BREAKING NEWS: Opera & Ballet

La bohème

Fri, 09 Jun 2023 21:28:16 +0000

The final Free Live Audio Stream of the Met’s 2022-2023 season.

Armadillos

Fri, 09 Jun 2023 18:20:16 +0000

Armadillos by Colleen Wagner opened at Factory Theatre last night. It’s really quite complex and I’m grateful for having had the opportunity to meet with cast and crew to discuss it last week. It’s simultaneously a play about two different takes on the myth of Peleus and Thetis and a sort of meta-theatrical questioning of which stories we tell and how they affect us. In the process it examines ideas about the origins of patriarchy and oonsent/non-consent in sexual relations.

The set up involves a touring company of four actors so we each as both “themselves” and a character in the Thetis play. Zeus, played by Jay, played by Ryan Hollyman, is violently consolidating his power after his victory over the Titans by suppressing or subordinating goddess worship. Hera, played by Sofia, played by Zorana Sadiq, has reluctantly signed up to the new order. Zeus is trying to use the young goddess Thetis, played by Karmyne, played by Mirabella Sundar Singh, to trap her non-cooperating grandmother Gaia. This is complicated by the fact that this older version of Thetis is still worshipped in her own right and isn’t overly eager to accept a junior role in Zeus’ new pantheon, let alone acquiesce in the personal services role he has in mind for her.

Zeus, of course, has the hots for the young and attractive Thetis but Hera is aware that there’s a prophecy that Thetis’ son will be greater than his father and determines to get rid of Thetis by marrying her off to the human hero Peleus, played by Dyrk, played by Paolo Santalucia. Thetis realises what’s going on and buys just enough time to let Zeus have his way with her. Zeus is portrayed as ruthless, brutal and oversexed and his relationships with the two women definitely flirt graphically with the murky line between consent and coercion.

Act 2 opens backstage. The various characters discuss their relationships and love lives. Karmyne and Dyrk are both doing drink and drugs pretty heavily and Karmyne appears to arrange a hookup on the Internet pretty much every night. They end up together for the night. Meanwhile Jay and Sofia flirt/don’t flirt around their failed relationships but just when it seems that they too are about to hook up Jay disappears to some other liaison. All this comes back to haunt the next day’s performance. Karmyne and Dyrk haven’t turned up so Jay and Sofia have to improvise. We get a pretty straight reprise of the beginning of Act 1 from Jay before Sofia starts to change Hera’s lines to suggest she isn’t buying the Zeus as patriarch thing at all. Dyrk, not in costume and obviously still stoned shows up and stumbles through his part. There’s a sense that Order is being replaced by Chaos in this particular cosmogony. Finally Karmyne appears costumed as Thetis and plays out her older, pre Zeus, myth with Dyrk. This is the version where Peleus is the suppliant bridegroom of Thetis, rather than the divinely sanctioned rapist of the classic version. She gives him the three sacred snakebites that symbolise the death of ego and the marriage of both human and divine and equal male and female principles. A different cosmic order than that of Zeus is postulated as a possibility.

Making all of this clear dramatically is obviously a considerable challenge and it’s impressive that it works so well as theatre without seeming preachy or didactic. It’s greatly helped by Jani Lauzon’s deceptively straightforward direction. Characters come and go with entrances for divine characters highlighted by the lighting plot. It’s all quite spare and direct letting the words do their thing.The subtle way in which the final scene transforms from a reprise of the play’s opening to something quite different is both profound and very funny. In fact juxtapositions of that sort are key to what works. One minute we are laughing at the sheer incongruity of a situation, for example Zrus unable to handle a raging erection, and the next we are watching a graphic and disturbing sex scene.

