles in the five excellent operas presented last summer; all had sung in the superb chorus.  But on this night they got to be stars, presenting eight scenes from very different operas--accompanied by piano and directed by some impressive directorial talent.

Scenes were chosen by the apprentices themselves with guidance from Directors Mary Birnbaum, Kathleen Clawson, Louisa Muller, and Walker Lewis. The program is helmed by David Holloway and succeeds in turning out some fine artists and also in introducing Santa Feans and visitors alike to a variety of operas.

Let us begin at the end because it was the last thing we saw/heard before saying farewell to SFO. Directed by Ms. Clawson, Leonard Bernstein's Candide shone like the gem that it always was, but was given a new luster by an exceptional cast. All the satire was captured by baritone Andrew Paulson as Dr. Pangloss and mezzo-soprano Daryl Freedman as the very funny Old Lady. Tenor Adrian Kramer made a winningly innocent Candide with the adorable soprano Bridgette Gan as his more knowing Cunegonde. Especially wonderful was mezzo-soprano Anne Marie Stanley as the frisky Paquette and baritone Jarrett Ott, disturbingly convincing as the detestable Maximillian. (He's really a very nice fella!) The costumes were spot on and added to the fun.

Pictured above is a scene from the rarely produced Strauss opera Die schweigsame Frau, an opera which was banned by the Nazi regime. The subject of the opera is a man who hates "noise" and must be won over by a troupe of opera singers. The irony is that this troupe of singers won over the audience.  The eight singers worked well together as an ensemble.  We heard Andrea Nuñez, Olivia Vote, Bridgette Gan, Cullen Gandy, Peter Tomaszewski, Michael Adams, Nicholas Davis, and Tyler Putnam. Ms. Birnbaum directed with a sure hand.

Another ensemble piece that delighted us was the quintet from Rossini's L'italiana in algeri  with mezzo Megan Marino performing the role of Isabella.  This brought back happy memories of 2002 when SFO produced this opera with Stephanie Blythe in that role. Tenor Galeano Salas was her Lindoro; Mr. Paulson sang Taddeo, Mr. Putnam was a funny Mustafa, and soprano Chelsea Basler was the cast-off wife Elvira. Mr. Lewis' direction kept things moving right along.

We had quite a few laughs with the opening piece as well. The last time we saw Francis Poulenc's Les mamelles de Tirésias was at Juilliard. This opera is also not high on the list of frequently performed works.  Ms. Muller's direction emphasized the surreal quality. Tenor Aaron Short took the lead and was joined by a fine ensemble comprising Nicholas Davis, Jacquelyn Stucker, Alexandra Raszkazoff, Briana Hunter and Jorell Williams.

In Verdi's Aida, directed by Ms. Clawson, Ms. Freedman made an exceptionally fine Amneris with tenor Cooper Nolan, well remembered from Manhattan School of Music, as Radames. We enjoyed witnessing his growth as an artist.

We always jump at the chance to hear Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea and Mr. Lewis gave it some intensity in his direction. As bad girl Poppea, Ms. Basler captured the style very well, as did mezzo Shabnam Kalbasi in the pants role of Nerone.

The quartet from Verdi's Luisa Miller (directed by Louisa Muller!) gave us a chance to pity the poor heroine (soprano Heather Phillips) who has fallen into the clutches of the evil schemers Walter (bass-baritone Nicholas Brownlee) and Wurm (bass Kevin Thompson).  Poor Federica suffered collateral damage as the unloved Countess (mezzo Cynthia Hanna).

Only the penultimate scene failed to deliver. Even the fine direction of Ms. Birnbaum and the excellent singing of soprano Adelaide Boedecker, tenor Roy Hage, and bass-baritone Adrian N. Smith were unable to bring this inert piece to life. Perhaps we had already seen too much of the Civil War; perhaps we just don't like conversational dialogue in English. Unlike the other seven scenes that night, we were uninspired to pursue a further hearing of Matthew Aucoin's Crossing. Although Mr. Aucoin can write some powerfully evocative orchestral music, his unidiomatic libretto did not seem to inspire an interesting vocal line--so often the case in contemporary opera.

We were thrilled that the program ended on that joyful Bernstein note (pun intended).  Even the great Bernstein got help with his libretto from quite a number of people, including Richard Wilbur, John LaTouche, Lillian Hellman, Dorothy Parker, and Stephen Sondheim. No wonder we have been humming the tunes 3 weeks later!

(c) meche kroop

AN EMBARRASSMENT OF RICHES

Nicholas Davis, Jarrett Ott, and Daniel Bates (photo by Kate Russell)

We are always filled with anticipation when planning our annual summer trip to Santa Fe. The quality of the operas is always top-notch and the mountainous location of the opera house is magnificent. But the highlight of the trip is always the evenings of Apprentice Scenes on Sunday night. 

