Taminophile

A Moderne Take on a Ghost Story

2012-05-27T01:01:00.009-04:00

Opera Moderne calls itself "[a] boutique opera company offering intimate, beautiful and unique performances." It was founded in 2011 by Rebecca Greenstein, one of the original founders of Opera Manhattan. (In the interest of full disclosure this reporter must divulge that he has been very much involved with Opera Manhattan in an administrative capacity during the past year.) Opera Moderne has built a crack marketing and development team, and based on Saturday's performance of Mr. Britten's The Turn of the Screw at Symphony Space's Peter Norton Theatre, it appears they have a crack artistic team as well.

Anna Noggle

The Turn of the Screw is Britten's 1954 setting of the Henry James novella of the same name, about a young, inexperienced governess entrusted with the charge of two children in an isolated country house with a mysterious past. Knowing the venue, I had assumed this would be a semi-staged concert performance, but I was wrong. Although the stage space was reduced by more than half by the orchestra, which spent most of its time behind a scrim, director Luke Leonard made efficient use of the space available. The actual set was comprised of a school room desk, a bench, and a spinet piano with bench, all before the scrim. Gangways just upstage (elevated) and downstage of the orchestra were used cleverly, especially when making use of the scrim to differentiate between living and dead characters. The only thing I wasn't sure about was having the scrim raised a few times--perhaps to break the veil between living and dead? The use of mime doubles for Quint and Miss Jessel seemed like an otherwise clever staging concept gone too far.

I can not sing the praises of the cast highly enough. Most notable was the Governess of Anna Noggle, about whom I've written in glowing terms before. Her singing was beautiful throughout, showing expressive range and color where appropriate, and she inhabited the character of the Governess quite effectively. From the innocent young girl full of doubts to the young woman who knows more than she wants to and becomes slightly unwound, Miss Noggle never disappointed. She and Mr. Leonard left the distinction between fact and fantasy, the boundary between sanity and insanity, deliberately unclear, for the audience to reason for themselves.

The Miles of young Benjamin P. Wenzelberg was astounding. His singing was beautiful, which is of course a given, and his acting was quite powerful, either as a normal, mischievous boy or as the eerie, zombie-like agent of Peter Quint. Using the name Benjamin Perry, this was the Amahl in Chelsea Opera's 2009 Amahl and the Night Visitors, which was actually my first review. I noted at that time that there seemed a noticeable break between head and chest registers, but it appears that has been worked out. Flora, young sister of Miles, was sung and acted quite effectively by grownup soprano Vivian Krich-Brinton. She and young Mr. Wenzelberg had a lovely chemistry on stage, and reacted well to each other. In the moments when they moved in unison, they were quite effective.

Glenn Seven Allen
courtesy glennsevenallen.com

Glenn Seven Allen sang Peter Quint well, although I think he went a little too far on occasion in coloring some exclamatory statements. Possibly from the musical theater background that seems to dominate his bio. Julia Teitel's Mrs. Grose was very well sung and acted. Elspeth Davis sang better than I have ever heard her.

Conductor and Music Director Pacien Mazzagatti deserves praise for wrangling the pick-up orchestra effectively. With the exception of a few tuning issues in the strings, they seemed to play rather well together. They seemed well rehearsed, which is a rarity, small opera company budgets being what they are. Costumes by Angela Huff and hair and makeup by Miss Greenstein also deserve praise.

Minor quibbles. I'm not a big fan of using titles for opera in English, but if doing so, please rehearse with them. 'nuff said. UPDATE: I was reminded that Symphony Space required performing organizations use their own union A/V team, which explains the chaotic supertitles. Opera Moderne personnel hijacked the supertitle function after halftime, and they were much better.

Also, I have a few fierce words for the audience member who shattered the final moments of the opera by shouting "Bravo!" a few moments too soon, while the rest of us were stunned by Miss Noggle's last utterances and needed those few moments to begin breathing again.

You shore got a purty mouth!

2012-05-06T21:00:00.008-04:00

I was thrilled to learn the Met was to revive its beautiful 1978 production of Mr. Britten's masterpiece Billy Budd, based on Mr. Melville's novella of the same name. Imagine my dismay upon learning the only available ticket I could afford was a partial view seat on the far right of the Family Circle. (It is a mystery to me why the Met doesn't shower me with offers of comps for all its productions, considering how lovingly I have written about that noble company.) Imagine my delight when I whined about this on Facebook, like you do, and almost immediately heard from another friend with a spare ticket to the final dress rehearsal! What an emotional roller coaster this opera proved to be, even before the first downbeat from highly capable conductor David Robertson.

I had seen this production in 1992, I believe. The production was by John Dexter, designed by William Dudley. My strongest memory of seeing the show at that time was the chorus "Now is the moment", when the entire cast girds their loins for a battle against a French ship within its sights (the setting is 1797, when, quel surprise!, the British were fighting the French), and the pre-Lepage machinery (which worked flawlessly **cough cough**) caused the expandable HMS Indomitable, like a current-day toy space ship/race car/Malibu Barbie beach house, to expand to its fullest extent in the largest nautical erection you will see this side of the USS Intrepid Museum.

Daszak, Gunn, Croft
Photo by Ken Howard
© 2012 The Metropolitan Opera.

There! I've said it! Because it was Benjamin Britten writing for Peter Pears, and because the libretto is by E.M. Forster (along with Eric Crozier), and because the source is Herman Melville, and because we're talking about the British Navy, all anyone can think about is the butt sex. (Would you'd rather I'd made a crude pun about seamen?) Dissertations have been written about why Claggart hates Billy Budd so, and it ain't because Billy is pure in heart. One of those deep quotes that makes the rounds of Facebook ad nauseam (yes, my second Facebook reference in one post) suggests hate is a result of feeling powerless. Claggart must surely think Billy's goodness gains him power against which he, Claggart, can't compete. Even more complex is Captain Vere's love for Billy, which on the surface seems a paternal affection. Your faithful reporter is approaching the half-century mark himself and has fond, avuncular relationships with a number of dear lads, so we won't delve very deeply into that. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Billy himself? Thomas May's program notes quote Mr. Forster himself: "It is a difficult thing...the ordinary lovable (and hateable) human beings connected with immensities through the tricks of art. Billy is our Savior, yet he is Billy, not Christ or Orion."

The performance itself, you ask? Honestly, the singing and acting in all cases were so fine that I actually spent more time thinking about the story, the symbolism, the music. I wished I had a score* and had studied it deeply. (Frankly, I wished I had the vocal and acting chops to sing the role of Captain Vere!) I was so focused on the Iago/Scarpia archetype in Claggart (I wouldn't have been surprised had he sung "Billy, mi fai dimenticare Iddio" at the end of his soliloquy), the Pontius Pilate archetype of Vere (ditto Pilate's Dream from Jesus Christ Superstar), and the Christ-like archetype of Billy. Vere's struggle between the duty he has loved and served all his life and the longing to save Billy is the central conflict of the opera.

John Daszak as Captain Vere
NY Times photo by Chang W. Lee

Nathan Gunn, even with his shirt on for the entire opera, gave an admirable performance as Billy Budd. His singing was beautiful, and he acted the naive, earnest, inherently good sailor convincingly. James Morris sang and acted Claggart well enough to elicit hisses at the curtain call, and my only real criticism is that there is no "ore" in the word "honor". As Captain Vere, John Daszak made an impressive Met debut. His large, bright tenor handled the vocal challenges well, and in acting the challenging role of Captain Vere, let us just say that scenery was chewed. I would gladly pay to hear and see him again.

It's not easy to keep track of the smaller roles. I have written in glowing terms before about the handsome Elliot Madore, and he again impressed as The Novice's Friend. (Is that how the poor lad is forced to list it on his resume?) The Novice himself was portrayed with a light, plaintive vocal quality and a palpable misery by Keith Jameson. The three officers Mr. Flint, Mr. Redburn and Lieutenant Ratcliffe (or as I like to call them, Patty, Maxine and Laverne) were nobly portrayed by Kyle Ketelson, Dwayne Croft and Ryan McKinny. Squeak, Mr. Claggart's henchman, was squeaked by Scott Scully. Met veterans Allan Glassman and John Cheek deserve praise for their portrayals of Red Whiskers, an impressed man, and Dansker, and older, wiser seaman.