Performances are strong too. Hollyman gives us a gruesomely awful Zeus while, as Jay, he reveals a vulnerability that borders on despair. Sadiq does something similar but her best bit is the way she seamlessly subverts the Act 1 reprise without appearing to leave character as Hera. Singh is brave. It’s easy to forget how young and inexperienced she is but she manages to transition from playing almost a schoolgirl (albeit a divine one) to coping with some of the most graphic sex I’ve seen on a Toronto stage. It’s impressive. Santalucia too manages two very different personalities. There’s the hero (complete with battle rifle) who quite matter of factly explains why he sometimes tortures people and sometimes just kills them while being utterly subservient to anyone remotely divine. And he transitions this to the happy go lucky kid (maybe) who enjoys drug fuelled sex with whoever, to the “out of it” Peleus who stumbles through the story he doesn’t know at the end. It’s an impressive quartet.

This is exciting and disturbing theatre. It’s sometimes very funny and sometimes quite shocking. The story has multiple twists but a solid central core and the execution is excellent. It’s the sort of play that would probably benefit from being seen more than once but you certainly should manage at least that!

Armadillos continues at Factory Theatre until June 24th.

Photo credits: Jeremy Mimnagh

SF Symphony's Adriana Mater

Fri, 09 Jun 2023 16:09:50 +0000

* Notes *Composer Kaija Saariaho (pictured) died last Friday on June 2, and San Francisco Symphony's presentation of her 2005 opera Adriana Mater last night showed what a profound loss this is. Her music is wholly unique and is very much a case for live performance. Saariaho turned Davies Hall into an instrument, her slow moving music has a physicality that is like being surrounded by a monumental sculpture that gradually appears and then dissipates. Maestro Esa-Pekka Salonen kept the orchestra very even and consistent. The piece has a lot of percussion, more than two dozen instruments, which undoubtedly help create the soundscape that feels so solid and palpable. The brass sounded very clear and the strings shimmered. The opera, with libretto in French by Amin Maalouf, is set in present day, in an unnamed country on the precipice of war. Adriana, a young woman, rebuffs the advances of a young ne'er-do-well Tsargo, and is later raped by him at home when her sister Refka is out. She becomes pregnant and keeps the child, a son she names Yonas, but is tormented by fears that he will be like his father. When Yonas discovers his true paternity, he seeks revenge by taking Tsargo's life, but finds he cannot and thus proves to Adriana that he is indeed her son, and her fears were unfounded. Saariaho dedicated this opera to Peter Sellars, who directed the world premiere seventeen years ago at Opéra Bastille in Paris with Salonen conducting. Sellars is halfway through a four opera series at San Francisco Symphony that will continue next year with Arnold Schoenberg’s Erwartung. This new staging for Adriana Mater included four platforms for the four principal vocalists, two downstage, and two upstage. The orchestra is arranged in a diagonal dividing the platforms in half, and the chorus is above but continues the diagonal by being stage right. The lighting switches up from primary colors on different platforms, to fully green or pink depending on the tableau. The singers are all fine actors, I was especially impressed how well mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron (Adriana) was able to hold her body in place for such long periods and how transformed she was from Act I where she is a young adult to Act II when she has a fully grown son. The staging does include four iPads with the music for the singers, and I found this would occasionally take me out of the drama and the music as a singer would turn the page or carry the device to the floor if the choreograph demanded it. The singing was all very beautiful, an interesting contrast to the dark and disturbing content of the opera. Baritone Christopher Purves is terrifying as the violent Tsargo, but his voice does have.a pretty warmth to it. Tenor Nicholas Phan is wrenching as son Yonas, his sweet, bright sound conveys a lot of emotion. Soprano Axelle Fanyo also has a sweet, full tone and gave a focused performance as Adriana's sister Refka. Barron is devastating in the title role, her deeply burnished mezzo embodied the pain of Adriana and her redemption. * Tattling * There was some light talking throughout the performance, which completely didn't make sense to me, as this experience was intense and immersive. A person in Row T Seat 3 of Premier Orchestra kept looking at her phone in the second act. It seemed like almost everyone I knew who loves opera was at this performance. Even soprano Nina Stemme and baritone Johan Reuter, who are both in Die Frau Ohne Schatten over at San Francisco Opera were in attendance.

