HANDEL'S RINALDO AT CARNEGIE HALL

James Hall, Luca Pisaroni, Jane Archibald, Harry Bicket, Iestyn Davies, Joélle Harvey, Jakub Józef Orlinski, and Sasha Cooke

What an incomparable Sunday afternoon, spent at Carnegie Hall reveling in the sound of seven glorious voices giving Händel his due--and then some. Only The English Concert, conducted by their Artistic Director, could have managed such a lucid and lively performance, holding our attention continually for over three hours.

The plot of Rinaldo is based loosely on Torquato Tasso's epic poem Gerusalemme Liberata, the source of plots for many other operas.  It is set during the First Crusades and the Christians are portrayed as the good guys and the Saracens as the bad guys. The happy ending involves the Saracens converting to Christianity. There are those who might find the story politically incorrect but we are not of that ilk. 

This was the first opera in Italian Händel wrote for the British stage in 1711, when the composer was only 26 years old.  Much of its music was borrowed from operas Handel wrote in Italy and he revised it periodically to accommodate voices of different fachs. After an initial success, it lay dormant for two centuries. We are so glad it was resurrected, especially since Planet Opera is well populated these days with brilliant countertenors. Thankfully, the era of castrati is long gone!

Goffredo and his brother Eustazio (a role often omitted) count on their greatest warrior Rinaldo to defeat the Saracens.  Rinaldo is betrothed to Goffredo's daughter Almirena. The leader of the Saracens is Argante who is under the power of the sorceress Armida. Remember her from Handel's opera Armida? In this opera, she kidnaps Almirena and falls in love with Rinaldo whilst Argante falls in love with Almirena.  It takes a Christian sorcerer to counteract Armida's sorcery.

The plot is just an excuse for a compilation and recycling of some of Händel's most glorious music from his Italian period; listeners are sure to recognize much of it.  From our point of view, we were must taken by Almirena's aria of grief and longing--"Lascia ch'io pianga" and its counterpart sung by Rinaldo --"Cara sposa". 

Other moments that grabbed our ear was "Augelletti, che cantate" due to the brilliant work of the recorder;  the sopranino created some very realistic bird song. Tom Foster's harpsichord solo at the end of Act II dazzled us with its virtuosity as Armida planned her battle with the Christians. The three (and later four) trumpet players did a swell job of announcing battles. These trumpets had no keys and we were amazed by their tonality.

As we come to discuss the singers, full disclosure requires that we repeat what we often say; when we have written about a singer for a few years we feel a heavier investment in their success and a greater pleasure in their achievements.  We are not saying, however, that we are biased.  Of course not!

We first heard counter-tenor Jakub Józef Orlinski in a Polish church in Greenpoint when Il Giardino d'Amore presented Carnevale di Venezia as part of their tour. We went to hear our friend, soprano Amaya Arberas who, coincidentally, sang "Lascia ch'io pianga". We heard Mr. Orlinski and went bananas. What a thrill to find out that he was getting his Graduate Diploma from Juilliard, where we would go on to review his work at least a half a dozen times. We heard him in recital and in Baroque opera, and most memorably, singing  "Duetto buffo di due gatti", which may or may not have been written by Rossini. Whoever wrote it, it was a performance we will never forget.

We have heard him sing Polish songs in recital at the Kosciuszko Foundation, as well as Schubert lieder. We watched him break hearts in Jonathan Dove's Flight. He has never turned in a performance less than perfect and deserves every award he has won. In our opinion, he stole the show yesterday with his fine technique and expressiveness. There was strength down to the lowest end of the register. We are so glad that the part of Eustazio (Goffredo's brother) was not eliminated!

We were very happy with all the singing but our focus on Mr. Orlinski has been explained.  As Rinaldo, counter-tenor Iestyn Davis made a fine hero, one who was more lover than warrior. His timbre is appealing and our only quibble was a bit of weakness at the bottom of the register.

Mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke en travesti handled the role of Goffredo with fine style and vocal technique. The glamorous soprano Jane Archibald created a powerful Armida, especially in "Vo' far guerra". We enjoyed her love/hate duet with Argante in Act III.

