Richard Sasanow - Page 15

Yes, it's still the Leonard Bernstein centennial and what better way to celebrate than at the Glimmerglass Festival with WEST SIDE STORY. It remains a unique creation, the collaboration of four geniuses: Bernstein himself, of course, Jerome Robbins (choreographer-director), Arthur Laurents (book) and then-newcomer Stephen Sondheim (lyricist/co-lyricist). Directed here with a deft hand by Francesca Zambello, the Festival's Artistic & General Director, and choreographed by Julio Monge

None of the three pieces that I saw at the Glimmerglass Festival near Cooperstown, NY, last weekend was exactly what it seemed to be: Is CUNNING LITTLE VIXEN a fairy story or a cautionary tale? Is WEST SIDE STORY simply in a class of its own? Does SILENT NIGHT find that war is hell—or that hell is simply other people? Let's begin with SILENT NIGHT.

This week, Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival added its two-cents to the Leonard Bernstein centennial festivities, with the first of two performances of Bernstein's MASS: A THEATRE PIECE FOR SINGERS, PLAYS AND DANCERS, in an environmental production by Elkhanah Pulitzer.

When Stephen Sondheim was asked was asked about whether his great musical drama SWEENEY TODD was a musical or an opera, he once responded, “When it's done in a theatre, it's a musical. When it's done in an opera house, it's an opera.” Well, then, what about HAMILTON, the musical sensation of our time? Is it possible that it's (gasp!) an opera waiting to emerge?

If you didn't find a performance to attend in the first part of this series--or you simply can't get enough operas, symphonic concerts and musical theatre pieces thrown in for good measure--here's more to choose from. It covers the gamut from the Mozart REQUIEM to Bernstein, Bernstein and more Bernstein.

If you can't get enough of operas, symphonic concerts and a few musical theatre pieces thrown in for good measure, have I got a summer for you! Start in New York City and head north--almost around the corner, or a weekend (or more) away--and you'll find more than enough to keep you happy during the sultry weather ahead. (Even if it doesn't turn out quite so sultry…) It covers the gamut from Handel to Puccini, from serial podcasts to light opera, from dramma serio to musical comedy, with an added emphasis on Leonard Bernstein as the music world celebrates his 100th birthday.

Why do we need a program to train opera composers and librettists? Mozart and Da Ponte--together, creators of LE NOZZE DI FIGARO, DON GIOVANNI and COSI FAN TUTTE--didn't go through training programs!

What's left to say about Judy Chicago's "The Dinner Party"--that milestone of 20th century feminist art now on permanent display at the Brooklyn Museum--that hasn't already been said? Actually, quite a bit, according to the students from the Opera Lab of NYU Tisch Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program (GMTWP), who have taken a handful of the pieces and used them--and the work as a whole--as inspiration for a series of short operas, under the guidance of the Lab's co-directors, Randall Eng and Sam Helfrich.

At the opening of New York City Opera's US premiere production of BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, with a libretto by Annie Proulx based on her short story, it was the score by Charles Wuorinen that knocked me out, with its intricacies, aural moodiness and exciting orchestration. Yet, there was hardly a moment that I felt I was listening to an opera.

AN AMERICAN SOLDIER--music by Huang Ruo and libretto by David Henry Hwang, directed by Matthew Ozawa--opened at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis (OTSL) on June 3. The opera asks the powerful question: What does it mean to be an American? It is based on the true story of a young Chinese American, who enlisted in the Army during the war in Afghanistan and became victim of military hazing that led to his suicide. The artists spoke about the creation of the piece at the Guggenheim Museum's Works & Process series.

Now into her 10th decade, the venerable composer Thea Musgrave is still full-steam ahead. The Scotch-born musician celebrated her 90th birthday last night (May 27) at a New York concert with world premieres, US premieres and NY premieres.

Composer Thea Musgrave is celebrating these days. It's not just that she's marking her 90th birthday on May 27 with a concert in New York, but that the concert is showcasing a gaggle of world premieres, US premieres and NY premieres (along with more familiar works), which highlight her rich musical vocabulary and keen sense of drama.

While New York waits for Netrebko's house debut as Aida to the Met next year, we always have…Brooklyn? If you hurry, you can catch next weekend's matinees--it's a local company that knows its audience and schedules accordingly--at the feisty Regina Opera Company, which is featuring a surprisingly effective take on the work. It is one of the productions that's part of the NY Opera Fest from the NY Opera Alliance.

The world premiere performance of SANCTUARY ROAD (subtitled “An Oratorio Based on the Writings of William Still, a Conductor for the Underground Railroad”), by composer Paul Moravec and librettist Mark Campbell, performed by the Oratorio Society of New York under Kent Tritle, burst forth from the stage of Carnegie Hall the other night, with energy, humanity and, of course, great musicality from all involved.

No one in the audience was on Facebook or Twitter during Lliam Paterson's opera BAMBINO at the Met's List Hall--a rare occurrence for the company these days--on Friday May 4. In fact, no one looked at a cell phone at all during the performance. And nobody fell asleep--even though the opera was written for 6-18 month-olds and the children might have been forgiven for napping on the comfy pillows that filled the stage. (Their parents were on good behavior, too.)

Despite some great music, nobody ever said that Beethoven's FIDELIO is an easy opera to love. Yet, the reduced, revised and reconfigured 90-minute version that Heartbeat Opera premiered the other night--as part of this year's NY Opera Fest from the New York Opera Alliance--showed some fearless work that was somehow true to the original yet very current. This tale of the rescue of a political prisoner, Florestan, by his wife, Leonore, disguised as a prison guard, will always work. And the powerful use of a chorus of prisoners–here, represented by projected work of actual prison choruses from around the Midwest—was a master stroke.

Can you imagine coming out on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera--facing an audience of about 4000 and be ready to sing without really much of a chance to warm up? That takes guts--and it's what the nine finalists in the Met's National Council Auditions Grand Final Concert did on Sunday, April 29. At stake? A grand push forward for the careers in opera that they've dreamed about. (There was also some money involved: $15,000 apiece for the winners, $5,000 each for the runs up.)

John Holiday is a countertenor for people who don't usually appreciate countertenors--or think of them as “an acquired taste.” Holiday is definitely not that. He has a gorgeous, expressive voice, that somehow balances sweetness and power, whether he's singing Baroque, gospel, American songbook or jazz (and lots in between).

Donizetti's LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR--the story of a fragile young woman, Lucia, who's caught in a feud involving her family, the Ashtons, and the Ravenswoods--is one of the mainstays of the repertoire at major opera houses around the world, famed particularly for its mad scene. It's long been a favorite at the Met, with the current performances the third cast of the season, starring soprano Pretty Yende, tenor Michael Fabiano and baritone Quinn Kelsey.

On the surface, the two major works on Lawrence Brownlee's recital at Carnegie's Zankel Hall might seem not to have much in common. The first, Robert Schumann's “Dichterliebe (A Poet's Love),” was written around 1840; “CYCLES OF MY BEING,” by Tyshawn Sorey and Terrance Hayes, a couple of MacArthur geniuses, debuted in Philadelphia in February and had some subsequent changes before it arrived for its NY debut in Zankel on Tuesday, so it's safe to call it “brand new.”