Once again, the Metropolitan Opera Chorus deserves accolades as passionate as anyone else on stage--much more passionate than some I've seen on that stage. The men of the chorus, along with supplemental members and boys of the children's chorus, gave a stunning performance of Mr. Britten's challenging music. The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, under the aforementioned David Robertson, also met the extremely high standard we have come to expect from them.

I was delighted to run into dear Lucy, who posted her impressions about the opera before I did. Paul also posted his before I did. Glad to finally read them, now that I've finished this, and see that we all have similar opinions about the performance and production.

*Did you know the piano-vocal score retails for for over $100?! Sheesh!

How do you get to Carnegie Hall?

2012-04-23T07:30:00.014-04:00

Your intrepid reporter was thrilled Saturday night to attend his third Verdi Requiem performance in a month. The work never grows old for me. This performing ensemble was the St. Cecilia Chorus under the direction of Mark Shapiro, whom we saw lead the Monmouth Civic Chorus in the same work on March 10. The quartet was the nearly the same quartet who sang with Mr. Shapiro in New Jersey, with the substitution of the handsome bass Harold Wilson for the equally handsome bass Ryan Speedo Green. (I hope Barihunks is aware of both of these men!) I wrote in glowing terms of Mr. Shapiro's leadership of the Monmouth Civic Chorus, and their eagerness to follow his every gesture. For a community chorus they gave a very fine performance indeed.

Harold Wilson
Courtesy HaroldWilson.net

Mr. Shapiro's program notes for Saturday's concert proposed the same ideas as those for the New Jersey performance, about the soprano as sacrificial victim, the whole piece more sacral than sacred. He took the opportunity to speak to the audience before the concert about his ideas, but surely someone who hadn't read his notes would have been confused by his brief speech about community and a chosen victim. I found it deflated the energy and excitement of the beginning of the concert somewhat.

I wish I could report that was the only thing that bothered me about Saturday's performance, but in truth I found a few things troubling. One was the inclusion of the chorus from LIU's CW Post campus, which chorus Mr. Shapiro also leads. I attribute to the presence of so many young voices the sometimes wan, anemic sound of the chorus men. There were also some issues with the orchestra. A single glack on a trumpet entrance might be excused, but there were repeated issues in bassoons and other winds, and occasional intonation issues from more than one section. Most troubling, however, was Mr. Shapiro's conducting. This was not the relatively tight performance I recall under Mr. Shapiro's baton in New Jersey on March 10. There were issues aplenty with cohesion and togetherness. From the audience it was hard to tell his intention in many places, and it was clear chorus, orchestra and soloists had the same difficulty.

It pains me to write in harsh terms about anyone, but the very fine solo quartet deserved better. This was the Carnegie Hall debut for soprano Jennifer Rowley and tenor Noah Baetge, likely for mezzo Leann Sandel-Pantaleo and bass Harold Wilson as well. They are all fine singers, and sang their roles well, but the fact that all four had issues in keeping with Mr. Shapiro would seem to indict Mr. Shapiro rather than any of them.

Courtesy JenniferRowley.com
Photo credit: Markku Pilhaja

Mr. Wilson gave a fine performance of the bass solo part. His sound is full and solid, and his Confutatis was a pleasure to hear. His "Mors stupebit" at the end of Tuba mirum was delightfully in tune—frankly, something so unusual that it sounds odd for the strings to enter in the same key as the soloist after the brief passage. I wrote about Miss Rowley, Miss Sandel-Pantaleo and Mr. Baetge in my post about the the Monmouth Civic Chorus performance. All are fine singers, and I thought Mr. Baetge in particular had settled into the role a bit more, although I still find his voice light for the work.

Because the soprano role is pivotal to the Verdi Requiem, I fear Mr. Shapiro did the greatest injustice to Miss Rowley. Whereas in the New Jersey performance Mr. Shapiro seems to have encouraged an occasionally raucous but overall quite balanced performance, at Carnegie Hall he seems to have pushed Miss Rowley much farther in the raucous direction but failed to follow through with support from the baton. There were passages Mr. Shapiro in fact did not conduct, a notable example being "Fac eas de morte transire ad vitam" at the end of the Offertorio, which the poor soprano sings a capella. The effect was not what one assumes he intended, but rather of the soloist being abandoned. I certainly don't mean to suggest she didn't cope well with the challenge, but that the challenge should not have been there.

Perhaps being intimately familiar with the work and hearing it live so many times in quick succession—quite an unusual opportunity—worked against me in my attempts to evaluate this performance objectively. The audience was full of happy people who were quite enthusiastic in their applause. Even putting aside the obvious crowd of LIU friends and family, this was an appreciative audience. Perhaps that is a better indicator of the success of the concert than the observations of an opera blogger. I can not say. I did enjoy the concert, but I grieve that the Carnegie Hall debuts of the four soloists will not necessarily be uniformly joyous memories for them.

Shameless Self Promotion: Opera Manhattan Announces 2012 Opera Festival

2012-04-20T10:35:00.002-04:00

Order tickets here!

Following the critical acclaim of February’s trio of monodramas themed Women on the Verge, Opera Manhattan is proud to announce its 2012 Opera Festival. Three riveting operas and a special performance of arias and ensembles presented by Opera Manhattan’s Artist Development Program will be presented from May 17 – 21 at the historic Theatre at St. Clement’s, at 423 W. 46th St. in Manhattan.

Opera Manhattan will reprise Poulenc’s monodrama La Voix Humaine. Based on a 1930 play by Jean Cocteau, the one act opera follows the agonizing phone conversation between a young woman and her former lover as she desperately tries to win back his love. First presented by Opera Manhattan as part of Women on the Verge, La Voix Humaine will return featuring the original cast in alternate performances. Kala Maxym, whose performance “had a fearful kind of dignity, even at her most frantic. The warmth of Maxym’s soprano conveyed a tenderness more terrifying than fury"; and Roza Tulyaganova, who "gave a pointed, convincing portrait of this young woman’s breakdown, from the desperate pleas to her lover to evocations of their tender past."

The idea for Menotti’s opera The Medium was first conjured up during a séance the composer attended with friends in 1936. A psychologically complex tale of a fraudulent medium Flora, portrayed by Caroline Tye and Elizabeth Moulton in alternate performances. The deception and hysterics of Madame Flora are boldly contrasted by the innocence of Monica, played by Opera Manhattan veterans Megan Candio and Mary Langston.

Suor Angelica is the moving story of a young woman from a noble family who becomes a cloistered nun. Her aunt, the Principessa, played alternately by Sahoko Sato and Anna Yelizarova, visits her after seven years of silence, and brings Angelica a shocking and life altering revelation. Featured in alternate performances in the title role is Jun’ Watanabe, who last appeared as Mimi in Opera Manhattan’s groundbreaking production of La Boheme, and Kristi Bulot in her Opera Manhattan debut.

Tristan Cano is Music Director for Suor Angelica and La Voix Humaine. Sarah Fraser is Stage Director for both. Kathryn Olander is Music Director for The Medum. John Schenkel is Stage Director.

Venue address: Theatre at St. Clements, 423 W. 46th St., NYC 10036

Event dates and times :

May 17:

6:30 La Voix Humaine

8:00 The Medium

9:30 Suor Angelica

May 18:

6:30 La Voix Humaine

8:00 Suor Angelica

9:30 The Medium

May 19:

5:00 La Voix Humaine

6:30 The Medium

8:00 Suor Angelica

May 20:

4:00 La Voix Humaine

5:30 Suor Angelica

7:00 The Medium

May 21:

8:00 The Medium

9:30 Suor Angelica

Order tickets here!

That sexy Zachary Gordin spews forth wisdom as from on high

2012-04-19T23:39:00.001-04:00

Courtesy zacharygordin.com

SINGERS and MANAGEMENT: What you need to know...

