TOP 5: reasons we loved 2007

OPERA in AMERICA is “A candid discussion of all things opera, music and the other finest things in life.” The time has come to take a moment and remember the best (and most ridicules) events in American Opera in the year 2007.

5. Joyce DiDonato: American Beauty’s return

This year was the breakout of a diva true that a quality aficionado has been following for some time. Joyce DiDonato arrived at the center of the scene as Rosina in The Metropolitan Opera’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, she was awarded the Beverly Sills Award, and the prestigious cover of Opera News (the coveted diva issue at that). DiDonato is singing all of the best, and most challenging repertoire – Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier, Cenerentola and Cendrillon – and doing to great acclaim.

I first learned of the Mezzo with a Paris Barbiere, set in Moorish Seville and it was just wonderful. She is now performing at all of the world’s top houses and brining them down too. This is the sort of singer who makes Americans proud…intelligent, talented, skilled kind and beautiful, Joyce DiDonato’s broke out this year; it’s about time.

4. Peter Gelb: The Great Satan

Gelb is one of the two reasons we loved 2007 for something negative. OPERA in AMERICA feels that he has a sick mind and we love that the Metropolitan Opera has given us someone to hate.

Gelb appeared on the shit list after his negative comments about Joe Volpe (who I think rocks) and his discrimination against Ruth Ann Swenson, despite her triumphs at the house as Cleopatra and Marguerite. We love to hate Peter Gelb, the Great Satan and we can’t wait until he leaves the Metropolitan Opera House.

3. Die Agyptische Helena at the Metropolitan Opera

Will I ever hear such a performance again? I seriously doubt it, so I am glad to have made the trip last March to hear Strauss’ rarity in New York. Deborah Voigt proved herself the heir to Leonie Rysanek and the composer’s dramatic repertoire from the moment she took the stage. “Zweite Brautnacht” was erotic and magical, and she spun out the lyrical lines of the scene with a silver tone not usually heard. Voigt’s performance is the sort that will go down in history as one of the greats. The diva truly deserves her throne as today’s finest dramatic soprano.

Jill Grove’s Omniscient Sea-Shell was unbelievably great. She hit every note; from the contralto bottom to the top of the staff. This was another woman who showed that she is the finest in the fach. Grove is in a class of her own in the German Mezzo Repertoire.

Finally the Aithra of Diana Demrau was the toast of New York. Her large bright coloratura soared over the thick orchestra of Strauss’s score. She gracefully etched the difficult part and showed that she was the premier Struassian Coloratura.

The Met’s Helena was just incredible. The house brought together a Strauss Trinity of the finest caliber. A finer cast couldn’t have been created.

2. Neruda Songs

The recording of the late Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson singing her husband Peter Lieberson’s Neruda Songs (a cycle for Soprano and Orchestra) was a love letter saying goodbye to her fans. Hitting the shelves in January the piece was just stunning.

If only music could all sound like this. Peter Lieberson created something classic…for me Neruda Songs will be the same as Knoxville: Summer of 1915 and will become an American Classic.

Lorraine Hunt sings the music with passion and every word is colored perfectly. We will miss Hunt-Lieberson, but we will never forget her.

1. The Alagnas

She is awful. He is ridicules. One is off pitch, the other is a bitch. One got booed by Italians, the other got fired by one.

In one year Roberto got booed off stage, then needed his wife at his side. While she was standing in the wings of the Metropolitan Opera, she skipped out on her Chicago Mimi and was dismissed from the production, which was directed by Renata Scotto. They should be humiliated after this year. When the Met Opera Shop gave –for free, I’ll never pay for her music – me this CD called “Angela Gheorghiu - A Portrait” and it turned out to be a twenty-five minute interview filled with self praise (together with praise from Carol Neblett) over her less than perfect singing. I threw it away.

The Alagans made 2007 something to laugh at.

IN REVIEW: Metropolitan Opera – War & Peace

War & Peace
Sergei Prokofiev


PRINCIPAL CAST
Conductor: Gianandrea Noseda
Natasha: Irina Mataeva
Sonya: Ekaterina Semenchuk
Mme. Akhrosimova: Larisa Shevchenko
Count Bezukhov: Alexei Steblianko
Prince Andrei: Vasili Ladyuk
Napoleon: Vassily Gerello
Kutuzov: Mikhail Kit
PRODUCTION TEAM
Production: Andrei Konchalovsky
Set Designer: George Tsypin
Costume Designer: Tatiana Noginova
Lighting Designer: James F. Ingalls
Projection Designer: Elaine McCarthy
Associate Set Designer: Eugene Monakhov
Choreographer: Sergei Gritsai

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – (December 28, 2007) The Metropolitan Opera’s Colossal War & Peace was the talk of New York – and the opera world – for weeks now. With a cast that dwarfs even the largest Aida, battle scenes, love and plenty of nationalism it was quite a show they put on at Lincoln Center.

The cast was led over the trenches of Porkofiev’s score by Gianandrea Noseda. While the orchestra got off to a sluggish start, they soon picked up the energy of the singers and by the end of the first act they were on fire.

Baritone Vasili Ladyuk made a fine Prince Andrei, the opera’s obvious hero. His monologue began the evening, and set the tone of Tolstoy’s epic. He was believable as he sang the difficult part and expressed his disillusion with life…and he performed the latter part of the scene with a new vocal color as he spoke of the love ignited in him by the radiant Natasha.

Soprano Irina Mataeva’s Natasha was also excellent. The singing actress became the young woman who’s life would be so changed by war. The character was changed by the destruction and death she witnessed in the war and Miss Metaeva expressed this excellently with her sweet silver tone.

Count Pierre Bezukhov, performed by Alexei Steblianko is also worth mentioning. The baritone funny, and lovable, the less obvious…but true hero of the work. In Tolstoy’s version the reader learns that after all is passed Natasha and Pierre end up together, happy and they grow old and have a family. Steblianko’s singing was so ernest as to bring tears to the eyes.