Selected from a vast pool of applicants, these 40 young artists never fail to delight with their native talent, honed by the superb training they receive. For two consecutive Sundays evenings, eager audiences are able to enjoy these stars of tomorrow with all their artistry and enthusiasm. We have heard from several of them how greatly they prize this performance opportunity.

Indeed, the two couples we introduced to opera this season have become fans. Did we mention that the cost is excessively modest?  It's a fine way for newbies to see excerpts from several operas and learn about their preferences.

Although a piano is substituted for the orchestra, production values are flawless; costuming is always appropriate, as are the simple sets. Direction is superb.

Today we will tell you about evening #1, with tales of evening #2 to follow. The program got off to a delightful start with scenes from the first act of Mozart's Cosí fan tutte. If ever an opera was more perfectly written for young performers, we could not name it. Two soldiers, Ferrando (played by the sweet-voiced tenor Daniel Bates) and Guglielmo (portrayed by the rising star baritone Jarrett Ott) boast about the fidelity of their sweethearts Fiordiligi (bright soprano Rebecca Krynski) and Dorabella (mezzo-soprano Alyssa Martin, who has a nice counterbalancing weight to her instrument).

An older man, a bartender in Director Kathleen Clawson's modern dress interpretation, scoffs at them and designs a bet to prove that all women stray. In this role, Nicholas Davis employed his fine baritone voice and comedic skills to good advantage. The horseplay among the three men was hilarious. The two women did a great job of depicting vain silly girls and their duet was divine.

A scene from Händel's Serse followed, a scene that left no comedic stone unturned, thanks to Louisa Muller's fine direction.  Mezzo-soprano Megan Marino in a giggle-worthy moustache portrayed a Russian general.  (We know it was Russia because there was a large upraised communist fist towering over the set). Her Serse was an irredeemable skirt chaser; her over-the-top portrayal provided ample opportunity for coloratura, in which her attack and execution garnered wild applause.

As rejecting Romilda, the unwilling recipient of his attention, soprano Adelaide Boedecker gave a stylish performance. We enjoyed the duet between Elviro (bass Kevin Thompson) and Amastre (mezzo Shabnam Kalbasi).

On a more serious note was the famous duet from Bizet's Les pêcheurs de perles in which Nadir and Zurga express their rivalry. Tenor John Myers gave a well-modulated performance that harmonized beautifully with baritone Jorell Williams, from whom we have never heard a performance less than first-rate. The French diction was truly excellent. A real audience-pleaser that "Au fond du temple saint"! Never fails--two gorgeous male voices and the audience swoons.  As we did. 

From our favorite Wagnerian opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, we heard the glorious closing quintet from Act III, beautifully directed by Mary Birnbaum. This is the scene in which Eva (the fine soprano Alexandra Raszkazoff) comes to Hans Sachs (Adrian Smith with his burly bass-baritone) to get her shoe fixed.  It is the scene in which Sachs becomes aware of the very evident chemistry between Eva and Walther (tenor Benjamin Werley). And shoemaker apprentice David (tenor Derrek Stark) gets promoted to journeyman. Mezzo Olivia Vote portrayed his sweetheart Magdalena. Every vocal and dramatic moment was made crystal clear. German diction was great.

We never pass up a chance to hear Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann. How well we remember the 2010 production in Santa Fe!  Ms. Birnbaum staged the Venice scene with creativity. Mezzos Briana Hunter as the courtesan Giulietta and Anne Marie Stanley as Nicklausse sang a most sensuous duet. Bass Calvin Griffin as Dappertutto sang "Scintille diamant" as well as we have ever heard it--with a great deal of menace. Tenor Christopher Trapani made a fine Hoffman with tenor Tyson Miller and Mr. Williams as Pittichinaccio and Schlemil respectively. More fine French was heard.

Verdi's Otello will never be replaced by Rossini's but as an enormous fan of bel canto, we were very very happy to hear our young artists demonstrate fine flexibility in the fioritura. Tenor Jack Swanson sang Rodrigo, tenor Aaron Short sang Otello, and soprano Alyssa Martin sang Desdemona. The story unfolds rather differently but Ms. Clawson's direction made things clear.

The only scene on the program which didn't thrill us was from Moore's Enemies: A Love Story. Three women sang monologues--not very interesting dramatically or vocally. Sadly the diction was so flawed we failed to determine what they were singing about. English is notoriously difficult to sing in a manner that is comprehensible but the final piece on the program proved that it can be done.

It was the scene of the "Mechanicals" from Act III of Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream. This early 20th c. work is pure delight and the large cast threw themselves into the fun with great gusto. We can never figure out who's who so we will just list all those wildly costumed craftsmen as a group. They were all hilarious and sang well!  Tyson Miller, Galeano Salas, Michael Adams, Nicholas Brownlee, Calvin Griffin, and Peter Tomaszewski. We wish we had a video of their antics.