I've lately found myself listening to all sides of the management/artist relationship conversation, and one phrase keeps coming up. I feel compelled to share some thoughts about this phrase from my perspective: an artist who is managed by a capable team, business savvy, has been involved in administration and leadership on the regional opera level, and has served as an artists representative for other singers.

Read the rest.

Req'd 'em, nearly killed 'em

2012-04-14T08:19:00.010-04:00

Dear old St. Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan was the venue for the event about which I report, on Friday evening, April 13. No sojourn into the wilds of NJ, or even the outer boroughs, required. (Yes, I know I talk like a Manhattanite although I live in Yonkers. It's called artistic license.^†) The event was once again a performance of Mr. Verdi'a Requiem, a piece I never tire of. Of which I never tire. The presenting organization was The Choral Society, which normally performs at dear Grace Church.

I adore St. Thomas and its long tradition of beautiful choral music in the Anglican tradition. In fact, when I'm not being a ~~sing-whore~~ paid church singer elsewhere, I like to hit St. Thomas sometimes for a great show and some Saviour Snacks^TM. However, the acoustics of the nave are a bit odd. The nave is so long that I have found in the past I simply can not watch the music making, particularly the conductor's gestures, if I'm seated more than halfway back. The difference between what I hear and I see caused by the time it takes the sound to travel to my seat has actually made me queasy on occasion. While a perfect place for Byrd and dear Mr. Stanford or Mr. Howells, I'm afraid St. Thomas on this occasion did Mr. Verdi and The Choral Society no favors.

John Maclay, courtesy thechoralsociety.org

I tell a lie. The choir, under the direction of Music Director John Maclay, coped with the bathtub acoustics well, and one could easily see the care and attention to detail that went into this performance. This choir had sufficient numbers to attack the work, and Mr. Maclay drew out of them a nuanced performance, full of fury for Dies Irae, but subtle and tender for the opening Requiem. In the scope of the entire evening, however, the Dies Irae returns about five gazillion times, so it's good to husband one's resources so that the impact is not lost. Even investing the same energy in each iteration might give the appearance of losing steam or of diminishing impact. This is one of the few flaws in the choir's performance. The only other major flaw was in the two fugues. They're Hard with a capital H, so it's understandable that it might take two thirds of the Sanctus fugue for the choir to finally be fully with the conductor. The Libera me fugue (did you know it'a actually an inversion of the Sanctus fugue?) was better, but also had its slippery moments.

Courtesy vanessacariddi.com
Photo credit: unknown

I fear I must report that the quartet of soloists did not fare so well. All of them are accomplished singers with lots of experience and impressive resumes. Soprano Mary Elizabeth Williams, mezzo Vanessa Cariddi, tenor Nathan Carlisle (no link but search for his YouTube videos), and baritone Gustavo Ahualli are all fine singers, as evidenced by recordings easily found online. I fear the acoustics of their odd placement in the overcrowded chancel at St. Thomas—in front of but very near the choir, behind the orchestra, and about a football field away from the conductor—contributed to the over-singing all four of them did. There were passages when all four sang with restraint and great beauty, so one could hear they are capable of truly wonderful singing.

As I say, all four soloists are fine singers, but one wonders why some of them were hired for the Verdi Requiem. Mr. Carlisle has a light, mellifluous sound, and he uses it beautifully, but his is not a voice for this role. In addition to simply having the wrong vocal color for the role, he often could not be heard at all, even when the quite rambunctious orchestra was silent or playing softly. Mr. Ahualli also was not the right man for the job. Verdi's masterwork requires a bass or bass-baritone, but Mr. Ahualli is a baritone--a very fine one, but simply not endowed with the vocal quality and heft in his low voice to do the role justice, and he, too, was difficult to hear at times, although when one did hear him, more often than not one was pleased.

Courtesy Maryelizabethwilliams.com
Photo credit: unknown

I'm happy to say it was easy to hear Ms. Cariddi nearly all the time, which is not always the case with the mezzo in any quartet. The pushing that all four soloists seemed forced to do did less harm to her her sound than to some others, and her rich middle and lower registers were in ample supply, although her top was a little less shiny than usual. By contrast, I'm very unhappy to report that Ms. Williams fared the worst in the vocal battle. In the YouTube videos one finds (click the link above to find her site, wherein one can find a link to a lovely excerpt from a recent Aida), her voice is full and rich, with a healthy dose of that steeliness appropriate to spinto voices. I am forced to report that in this concert one heard too much steeliness and not enough richness. There were passages that were quite lovely, including the Requiem aeternam section of the Libera me, with its floated high B‑flat. Overall, however, I had trouble listening to Ms. Williams, and it pains me very much to say so.

Mr. Maclay had a capable reign on the orchestra, and one never found their sound underpowered. Perhaps a drag racing strip or a missile testing site might challenge this orchestra for decibels, but the choir and venue were cake to this canny and quite capable orchestra.

This was not a concert I regret hearing. I simply regret that so much potential beauty was forced aside because of crowding and acoustics.

UPDATE: I have learned that, in addition to the acoustics and crowding, the solo quartet sang the entire work twice through with the orchestra the day before the concert. I hope that The Choral Society will rethink this sort of rehearsal schedule in the future.

^†Actually, it's called shut up and click the advertising links so I can afford to keep this blog going!

Fellow bloggers, take note.

2012-04-09T22:40:00.003-04:00

Or call me pedantic. Taminophile wants to show he can write about more than opera. Don't ask why.

=======================================================

Which of these sentence fragments is correct? (I'm not talking about content, but rather structural correctness.)

"Emma Matthews and conductor Richard Bonynge are beautiful musicians and...."

"Emma Matthews and the conductor, Richard Bonynge, are beautiful musicians and...."

Guess what? Both are!

However, one all too often sees this construction, which I quote directly from the source:

"Emma Matthews and conductor, Richard Bonynge are beautiful musicians and...."

Remember the four most common uses of a comma: to separate elements in a series; to separate two independent clauses, when accompanied by a conjunction; to attach words at the beginning or end of a sentence; and on both sides of a nonessential component.*

In the phrases conductor Richard Bonynge and the conductor, Richard Bonynge, "Richard Bonynge" is an appositives in both cases. Wikipedia defines an appostiive as "a grammatical construction in which two elements, normally noun phrases, are placed side by side, with one element serving to define or modify the other." The phrase conductor Richard Bonynge contains a restrictive appositive, because Richard Bonynge refers to the conductor about whom the writer is...er...writing. In fact, Richard Bonynge is one of the subjects of the sentence. Some other examples of restrictive appositives are My Friend Flicka, the idiot Baines(any "Waiting for God" fans out there?), and the tailor Motel Kamzoil. Restrictive appositives never require commas.

The phrase the conductor, Richard Bonynge contains a non-restrictive appositive, because "Richard Bonynge" has the same function as a phrase in parentheses in the sentence above. The sentence functions the same and has basically the same meaning without it. Because of their parenthetical function, non-restrictive appositives always require commas. Before and after. Non-restrictive appositives are one type of nonessential component in the fourth common use of commas above.

There. I hope I don't have to tell you this again.

*This is not an exhaustive list. And you will note that in the sentence above, because one of the elements of the series had a comma within it, I used semicolons to achieve the same effect and avoid confusion.

City of Orgies, Walks and Joys!

2012-04-08T20:44:00.003-04:00

As promised, here is my post about the Five Borough Songbook. This two-CD set of 20 songs grew out of a project to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Five Boroughs Music Festival, wherein 20 composers were commissioned to write songs about New York to texts of their own choosing. "Just as every trip around NYC is a singular adventure, we hope your Five Borough Songbook journey will be full of new surprises each time you take the trip." write baritone Jesse Blumberg, Artistic Director, and mezzo Donna Breitzer, Executive Director. "Thanks for coming along for the ride, and stand clear of the closing doors…"

Any time you ask 20 people to create art about NYC, you'll find some of them cover similar ground. Several songs have to do with NYC's subways. First up is Glen Roven's "F from DUMBO," performed by baritone David Adam Moore and pianist Thomas Bagwell. Michael Tyrell's poem, captured well by Mr. Roven, talks about witnessing the heart and personality of a city on the F train. The poet has seen it all. "No more omens, please! I don't want to be a recording angel!"

