BROADWAY BABIES ALL GROWN UP

Musical Director Shane Schag, Marie Stumpf, Shengquan Jin, Montana York, Raquel Nobile, Juliana Levinson, Victoria Policht, Sam Krivda, Allison Porter, and Luke Sikora

What an entertaining evening we enjoyed at Manhattan School of Music!  Directed by Carolyn Marlow, students of the Musical Theater Lab performed an array of Broadway tunes, many of them addressing issues of our present culture and many of them absolutely hilarious.

Some of them were songs we could not appreciate when seen on Broadway because of the egregious custom of deafening amplification.  Here they were sung unamplified by talented young artists with fine young voices and a good feel for the style. What a treat to understand every clever word!

Perhaps the funniest was "Baptize Me" from The Book of Mormon by Parker, Lopez, and Stone. Luke Sikora was hilarious as Elder Cunningham trying to perform his first baptism on the equally hilarious Allison Porter.  The double entendres flew thick and fast but not over the heads of the audience.

For political resonance, the cast performed  "Everybody's Got the Right" from Stephen Sondheim's Assassins, a wonderful choice.  One can never go wrong with Sondheim, whose text is always meaningful and whose music is always interesting and original.

The issue of "the road not taken" was tackled with excellent humor by Victoria Policht and Montana York in "The Grass is Always Greener" from Kander and Ebb's Woman of the Year. Ms. Policht portrayed an overburdened housewife in muumuu and fuzzy slippers, comparing her life to that of her stylish famous friend, enacted by Ms. York.

A different kind of rivalry was portrayed by Luke Sikora as an author and Sam Krivda as his more 

exciting creation in "You're Nothing Without Me" from Cy Coleman's City of Angels.

Not every duet was competitive.  The warm friendship between Glinda (Ms. Nobile) and Elphaba (Juliana Levinson) was harmonically lovely as they made their farewells in "For Good" from Stephen Schwartz' Wicked.

Marie Stumpf showed fine dramatic chops in two roles: she portrayed a very crazy girl in "Screw Loose" from Javerbaum & Schlesinger's Cry Baby. In "Come Up to My Place" from Leonard Bernstein's On the Town, she was hilarious as Hildy, driving a taxi in which passenger Chip (Sam Krivda), a sailor on leave, has a very outdated list of sights he wanted to see, all of which were long gone. Their interaction kept the audience in stitches.

The dilemma of living in an apartment in New York with very loud neighbors was illustrated by Han Hsiao in "14G" from Jeanine Tesori's Thoroughly Modern Millie. What made it even more fun was that the neighbors were singers, allowing Ms. Hsiao to exercise her vocal cords.

On a more serious note, she performed the duet "One Hand, One Heart" from Bernstein's West Side Story with Mr. Jin in the role of Tony.d

Fortunately we heard even more Bernstein when the full company ended the evening with "To Make Us Proud" from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and "Make Our Garden Grow" from Candide.

Shane Schag was Musical Director and Pianist. He did a bang-up job!

It was a fun evening from an entertainment standpoint but also rewarding in the knowledge that there are up and coming young performers whom we hope will keep Broadway lit up for many years to come.

(c) meche kroop

A NEWBORN ARRIVES!

Madison Marie McIntosh as the dying Dido and Constance Rogalski as Belinda in Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas

It is indeed a privilege to be present for a birth and we were honored to be among the guests witnessing the birth of a new opera company--the Christman Opera Company. Although no mission statement was present in the program, we gather that the mission is for fledgling opera composer Theodore Christman to present his work to the public while balancing the program with a long-established piece.

Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas has been kicking around since the 1680's, which certainly qualifies it as long-established. We are not sure why so many small companies have presented it in the past year (Heartbeat Opera and Utopia Opera, among others); it is neither the anniversary of Purcell's death nor birth. Since we have already written a great deal about the opera's history, we leave it to you readers to use the search bar so that we may focus on the performances.

The musical values were successful all around with singers chosen for their fine vocal artistry, accompanied by Musical Director Lochlan Brown conducting a fine string quartet from the piano. Mr. Brown was responsible for the excellent reduction of the score.

As the unfortunate Dido, Queen of Carthage, Madison Marie McIntosh could be heard expanding her wide range from the stratospheric coloratura reaches down to a richly textured and strong lower register. The final "When I Am Laid in Earth" was heartbreaking.

As her handmaiden Belinda, Constance Rogalski exhibited an attractive crystalline soprano but failed to make the text clear. This task is nearly impossible with that high tessitura and we longed for surtitles to maximize comprehension. Beier Zhao nicely complemented Ms. Rogalski as another handmaiden.