The true highlight of the evening came late, with bass Mikhail Kit’s Kutuzov. His portrayal of the Russian General who finally defeated Napoleon and France, but only after sacrificing Moscow was incredible. He was a defeated man as he sang about leaving Moscow behind – for any American like leaving New York to a foreign military force – in order to fight on another day. The audience reacted to his singing as it brought them into the General’s world.

There were other fine performances that evening notably that of Vassily Gerello’s Napoleon. The tenor who performed Count Anatol Kuragin did not impress.

The sets were stunning, large and functional. They worked on a turntable and a large mound built on stage. In the beginning, the peace section, the floor is beautiful inlaid wood and is perfect for the large ball scene. In the ball the costume’s were fine and expensive looking. The Entrance of the Czar couldn’t have been better. As the act progressed, and war came closer cracks appeared in the floor exposing the rotten layer beneath.

When the first act finally ended, the chorus appeared bringing news of the invasion of Russia. The mob came forward and sang one of the most glorious scenes in all of opera. It was inspiring to anyone, as they sang of one Russia rising up to crush the invaders from the West.

The second act was the opposite of the first, the inlaid floor had been removed and only rotten earth remained. It was here that the battles were fought, complete with guns, explosions and bodies. This opera rivaled Coppola’s Apocalypse Now when Napoleon appeared on a wall of the dead. Cannon Fodder is the word that comes to mind. Tolstoy would have appreciated the symbolism.

Natasha and Andrei’s final scene together was touching, as the danced as the once had. In the end he was consumed with the pain of his wound and could think of nothing else. As our hero died Natasha, who was forgiven for her betrayal of him cried bitterly.

The largest departure from the novel was the opera’s nationalistic ending. The Russians sang and they stacked captured French Flags at the feet of General Kutuzov and waved Yellow banners of the Czar. Tolstoy focus of the characters and how they hated war and family and love was all they had left.

The Metropolitan had a triumph with this opera.

I denounce Gerard Mortier as a collaborator with Satan

Why NYCO's incomming director is on OPERA in AMERICA's bad side.


Upon hearing more of the closing of the New York Sate Theatre so that construction to the acoustically – as well as aesthetically, visually, and in other ways – awful theatre can be renovated before the new New York City Opera’s General Director (to be) Gerard Mortier, comes to town. I got to thinking, “who is this Gerard Mortier, and what does this mean to opera in New York and more importantly Opera in America?”

The first thing I did was think of the productions I know of from his current home at Opéra National de Paris. I immediately thought of this Ariadne auf Naxos (the clip above) where Natalie Dessay is whoring around as she sings “Grossmächtige Prinzessin” in an orange bikini. So many things are wrong with that…most of which is the idea that pasty white little Natalie Dessay had orange on…with pink hair I must add. It was not becoming to a woman of her very French coloring.

He seems to be a lot like his colleague from across the plaza, the Great Satan himself, Peter Gelb. I simply hope this doesn’t mean more puppets at Lincoln Center. At the Met they have been everything from really cool and trippy (Taymor’s Flute) to stupid and distracting (the little boy in Butterfly). I also hope that this doesn’t mean that I will have to go to other houses to hear the best signing from singers who don’t look like they came out of Cosmo.

I love Ruth Ann Swenson, who rocked Marguerite here in Cincinnati (after her acclaimed Met Performances of the same role…I saw it, and it was great… and Cleopatra) just after having her jobs taken at the Met by the Great Satan in his quest to stage with for skinny bitches. Ruth Ann is wonderful, she just is. I don’t find her fat, in fact I find her just right, and there is no one more suited to Violetta or many similar rolls. She is a darling in New York, as is Aprile Millo, but the Great Satan doesn’t like them so the world will not hear them in his house.

Back to the point: Mortier’s most famous so called staging was a Salzburg Fledermaus complete with heroin and crack whores. Seems like the Party was a sort of rave. I love that actually…but I would rather hear great signing then see silly pretty women rolling around in nasty outfits and shooting up. He also plans to stage a lot of crap.

Britten's Death in Venice
Philip Glass's Einstein on the Beach
Janáček's The Makropulos Case
Adams's Nixon in China
Debussy's Pelleas et Melisande
Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress
Weill's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny
Messiaen's Saint Francois d'Assise.

Needless to say, Valois will not be going out of his way to visit the NYCO.

Netrebko? A lesbian? No way!

Netrebko? A lesbian? No way!
Only the Germans… Well, I never got the lesbian vibe watching her on stage, but it would say a lot about why Peter Gelb (the Great Satan) likes her so much…


As was well chronicled on the opera blogs yesterday (operachick broke the story), after much gossip among the Germans, Anna Netrebko felt the need to clarify, “Ein für alle Mal: Ich bin nicht lesbisch!" Well, she didn’t say she has never had a lesbian experience: she could still have another top selling video if it was on tape. I for one think a little rug munching could be a great career move as it certainly would fill up the opera house with a different crowd.

Apparently Anna met German (lesbian) pop sensation Lucy Diakovska at a taping of a television program and the two hit it off (in a non-sexual way) and went out to lunch a few times. Photos were taken of the friends and suddenly every man in the Father Land had something new to dream of.

I feel that this only strengthens my case that Anna is the opera world’s Angelina Jolie…Sexual ambiguity and so on. Take a look at the clip above and tell me it isn’t a little lesbianesque. I do wish that more of our divas sparked this sort of controversy.

In other news, Netrebko will be taking on the Strauss rarity Das Lesbische Jungfrau (the Virgin Lesbian)in a Peter Sellers production this year at Santa Fe, and her next album will be a studio production complete with Ann Shophie von Otter. The opera is the tale of a virgin (das Junfrau, sung by Netrebko) who gives up her “golden rose” to sexually adventurous older woman (von Otter) who in the end goes back to her husband (Botha). The Junfrau is ruined and kills herself in a fit of anger and sexual furry…in other words, it’s like everything else the von Hofmannsthal/Strauss team ever did.