My favorite subway song is Tom Cipullo's "G is for Grimy: an Ode to the G Train" This is one of several songs with "found" lyrics, in this case quotes from Internet postings about the G train. The four singers each take a different personality--one love sick (tenor Alex Richardson), one angry (soprano Martha Guth), one cheerful (mezzo Blythe Gaissert). The hipster baritone (David McFerrin) has some of the best lines, including "People talk a lot of shit about you.... I know you're shorter than the other trains and you've never been to Manhattan, but you're there for me...." In the end all four singers agree that G stands for grimy, grungy, greasy, ghastly, and a host of other painful G-words. Including Giuliani.

When setting artists loose on the topic of NYC, you will also find Walt Whitman references. The first CD begins with Ricky Ian Gordon's setting of Whitman's "O City of Ships" (performed by Miss Guth, Mr. Blumberg, and Mr. Bagwell), and the second CD begins with Jorge Martin's "City of Orgies, Walks, and Joys!", based on the composer's own (one assumes) imitation of Walt Whitman's style. Call me shallow, but I tend to prefer orgies to ships. I liked Mr. Martin's boogie-woogie style setting of the poem, and the message of love and lust: "....but as I pass, O Manhattan! your frequent and swift flash of eyes offering me love, Offering response to my own--they repay me...." NYC has always been one of those places people come to find themselves, and one can easily imagine how finding love easily--for an afternoon or a lifetime--is also a part of the city's lure. This is performed by Miss Guth, Mr. Richardson, Mr. Bagwell, and violist Harumi Rhodes.

Staten Island wins the contest for the borough with the most songs dedicated to it. Of these my favorite is Scott Wheeler's "At Home in Staten Island," a setting of an 1869 poem by British poet Charles Mackay for soprano and viola. The poet seeks to convince his love that they have found a paradise on Staten Island--no, really--but his love argues nothing compares to the homeland they'd left. The song is strophic, with a charming melody that reminds me of a lute song (although the liner notes make reference to Victorian parlor songs), while the viola part is a series of increasingly complex variations. This song is sung beautifully by Miss Guth, with Miss Rhodes on viola.

Just as time and space prevent mentioning every song in this set, so is it difficult to mention every performer. All the singers give committed performances of the songs they sing, and all the instrumentalists also give fine performances. I would call this a CD for anyone interested in song literature, and anyone with strong feelings for New York City, should hear. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

You can buy this and any other CD you're looking for from Amazon. If you start by clicking my Amazon store at the upper right, no matter what you buy, I earn a tiny percentage. And I stop pestering you to buy stuff. OK, maybe not the last part.

Golden Age Singer of the Week--Teresa Stich-Randall

2012-04-04T13:44:00.001-04:00

Uncredited artwork, courtesy of bach-cantatas.com,
possibly for an album cover.

Here is a performer whose name I've long known, but whose performances I have never really studied. She was a treasure! Her Wikipedia bio-blurb is brief enough to quote an abridged version here rather than a link.

Teresa Stich-Randall was born in Connecticut in 1927. Her operatic debut was in the role of Henrietta M. in Virgil Thomson's The Mother of Us All in 1947. She was discovered in the late 1940s by Arturo Toscanini, who engaged her for a series of performances with his NBC Symphony Orchestra in New York. Toscanini described her at the time as "the find of the century".

She made her European debut in Florence and won a competition in Lausanne the following year. Stich-Randall was a regular performer with the Basel Opera, the Vienna State Opera and at the Salzburg Festival. From 1955, she was a regular at summer events at Aix-en-Provence in France, where her portrayal of Donna Anna in Don Giovanni was highly esteemed. She first sang at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in Così fan tutte in 1961 and remained on their roster of singers until 1966.

Stich-Randall appeared on a number of notable recordings including Falstaff, Der Rosenkavalier and L'Orfeo. Her career had largely ended by 1980 and she died in Vienna, aged 79, in 2007, of natural causes.

Here is a video I found when searching various Schubert songs. She sings Seligkeit in a 1960 TV performance:

Here she sings Ihr habt nun traurigkeit from the German Requiem of Mr. Brahms, in a 1958 performance with the Norddeutshes Symphonie-Orchester (Hamburg) under Carl Bamberger:

Non mi dir, 1960, theater and conductor uncredited:

Because I can't resist, here is the mask scene, also from a 1960 Don Giovanni, this one credited as an RAI TV production. With her are Luigi Alva and Leyla Gencer, about both of whom I've written before.

Mecco all' altar di Venere

2012-03-30T08:08:00.001-04:00

No, dear reader, it's not another Norma post, but how could I resist making a comparison between the name of Pollione's aria and that of the wonderful CD I am reviewing today, Talise Trevigne's recording At the Statue of Venus, on GPR Records. OK, it's a stretch, but if about half of you think it's clever, I'm OK with it.

Courtesy GPRRecords.com

I say this is a wonderful CD because I am enamored with the lovely Miss Trevigne's singing and her interpretation of the three works on the CD--a song cycle and a scena by Mr. Jake Heggie, known for his widely acclaimed operatic setting of Dead Man Walking, among other things, as well as a song collection by Mr. Glen Roven. Those with razor-sharp memories will recall that I praised Miss Trevigne's singing in the brief role of Jemmy in Guillaume Tell at Caramoor last July.

The centerpiece of this CD is Mr. Heggie's "At the Statue of Venus", a scena with a very likable libretto by Terrance McNally. This is, in fact, a soprano monodrama in six sections. The story, if one is necessary, is about a woman waiting to meet a blind date and enduring a wide range of predictable adolescent feelings about what she might expect. Junior high school never really ends, does it? The woman becomes pensive, thinking about what she really wants from love and recalling the feeling of safety and certainty in her father's arms, and in the last section is finally her confident self, appearing to put her adolescent fears to rest, believing that if the man she is meeting today is truly the one for her, she'll know.

I call the libretto likable, but the songs as a whole are quite beautiful, showing the conflict and fear in the woman's heart and the humor of the libretto at the same time. As she grows in turns fearful, angry, self-deprecating, pensive, and confident, Mr. Heggie's piano accompaniment and vocal lines tell us all, reinforcing the humor and pathos in the libretto, skillfully building tension and release. Miss Trevigne gives us lyrical, passionate, beautifully heartfelt performances of these songs. This work is worth the price of the CD.

I also enjoyed the other cycle from Mr. Heggie's pen, "Natural Selection", to five poems by Gini Savage. The liner notes explain these songs "trace a young woman's search for her own identity." My favorites of this cycle were "Animal Passion", in which the poet revels in fantasies of behaving like a wild animal in heat--or at least in the gutter--and "Alas! Alack!", in which she rather too proudly complains about being attracted to the bad boys. Cavaradossi bores her, but Scarpia has all that power and a steady job! (I would swear I heard motives from Tosca in Mr. Heggie's piano part!) In "Indian Summer" she rhapsodizes about the car that gave her freedom in her teenage years and contrasts it to her current life as the wife of a Bluebeard-like man, a veritable emotional hostage. I quite like Mr. Heggie's boogie-woogie piano part for the automotive rhapsody compared to the blues feel when the poet sings about being Bluebeard's wife.

The songs in the third collection, "The Santa Fe Songs," are settings by Mr. Roven of eight poems by various poets each related in some way to Santa Fe. Mr. Roven discloses in his liner notes how finding the volume that contains these poems offered some solace in the dazed period after suffering a tragic loss. Among my favorites are "Listening to jazz now" (Jimmy Santiago Baca), a joyful song about simple pleasures. "Bowl" (Valerie Martìnez) contemplates a bowl as metaphor for the cosmos, the earth and sea, and a chalice that unites all mankind. In "Flying Backbone" (Christopher Buckley), Mr. Roven's piano part reflects the logy feeling of the first verse ("...our selves water heavy and/Low, lusterless as river bottom clay. ") and the more airy feeling of the second. "Bone Bead" and "Sowing the Pecos Wilderness" (both Thomas Fox Averill) are about the emptiness and eventual hope felt after flinging a loved one's ashes to the wind. Miss Trevigne sings these songs, somewhat more complex in melodic nature than those of Mr. Heggie, with beauty of tone and feeling for the poems. As with all the songs on this album, it is easy to understand her English diction. This is a major accomplishment for any singer.