Argante was sung by bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni who always gives a great performance and managed to convey the ambivalence of his leadership and his importuning of Almirena--both successfully.

Lovely soprano Joélle Harvey made a wonderfully complex Almirena.  Just as Rinaldo's heroism is invaded by his romantic nature, her romantic nature is affected by her lust for winning battles.

In a bit of luxury casting, the excellent counter-tenor James Hall took on several of the smaller roles. We'd like to hear more of him.

Mr. Bicket conducted from the harpsichord with Mr. Foster at a second harpsichord. Outstanding work by the winds was laid over a warm carpet of strings. The presence of the grand theorbo is always exciting. a:What a terrific sound!

Concert versions of operas are rarely this compelling.  We can now consider ourself a fan of The English Concert and eagerly await their next visit.

(c) meche kroop

A BIG BITE OF THE APPLE

Ed Parks as Steve Jobs with Santa Fe Opera Chorus

How ironic!  We are sitting here writing about The R(evolution) of Steve Jobs which we saw last night at the Santa Fe Opera; and we are writing on our MacBook because our iMac is home in New York City. Our iPhone is on the table charging even as we write. Our iPad is languishing in our carry-on bag, waiting to entertain us on our trip home. How can one take the measure of a man who has changed our lives so significantly that we cannot imagine surviving without our devices!

Perhaps all we can do to honor such a sea-change is to write about it, play about it, and sing about it. What has been accomplished by the production team for this opera merits all the laudatory words that have been written. What shall we add to the accolades?

Regular readers of this blog will recall how often we denigrate contemporary compositions with their tuneless and abstract music, their wordy unpoetic libretti, and stories that do not lend themselves to musical treatment. None of that is true here. Instead of a story about politics we have a portrait of a fascinatingly inconsistent and puzzling genius who made technology musical, an instrument anyone can play.

In place of sounds masquerading as music, we have composer Mason Bates' eclectic score that seamlessly melds of-the-moment electronics with traditional orchestral music in a manner that honors both genres. Even acoustic guitar, so much a part of Steve Jobs' world, puts in an appearance.

Mark Campbell's libretto is punchy like the English language with short rhythmic phrases, and reminds one of the effective work done for Broadway musicals. It is such an acoustic pleasure to hear words and music acting in harmony, instead of at cross purposes.

In baritone Ed Parks, the opera has found the perfect embodiment of the complicated hero. Every shading of mood was conveyed and we wound up feeling sympathy for this difficult character--a genius troubled by perfectionism, obsessionality, emotional isolation, and narcissism.

As his spiritual guide Kobun, bass Wei Wu created a marvelous character filled with pithy advice delivered with humor. Mr. Mason gave him a splendid aria that would make a superb audition piece for the bass fach. As performed by Mr. Wu, we could understand how he was able to get through to the stubborn Jobs.

The other person who was able to get through to him was his wife Laurene, beautifully sung by mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke. Her lengthy eulogy at the end of the opera was filled with insight and sung to some of Mr. Mason's most gorgeous music.

Garret Sorenson employed his tenor most effectively in the role of Jobs' early partner Steve Wozniak. The scene in which they end their partnership was emotionally devastating, as were the two scenes in which Jobs abandons his girlfriend Chrisann Brennan and denies fathering their chid. Apprentice Singer Jessica E. Jones conveyed all the pain and shock of rejection and did so with fine vocal technique.

Apprentice Singer Mariya Kaganskaya used her fine mezzo instrument in the role of a teacher at Reed College, explaining the significance of the "enso", a calligraphic character that inspired Jobs toward simplicity. For us, it seemed to reflect the concept of coming full circle as exemplified by the opera beginning and ending with a scene from Jobs' childhood, a scene in which his father (former Apprentice baritone Kelly Markgraf) initiates the young Jobs (Joshua Sorenson) into the world of making things.

Mr. Mason's score (conducted by Maestro Michael Christie) is eclectic and eminently listenable. Each character was endowed with his/her own sound world. There were passages of minimalism reminiscent of Steve Reich and Phillip Glass, cheek by jowl with lush and lavishly orchestrated passages; so thoroughly integrated were the various elements that nothing seemed out of place. Acoustic guitar, electronic sounds, and instruments of the Far East were woven in and out at appropriate places.