TOP 5: Reasons that Roberto Alagna isnt’ a winner

I have to admit, I drank to koolaid after his Romeo…then I saw this clip.

TOP 5: Reasons that Roberto Alagna isnt’ a winner



5. Being hated around the world:
Roberto is hated by opera fans and administers the world around. In Italy he is booed, in London he is unaffectionately called Clyde (as in Bonnie and Clyde) by British News Papers. He singlehandedly provides one nightmare after another for Press Agent (and opera legend) Herbert Breslin. If it were anyone else I would say “ROCK ON!” but he just doesn’t get away with much in my book. All of humanity agrees, this guy is a dick.

4. The clip above:
Just look at it. Does he look like a winner to you?

3. Getting owned by Volpe:
The best episode of this I can think of was when Alagna brought notes from his brother to then Met Kahuna Joe Volpe on the Traviata production and what might be changed. He shouldn’t have messed with Zeffirelli, and when this came out in Volpe’s autobiography I understood that he wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. A victory for Volpe.

2. Loosing the fight with the Loggionisti:
Since ancient times the Italians have felt to need to cheer and boo and carry on like the fools they are at any public gathering. On average they elect a new Prime Minister every Nineteen Months. They have an incredible history which includes Coliseums where thousands of Italians cheered as they watched men fight each other to the death. La Scala, another important Coliseum, is the place with the people of Milano go to see this tradition continued.

The list of singers who have been booed is an illustrious one indeed. Off the top of my head I can name Renee Fleming, Mirella Freni, Maria Callas, Renata Scoto, Salvatore Licitra, Placido Domingo…it’s so much longer. When Roberto Angela dealt with boos, he walked off the stage shaking his fist at the claque.
Roberto told a French Paper, "Have you any idea what it's like to hear people shouting 'Boo!' when I was singing with all my heart and had sung well?"
What a looser.


1. Crazy wife Angela Guergihu:
Any man who lets his wife get herself fired from the Chicago Lyric Opera –after missing 6 out of 10 rehearsals and several costume fittings– because he needed her right then isn’t cool.

"I asked Lyric Opera to let me go to New York for two days to be with him, and they said, 'No.' But I needed to be by Roberto's side at this very important moment," Gheorghiu told the Associated Press. "I have sung 'Boheme' hundreds of times, and thought missing a few rehearsals wouldn't be a tragedy. It was impossible to do the costume fitting at the same time I was in New York.”

Valois wonders if there is more to this story? Alagna fans will tell you he is the Brad Pitt of Opera. Well…I would say that if Opera has a Brad Pitt, it isn’t Roberto. He is maybe more of a Mel Gibson; he was once at the top of the world and is prone to out bursts of Anti-Semitism. For argument’s sake, if Alagna is Brad Pitt, is it likely that Guergihu didn’t want to end up Jennifer Aniston when rival soprano Anna Netrebko (who is Angelina Jolie in this little drama) came along looking all sexy.
The question is who won here? Not the Lyric Opera. Not “Wifey…”bitch lost her job. Roberto, he just looked like a pussy who needed his wife to hold his hand.
The true winner was diva turned director Renata Scotto who was famous for a few episodes of her own over the years, but at the end of the day she always came out on top. Roberto and wife should learn something important here: Scotto still has a bigger dick than you two.
Letting your wife looses her job because she is standing by her man? Not impressive!

Isolde’s Liebestod…just without Isolde.

Understanding (or trying to) orchestras who don’t use singers for Wagner’s Opera



This evening as I drove back into the city from dinner with friends about an hour away, I heard something extraordinary. It was the Liebestod, and I’d never heard an orchestra play it so well before. James Levine led the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in a concert version.

I was very upset however that they did they didn’t have a singer at all. I hate this practice, and so I had to take the place of some dramatic soprano. I must say I do as well as many of the so called Wagnerians currently working. It seemed odd to me that they made this choice, to leave out a soprano.

For all the mud I sling – as I just did – about the current dramatic bunch, I really do believe there are some incredible voices which are suited to the challenges of this work. Christine Brewer, Debroah Voigt, Nina Stemme just to name a few of the wonderful voices…and this was James Levine after all. Waltrud Meier is doing it in Milan this very week. The excuse that there are “simply no voices around for it” is just stupid.

Is it possible that some of these people who go to the symphony are not willing to pay to hear a singer like they would a violinist or pianist? I don’t think so: a few years ago when Debroah Voigt and Ben Heppner came to sing a concert version of Tristan in Cincinnati the place was packed…all four thousand seats (yes our opera house is bigger than Chicago’s) sold out. Jeanine Jansen – the world class violinist – played the Tchaikovsky Concerto the same year, and only about three thousand showed up.

My own home town orchestra, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra plays very wonderfully…but they rarely have great singer come during the normal season. Matthias Gorne appeared a few years ago, and they play an annual festival of nothing but operatic and choral music, but as a general rule Cincinnati’s Orchestra – like any other medium sized city – gives us very few concerts with the great singers.

Where are they then? Well, looking at the schedules of any of the fine singers I have mentioned, you will find them performing often in Europe or New York, but they rarely come outside of Manhattan to share their voices with the world. It’s a shame that I have to go so far to see a great singer.

If opera is to survive as an art form, the great singers have to end the monopoly that the Metropolitan, La Scala, Covent Garden, and Staatsoper have established (splitting the rest of their time between Chicago, San Francisco and such places). They have to make sure that people know that Liebestod with an Isolde is better than without.

It bothers me however, that that singers often show up in Cincinnati (because the reputation of our kindly nature, and enthusiasm) to try a role out a new roll, or espically after some sort of trauma. That same Voigt/Heppner Concert was her first outing after the surgery and it was his first appearance after a crisis of vocal health. We loved them! We were honored to have them and the city was proud that they had been a part of our illustrious musical history …it is after all as fine as that of New York, but just not as hot right now.