I've written before that I'm not qualified to judge the technical merits of new-ish music, and have joked that November 29, 1924, was to me The Day the Music Died (sorry, Don McLean), but I like these songs, and this CD will not gather dust on my shelf. (Well, not much--I'm a very bad housekeeper.) I especially like Miss Trevigne and hope to hear more recordings and see more live performance by this appealing artist.

Coming soon! My reviews of these two CDs, also from GPR Records:

To other record producers and artists: I happily review CDs, especially those that come accompanied by chocolate.

You can buy all these CDs from Amazon. If you start by clicking my Amazon store at the upper right, no matter what you buy, I earn a tiny percentage. And I stop pestering you to buy stuff. OK, maybe not the last part.

Golden Age Singer of the Week--Lauritz Melchior

2012-03-22T17:53:00.002-04:00

Surprise! It's not another soprano! This is the first time I've featured heldentenor Lauritz Melchior (1890-1973). Don't know why that is. In any case, his Wikipedia bio is pretty thorough for an online source.

So let's get on with the YouTube clips!

Here he is in the 1948 MGM film Luxury Liner.
He made several such films.

Singing on an unspecified TV show, probably in the 50s.

Ora e per sempre from Otello, no performance data given.

Over the river and through the woods....

2012-03-12T05:30:00.005-04:00

Yes, dear readers, your intrepid reporter has ventured across the George Washington Bridge again in search of great singing. The work was the Verdi Requiem, the presenting group was the Monmouth Civic Chorus, the venue was the Count Basie Theater in Red Bank, New Jersey, and the date Saturday, March 10.

Mark Shapiro
Courtesy MonmouthCivicChorus.org
Photo credit: unattributed

This was Artistic Director Mark Shapiro's last concert with the Monmouth Civic Chorus, ending a happy 21-year association between conductor and chorale, so it was an emotional night for many. I don't know Mr. Shapiro, but I have never heard a word uttered against him, and I know many, many choral singers. Clearly this group holds him in very high esteem. After Saturday night's performance one could see why. It was equally clear that they love the Verdi Requiem and thoroughly enjoyed singing it with Mr. Shapiro. I thoroughly enjoyed watching them sing it, and enjoyed watching Mr. Shapiro. His love for the work was also abundantly clear, and one could hear it in the detailed and subtle performance he sought to achieve with chorus and orchestra. The chorus did nobly, and truly my only complaint with them was that they were not twice as large a group. Mr. Verdi's magnum opus requires a chorus of several hundred to do it justice.

The solo quartet was comprised of four young and rising opera singers who were quite a joy to hear. Bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green (I'm not making this up, you know) was a 2011 National Winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and is a current member of the Met's Lindermann Young Artist Program. This article (link) about the 2011 finals, focusing on Mr. Speedo Green, appeared in the New York Times after he was accepted into the Lindermann program. He has a polished, resonant sound that hasn't been corrupted by too much advice. His performance on Saturday night was beautiful vocally and musically. The "Mors stupebit" that concluded the Tuba mirum section was filled with fear of death, and many much more accomplished artists than Mr. Speedo Green have also gone astray tonally in the final measures of that section.

Tenor Noah Baetge has a beautiful, clear, ringing tenor sound. He has an impressive list of credits, including very high roles like Fenton and Rinuccio, along with the meatier role Rodolfo and an upcoming Lensky. One wished his voice had been better suited to the Verdi Requiem. It requires a stentorian sound, and Mr. Baetge's sound is on the lyric side. One does not wish to complain about his singing, however, and indeed he must be congratulated for negotiating Verdi's dramatic vocal writing skillfully without doing himself a mischief.

Mezzo-soprano Leann Sandel-Pantaleo has an impressive list of credits, a pleasing sound, and a keen musicality. She is a fine singer, but as is the lot with mezzos, she was somewhat overpowered in memory and impact by soprano Jennifer Rowley.

Courtesy JenniferRowley.com
Photo credit: Markku Pilhaja

What a babe! I wrote (link) about Miss Rowley's career-making debut at Caramoor in 2010, when she stepped in with very little notice as cover for the lead role in Mr. Donizetti's Maria di Rohan, and wowed everyone. The Washington Post wrote of her debut, "To say that the young singer from Ohio acquitted herself well would be severe understatement. [Miss] Rowley proved fully equal to the demands of a role that requires both coloratura dexterity and dramatic power beyond the limits of a lyric soprano. She can sing with melting purity, but her voice also takes on an intriguing, dark-tinged color at times..." For Saturday night's concert, Miss Rowley had a little more warning--two weeks for her first Verdi Requiem! She once again acquitted herself admirably, showing all those vocal traits I'd admired before--beauty of tone throughout, evenness, feeling--and more.

I don't wish to slight the other soloists, none of whom were unequal to their roles, but the Verdi Requiem is about the soprano, an amazing vocal and dramatic feat for the woman who is equal to it. The program notes from Saturday's concert suggest the soprano might be like a ritual sacrifice, the entire piece more sacral than sacred. That's what one heard in Miss Rowley's singing--terror and passion. The final movement, "Libera me", requires both nuanced, controlled singing with a pianissimo high B-flat ("Requiem aeternam") and the almost raucous sound of desperation ("Tremens factus sum ego"). One is tempted to make earthier metaphors referring to the passion and intensity of Miss Rowley's performance. That is what this work is--earthy, vulgar, operatic. That is why the Requiem is often called the most operatic of all Verdi's works, perhaps more realistic and gritty than the most low-brow, kitchen-sink verismo opera.

Three of the soloists (without Mr. Speedo Green, alas) repeat their performances on April 21 at Carnegie Hall with Mr. Shapiro and the St. Cecilia Chorus. I look forward to hearing even more from them all, and to enjoying Mr. Shapiro's performance of this great work once again.

Mr. Shapiro will deliver a lecture on the Verdi Requiem entitled "It Takes a Village....to Sacrifice a Maiden" on Sunday, March 18, at 4 p.m. at All Souls Unitarian Church (80th & Lex in NYC), and Monday April 16, at 11 a.m. at Hutton House, LIU, Brookville, NY.

Another singer of the week: Carol Vaness

2012-03-06T00:56:00.000-05:00

Anyone who knows me knows I'm a huge Norma-phile. There is no better opera. Period. All you Wagner-philes can go find another blog to follow. I'm also a big fan of Carol Vaness, and I can't think why I've written so little about her here. But take a listen to this audio track of her singing "Casta diva" and you'll understand why I admire her singing so much.

What a gal! OK, so here's my personal Carol Vaness story: I was in Salzburg during the summer of 1988, at a summer program run by the University of Miami (which stubbornly never granted me a masters simply because I never finished all the work, but that's beside the point). Well, that summer Miss Vaness and dear Gösta Winbergh were singing Mr. Mozart's Clemenza di Tito at the Felsenreitschule in Salzburg. My friend and I foolishly accosted Miss Vaness and Delores Ziegler in the street as they were heading to the theater to prepare for the evening's performance to see if they could get us in. Ah, the innocence of youth! They took it in good spirits, though, and didn't resent it when we lied and got backstage after the performance, having bought last minute tickets, and sought their autographs. (I've written before about see Gösta in his undies when someone emerged from his dressing room, revealing him almost au naturel.)

Here she is singing an aria from Clemenza in a Chicago production the same year:

And in my other favorite opera, Anna Bolena. Although she never performed the role, she recorded the final act, of which this is the last part.

A great reason for a new Virginia Zeani post

2012-03-03T10:17:00.000-05:00

Thanks to dear CharlotteinWeimar, there is a new, authorized web site for Virginia Zeani at www.virginiazeani.com. There you'll find a brief bio, discography, and lots of photos. We're so happy to see the site renovated! In Miss Zeani's honor, I post here more clips for your viewing and listening pleasure.