“It was the drag queens who taught me glamour”

Fri, 09 Jun 2023 10:00:04 +0000

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6Kx3Wo4DJc

Happy 84th birthday soprano Ileana Cotrubas.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnQz9pOnU2w

Born on this day in 1891 composer Cole Porter.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3b5XRd15KM

Birthday anniversaries of composers Otto Nicolai (1810), Carl Nielsen (1865) and Charles Wuorinen (1938); baritones Titto Ruffo (1877) and Lorenzo Saccomani (1938); tenor Nino Piccaluga (1890) and mezzo-soprano Jennie Tourel (1900).

Flagellum dei

Thu, 08 Jun 2023 12:24:29 +0000

On this day in 452 AD, Attila the Hun invaded Italy.

Perceptual Archaeology

Wed, 07 Jun 2023 14:28:30 +0000

Perceptual Archaeology (or How to Travel Blind), which stars Alex Bulmer assisted by Enzo Massara, is a show about blindness and coping with it. It opened in the Studio Theatre at Crow’s last night. Going to see it involved confronting my worst nightmare and so I sat near the door in case needed to escape (thanks Crow’s). So what’s it about and how does it work?

Alex Bulmer, after much poking, prodding drops and bright lights, was diagnosed with a hereditary condition that meant she was likely to go blind “sometime in the next five to fifty years”. Eventually she lost her sight and started to work on ways of coping. I think one of the things that comes out here is how losing one’s sight is rather different from being blind from birth. The strategy, and the substance of the show, was to get a grant to follow in the footsteps of James Holman; a former naval officer and, subsequently, blind travel writer. Now Bulmer didn’t follow him by climbing Vesuvius or swinging from the rigging of sailing ships but she did follow his itinerary through the Rhineland before deciding that America’s “music belt” worked best for her. I can’t imagine what James Holman would have made of Graceland.

She tells her story with humour and a handful of props and the use of Enzo as a sort of guide, line feeder and, almost, a prop. We encounter the castles and cathedrals of the Rhineland mostly through touch and sound (smell doesn’t figure much perhaps surprisingly) and there are some scary incidents involving football fans, the far right and a railway station. Every time it seems about to get too much she comes up with another good joke. It’s clever, balanced and well paced. But somehow the Rhineland doesn’t take Alex where she needs to go. Somehow her resolution comes in a road trip through Georgia and Tennessee in the form of small town radio stations.

The production, which is directed by Leah Cherniak and is a co-pro of Crow’s and Fire and Rescue Team is designed for sighted and non-sighted audiences and includes a touch tour of the set for those who need/want it. It’s intimate and greatly enhanced by the sound design of Deanna H. Choi. I did find myself listening to parts of the show with my eyes closed though that might just have been bravado on my part.

In short, not only did I not run screaming from the theatre but I found the show insightful, touching and very funny. It’s certainly a lot more fun than the two hours of poking, prodding, eye drops and bright lights I have scheduled for next week. Perceptual Archaeology runs at Crow’s Theatre until June 25th.

Photo credits: Dahlia Katz

Sweeney, supersized

Wed, 07 Jun 2023 14:18:37 +0000

News that Broadway’s Tony Awards will head uptown on Sunday to the sumptuous United Palace (a few blocks from where I live) made me remember Stephen Sondheim’s swell song mentioning Washington Heights…

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fvkHB3MA4s

…which then prompted Chris’s Cache to dig out two opera-house versions of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd featuring Bryn Terfel / Judith Christin and Thomas Allen / Felicity Palmer.

Sweeney is currently on Broadway in a revival nominated for eight Tonys starring Josh Groban and Annaleigh Ashford. Since tickets to that show at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater are wickedly expensive, I’ve been regularly entering the Broadway Direct lottery which offers $30 tickets to every performance.

Ten days ago, I won (!) which landed me in the front row four feet behind the conductor.

I’ve been an Ashford fan, but I really knew nothing about Groban other than his casting caused a big uproar when it was announced last year. It was my fifth live Sweeney and the pair worked together beautifully, and I enjoyed it immensely. I did wonder what all the shrieking Groban fans behind me were making of the bloody romp; it struck me more than ever what a magnificent opera it is. The two productions on today’s Chris’s Cache demonstrate that important opera companies have agreed.