Birgit Nilsson, Placido Domingo, Leonie Rysanek, Jussi Bjorling, James Levine, Martina Arroyo, Leontyne Price…even Richard Strauss have all been at Cincinnati multiple times and even have been regulars (okay not Strauss, he just came twice). It’s a shame that today we have to work so hard (and pay so much) to have this sort of talent come, unless they want us to stoke their ego after they get their nodules removed.

Someone once said, “there is nothing better than great Shakespeare, and nothing worse than bad either.” The same is true of Wagner, and until the singers decide they are going to do it in places like Cincinnati more often, it just will be done with an orchestra. James Levine has no excuse to have done this without Isolde…but unfortunately most conductors do.

IN REVIEW: Kentucky Opera - Dialogues of the Carmelites

Dialogues of the Carmelites
Francis Poulenc

NO PRODUCTION PHOTOS AVALIBLE

CAST/ PRODUCTION TEAM:

Conductor: Christopher Larkin
Director: Casey Stangl
Blanche: Susanna Phillips
Mere Lidoine: Emily Pulley
Old Prioress: Janice Meyerson
Mere Marie: Eugenie Grunewald
Constance : Caroline Worra
Chevalier: Brian Stucki
Marquis: John Stephens
Father Confessor: Daniel Weeks
Mother Jeanne: Courtney McKeown
Sister Mathilde: Susan Nelson
1 st Commissioner: Chuck Chandler
2 nd Comm/Officer/Jailer: Daniel Collins


LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY (December 2, 2007) – The Kentucky Opera impressed me very much at my second visit to the place with their production of Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites. The small company successfully staged an opera which presents many challenges, both musicians and stage directors.

I must note that Louisville is a very quite city. When you enter it’s downtown area (actually uptown…you see it’s north of the rest of the city.) The city is dominated by a few large contemporary towers. It is clean and nice enough but not the sort of place you expect to find great opera. The Kentucky Center is a moderately large “new” opera house. It doesn’t have a bad seat in it, and the sound quality isn’t all that bad.

A wonderful speech on the opera was given by a Scottish gentleman whose name escapes me. The lecture was a top rate exploration of the work by a very entertaining speaker.

Upon taking my seat I noticed that the company had chosen to place only a partially transparent scrim between the audience and the large crucifix…a set piece which would dominate much of the opera. The lighting made the scene look somewhat ominous, and it was a good choice. The largest shortfall of the evening came just before downbeat. A personal peeve I have is when a general director or artistic something or other appears before the opera to talk to the audience about the work and/or to thank donors, the board members and so on. I feel that the program book is a fine enough place for all of that, but I was subjected to a speech by the Kentucky Opera.
The Louisville Orchestra played well enough thought the evening. The sets were stark and minimal but they were very appropriate and worked well. The first scene went well, Tenor Brian Stucki, (who it turns out I have heard at Indiana University in 2004 in La Cenerentola) had a small but intensely beautiful lyric voice and sang the role of Chevalier de la Force very convincingly. Bass John Stephens sang proficiently as the Marquis de la Force.

Susanna Phillips possessed a fine lyric voice which would be perfect for Micaëla, Liu, or even Fiordiligi and Mozart’s Countess in the future. Blanch de la Force turned out to be just right for the young soprano and her youthful appearance made her immediately believable in the role. She was heartbreaking and relatable as the character comes of age in an awful period…finally she was inspiring as the opera ended. For a few wonderful hours Susanna Phillips really was Blanch.

A few of the larger voices, possessed great talent and filled the Kentucky Center easily. The problem with these voices was like that of many large ones, they didn’t always sound controlled. Many of these young singers have great gifts and will grow into fine dramatic sopranos or mezzos in the future as they become more technically sound. Caroline Worra (who was not in this class) is also worth mentioning. I think she was a coloratura, with a bright yet handsome sound, her performance as Sister Constance made the character very believable.

The Mere Lidoine of Emily Pulley’s singing toward the end of one scene was especially moving. She displayed a rare gift to float a pianissimo note above the orchestra and she at time evoked Renata Scotto (as she performed another nun in the final notes of her “Senza Mamma” from Sour Angelica). Emily Pulley is the sort I would come back to see again.

The production’s end is always difficult and was done effectively. As one sister after another was guillotined…each saying goodbye to this world in their own way I was deeply moved, even getting goose bumps for a moment or two. It made me wish I had the chance to see the opera again so that I could observe more closely how each woman played her character.

The sisters collectively make up the most important character, and they did a fine job. Much can be said of the director of this little ensemble. The stage direction of Casey Stangl was on point, and Christopher Larkin led the orchestra over the many obstacles in Poulenc’s score with intelligence and sensitivity. This opera is filled with traps where a production could easily be bogged down. The result here was better than at least a few recent Met performances. Bravo to the Kentucky Opera for pulling off a work that many don’t dare to approach.

Callas’ love letters….for sale?

Considering she was how she was…what would Maria think?



http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17142847

Yesterday, as I listened to NPR, I was very surprised to hear that Maria Callas’ love letters were for sale in an auction. This bothered me a little. I relate to Callas on many levels, she was a master of keeping the world at an arms length while having an extremely complex emotion life. I don’t think that people were aware at the time of (what seems to me as) her intense sadness, and I believe she wanted it that way.

Personally, I would be very upset if someone were selling my personal letters for profit. These letters are from the period in Callas’ life when she was very young, overweight and unconfident. They are between her and her husband from a happy time for them, that is all that I know about what is contained in the letters. I have been considering how interesting it would have been to meet Callas before opera turned her into one of it’s myths (she is a tragic heroine as much as Mimi or Violetta) and to see what she was like then. These letters are of course of great interest to me, and I wonder about them.