The final section M. Poulenc's La Voix Humaine in a concert. Pianist is uncredited.

OK, here's another! Havvi un Dio from Mr. Donizetti's Maria di Rohan. Naples, 1962.

Mr. Boito's Mefistofele. Nicola Rossi-Lemeni sings Mefistofele and Umberto Grilli sings Faust. Conductor and orchestra uncredited.

This ought to have an effect on my reader stats! Renee Fleming as Ariadne

2012-02-28T07:30:00.001-05:00

This is a very recent performance in Baden-Baden.

I'm not a Renee detractor per se, although I question some rep choices she has made over the years. Even as a woman "of a certain age" she makes really glorious sounds. In this video, my questions are about some of the apparently arbitrary acting movements ("OK, this is where I make the cross", "OK, this is where I turn back to the audience because I'm going to sing at them in a moment"). Usually that is not my experience with dear Renee's acting.

I will include some videos of other renowned Ariadnes, not for Renee-bashing--this is a bash-free blog--but for added insight.

Lisa della Casa, whose name is bandied about as another lyric Ariadne, not in the spinto/dramatic Ariadne mold (Berliner Philharmoniker, Alberto Erede):

And my beloved Debs. No other info given by the YouTube poster:

The one so many hold up for comparison, Jessye Norman at the Met (James Levine, 1988):

Great Singer of the Week--Barbara Bonney

2012-02-27T10:09:00.001-05:00

Facebook has been telling me quite often recently that I should seek Barbara Bonney's friendship--not her fan page, which I already "like", but rather her personal page. I'm a great admirer of her singing, but she doesn't know me from ~~any other stalker out there~~ Adam. Normally this blog features singers who are no longer singing--usually because they are no longer with us--but I took this as a sign that I should feature the lovely Miss Bonney here. Or maybe I'm desperately seeking new content. No, that can't be it. It's a sign from above. Or Facebook.

I have long been an admirer of Barbara Bonney's singing. I've only heard her sing live once, in a concert at Carnegie Hall. Of course I've heard many recordings and seen many YouTube videos. Happily for everyone, she is still singing, and also very active with teaching and master classes.

I keep coming back to this video as an example of sublime beauty and perfect ease in singing. It is amazing how sanguine and peaceful Barbara looks. Her shoulders and throat seem relaxed no matter what fiendishly difficult and lengthy passage she is singing, and her face seems completely at ease. Although I have been known to rail against YouTube commenters who ascribe all sorts of mental goings-on to singers (usually closely matching the commenters' own worldviews), I can see how focused Barbara is on the conductor, the interpretation, the music, the text.

I found this charming video when preparing a post about "Prendi, per me sei libero" that was inspired by Renata Scotto's amazing video (which I was delighted to see being pushed around the web last week for La Scotto's birthday). Here is Barbara with Gösta Winbergh, whom I've featured here before, at Lausanne. I find this just as charming, in its own way.

I could not fail to mention this amazing video of the Rosenkavalier trio, from a production at the Wiener Kammeroper, conducted by the great Carlos Kleiber, with Felicity Lott and Anne Sophie von Otter.

I also can not fail to mention Barbara's renown as a concert singer and her wondrous interpretations of German Lieder especially. Note the deceptively simple Heidenröslein of Herr Schubert:

I could go on and on, because there are videos and recordings in abundance, but I think this is a reasonably concise capsule of some of the many strengths of a legendary singer and artist.

Guest Blogger Jamie Henderson Reports on Norma at Opera North

2012-02-21T09:47:00.001-05:00

Please welcome new guest Taminophile blogger Jamie Henderson, known as jshenderson on Twitter, where his profile describes him as:

lover of opera, lieder, classical music, the odd musical, the occasional play and all things Whedon. Apple-addicted. Strictly Obsessed. Gleek. Also, glutton.

Jamie reviews Norma, my favorite opera, as performed by Opera North.

Bellini’s Norma

Opera North at Leeds Grand Theatre, United Kingdom

February 16, 2012

Norma : Annemarie Kremer

Adalgisa: Keri Alkema

Pollione: Luis Chapa

Oroveso: James Creswell

Flavio: Daniel Norman

Clotilde: Gweneth-Ann Jeffers

Chorus and Orchestra of Opera North

Oliver von Dohnányi, conductor

Christopher Alden, director

Staging Bellini’s Norma is, in the UK at least, not a decision that an opera company takes lightly. The Royal Opera House, for example, has not staged the piece for twenty-five years (two concert performances, with Nelly Miricioiu as Norma, were given some twelve years ago). Norma has also been staged by Opera Holland Park and by Scottish Opera, but performances have hardly been abundant.

It is not too difficult to work out why the opera has been performed so rarely. It is nothing to do with the quality of the opera itself, which is arguably Bellini’s masterpiece and is certainly his most dramatically effective and moving work. No, the main reason must be the monumental demands made of the soprano who undertakes the title role. Created for the great Giuditta Pasta and subsequently taken by Giulia Grisi (who was in fact the first Adalgisa) the eponymous heroine is still closely associated with the towering figures in bel canto singing in the twentieth century, namely Maria Callas, Joan Sutherland and Montserrat Caballé. Such singers - that is, those who can combine power with elegance, can invest coloratura filigree with feeling and purpose, and possess stamina, dramatic stage presence and a wide vocal range - do not grow on trees. They are certainly not the sort of sopranos that one expects to hear at Opera North. But that is what Opera North provided for us in Annemarie Kremer, who was a quite magnificent Norma.

Kremer impressed from her very first notes - her opening recitative ‘Sediziose voci’ was imperiously delivered and the aria itself, ‘Casta Diva’, seemed almost effortless, the repeated top notes well within her range, the voice itself beautiful in colour. The florid passages of her cabaletta (both verses) were well executed, and she capped the whole thing with a strong top C. Impressive though she was here, she went from strength to strength as the evening progressed and met almost every demand that Bellini made of her (and a few more that he didn’t - she interpolated a top D in the act 1 finale, and a high E flat in her Act 2 duet with Pollione). And though she had an impressive upper extension, she was no vapid nightingale. She blended beautifully with the Adalgisa in their duets, brought power and venom (and was not afraid to dip into her chest register) to ‘Ah non tremare’ when Norma realised Polllione’s infidelity, and great pathos to the finale, in which Norma sacrificed herself to die with the man she loved, and to protect her rival Adalgisa.

I did write that she met almost every demand. I should mention that her voice, though well projected, was not huge; though she was always audible from the stalls, friends who were higher up in the building said she could not quite dominate the louder ensembles. She possesses a strong but slender (not ‘fat’) instrument, which some may not consider ideal, and which would not make the same impact on the stage of the Met that it did in this much smaller theatre. She could not - or chose not to - trill; so those threatening rising trills on ‘Adalgisa fia punita’ were not present. Her Italian was very good, if not always crystal clear. But overall, she was a revelation.

So was the Adalgisa, Keri Alkema, who in terms of sheer quality of voice was perhaps even more impressive. Her middle register was extremely sumptuous, and gorgeous in quality. Her opening phrase, ‘Deh, protegemi o Dio’ quite literally took my breath away, it was so richly sung. She is billed as a soprano (she recently sang Mimi for Glyndebourne on Tour), and though she sang several top Cs very well, it was that glorious middle register that remains in the memory, which leads me to wonder if she might one day turn to the lyric mezzo repertory. Having said that, Adalgisa was actually written for a soprano, though it is most often taken by mezzos. Whatever label one applies to her, I can confirm that she was as good an Adalgisa as I’ve heard, right up there with Elina Garanca, Sonia Ganassi and Silvia Tro Santafé.

Bass James Creswell provided stentorian support as Oroveso (fortunately, he possesses a voice of good quality as well as a loud one), and Daniel Norman was an excellent Flavio, who was given more acting to do in this production than is normally the case. The main disappointment was the raw-toned Pollione, Luis Chapa, though he certainly threw himself into the role. Gweneth-Ann Jeffers was in croaky voice as Clotilde.