A previous Sweeney encounter of mine featuring Brian Stokes Mitchell and Christine Baranski appeared on a Trove Thursday installment three years ago.

Sondheim: Sweeney Todd

Mrs. Lovett: Judith Christin
Johanna: Celena Shafer
Beggar Woman: Sheri Greenawald
Sweeney Todd: Bryn Terfel
Anthony Hope: Nathan Gunn
Tobias Ragg: David Cangelosi
Judge Turpin: Timothy Nolen
Beadle Bamford: Matthew Lord
Pirelli: Bonaventura Bottone
Jonas Fogg: Roger Honeywell

Conductor: Paul Gemignani

Lyric Opera of Chicago
27 November 2002
In-house recording

Sondheim: Sweeney Todd

Mrs. Lovett: Felicity Palmer
Johanna: Rebecca Evans
Beggar Woman: Rosalind Plowright
Sweeney Todd: Thomas Allen
Anthony Hope: William Dazeley
Tobias Ragg: Doug Jones
Judge Turpin: Jonathan Veira
Beadle Bamford: Robert Tear
Pirelli: Bonaventura Bottone
Jonas Fogg: Matthew Rose

Conductor: Paul Gemignani

Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
17 December 2003
Broadcast

Each Sweeney Todd can be downloaded by clicking on the icon of a cloud with an arrow pointing downward on the audio player above and the resulting mp3 file will appear in your download directory.

Expected Wagneriennes

Unexpected Wagneriennes

Mozart for another time

Some disenchanted evening

You must believe in spring

Listen to the lullaby

Wed, 07 Jun 2023 13:29:36 +0000

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6JXpr-1iXY

Happy 60th birthday tenor Roberto Alagna.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoHUMy3HIiA

On this day in 1945 Britten’s Peter Grimes premiered at Sadlers Wells Theatre in London.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuYuGtPK89s

Birthday anniversaries of conductor George Szell (1897), soprano Margaret Ritchie (1903), tenor Mario Filippeschi (1907), conductor, director and teacher Boris Goldovsky (1908), soprano Margherita Carosio, (1908), set designer Gunther Schneider-Siemssen (1926) and tenor Andrea Velis (1927).

Happy 56th birthday soprano Patrizia Ciofi.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=T215xfnvAck

Opéra Magazine's 'Pick of the Month' for June 2023

Wed, 07 Jun 2023 09:27:00 +0000

Recording of the month (their 'coup de coeur') in the June issue of France's Opéra Magazine, with a 'Diamond' rating (the highest), is Strauss's Capriccio from the Semperoper in Dresden, on the Arthaus Musik label. The production is by Jean-Daniel Herzog, and the cast includes Camilla Nylund, Christoph Pohl, Daniel Behle, Nikolay Borchev, Georg Zeppenfeld, Christa Mayer and Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke, all under Thielemann. The reviewer says this is a 'Masterly Capriccio' that shoots straight to the top of the video catalogue, alongside Carsen's 2004 production from the Palais Garnier in Paris.

At the time of writing this post, the whole opera is available on YouTube:

Standing in the shadows of love

Tue, 06 Jun 2023 15:44:31 +0000

Despite ts significance, the much-maligned work was Strauss’ longest and most complex opera, and the heavily symbolistic libretto and complicated storyline continued to perplex and delight audience in equal measure ever since its premiere in 1919.

Strauss and Die Frau librettist poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal were undoubtedly the greatest opera collaborations in 20th century German opera world, producing six operas (from 1909 Elektra to 1933 Arabella) that are still widely played in opera houses around the world, particularly the first three (Elektra, Der Rosenkavalier, Ariadne auf Naxos).

For Die Frau, von Hofmannsthal envisioned a magic fairy-tale opera adapted freely from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Conversations of German Emigrants and modeled after Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. The latter’s influences were evident not only in the roles of the two pairs of lovers, but also in the central theme of love and the “tests” to prove the worthiness of both pairs.