Any Callas fan would love to get their hands on Maria’s thoughts from this period. She was married and was just becoming a star. Three times a day she wrote to her husband. Oh, what must be contained in them. I wonder if it talks about who was a bitch to her, and if she was a bitch back at that time….so interesting!

Honestly I suspect that we wouldn’t learn much about the person who Maria was from them. I feel I know her very well, even while I never have met her. When you hear a recording of her “Casta Diva” or the Willow Song from Otello, you learn so much about the woman they call La Davina. Any true Maria Callas fan will tell you this is true. For all of the illusion she created about herself, she put it all aside and really lived when she took the stage…she offered a part of herself, one which we are glad to have taken it.

As long as there is opera, there will be a cult of Maria Callas, a great woman and a very private person. Knowing that she was how she was is clear in her music…I don’t know if I want to know too much about her every day life. I wish that people would respect her private nature and not read her letters…or sell them.

IN REVIEW: Chicago Lyric Opera - Die Frau ohne Schatten

Die Frau ohne Schatten
Richard Strauss



CAST:
Empress: Deborah Voigt
Dyer's Wife: Christine Brewer
Emperor: Robert Dean Smith
Barak: Franz Hawlata
Nurse: Jill Grove (illness: Sub unknown good singer)
Spirit Messenger: Quinn Kelsey
Voice of the Falcon: Stacey Tappan
Hunchbacked Brother: John Easterlin
One-Eyed Brother: Daniel Sutin
One-Armed Brother: Andrew Funk
PRODUCTION TEAM:
Conductor: Sir Andrew Davis
Director: Paul Curran
Designer: Kevin Knight
Lighting Designer: David Jacques
Chorus Master: Donald Nally
Ballet Mistress: August Tye

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS (November 30, 2007) – Upon my arrival in the Civic Theater I was disappointed. The man who soled my ticket seemed unwilling to help me. I got the feeling it was because I was a young black man in jeans, however I am not sure. I asked him several times where the best place to sit acoustically was. He continued to ask how much I was willing to spend…and didn’t seem to notice that money wasn’t a particular concern. I have seats in the third row, orchestra….that was too close, this man was an idiot, and must never have gone to the opera. More likely he thought that I had never been. This house was off to a bad start.

When I finally took my seat (far away and much more expensive than the Metropolitan) a man stepped out from behind the curtain. He announced that Jill Grove was ill and would replaced by another mezzo, whose name I didn’t know. The girl was alright, though she wasn’t the Strauss mezzo Goddess that Grove is, and she sang the roll of the Nurse well enough. Franz Hawlata, the baritone who performed Barak was also ill, and the gentleman asked the audience’s indulgence.

This work has a reputation as being one of the most difficult to stage pieces in operatic history. Complete with spiritual forces, Gods, and multiple dimensional realms setting this opera in a relevant way is a challenge. Robert Dean Smith was a wonderful Emperor, with sufficient vocal power to compete the roll well and I liked someone other than the women for once.

From the moment the empress appeared onstage director Paul Curran failed to establish the Freudian motives of the characters. Deborah Voigt’s playful and somewhat childish Empress sounded wonderful, a perfect roll for the diva vocally. She was a little too childish for my taste, and I didn’t find her alluring enough. After a night in bed with the empower she didn’t seem like she had just woken up from….a romp.

The Dyer’s Wife seemed less complex and sophisticated than Hofmannsthal intended. Like the Empress, she didn’t seem in touch with the sexual love the woman needed…so central to the character.

The set worked well, and the company employed a clever use of ballet to explain the visions many of the characters have. Occasionally there was too much going on in the sparse setting…crazy men hanging from cables, it was all very Cirque du Soleil and I am not a fan. When the emperor flew in on a plastic horse, following the Falcon (great young singer) who flew in a cube surrounded by florescent tube lighting people laughed…so did I. It was very Studio 54, in an opera that other than that was fairly pretty. The laughing continued as the Emperor tried to climb back onto the stallion and it shook and leaned from side to side.

Robert Dean Smith kept it together through all of these challenges…and seemed to care very much about the Empress. The Barak of Franz Hawlata was also very wonderful and his love for his wife was understood…though his desire for her only in a sexual and unemotional way wasn’t clear. Director Paul Curran’s biggest mistake was making the men so complete that women seemed like bitches: He didn’t understand Strauss’ stories, where the only important characters are women which are either power-hungry and needing to be put back in place, or needing the love they deserve from their husbands.

Christine Brewer’s voice was stunning. At times I wondered if the Dyer’s Wife and the Empress should have been switched? I guess not, but it could have been interesting. Brewer and Voigt were very naturally the highlights of the evening, Robert Dean Smith’s Emperor was very impressive as well. Other notable were that of baritone Franz Hawlata, I would love to have heard him in better health and the Falcon Stacey Tappan sounded wonderful in the high flying passages.

Sir Andrew Davis led the orchestra. They, per their usual, sounded very bright…annoyingly bright even. The strings tripped over each other in some of the more challenging passages. Growing up with the Cincinnati Symphony (who play in residence) at the Cincinnati Opera’s Summer Festival I have grown to expect a world class orchestra in the pit when I hear opera. Metropolitan is a part of this tradition (fellow Cincinnatian James Levin leading them) and I am always satisfied. Chicago’s orchestra was in that opera class, and didn’t hold up to a quality symphony or philharmonic.

Chicago’s Frau was a vehicle for some wonderful singing, but fell sort of my expectations for the piece.