In what Wagner might have called a gesamtkunstwerk, the sets and costumes were all of a piece with the music and libretto. Victoria "Vita" Tzykun filled the stage with tall rectangular pillars that were moved around to create various effects, with the help of projections by 59 Productions. Some scenes seemed to take place inside a computer with projections of a mother board. Others showed the home page of the iPhone.

We loved the scene in which he and Chrisann are dropping acid in an apple orchard (the only reference to "apple" in the opera). Jobs hears the music inherent in nature and is inspired by the idea that a computer can be like an instrument that one plays. This thought served to justify the use of computer sounds in Mason's music and to justify writing music about someone who appears more technological than artistic.  We left with the idea that there is artistry everywhere and that Ms. Tzykun set design showed the artistic side of technology just as Jobs' made technology artistic--witness the fact that we have never been able to discard our first computer--a 1999 "clamshell", so simple and elegant that it overcame our Luddite tendencies.

Director Kevin Newbury kept the action moving along, with the excellent Apprentice Singers in charge of moving the sets around, in addition to performing in such exemplary fashion as the chorus, under the direction of Susanne Sheston.

Paul Carey's costumes were appropriate to time and place. Responsible for Sound Design were Rick Jacobsohn and Brian Loach. What this means in practice is that the voices were subtly amplified; we say "subtly" because the amplification was barely noticeable and the balance between singers and instrumentalists was preserved.

(c) meche kroop

KISS THE COOKE!

Sasha Cooke (photo by Dario Acosta)

It's been over a year since we reviewed mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke at the Juilliard Vocal Arts Recital and a half-year since we reviewed her performance in As One at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. She captivated us last night at Zankel Hall as part of the Julia Goldwurm Pure Voice Series.  Her performances are so fine that we hope we will not have to wait another 6 months to hear her again.  Of the many qualities that contribute to her success as a performer there is the likable and easy-going stage presence that leads us to feel that she is singing just for us.

There is that wonderfully textured tonal richness-- like a cup of espresso that makes one sit up and take notice.  There is that musicality by which each song is distinctive, made meaningful by phrasing, word coloring and variety of tempi and dynamics.  There is that deeply felt connection to the text, delivered without excess theatrics, that gives the impression that she is channeling the poet.

The fine program opened with Haydn's cantata Arianna a Naxos.  This work was a perfect choice for Ms. Cooke who negotiated the wide range of emotions without any hint of fussiness.  Rather she used her technique to serve the music without calling attention to herself.  The poor girl has been abandoned on Crete by her lover Theseus.  When she first awakes she is calling out for him with love in her voice. Only later does she realize she has been abandoned and she is consumed by anger at the betrayal.  At the conclusion she is desolate and wishes to die.  We are happy that Haydn used an Italian text.  The vowels were more than usually evocative.

Usually when we see a set of Liszt songs on a program, we expect intensity and perhaps even bombast.  But the four songs chosen by Ms. Cooke were gentle songs and we adored them.  "Wieder möcht ich dir begegnen" in a tuneful ABBA rhyming scheme expressed tenderness.  "Lasst mich ruhen" was likewise quiet with the piano of Julius Drake making clear the sound of the nightingale's songs.  Music to our ears! "Was Liebe sei" is a short song with a witty closing line perkily delivered by Ms. Cooke.  She used a generous amount of control to achieve the stillness required by "Des Tages laute Stimmen schweigen" with a peaceful decrescendo at the end.

We can never get enough of Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen.  The text, by Mahler himself, is filled with the sorrow of lost love, despite efforts to find peace in nature.  In fact, the joys of nature seem to mock the singer.  Mahler makes liberal use of folk melodies and interesting harmonies.  The melodies are often heard woven through his symphonies.  Ms. Cooke sang the cycle with great depth of feeling.

Having impressed us with her facility in Italian and German, Ms. Cooke also included on her program three tonadillas by Enrique Granados.  These charming Spanish songs were customarily sung between the acts of a zarzuela in the 18th c. But Granados composed these Tonadillas en un estilo antiguo at the turn of the 20th c. They are filled with spunky humor and passionate feeling.