It was important to note that although the work on Die Frau began in 1911 (following the success of Der Rosenkavalier’s premiere), the opera wasn’t performed till 1919, after the conclusion of World War I. In a rare display of both mimesis (art imitating life) and anti-mimesis, 1911 also marked the year of the royal wedding of Emperor Karl and Empress Zita (the last of Habsburg royalty) and they subsequently were banished from Austria in 1919, merely seven months before the premiere of Die Frau.

In a way, that event probably served as one of the reasons for the lukewarm reception of the premiere in Vienna, despite the participation of two of the greatest singers of the century, Maria Jeritza and Lotte Lehmann, as the Empress and Dyer’s Wife respectively. Nevertheless, the mythical Emperor and Empress of Die Frau lived on, and the opera gained significance over the years, most importantly as one of the features for the reopening of Vienna Opera House in 1955.

Die Frau ohne Schatten represented an important piece of history for San Francisco Opera, as the American premiere took place at War Memorial Opera House on September 18, 1959, with Leopold Ludwig conducting a Jean-Pierre Ponnelle production with Edith Lang, Sebastian Feiersinger, Mino Yahia, Marianne Schech and Irene Dalis as the Empress, the Emperor, Barak, Dyer’s Wife and the Nurse respectively; that magnitude of an event warranted its place in the current Centennial Season. Since then, the opera was only been presented on War Memorial stage five other times in only three different productions until now.

The year following the premiere, Ludwig with Schech and Dalis returned for the first revival of Ponnelle’s staging, this time with the great Leonie Rysanek (the first of her three runs as the Empress), Ticho Parly and Paul Schoeffler. The final revival of Ponnelle’s came 4 years later, when Ella Lee, Richard Martell, Eberhard Waechter, and Gladys Kuchta joined Ludwig and Dalis to sing the five main roles.

Twelve years later, in 1976 SF audiences saw the arrival of Karl Böhm, a close friend of Strauss and Daphne’s dedicatee (the current show perused the cuts made by him and sanctioned by Strauss), to conduct a new production by Nikolaus Lehnhoff featuring the cast of Rysanek, Matti Kastu, Walter Berry, Ursula Schröder-Feinen and Ruth Hesse.

The same production was revived four years later, with Berislav Klobucar conducting Rysanek (sharing the role with Eva Marton this time) and Hesse, plus James King, Gerd Feldhoff and Birgit Nilsson as Dyer’s Wife. In 1989 War Memorial stage saw Die Frau the last time, with Christoph von Dohnányi conducting Grischa Asagaroff production with Mary Jane Johnson, William Johns, Alfred Muff, Gwyneth Jones and Anja Silja.

The current performances marked the first time San Francisco Opera presented David Hockney’s production; it was a co-production between Los Angeles Opera and Royal Opera House Covent Garden and it had its premiere in London in 1992 (originally directed by John Cox), before traveling to Los Angeles and Australia. Longtime SF Opera staff director Roy Rallo took the helm at directing the show, while the costumes were designed by Ian Falconer, frequent Hockney collaborator who passed away last March and to whose memory the whole production was dedicated.

SF Opera press release detailed that “the story follows a fairy-tale Empress who has three days to take the shadow of a mortal woman, and thereby that woman’s ability to have children, in order to prevent a curse from turning her husband, the Emperor, to stone. While the theft of the shadow could avert the threat she faces, the Empress confronts whether her own happiness is possible if it comes at another’s expense.”

One of the most disturbing portions of the opera was the presence of the Chorus of Unborn Children – first introduced towards the end of Act 1 and significantly appeared in the Finale – which proved to be a very controversial subject in the post-Roe world. However, in the program historian Larry Wolff (who wrote extensively about the opera in his book The Shadow of the Empress: Fairy-Tale Opera and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy), offered an alternative point of view of the matter, as he said:

While the word “unborn” was appropriated in the American abortion debate in the late 20th century, it had no such meaning for Strauss and Hofmannsthal in the early 20^th century. The unborn children represented, in wartime, the unborn generation of the future, what we might call “posterity.” Hofmannsthal imagined the children’s chorus sounding “as if birds were suddenly speaking from the sky,” and Strauss created magical effects with the triangle and celesta. The redemptive magic of the unborn children was intended to heal a world destroyed by war.

