SORCERESS! DRAGONS!

Katherine Doe, Mithuna Sivaraman, Alaina Logee, Mary Kathryn Monday, Rachel Duval, and Joyce Yin

Cantanti Project is one of our favorite boutique opera companies. They just presented Händel's 1713 opera seria Teseo (renamed Teseo:Medea), replete with sorceress, flying dragons, apparitions, potions, spells, and a deus ex machina in the person of Minerva. Nicola Haym's libretto was based on a Lully opera of 1674 which was, in turn, based on a story in Ovid's Metamorphosis. Händel surely had his finger on the pulse of his London audience which thronged to see his earlier Rinaldo (another opera involving sorcery) but gave short shrift to his pastoral opera Il pastor fido. Teseo had a decent run, marred only by technical difficulties, but the opera was forgotten and lay dormant until 1947. We are glad it was resurrected.

As in so many operas of the period, the story is complicated. King Egeo (Mary Kathryn Monday) has been successful at battle and decides that his betrothal to Medea should be replaced by marriage with Agilea (Joyce Yin), his ward. She is in love with Egeo's military commander Teseo (Rachel Duval). Agilea's companion Clizia (Mithuna Sivaraman) is in love with Arcane (Katherine Doe).

The sorceress Medea (Alaina Logee), incensed at being rejected, does her best to spoil everyone's happiness and create mistrust and dissension. It takes the intervention of Minerva to set things right. A poisoning of Teseo by Egeo is thwarted when the King recognizes the warrior as his long-lost son! His sword was the give-away!

Although Händel's instrumental music doesn't light our fire, his operas set us ablaze. Contemporary composers should study a page from his book. He really knew how to write for the voice with the vocal line emphasizing the words, more so in his Italian operas than in his English ones, of course. His arias, as I recall, are fun to sing! There is ample fioritura with almost ostentatious ornamentation which never detracts from his illumination of the character.

Our favorite scene was in Act IV when Medea blackmails the sweet and lovely Agilea to give up Teseo, whom Medea also wants. With tearful aspect Agilea renounces him to save his life. Her singing would melt an iceberg and it melted Medea's rage--but only temporarily. There was still one more act to fill in this unique five act opera--still more reverses and complications!


Musical Director Dylan Sauerwald led the Dorian Baroque Orchestra from the harpsichord. We particularly enjoyed the sound of the baroque oboe; the mournful sound often echoes the vocal line and sometimes "sings" in harmony with it. We sat there for three hours entranced by the glorious singing and playing. Not only are the arias magnificent but the duets thrill the ear.

What did not entrance us was trying to figure out who was whom and what they were singing about. Had we not read a summary beforehand we would have been completely lost. There was no program and no synopsis. There were titles projected off to the side but they could not be read with the stagelights on.

There was no set to speak of and costumes (Alexandria Hoffman) were as basic as one would expect with a minimal budget. We would far prefer the money be spent on musical values! And that we got in spades.  Wonderful singing, wonderful music!

We realize that the female-centric Cantanti Project had an axe to grind about female power; much was written on their website and Facebook page about gender. That is all well and good; we are glad that castration of male singers ended long ago and are happy to see women fulfill the roles. But for our purposes, it is the music making that counts.

(c) meche kroop

HEROINES OF OPERA--NEW CAMERATA OPERA GALA

Allison Gish

Eva Parr and Erik Bagger

We had a grand time last night at The Flea in Tribeca, where New Camerata Opera presented a very fun very gala evening of food, drink, entertainment, and a foretaste of some upcoming events.

The always adventuresome company not only presents works for us grownups but also brings opera into the public schools with their Camerata Piccolo Program and further has a program called CamerataWorks, creating short video operas for the video generation. One might say they have all the bases covered, if you will permit a metaphor from someone who knows nothing about sports. Let us say they are about to hit a home run with their upcoming performance of Britten's Rape of Lucretia.

Director Bea Goodwin (whose work we love and heartily endorse) gave a brief talk about female vulnerability which was brought to society's awareness by this story over two millenia ago; the situation has not yet been remedied. She spoke about the harsh reality of rape and its dire consequences.  She made a strong plea for defending citizens from tyrants. Can we relate to this when our own president is a "groper"?

Her talk was followed by some gripping performances from the opera which will be presented May 2nd, 4th, and 5th, also at The Flea, a comfortable and convenient venue.

Erik Bagger lent his soulful tenor to "Tarquinius' Ride" and showed admirable flexibility in adorning the vocal line. The excitement built just as Britten intended with the excellent Brian Holman accompanying on the keyboard.

Baritone Stan Lacy illuminated more about Tarquinius' character than we have ever heard in "Within this frail crucible of light" and, surprisingly, we found ourself understanding where this "bad dude" was coming from.

One of Ms. Goodwin's original directorial inventions was to have Amelia Hensley conveying the text of "Give him this orchid" in American Sign Language whilst the powerful mezzo-soprano Allison Gish sang the aria. The signing was so graceful to watch that we had trouble focusing on Ms. Gish's superlative singing.

Fortunately, we had another opportunity later in the program when this marvelous mezzo sang "Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix" from Camille Saint-Saëns' Samson et Dalila. Not since we heard Marilyn Horne sing this role have we enjoyed it as much.

Soprano Mithuna Sivaraman used her coloratura instrument effectively in "Da tempeste il legno infranto" from Händel's Giulio Cesare. The clarity of her enbellishments of the vocal line left no doubt about her gift for Baroque opera. We heard her previously in a contemporary piece but readers will have no doubt about our preference. We cannot evaluate a singer's voice until we hear him/her singing something Baroque or Bel Canto!

To end the entertainment portion of the evening, mezzo-soprano Eva Parr transported us to Lillas Pastia's taberna with "Les tringles des sistres tintaient" from Bizet's Carmen. This is not the first time we heard Mr. Bagger play the guitar and his accompaniment here was delightful and very Spanish. Ms. Parr's versatility as an artist made her a fine Carmen.

The third branch of New Camerata Opera is CamerataWorks and we watched a short video of a Charles Ives song "Songs my mother taught me". We confess that we don't "get" video and furthermore, on this topic, we prefer Dvorak! Still, it's a worthwhile project and sure to find an audience.

Aside from the upcoming Britten, on May 3rd there will be a concert of songs by women--Isabella Colbran, Pauline Viardot, and Maria Malibran. So...are the Heroines of Opera the composers, the characters of the operas, or the singers???  Let's find out on May 3rd.

(c) meche kroop