Great work too from the chorus and orchestra of Opera North, and the excellent conductor Oliver von Dohnányi, who performed the score with very few cuts, as far as I could tell. He led a too sprightly account of the overture, but the opera itself was highly dramatic and had forward momentum but was also singer friendly - there was no sense of the performers being hurried along, or being unable to savour a musical phrase.

A word or two about the production. It has raised a few eyebrows. Christopher Alden doesn’t do traditional, so there were no Druids or Romans in sight. Rather, Norma’s community appeared to be some sort of cult and looked rather similar to nineteenth century American pioneers, and the one set was the rather plain interior of a barn. Pollione and Flavio were portrayed as rather ghastly intruders in this community (which of course they are), and were dressed in late nineteenth century style black suits and top hats. Taken on its own terms, the concept worked well and certain scenes were especially effective: the Norma-Adalgisa ‘Oh rimembranza’ duet, for instance, where they writhe in each others arms as they both recall their memories of their lover, Pollione; and the final scene, where Norma is shunned by her people when they realise her hypocrisy. One is unlikely to get such emotionally raw moments in more traditional stagings of bel canto works, sadly.

So, an opera which strikes fear into the heart of many international companies has been met head on - triumphantly - by Opera North. I can only hope that the excellent reviews, and near-full houses, will encourage them to make further forays into the bel canto repertoire, and that they will have both Annemarie Kremer and Keri Alkema on speed-dial.

RIP Elizabeth Connell

2012-02-20T04:24:00.000-05:00

This week soprano Elizabeth Connell left this world for the next. I'm sorry I never saw her live, and really didn't know how amazing she was until recently. There is no Wikipedia article, which might be better, given Wikipedia's occasional inaccuracies. Here (link) is a 2008 interview with her that is actually quite enlightening. Here (link) is a tribute on her management company's web site. And now for the videos!

The Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde, 2010, cond. Jan-Latham König

The riddle scene from Turandot. Conductor, opera house, Calaf uncredited. Name me another singer in her 60s who can do this.

In questa reggia from the same performance

Macbeth, 1987, Rome, cond. Giuseppe Patane

Look y'all! I'm famous!

2012-02-08T08:49:00.000-05:00

Fabulous blogger Gale Martin has written a profile on moi in her blog Operatoonity. Go. Click. Read.

Second-tier Verdi, or the Best of the Rest

2012-02-07T14:34:00.002-05:00

I have a confession to make. At my advanced age, and as much as I call myself an ~~opera queen~~ bel canto bear, there are some chestnuts I simply haven't ever seen. Der Fliegende Hollander. Macbeth. Manon. Until last night, Ernani was on that list, too. I was excited to see it because it's Verdi and because the star was Angela Meade. I can happily say that neither Mr. Verdi nor Ms. Meade disappointed me.

Ernani is the fifth of Mr. Verdi's 28 operas. I'd call it second-tier Verdi, among the best of the rest. It's not Rigoletto or La Traviata, but it's not without charm or merit. The story is based on a play by Mr. Hugo of Les Miserables fame, whose play Le Roi s'Amuse later provided the inspiration for Rigoletto. The libretto is by Mr. Piave, with a lot of input from Mr. Verdi. The story is typically upper-case-R Romantic: Boy loves girl. Old fart loves girl. King loves girl. (She certainly did get around!) In the end boy and girl are "united in Heaven" and nobody gets what he wants. Except for the King, who becomes the Holy Roman Emperor and doesn't mind about the girl so much any more. All of this happens to stunning music by Verdi, with typically sweeping melodies and rhythmically driven orchestral accompaniments.

Photo by Devon Cass

I've written before about my affection for Angela's singing. (We're on first names basis since I did a profile of her.) I love the even sound throughout her very wide range, the color of her voice, the apparent ease with which she sings just about everything. I saw her Norma at Caramoor in 2010, her Anna Bolena last October at the Met, and now her Elvira in Ernani. Yep. She's got the goods. Last night I heard a more burnished sound, a greater richness to her already beautiful voice. And of course she looked fabulous!

A very accomplished tenor recently pointed out to me that the reason Mr. Pavarotti was so successful in Verdi roles that might seem like a stretch for a lyric voice is that the roles lie very high--passaggio and above, where Pavarotti really shone. Often today I hear singers with large voices who appear to focus so much on a big sound that they don't seem to have the brilliance in their high voices that they're capable of. One such tenor is young Roberto De Biasio, last night's Ernani. He is a good singer, to be sure, and he's certainly working in very prestigious houses, but to my ear he is not on the same level as the rest of the cast.

Courtesy MetOperaFamily.org

Dmitri Hvorostovsky, that white-maned barihunk, sang Don Carlo, and I must say I was enthralled. Even from the balcony, I was impressed by his imposing presence, and his singing was beautiful and smooth and, like Ms. Meade's sounded easy. Listening to this man's singing is always a pleasure. Ferruccio Furlanetto, even at 62, can hold us spellbound with his singing and his presence. He deserved the huge ovation he was awarded at the end of the opera.

The Met chorus and orchestra are always fabulous, but I must say there seemed to be some occasional differences of opinion between them and conductor Marco Armiliato, which is quite unusual in my recent experience.

And I can't say I'm crazy about the directing. I think several of the singers could have used much stronger direction, and I was not kidding when I tweeted at intermission "I don't have a score in front of me--does it say 'Chorus mills about randomly'?"

So to sum up the evening: Singing, fabulous overall; conducting, usually pretty good; directing, meh.

RIP Camilla Williams

2012-01-30T23:21:00.000-05:00

Dear Camilla Williams left his world for the next on January 29. What a charming, classy, warm lady she was!

I was fortunate to meet Ms. Williams during my unfortunate time as a student at Indiana University. Some friends of mine were students of hers. I don't have many warm memories of my time at IU, but Ms. Williams' kindness is one of them.

RIP Rita Gorr

2012-01-24T22:54:00.001-05:00

Belgian mezzo-soprano Rita Gorr (b. 1926) left us on January 22. I am sad I never featured her on these pages. Here is her Wikipedia bio.

There aren't many video clips available. Here is excellent audio from 1962:

This is from the Aida recording with Leontyne Price and John Vickers (1988, cond. Solti):

1991 appearance on French TV (pretty damned good for 65 years of age):

Sorcery is Pungent Business

2012-01-22T07:25:00.003-05:00

Your intrepid reporter braved the ice and snow of Yonkers and Manhattan on Saturday, Jan. 21, to witness more opera and to report on it. (OK, so it was only 3 inches. A lot can be made of 3 inches. Shut up.) What he saw was a production of The Poisoned Kiss by Mr. Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958), an opera that has long languished in obscurity. The production was by the Bronx Opera, performed at the Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College. (Which is not in the Bronx, if you're keeping score.)

Courtesy JeremyJMoore.com

According to the program notes by Michael Spierman, Artistic Director of Bronx Opera, The Poisoned Kiss was first performed in 1936, but did not see any other productions until Mr. Vaughan Williams completed a revised version in 1957. It fell back into obscurity until Mr. Spierman, along with his son, stage director Ben Spierman, revived it for this production. With any luck it will return to obscurity. The story of the opera comes from a short story by Richard Garnett, which was in turn based on Nathaniel Hawthorne's story "Rappaccini's Daughter." In a (typically convoluted) nutshell, Dipsacus, a magician, has brought up his daughter Tormentilla to unwittingly kill Amaryllus, the son of the Empress Persicaria, with their first shared kiss, knowing the two would meet and fall in love as young adults--a scheme of vengeance because his own love for the Empress back in the day had been thwarted by her family. It all ends happily, however. The story and many of the musical numbers reminded me of 1930s movie musicals, so I wasn't surprised to read in the notes that Mr. Vaughan Williams "conceived the opera as a romantic extravaganza, an amalgam of genres combining the Mozartean singspiel of The Magic Flute, the English operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan, and musical comedy."