As the bored and supercilious royal audience, we heard bass Tyler Putnam as Theseus with a (feminine) Ms. Marino as his Hippolyta, Ms. Krynski as Helena, Mr. Ott as Demetrius, Mr. Stark as Lysander and Ms. Hunter as Hermia. Ms. Muller's direction was outstanding and the evening ended on a joyous note with the audience walking out grinning into the crisp night air.

(c) meche kroop

A CLOSE SHAVE

The cast of Martinú's Comedy on the Bridge at Gotham Chamber Opera
(photo by Richard Termine)

We cannot think of another company who could have brought out all the crazy humor and satire in Czech composer Bohuslav Martinú's twin bill.  We didn't know opera could be so much fun.  But opening night of Gotham Chamber Opera's double bill at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater of John Jay College was just plain down and dirty FUN.  But it would be a mistake to shortchange the substantial underpinnings.  Sometimes the best way to learn is with humor, not with preaching.   We laughed.  We learned.

In Alexander Bis we are transported to a highly stylized Parisian home populated by absurd characters and surreal situations; the acting is equally stylized in a cartoonish manner.  An adorable maid (mezzo Cassandra Zoé Velasco) is dusting everything in sight with a shocking pink feather duster, the only spot of color on the highly stylized black and white set.  A portrait of a man, portrayed by bass Joseph Beutel, hangs on the wall; he comments on the action and interacts with the singers.

Alexander, the man of the house, (baritone Jarrett Ott) is testing his wife's fidelity by shaving his beard and pretending to be his Texas cousin.  His wife Armande (soprano Jenna Siladie) sees through the disguise but is wildly attracted to him.  At night in his arms she has a nightmare involving murder and some devils prancing around in red unitards with pink tutus.  (I kid you not!)

This good faithful woman, having had a taste of "infidelity" is now tempted by an athletic man she had previously rejected. An audience favorite, Oscar (tenor Jason Slayden) arrives on a bicycle in a wild and colorful costume.  Poor Alexander in his jealousy has created what he feared.  We got it.  We loved it.  We wanted to see it again!

The second one-act opera on the program was Comedy on the Bridge.  In this opera, the characters are not as absurd but the situation is.  Poor Popelka (the versatile Ms. Siladie, well remembered and reviewed by us last summer in Santa Fe) is crossing a bridge from a town which she has visited to find her soldier brother in an enemy camp.  Her "safe conduct" gets her past the sentry of the enemy town but the "friendly" sentry at the entrance to her own town will not admit her.  He is decidedly unfriendly!  So the poor girl is stuck on the bridge in a "no man's land". The two sentries are amusingly costumed in identical costumes of black and white, except the colors are reversed--even the beards.

Soon she is joined by the lecherous married hops farmer Bedroň (Mr. Beutel)  who imposes himself on her.  He is also stranded in "no man's land".  Next comes her fiancé Sykoš (Mr. Ott) who, convinced she has cheated on him, breaks off their engagement.  Next to arrive is Eva, Bedroň's wife (mezzo Abigail Fischer), who is ready to divorce her husband for philandering.  Finally the school master Učitel (Mr. Slayden) arrives, stumped by a riddle.  The running joke through the opera is the rigidity and close-mindedness we observe in the sentries, small people given great powers.  

When bullets start flying with great orchestral impact, the five trapped townspeople make peace with one another and by the end of the opera there is a happy ending.  We cannot help but think about the ridiculous aspects of war and of bureaucracy.  But we are thinking this with a big smile on our face.

The operas were wisely cast with talented singers who threw themselves into their roles with appropriate style, guided by James Marvel's impressive direction.  Every bit of stage business was motivated and the interaction between the characters, while absurd, made sense within the context of the absurd situation into which they were thrust.  Alexandre Bis was performed in French and the diction of the lower male voices surpassed that of the high female voices.  (That seems to always be the case).  The second opera was performed in Czech which delighted us no end.  The words, although not understood by this non-Czech-speaker, lined up perfectly with the music and delighted the ear.

And what about this music, written between the two World Wars?  We loved it!  It was consistently accessible and varied in tone, unlike so much music of the 1920's and 1930's.  To call it pleasing and tuneful is not to damn with faint praise.  The tone of the music always seemed to highlight the character of the singer and the situation. We particularly liked the emphatic battle music and the tender music for Popelka.  Neal Goren's conducting left nothing to be desired and the orchestra performed with verve and pizazz.

Production values were impressive all around.  We couldn't imagine a better set design than that of Cameron Anderson with effective lighting by Clifton Taylor.  Fabio Toblini's costumes were marvelously designed and always suited the characterizations--witness Popelka's charming peasant dress and Oscar's wildly bizarre costume.

How exciting to discover a composer largely neglected in the United States but probably given a great deal of attention in Czechoslovakia.  We wouldn't hesitate a minute to see more of his works.

© meche kroop