IN REVIEW: Metropolitan Opera – Roméo et Juliette

Roméo et Juliette
Charles Gounod

CAST:
Conductor: Plácido Domingo
Juliette: Anna Netrebko
Stéphano: Isabel Leonard
Roméo: Roberto Alagna
Mercutio: Stéphane Degout
Frère Laurent: Kristinn Sigmundsson
PRODUCTION TEAM:
Production: Guy Joosten
Set Designer: Johannes Leiacker
Costume Designer: Jorge Jara
Lighting Designer: David Cunningham
Choreographer: Sean Curran
Fight Director: Dale Anthony Girard

NEW YORK, NEW YORK (September 29, 2007)– I was so disappointed about the cancelation of Rolando Villazon, in my opinion the finest lyric tenor on the scene. Adding salt to this wound was the news that he would be replaced by Roberto Alagna who I had given up on after disrespecting opera’s temple, Teatro alla Scala, a few months ago.

The opera began well enough, with the opera chorus sounding in fine form with their prologue. The set was the Met’s astrological production, the one in which a few years ago Natalie Dessay fell out of the flying bed.
For as many difficulties as the original run of this staging had the Met has made it work well. The work opened with the Capulet ball where the guest are dancing and having a wonderful time. The Met’s chorus (for once) looked as good as they sounded in the joyful scene.

Mercutio, the visceral baritone Stéphane Degout, performed his first ballad well. The show really began with Anna Netrebko. I hadn’t heard Anna live until that night, she didn’t interest me (except maybe as Violetta). Expecting a simply stunning moment, I was shocked when the loudest (I mean loud in only the best manner) singing came from the skinny Russian. One of the most beautiful women I have ever seen, she danced around the stage singing “Je veux vivre”. In that moment I understood Juliette as a young woman who wanted to live life to the fullest…she was sure great things were to come, and I too wanted them for her.

I must say that Alagna was impressive. I expected the most awful singing of the week, buy he did a very fine job. I found it hard to imagine what other tenors would have looked like in the difficult to look good in costume.

The evenings shenanigans came and went. The floating bed turned out very beautifully I must say…though once more I expected tacky. No one fell out this time either. Later in the evening Mezzo-Soprano Isabel Leonard proved herself a fine singer as Stéphano, but she didn’t project the male quality to the “pants roll” that some mezzos do. Stéphane Degout’s performance suffered as Mercutio died later in the evening…I’m not sure why, but it didn’t work.

The last scene was very touching, they seemed so in love… I found myself very saddened. When the lovers were finally (after some wonderful singing)dead I just wanted to look at Netrebko some more. He was hot, and she was the most stunning thing I had ever seen.

If Netrebko, Alanga, and the production were not enough to prove my biases wrong, Placido Domingo’s conducting was another wonderful surprise. The orchestra sounded so alive and added to the drama. A first class performance all around, this was the finest opera I have seen this year.

IN REVIEW: Metropolitan Opera – Aida

Aida
Giuseppe Verdi

CAST:
Conductor: Kazushi Ono
Aida: Angela M. Brown
Amneris: Dolora Zajick
Radamès: Marco Berti
Amonasro: Andrzej Dobber
Ramfis: Carlo Colombara
The King: Dimitri Kavrakos

PRODUCION TEAM:
Production: Sonja Frisell
Set Designer: Gianni Quaranta
Costume Designer: Dada Saligeri
Lighting Designer: Gil Wechsler
Choreographer: Rodney Griffin
Stage Director: Stephen Pickover

NEW YORK, NEW YORK (September 29, 2007) – When one goes to see an Aida one expects spectacle. When one goes to the Metropolitan Opera House, one expects the best opera has to offer. This Aida was a pile of shit. The singing was good…some of it…but the production, I have seen better productions in high schools.

From the beginning, everything looked like Halloween. In the opening scene tenor Marco Berti’s Radames sounded strained to my ear. His “Celeste Aida” drew a few bravos, but was not to my liking.

Angela Brown’s Aida was as wonderful as I remembered, and as she sang her first Aria (“Ritorna vincitor!”) the opera took a turn for the better. I nearly forgot about the fact that she was standing in a place where I could hardly see her from my box as she floated out the last notes wonderfully. As the performance progressed I had my first experience hearing Dolora Zajick who was Amneris. She was stunning…just amazing!

The triumphant scene was a joke. I had just been a part of the chorus for a production in Cincinnati and I noticed quickly as they removed several choral parts from the scene. What a waste of time, we laughed out loud as the Ethiopian prisoners entered. Andrzej Dobber, the baritone who sang the part of Amonasro, wasn’t a good singer, and he couldn’t act either. His costume had him looking something like a Klingon, the alien race from Star Treck, and it was just awful.

Conductor Kazushi Ono’s tempo was too fast throughout the evening and he ruined one of the opera’s most personal moments Aida’s aria “O patria mio”. Angela Browns radiant soprano sounded like something out of I Puritani as the aria went so fast that Verdi’s gentle phrases came at coloratura speeds. Maybe it wasn’t that bad….maybe…but none the less it was just awful.

Peter Gelb should be ashamed of himself as he puts this third rate production on stage. If this were my first time at the Met, I would be very disappointed and may never have returned.

IN REVIEW: Gotham Chamber Opera – María de Buenos Aires

María de Buenos Aires
Ástor Piazzolla

CAST:
María: Nicole Piccolomini
Duende: Diego Arciniegas
Porteño: Ricardo Herrera
María II: Malvina Sardou
Duende II: Miguel Quinones
Porteño II: Kevin Fitzgerald Ferguson
Bandoneon II: Tommy Scrivens
Gotham Chamber Opera Orchestra
PRODUCTION STAFF:
Conductor: Neal Goren
Production & Co-Choreographer: David Parsons
Assistant Production & Co-Choreographer: Pablo Pugliese
Scenic Design: Carol Bailey
Costume Design: Fabio Toblini
Lighting Design: Howell Bailey
Scenic Projection: Design Jerome Sirlin
Sound Design: David Meschter
Make-Up & Hair Design: Hagen Linss

NEW YORK, NEW YORK (September 29, 2007) - On the campus of New York University in the school’s relatively new auditorium the Gotham Chamber Opera presented their latest production with Ástor Piazzolla’s so called “Tango” Opera, María de Buenos Aires. As I entered the theatre, a sheer curtain separated the audience from the stage. A projected film appeared on the curtain, two lovers dancing the tango. It was sort of a ghostly white and worked very well.