Even further, in his 2019 essay published by The New York Times following the 100 year anniversary of the premiere of the opera, Wolff argued that Die Frau ohne Schatten imagined an enlightened, democratic empire” and that the Empress (the title character of the opera)

…was an empress for the 20th century, an empress for the age of democracy, descending from her palatial heights to the humblest dwellings of ordinary people and learning what it means to be human, seeking to acquire a shadow as a sign of her own humanity, but ultimately realizing that she would violate the moral code of humanity if she took the shadow of another woman.

Seen in these larger contextual meanings, Die Frau ohne Schatten’s central message of self-sacrificing love and responsibility towards the present and future of humanity through action came loud and clear and it served as a necessary wake-up call for our world that is seemingly full of greed and hate.

The greatest strength of Hockney’s production as realized by Rallo was that it effectively told the complex and highly symbolic story and, by staying true to the “magic fairy-tale” as envisioned by Strauss and Hofmannsthal, it conveyed to the audience its lessons without being preachy. Decidedly whimsical in his approach, Hockney took the fairy-tale aspects seriously and saturated the stage with an explosion of bold and striking colors, emphasizing the other-worldly nature of the story, aided by brilliant lighting designed by Justin A. Partier.

The efficiency of the staging was particularly staggering, as the set mostly consisted of a single rotating semi-circular piece with one side representing the Emperor’s realm and the other constituting Barak the Dyer’s hut complete with dye pots, coupled with various dropdown props to denote trees and doors, among others. All these resulted in smooth transitions between scenes and nonstop action of the story; the whole set even felt like children’s pop-up story book at times!

Hockney, too, emphasized the link to Die Zauberflöte in his production, as the door to Keikobad’s realm and the pyramid in Act 3 could readily be reused for Die Zauberflöte, and, particularly, Falconer’s costume for the The Nurse definitely could easily be Queen of the Night’s! Speaking of the costumes, Falconer mostly assigned specific colors to each character (The Emperor in red, Barak and the Messenger in blue, the Nurse in black) throughout the opera, with the exception of two characters, The Dyer’s Wife – who traded her turquoise short-and-shirt getup for clown-like yellow and blue stripes for the beginning of Act 2 – and especially, the Empress.

It was fascinating to see the color progression of the Empress’s (from white in the Scene 1 of Act 1, blue for all the scenes in Barak’s hut, maroon for the confrontation with Keikobad, and finally bright red (matching the Emperor) for the finale); it was as if to reflect on the progression of her heart!

Ultimately, the opera revolved around choices – particularly the women’s choices – as Dyer’s Wife chose not to sell her shadow at the end of Act 2, and especially, in the Act 3 the Empress’ choice to refuse to take the shadow that marked the turning point of the opera and brought it to its joyful endings.

This production managed to bring out that aspect much more clearly than any other productions I had seen in the past. It also succeeded in giving clarity to Dyer’s Wife actions as the manifestations of her frustrations of married life.

If I might nitpick, my biggest problem with the production came at the very last scene of the opera. In the interview with Hockney printed in the program, he said:

Hofmannsthal’s libretto describes a beautiful landscape with a golden river sweeping through it. We realized the Golden River could represent the life force. But the opera doesn’t end there. It ends in the future with the voices of unborn children singing. The river then comes toward the audience to become a tree of life. I think it fits the music very well.

The Golden River was all there, but unfortunately, the so-called “tree of life” looked a little bit like “flying sperm” especially when coupled with the children chorus, making it as if Hockney was playing joke on the audience. It was truly an unfortunate moment, as the scenes leading to that moment were perfect and magical! You can decide for your own what you think from the image below.

While the production value offered so much more, it was the musical aspect of the opera that lifted up the show into the stratosphere. San Francisco Opera assembled an extraordinary cast to bring the fable into life, led by former SF Opera Music Director Sir Donald Runnicles, who conducted Die Frau ohne Schatten for the first time in his career.