It must be a great thrill for a singer to have a work composed just for her.  Carnegie Hall commissioned a work from prize-winning composer Kevin Puts and we wish we could say we enjoyed it.  We did not.  The music is interesting with strange harmonies and key progressions.  To Ms. Cooke's credit she sang off the book and with perfect diction.  But we did not find the poetry interesting enough to lend itself to musical treatment and the vocal line was not memorable.

The first time we heard Die Schöne Mullerin we walked out of the concert hall singing.  Likewise for Winterreise and the Mahler cycle we just heard.  We could not summon up a single phrase to repeat from the Puts cycle.  We are just suckers for melody!

Melody we got during the encores which were happily dedicated to Steven Blier, our favorite songmeister.  One we couldn't identify called "Ooh, la la" and a rather récherché arrangement of Cole Porter's "In the Still of the Night".  And THAT's a melody!

(c) meche kroop

AS ONE

Kelly Markgraf and Sasha Cooke (photo by Ken Howard)

What a unique and brave subject for an opera--the struggle of a transgendered individual for self-acceptance.  The concept came to composer Laura Kaminsky who found willing associates Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed to co-write the libretto.  The work certainly held our interest from start to finish--words such as TRANScendent and TRANSformation kept popping into our brain.

In a casting coup, married couple Sasha Cooke and Kelly Markgraf shared the role of the protagonist--a likable and sensitive individual born male but feeling very much like a woman. Forty years ago such individuals were thought of as having a mental disorder and the surgeons who dared to perform sex-reassignment surgery were attacked by their medical brethren. Nowadays, the condition is readily treated by hormonal manipulation and surgery.

One might think that the story of one such individual would be difficult to relate to; on the contrary, most people are in touch with parts of themselves that they feel are unacceptable and therefore repressed and denied.  Thus, we may feel a kinship, compassion and understanding.  If we are open to it, we may even feel better integrated ourselves by bearing witness to this story.

Mr. Markgraf performed the role of Hannah "before".  Although his physique and forceful baritone are completely masculine, his skillful interpretation allowed us to witness the woman within.  Ms. Cooke's gleaming mezzo and soft appearance was tinged at appropriate moments with the called-for masculine quality as she portrayed Hannah "after".  The roles could not have been better acted or sung.

A remarkable feature of the work is the way the various artists were called upon to cross artistic boundaries.  At times, the singers were called upon to dance and used their entire bodies to express their emotions.  The superb conductor Steven Osgood was called upon once to lay down his baton and assume the role of a schoolteacher.  (He exhibited a fine commanding voice.) The members of the Fry Street Quartet (violinists Robert Waters and Rebecca McFaul, violist Bradley Ottesen and cellist Anne Francis Bayless) not only played Ms. Kaminsky's music with consummate artistry but also participated in the drama just a bit.

One must give ample credit to Stage Director Ken Cazan who created the magic of having us see in our mind's eye what was not onstage. Although there were videos projected onto four asymmetrical screens, we found them distracting and preferred to use our imagination under Mr. Cazan's meaningful direction.  Although there were titles projected, they were unnecessary since the pair of singers exercised exemplary diction.

Since this was called a chamber opera, let us consider Ms. Kaminsky's music.  Her writing for the string quartet was nothing short of thrilling with interesting motives operating on a semi-conscious level.   There was ample melody and attractive harmonies.  There was nothing disagreeable to the ear, save for the scene when Hannah escapes a man with evil intentions.  There were snippets of Grieg when Hannah retreats to Norway.  The music created a portrait of a sensitive protagonist, someone we would want to get to know, someone we could care about.

We cannot express such enthusiasm for her writing for the voice. We understand that the librettists wanted the writing to be direct and colloquial, a task at which they succeeded admirably.  But, and this is a big but, such direct lines in English do not lend themselves to melody.  One could hear the potential beauty of the vocal lines only during short periods of melismatic singing when there was no dialogue to interfere.  And there were some thrilling moments when Ms. Cooke and Mr. Markgraf sang in gorgeous harmony (symbolic!) and in unison (even more symbolic!).

This problem is not unique to Ms. Kaminsky.  Most contemporary operas in English seem like plays with music rather than operas in the sense that one usually thinks of as opera.