A very interesting opera, to say the least, María de Buenos Aires begins with the birth of María in an Argentine slum. Diego Arciniegas performed extremely well as Dwende, a speaking roll…the only one in the opera. Dwende is a sprit who represents music and dance. He speaks of María’a birth as the tango begins, in a series of dances and songs María grows up and falls in love with the first of many destructive men. Contralto Nicole Piccolomini took on the roll of María performing the difficult part very well.

Baritone Ricardo Herrera performed as Porteño, successfully achieving the range of emotion of this roll. Porteño requires one person to portray many characters, first the father of María, later a lover, then a batterer, and finally her pimp.

María lives a very difficult life as an abused woman who turns to dance and then prostitution in Buenos Aires. In the end she is killed by her lover, and the sprit Dwende has mercy on her. She is reborn, only this time in a life that will be one filled with happiness and blessings.

The singers danced well enough, and their dancing counterparts archived the choreography well. Knowing the work of Piazzolla and the companies who excel in dancing his music...namely the Paul Taylor Dance Company, it the choreography was a little lacking. It was however very well performed.

The production dealt with the short awkward scenes well, and the choice not to use supertitles worked for the better. The set was minimal, the story was told by dance rather than action. The large pieces included piles of chairs from which the sprits could speak. I very much enjoyed the opera and the production. Gotham Chamber Opera is worth a trip to the Village.

This was my first experience with Gotham Chamber Opera and it is worth a trip to the Village. It was riveting and was well played, danced and sung. Malvina Sardou, Miguel Quinones, Kevin Fitzgerald Ferguson and Tommy Scrivens made up the principal dance troop, and they complimented each other well.

My friend and I loved his opera, and this little company. Another friend hated it. I would recommend it to anyone, affordable and worth a try. Gotham Chamber Opera seems to be producing some of the more adventurous opera in New York. What a wonderful company.

IN REVIEW: NYC OPERA – Margret Garner

Margret Garner
Richard Danielpour

PRINCIPAL CAST/PRODUCTION TEAM:
Margret Garner: Tracie Luck
Cilla: Lisa Daltirus
Robert Garner: Gregg Baker is Robert Garner
Edward Gaines: Thomas Barrett
Production Director: Tazewell Thompson

NEW YORK, NEW YORK (September 28, 2007)- The New York City Opera opened its 2007-2008 Season with nearly as much press (but admittedly less fanfare) as did their neighbor across Lincoln Center Plaza with an American Opera, Margret Garner. In the saga of the slave who kills her children rather than see them taken back into slavery, one again the smaller house proved that it has a deep understanding of personal drama and emotion, something often lost at the Met.

The bourgeois black community were out en masse. I sat next to John Legend….super hot singer and I wanted him to sing to me, “I know I must behave and we made our mistakes…” Brilliant opera going man, just and ordinary person. The sort I hope to see at the opera more often.

It isn’t often that one finds the audience thrilled with their experience after an American Opera. We call them “bold” or some other term masking the fact that we didn’t love them. Composer Richard Danielpour has given us something relevant to our own history in an opera that feels as natural as Puccini and yet as complex as Struass. People have said for years that after Wagner there were two roads which music took: one led to Menotti and the love of audiences, the other to Adams and empty houses. Margret Garner was possibly the love child of these two forms, it was engaging yet musically shocking in the best way.

The set was good and effective. Having seen the opera before in Cincinnati, I must say the it lacked the energy of the first night I saw it. This must be forgiven however, Cincinnati is the place where the opera actually took place and the city was glad to be reflecting on this painful part of its history. The NYCO’s production was in some ways superior to the original a relatively sparse set framed by rustic wood.

Tracie Luck sang the roll of Margret well, and commanded the stage affectively. Had I not seen the creator of the roll, Denyce Graves, I would have thought her wonderful. She was however convincing. Baritone Greg Baker was Robert patriarch of the slave family. He was forceful and perfect for the part.

The highlight of the evening came from Soprano Lisa Daltirus. Her warm spinto voice was perfect for Cilla, the grandmother character. Carefully etching the notes toward the top of the roll, she displayed all the maternal love needed in such a character. Angela Brown, the roll’s creator would perform Aida the next night next door at the Metropolitan…I had seen Brown as Cilla and Daltirus as Aida in Cincinnati, now they were switched…I think it’s safe to say that Daltirus was the finest spinto on the scene.

Kudos must be given to Thomas Barrett who did the roll of Edward Gaines. He lacked the bad boy sex appeal of Rodney Giffery, the creator…however he made up for it with vocal power. A fine performance.

The orchestra was in fine form as well, and Tazewell Thompson’s staging was very good. Tony Morrison’s libretto is moving and tells the story well. The low point of the evening came in the end. Margret, having killed her child, is convicted of destruction of property. To add insult to injury, Slave Master Gaines grants her clemency as she stand on the gallows. She jumps and hangs there… The logical conclusion of the opera is here, as Cilla shrikes in horror, the affect is chilling like Tosca’s death.

Imagine now that the chorus comes forward to sing an ode to Tosca, sending her off. Now imagine that her ghost walks around in circles touching the people in the crowd. It’s very Metaphysical, and like Lucia at the Met I found it tacky and stupid. The score needs revision, namely a few pages torn out. The chorus is a fine one…but no better than you might hear in any parish church on a Sunday morning and it ruins the conclusion of the opera.

IN REVIEW: MET – Lucia di Lammermoor

Lucia di Lammermoor
Gaetano Donizetti

CAST:
Conductor: James Levine
Lucia: Natalie Dessay
Edgardo: Marcello Giordani
Enrico: Mariusz Kwiecien
Raimondo: John Relyea
PRODUCTION TEAM:
Production: Mary Zimmerman
Set Designer: Daniel Ostling

Lighting Designer: T. J. Gerckens

Choreographer: Daniel Pelzig

NEW YORK, NEW YORK(September 27, 2007) – The Metropolitan Opera opened with Lucia di Lammermoor in September. Peter Gelb once more successfully billed the new production’s premier as an event, and many famous faces were in the audience opening night.