Swedish soprano Nina Stemme made a spellbinding turn as the Dyer’s Wife, in a performance full of power and vigor. Her round soprano voice sounded darker (as evident in Kurt Weill’s section of her recital last month, reviewed by my colleague Christian Ocier) than the last time I heard her essaying the role, giving her portrayal an earthy undertone. Her confrontation with Barak at the end of Act 2 was a stunning tour de force both in her acting and particularly in the way she rode the blazing wall of sound of the orchestra.

In contrast, she demonstrated the different facets of her interpretation of the role with heartfelt tenderness and joyful celebration in the two duets with Barak in Act 3, signifying the complete transformation of the character. After that June 4 performance, Stemme was also presented with the San Francisco Opera Medal, as recognition for her works with SF Opera in the last twenty years, starting with Senta in Der Fliegende Holländer in 2004, Brünnhilde in both 2010 and 2011 Ring cycles (all conducted by Runnicles) and the title role of 2017 Turandot (with production by Hockney).

A veteran of the role Barak, debuting Danish bass-baritone Johan Reuter brought a sense of warmth and nobility into the role, the perfect family man. His scene where he broke his mortar in Act 2 was truly heartbreaking (a perfect example of Rallo’s direction), while he and Stemme exhibited beautiful chemistry in both Act 3 duets.

As the title role of the opera (The Empress), Camilla Nylund brought an otherworldly quality to her personification of the character. With her silvery bright voice, she navigated the coloratura passages in her opening monologue in Act 1 with ease, and later on traded that with grit and determination for the confrontation with Keikobad in Act 3. Nylund’s performance here opened my eyes of the importance of the role as the central character whose transformation changed the course of the story!

Not to be outdone, British tenor David Butt Philip imbued the challenging Emperor role with intelligence and sensitivity, his beautiful voice gleamed bright throughout. While he sounded a tad lyrical in the beginning, his monologue in Act 2 proved to be highly nuanced and shapely executed. I couldn’t help but wonder if his costumes (the looped-up skirt, the big hat with feather and the weapons) somehow got in the way of his singing though.

Bay Area resident Linda Watson completed the principals with her wholesome depiction of the evil Nurse. The metallic tone of her voice infused a sense of danger and menace to her characterization, and it was highly effective. The comprimario roles (there were 20 of them!) were handled handsomely, with some highlights included tenor Zhengyi Bai and bass-baritones Wayne Tigges and Philip Skinner as Barak’s brothers (little trivia: Skinner sang the same role in the last production … 34 years ago!), Stefan Egerstrom as the Spirit Messenger and Mikayla Sager as the Keeper of the Gates.

Runnicles led the SF Opera Orchestra in a reading full of great elan and vigor. With 96 instrumentalists in the pit (the third largest ever, the record was held by 2002 Olivier Messiaen’s Saint François d’Assise with 104 people also conducted by him) Runnicles managed to achieve a great balance between clarity, details, and power.

In his hand, Act 2 was specifically absolutely thrilling, a breathless nonstop action with great buildup toward the confrontation of Barak and his wife that almost felt like it would go out of control but miraculously stay on the line. In comparison, there was a bit sense of discontinuity in the final act (probably caused by the cuts employed), but nevertheless his was still a very riveting take on the score.

This extraordinary production definitely is a major accomplishment for San Francisco Opera, a perfect crowning glory for the Centennial Season. There are only four more performances left, and you would be wise not to wait for another three decades to experience Strauss’ complex and completely human masterpiece, Die Frau ohne Schatten!

Photos: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

Midwest Side Story

Tue, 06 Jun 2023 13:19:19 +0000

Zambello clearly trusts this material, offering a traditional production that’s brimming with theatrical energy and verve.

With glorious music by Leonard Bernstein, an excellent book by Arthur Laurents, magical choreography and original direction by Jerome Robbins and lyrics by the young Stephen Sondheim, West Side Story is a musical and dramatic feast featuring such famous songs as “Maria,” “Tonight,” the delightful “America”, and the plaintive “Somewhere.”