Scenic and lighting design by David Martin Jacques was spare. Costume design by Sara Jean Tosetti consisted of jeans for both Hannahs and bare feet all around.

The work was commissioned and developed by American Opera Projects and will have two more performances on Saturday and Sunday at BAM Fisher.  If you are fortunate enough to get a ticket, don't be surprised if you walk out TRANSformed.

(c) meche kroop

MUTUAL APPRECIATION

Pei-Yao Wang and Sasha Cooke

At the start of the recital, Ms. Cooke expressed appreciation to the audience for braving the slushy streets to attend; at the end of the recital, the audience expressed their appreciation for this plucky performer who went on with the Alice Tully Vocal Arts Recital in spite of a cold.  Brian Zeger himself had prepared us in a most charming story (about singers with colds) for an impaired performance but no apology was necessary and no forbearance required.  Mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke delivered a perfect performance; we could hear the cold in her voice when she spoke about her songs but not when she sang.

And did she ever sing!  Ms. Cooke (who finished her Master's Degree at Juilliard in 2006 and went on to the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program) has a distinctive sound that is hers and hers alone; one is not driven to compare her to anyone else.  There is a depth and texture to the sound that reminded us of rich dark espresso lightened with cream.  She can spin out a vocal line like nobody's business and is seamless throughout the register.  And there is a satisfying amplitude to the sound.

Moreover she has a poised and polished presence onstage, chatting comfortably with the audience; it makes one feel that the girl next store has amazingly become a superstar.  Her collaborative pianist Pei-Yao Wang was chosen as carefully as the program.  Ms. Wang has the softest hands and the most delicate touch heard in a long while and was always totally supportive of Ms. Cooke and the music simultaneously.

Selections from Hugo Wolf's Mörike-Lieder opened the program; all were beautifully sung but we especially enjoyed the jauntier songs "Fussreise" and "Der Tambour", the charming tale of a young soldier daydreaming about his mother and some good food.  Ms. Wang shone in "Um Mitternacht" establishing the requisite peaceful mood.

We were warned by Ms. Cooke not to try to make sense of Max Jacob's surreal poetry set by Francis Poulenc.  What impressed us was how the music amplified the rhythm of the phrases and the sound of the words.

Two songs by Henri Duparc followed--mysterious, evocative and sensual.  "L'invitation au voyage" and "La vie antérieure" were sung in French as impeccable as her German.

The second half of the program comprised songs in English; regular readers will recall that English is our least favorite language for singing.  That being said, Ms. Cooke made some outstanding choices and sang them so well that we recognized  many possibilities for pleasure.  As she told the audience, all the songs in the second half were composed at the midpoint of the 20th c.  George Crumb wrote some excellent songs for the woman he would later marry when he was but 17 years old.  In "Night" (text by Robert Southey) the piano established a lovely quiet mood and the two artists created quite a bit of variety in the dynamics.  In "Let it be Forgotten" (text by Sara Teasdale) Ms. Cooke gave us a messa di voce of incomparable delicacy.

In Benjamin Britten's A Charm of Lullabies, Op. 41 there is a wide variety of moods, not all soothing.  There was "A Cradle Song" with text by William Blake in which the interplay of piano and voice was arresting.  "The Highland Balou" was sung in a Scottish brogue with a great deal of vivacity.  The delicate "Nurse's Song" was begun a capella with the piano entering and supporting the mood. 

The program closed with selections from Aaron Copland's Old American Songs--the familiar "Simple Gifts", "The Little Horses" with its wildly varying tempi, the peaceful "At the River" and the frisky "Ching-a-Ring chaw".

There is no way the enthusiastic audience would let Ms. Cooke go without a couple encores.  Enrique Granados' "El Mirar de la Maja" demonstrated Ms. Cooke's facility with Spanish passion and William Bolcom's "Black Max" is just a marvelous portrait of a character, his time and his place.

This recital marked the 17th annual Alice Tully Vocal Arts Debut Recital given to promote "exceptionally talented Juilliard singers".  We could not agree more with "exceptionally talented".  We expect no less coming out of Juilliard.

© meche kroop