I arrived in New York to see the second performance, just two days after the premier. The entire city was a buzz with excitement over the new Lucia. A first class advertising campaign covered billboards and busses with a slogan someone thought was cute, “you’ll be MAD you missed it!”

Mary Zimmerman’s first major opera placed the saga in a sort of Jane Austin-esque Scotland. The opera opened strangely, with a large black wall covering all but a small area of the stage. Behind the wall was a several hills, a friend I attended with joked that it looked like a large pile of dog poop...I think she was sort of correct. As they brought large hounds across the stage searching for an intruder the small opening didn’t serve anything well and the male chorus and dogs hobbled around the awkward opening. Finally as the first aria began.

Leading the serious of challenging arias to come was Baritone Mariusz Kwiecien as Enrico. Sufficiently nasty, the young baritone proved himself to be among the finest interpreters of the Bel Canto literature. In his aria “Cruda, funesta smania”, where he talks about his desire to see an enemy struck down by lightning he was very commanding.

Natalie Dessay’s Lucia was wonderful from the start, and herfirst notes were stunning. She sang them with her back to the audience, and the voice was large and attractive in the Met’s massive house. In her first aria (“Quando rapito in estasi”) she sang about the sprit that haunts the estate of her family. A woman appeared as Lucia told the tale, she was painted white with very messy hair; yes, the ghost actually appears in Mary Zimmerman’s sick mind. It was just the first of many distractions from a director who doesn’t yet understand that sometimes it can be just about music.

Marcello Giordani’s Edgardo was an impressive and convincing one. From the moment that he entered the stage and Natalie Dessay and him came together I felt that they really were in love. His signing was also as convincing.

In the second act as Lucia learns of her impending marriage the Polish baritone’s Enrico was once more a great force. Lucia began to loose it here, as her home was cleaned up, somehow turned from a dusty parlor to a splendid ballroom before our eyes. One device I loved was after the signing of the marriage documents, Lucia knocked the ink well over as she laments, “I have signed my death warrant” and the ink appeared as blood.

The septet was so well sung I could hardly believe it. Once more Zimmerman had too much going on at once. As each party entered a photographer arranged a group photo culminating in an old fashioned exploding flash bulb at the end of the music. What a distraction. Edgardo’s entrance to the wedding was convincing, but as always in Lucia, the audience was waiting for the mad scene and the moment just seemed long, but well done.

The castle hall was a large stairway and it was filled with well wishers after the wedding. The joy faded quickly as Lucia entered covered in blood for the Mad Scene. The French Soprano knows how to act…it was one of those things that seemed so natural that the music was like speech. Her Lucia had lost her mind completely and killing her husband seemed natural, it was tragic and frightening to watch. She went from sexual bliss to despair to a state of joy throughout the “Spargi d'amaro pianto” section of the scene. The traditional flute was replaced with the original glass armonica producing a ghostly sound. The famous ‘flute cadenza’ was sung without flute as well. The drama of the scene worked better this way.

Dessay proved in the scene why she is the world’s leading Lucia as she ran around the stage, and laid on her back to sing this most difficult scene. She was taken off stage, having fallen dead after a brilliant high f#. The audience went wild, and I understood why it is said that a second performance is better than the first. The audience made missing the opening worth it.

The last act was dominated by Tenor Marcello Giordani’s performance of his suicide aria. I don’t remember much, the signing was good, but I was quite distracted as Natalie Dessay arrived…painted white and with messed up hair…yes she was a ghost too. She helped her lover kill himself; it must have seemed like a good idea in Zimmerman’s sick mind. To me it just seemed like she was a selfish nasty little bitch.

The orchestra was in world class form under James Levines able hands, and brilliant singing, that’s for sure. The Met’s new Lucia was a failure as a new production. Perhaps with another director things like the ghost will not appear, and Lucia will not come back looking like a bag lady. Dessay was stunning, Giordani was very good, and the sexy baritone Mariusz Kwiecien was very fine.

"...a seed was planted..."

I was raised in a truly horrendous time for music. The breakout stars of my childhood were Kirk Cobain, the Spice Girls, NSync...need I really say more? What a shame it was the many of the children my own age knew little of Mr. von Beethoven, much less Richard Strauss.

I was very odd, I think from the time of my birth. I remember arguing in first grade with my best friend about the merit of the orchestra as opposed to the rock & roll band. You see, this friend had grown up with his father’s taste, Pink Floyd and so on. I was exploring the mystery of Haydn’s Creation and its opening moments, Die Vorstellung des Chaos (The Representation of Chaos) as God simply willed the universe into existence. I think he must also have willed into me an interest in this frustratingly complex and yet wonderful art known as music.

I remember the moment that I became transfixed by singing. It was Mahler’s 8th Symphony, the "Symphony of a Thousand" in Cincinnati’s hallowed opera house, Music Hall. May had come, and in a tradition as old as the city the Cincinnati Symphony played four concerts of choral works. It is known as the May Festival and it is a celebration of everything about the city and its German lineage.

I truly wish that I knew who the singers were that Saturday night; they were almost all large women. One white, one black and an Asian contralto… come to think of it, that alone is extraordinary…and various men, but I don’t remember much about them. It was one of those performances where two sopranos of the same fach battle it out to see who’s voice is bigger and more stand out….the result was some wonderful singing. I should also not that the Asian contralto took the cake.

That evening, as Mahler’s harmonies washed over the audience and their plush velvet seats, a seed was planted in my sole. As I grew I found myself drawn to be a part of the community of those who have fallen in love with opera. a rare breed we are…but our passion is so great.