The story, based largely on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, is a clear story of “us vs. them” as the American gang The Jets squares off against the new arrivals from Puerto Rico, The Sharks. This clash of cultures is finely honed by Zambello, as the gun violence that ends the tragedy is way too familiar to all of us. Zambello keeps the action fast-paced, clear, and vivid.

The real stars of this show are the brilliant choreography (Robbins’ choreography is painstakingly and stunningly recreated here by Joshua Bergasse and associate choreographer Kiira Schmidt Carper) and a cast of remarkable actor/dancers who work with amazing precision, skill, and endurance. It’s the best theatre dancing I have ever seen. Many dance moments were met by absolute silence from the slack-jawed audience which then roared with approval at the end of the numbers.

Most of the cast changes worked very well, though I have a few caveats. The Maria of Kanisha Feliciano was played with genuine youthful innocence and her bell-like soprano fulfilled all the requirements of the role, though her highest notes occasionally turned shrill.

Our Tony this time around was Ryan McCartan, who possesses a gorgeous, plangent tenor and acts well, but he seems miscast. His Tony is very light, naïve, and tender; it’s very hard to believe that this is the man who founded the Jets gang and fought numerous rumbles in the past. He seems more innocent than Maria. In his scene with Riff (the wonderful actor/dancer Brett Thiele), the two seem to come from completely different worlds rather than the best of friends.

Amanda Castro returns as the fiery, youthful Anita in a sparkling performance, singing and dancing wonderfully, especially in “America.” Brett Thiele’s Riff and Yurel Echezarreta as Bernardo make their gang rivalry especially vivid. Mark Daniel Aguirre is a rather colorless Chino.

Doc, the drug store owner, is female and well-played by Genevieve VenJohnson, though she lacks Doc’s usual authoritative power in the situations involving the gangs. Well-known Chicago actors Keith Kupferer and John Lister are Schrank and Krupke, and Lillian Castillo is a delight as Glad Hand.

Peter J. Davison’s excellent sets provide mood and location, and work very well with the exception of Maria’s bedroom, high on a platform and feeling too remote for the audience. Excellent costumes by Jessica Jahn and moody lighting by Mark McCullough complete the picture.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E77lOS1lsQ

And what a joy to hear this glorious music played by the robust Lyric Opera Orchestra, led with propulsive energy and nuance by James Lowe. It was an afternoon of sheer musical pleasure.

The production runs through June 25 and should be a near-sellout. I urge Chicago audiences to make this a viewing priority.

Photos: Todd Rosenberg

Free bird

Tue, 06 Jun 2023 12:41:14 +0000

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=224Zm3WRBmA

Happy 84th birthday tenor Giacomo Aragall.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7h38y1Kxec

Birthday anniversaries of writer Thomas Mann (1875), soprano Grete Stückgold (1895), mezzo-soprano/soprano Gloria Lane (1925) and conductor Klaus Tennstedt (1926).

Happy 84th to baritone Alberto Rinaldi.

Happy 81st birthday countertenor and conductor Paul Esswood.

Family Issues: Il trovatore at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos

Tue, 06 Jun 2023 11:42:27 +0000

Verdi – Il trovatore

Il Conte di Luna – Alessandro Luongo
Leonora – Cristiana Oliveira
Azucena – Cátia Moreso
Manrico – Ivan Gyngazov
Ferrando – Dario Russo
Ines – Joana Seara
Ruiz – Sérgio Martins
Vecchio zingaro – João Rosa
Messo – João Cipriano

Coro do Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa / Antonio Pirolli.
Stage director – Stefano Vizioli.

Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, Lisbon, Portugal. Monday, June 5th, 2023.

Il trovatore has quite an illustrious history at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos. It was first performed in the Portuguese capital a year after the work’s premiere in Rome, Italy, and since that time, some of the most illustrious names in opera have performed the work on the stage of this beautiful house: Beniamino Gigli, Régine Crespin, Franco Corelli, Fiorenza Cossotto, Piero Cappuccilli, just to name a few. Stepping into those shoes must have seemed quite daunting for tonight’s cast, made up of both local singers and international guests. The house music director, Antonio Pirolli, was in the pit with the staging, imported from Trieste, confided to Stefano Vizioli.