A riveting performance as the Sorceress was delivered by Eowyn Driscoll whose richly resonant voice filled out the text beautifully. Her two accomplices, Raquel Nobile and Sarah Knott completed the trio of tricksters and we could not keep from thinking of Shakespeare's "weird sisters" as they plot to bring Dido down. We observed that somehow Ms. Nobile's diction made the text rather clear, in spite of the high range, especially when she doubled as the faux-Mercury, leading Aeneas astray. What a terrific trio!

John Ramseyer sang the role of Aeneas and sang it well.  All that was needed to make it a fine performance was a measure of dramatic investment, especially in his interaction with the woman he is wooing and abandoning.

A fine performance was given by Thomas Massey who sang the notoriously humorous "Sailor's Song". He exhibited not only fine vocal skills but a lot of personality.

The chorus contributed a great deal and comprised Shawn Palmer, Clayton G. Williams, and Hajeong Lee, as well as whomever was not singing front and center.

The second half of the program introduced us to Mr. Christman's new opera Adriana McMannes, with libretto written by Anna Winslow (who also was director for the entire evening). We have complained a great deal about contemporary opera being devoid of melody and not being entertaining. We had no such complaints last night.

Mr. Christman's writing offered tuneful vocal lines suggestive of mid-20th c. popular music--much in the same way that Johannes Brahms incorporated folk tunes into his serious music.  This is anything but "academic" music and totally accessible, a point noted by our operatic-newbie companion who enjoyed it enormously.

The story is an Upstairs/Downstairs tale in which a widower falls in love with his daughter's governess. The obstacle to their marriage is the widower's mother-in-law who spreads ugly gossip about the governess' mental stability. Fortunately she is made to retract her words and the tale has a happy conclusion.

Ms. McIntosh demonstrated her versatility in the role of Adriana with Mr. Ramseyer as her intended. His Broadway style in this role did not mesh perfectly with her operatic vibrato. 

We were delighted to have another opportunity to see more of Ms. Knott who did a marvelous interpretation of the bibulous mother-in-law from hell. And likewise, seeing Ms. Nobile as Adriana's imperious boss was another treat as she delivered some very funny lines. This was also a great scene for Ms. McIntosh who came across as a modern day Cinderella.

Mr. Brown accompanied on the piano. We know of no plans to orchestrate the score but it was fine just as it was performed. We will eagerly await his next offering!

(c) meche kroop

KING ARTHUR IN DIDO'S COURT

William Remmers as Merlin and Zoe Hart as Philadel

It was the wizardry of Utopia Opera's William Remmers that made an unusual evening's entertainment out of two works by 17th c. composer Henry Purcell. His concept was to have the 1691 King Arthur performed at the court of Queen Dido of Carthage, in order to cheer her from the grief over the apparent betrayal of her lover Aeneas of Troy. After the intermission, the Dido and Aeneas (Purcell's first opera, dating from the 1680's) was performed.

With works over three centuries old, one does not expect the entire score and libretto to survive, but Mr. Remmers, stepping down from his customary role of conductor, cobbled together a 90-minute adaptation, taking on a number of roles himself. He first played Sir Thomas Betterton, an impresario bringing his troupe of actors and singers to Carthage to perform for the Queen. But the actors were eaten by cannibals and so he was stuck with a bunch of singers who "couldn't act", slipping in a private joke for the audience.

He also assumed the role of Oswald, the Saxon King who was battling with King Arthur, the King of the Britons. This was probably meant to be an allegory for the political situation in Restoration England but we do not need to concern ourselves with that detail. Let us just enjoy the outrageous performances--not only as Merlin but also as the Cold Genius in the Frost Scene and later as Comus, god of the Masque.

Singers also doubled in their roles. The beautiful coloratura soprano Madison Marie McIntosh was perfectly cast as the blind Cornish Princess Emmeline, beloved of King Arthur (Lieve Buzard) but kidnapped by the Saxons; she later appeared as Cupid (not the blind boy-child we have come to expect) and had the opportunity to exhibit an impressive skill with ornamentation.  Having awakened the Cold Genius from his long winter's nap, we were treated to a marvelous aria "Tis I that have warm'd ye" which was picked up by the excellent chorus as "Tis love that has warm'd ye".

It was the custom of the time to give singing roles only to supernatural creatures and rustics; so we had the burly voiced Glenn Friedman, wearing elfin ears, as Grimbald, an evil spirit, and the lovely soprano Zoe Hart as the good spirit Philadel who saves the day for the Britons.

A memorable trio was sung by tenor Matthew Hughes as a shepherd with his two shepherdesses sung by soprano Rachel Rosenberg and mezzo-soprano Sidney Dixon; the harmonies were delicious.

Caroline Tye as Dido and Winnie Nieh as Belinda