Soprano Hanna Rosenbaum

There is a lot to like in this opera. Of course, the music of Mr. Vaughan Williams is beautiful. It will appeal to those who are only familiar with his "Fantasia on Greensleeves" or "Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis", but also to those like me, who are ~~big ol' church music queens~~ afficionados of Anglican church music and know his choral and organ music. I must confess I'd never seen one of his operas before, although Bronx Opera has produced both Sir John in Love and Hugh the Drover twice. (Although only one of those four performances took place after I came to NYC in 1991.)

Courtesy KirkDougherty.com

Vocally, there was not a dud in the bunch. The four main characters comprised a sort of Belmonte / Pedrillo / Konstanze / Blondchen quartet. The servant pair, Gallanthus and Angelica, were played by handsome baritone Jeremy J. Moore (Barihunks, are you paying attention?) and charming mezzo Cabiria Jacobsen. Both sang beautifully and acted with great spirit and verve. Ms. Jacobsen's Scottish accent was best accent in the whole cast. (That's one of several missteps by director Ben Spierman. The accents were not necessary, in my opinion.) Amaryllus was portrayed with earnest beauty by tenor Kirk Doughterty, and his lover Tormentilla (whose name makes me want Mexican food) was played by Hannah Rosenbaum, who really needs to get a web site like her peers have, to showcase her beautiful singing and commendable accomplishments.

Courtesy CabiriaJacobsen.com

Bass-baritone Richard Bozic sang with beauty of tone and august authority as Dipsacus. His three henchmen, sort of a magical Larry, Moe, and Curly (actually Hob, Gob, and Lob), were played with enthusiasm by tenor Gilad Paz, baritone Nicholas Provenzale and bass Robert C. Joubert (two more for Barihunks to watch for). I would not have been surprised if the trio had suddenly broken into "Brush Up Your Shakespeare". In true 1930s British movie musical form, Empress Persicaria was played quite imperiously by Leslie Swanson. One could almost imagine the role having been written for Dame Clara Butt or Margaret Dumont.

The orchestra, led by Mr. Spierman the elder, played inoffensively, and the chorus, well prepared by Michael Haigler, sang its thankless music while enduring a lot of stage business I might not have included. The sets by Meganne George, the lighting by Jim Elliott, and the projections by Eamonn Farrell were quite lovely, as were the costumes by Meg Zeder. (One wonders, however, why a great amount of money was spent on sets and costumes, and yet the female lead appears to have been wearing the same dress for days on end.)

I'm actually quite glad I saw this production. I'm happy to have heard the beautiful singing. The opera itself? Let's let it rest on the shelf for another 50 years or so.

Chaos! Confusion! Madness! Delusion!

2012-01-18T09:40:00.002-05:00

David Daniels
Courtesy Danielssings.com

Your intrepid reporter was delighted to be gifted with tickets to see The Enchanted Island at the Metropolitan Opera on Tuesday evening. This performance piece is a pastiche comprised of arias and ensembles from a large number of works from various great composers of the Baroque. This was a common way for 17th- and 18th-century composers to reuse their own music. Often the works of several composers were combined into parody pastiches. (Think of the music-hall scene in Amadeus.) If that had been true of The Enchanted Island, we would all have slept better, but no. Although the intention was apparently to compile a comedy--reports to this effect being really the strongest evidence that this was true--this was no parody. This was in earnest. The entire list of pieces ~~stolen~~ borrowed for this ~~mess~~ pastiche is at this link.

Elliot Madore
Courtesy CAMI

Let me say here and now that all the singing was perfectly beautiful. However, I was not convinced that many of the men had music that particularly suited them vocally. Perhaps it was the acoustics of where I was sitting. Much of it seemed a little low in tessitura. That is, until barihunk Elliot Madore swaggered on stage as Lysander. Upon hearing him sing, my thought was "At last! A good match of voice to material!" His singing was resonant, and his coloratura singing--fast passages--was clear, and his high voice was in tip-top shape. I was also very fond of tenor Paul Appleby's light tenor. His character was a bit of a fop--in other words, a typical lyric tenor character. Mr. Appleby sang with ease and threw himself into the funny business he was tasked with, as his character Demetrius chased hopelessly after Miranda. Countertenor David Daniels, who is reported to have been ill and to have cancelled some performances recently, sounded reasonably healthy and in good voice.

Luca Pisaroni with soprano Layla Claire
Photo: Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera

I am a fan of bass of Luca Pisaroni. I follow his Tweets and I think he follows mine, although I'm not completely sure. I wish his handsome face had not been obscured by the monster makeup. It made him look like a 1950s sitcom version of a "savage", or aboriginal person. Considering he was supposed to be the love child of David Daniels' Prospero and Joyce DiDonato's Sycorax, both appearing reasonably normal, I don't really get that. I did like his singing, of course, although as I say the role lay a little low for him. And he was effective in the "Beauty and the Beast"-type story with the fair Miranda, daughter of Prospero.

Speaking of Joyce DiDonato.... Well, what can one say? We have come to expect an amazing level of vocal beauty and finesse and artistry, and we are rarely disappointed. Just as expected, Ms. DiDonato gave us beautiful sounds, vocal fireworks and nuanced legatos. She was hampered only by the completely dreadful words she was forced to sing.

Joyce DiDonato, Placido Domingo, David Daniels
Photo: Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera

Yes, gentle reader, it is time to discuss my major complaint about this show--the libretto by Jeremy Sams. The story itself was harmless enough, combining bits of The Tempest and A Midsummer Night's Dream in a frothy attempt at a comedy of mistaken identities and love potions, but the writing wasn't merely bad, it was monumentally bad. The rhymes were facile and inane--"Men are fickle, dearest sister; tears that trickle, tears that blister"--and the overall literary tone of the libretto was nowhere near the level of the music. We were asked to believe Prospero and his companions spoke as if they'd just walked off the set of the TV show "Friends". The story was far too long for modern audiences, and the structure was simply very poor. I was left wondering why the Met hadn't simply produced one of Mr. Handel's--or Mr. Vivaldi's or Mr. Rameau's--excellent operas instead of subjecting its audience to this drivel, but then I realized this drivel gets a lot more press than a Handel opera.

Neptune was brought into the action as a Deus ex machina (actually Deum de ligno, but who's keeping score) to save the day in the last act. Placido Domingo was simply adorable as the cranky god Neptune, and the transition to his Act I underwater scene that led to the chorus singing "Zadok the Priest" with new, inane words and what surely must have been recycled Rhinemaidens floating overhead was the best part of the evening.

I can't neglect to mention the beautiful music making of William Christie, known for early music, who conducted this mess. The Met's orchestra and chorus were of course lovely. Continuo by Bradley Brookshire, harpsichord, and David Heiss, cello. It's hard to name a vocal standout. Lisette Oropesa, Layla Claire, Elizabeth DeShon and Anthony Roth Costanzo certainly deserve mention, but everyone sang beautifully. I wish that were enough.

Another shameless bit of self-promotion

2012-01-11T21:30:00.001-05:00

January 12, 2012 -- Opera Manhattan presents a special Valentine’s Day production, Women on the Verge, all about women and love. The centerpiece of the production will be Poulenc’s one-act monodrama for soprano, La Voix Humaine, which hasn’t been presented in New York City since 1993. If the opera isn’t familiar, the story is–a woman abandoned by her lover over the telephone. The 1930s version of a text-message breakup.

Roza Tulyaganova, soprano

The production also includes two monodramas by contemporary composer Thomas Pasatieri. Lady Macbeth is based on five speeches from the Shakespeare play we dare not name, and Before Breakfast is based on the Eugene O’Neill play.

"This is exciting music, and New York's opera-going audience will clamor for the opportunity to hear it sung beautifully" enthuses Music Director Lloyd Arriola. The cast includes sopranos Roza Tulyaganova singing La Voix Humaine, Jayne Skoog singing Before Breakfast, and Melinda Griswold singing Lady Macbeth.

Jayne Skoog, soprano

Melinda Griswold, soprano

Performance dates and times:

Friday, Feb. 10, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 11, 4:00 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 11, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, Feb. 12, 7:30 p.m.

All performances are held at Shetler Studios, 244 W. 54th St., 12th floor, penthouse 1, in Manhattan.

Tickets are available for $25 each at http://operamanhattanwov.eventbrite.com/

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