Richard Sasanow - Page 23

Earth Day has come and gone in 2016, but symphonic orchestra audiences in New York have lots to remember from this year's celebration, with performances of Mahler's DAS LIED VON DER ERDE (SONG OF THE EARTH). In less than a week, we had two different versions of the piece, with differing pluses and minuses: First, the San Francisco Symphony, under its music director, Michael Tilson Thomas performed the work at Carnegie Hall, then Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic had the home court advantage at Lincoln Center's Geffen Hall.

Do you remember that cataclysmal moment in the Stanley Kubrick film of Stephen King's “The Shining,” when Jack Nicholson axes his way through the bathroom door and says, wild-eyed, “Here's Johnny!” Well, you won't find it in King's book--or in Mark Campbell's libretto for THE SHINING, the new opera written with composer Paul Moravec and directed by Eric Simonson, opening May 7 at the Minnesota Opera as part of its New Works Initiative.

Andre Campra's 1710 opera-ballet, LES FETES VENETIENNES, with William Christie and Les Arts Florissants made its New York debut at BAM last week in an utterly charming production by Robert Carsen. Unfortunately, watching this lighter-than-air piece seemed like making a complete meal out of amuses-bouches, those delectable tidbits from the chef before the meal starts at a four-star restaurant. Very tasty, but not very substantial for a three-hour tour.

When Andrew Lippa, the Broadway composer, was commissioned by the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus to write I AM HARVEY MILK for its 35th anniversary in 2013, the hour-long work about the assassinated gay rights activist was called an oratorio. While it was a success from the start, people involved already thought it was ready to move on to something bigger. The result is I AM ANNE HUTCHINSON /I AM HARVEY MILK, which has its world premiere on April 23, at the Music Center at Strathmore, in North Bethesda, MD, a Metro ride from Washington, DC, starring Kristin Chenoweth, and composer-librettist Lippa.

The premiere of JFK in Fort Worth on April 23 is a big step forward for composer David T. Little and librettist Royce Vavrek--who made a splash in contemporary opera circles with their post-apocalyptic DOG DAYS--as their first 'grand' opera. It's also a major leap for American Lyric Theater (ALT), and its founder and artistic director, Lawrence Edelson, which co-commissioned the work with the Fort Worth Opera.

As Charlie “Bird” Parker, the great jazz saxophonist, who is the central character in CHARLIE PARKER'S YARDBIRD--the opera that had its New York premiere last week at the famed Apollo Theatre in Harlem--Lawrence Brownlee wonderfully embraced the classical and bebop sides of the score.

Tenor Lawrence Brownlee, who's justly acclaimed for his high notes--forget about a high C; how about an F above that!?--just finished the New York premiere of the Daniel Schnyder opera CHARLIE PARKER'S YARDBIRD (Bridgette A. Wmberly, librettist), at the famed Apollo Theatre in Harlem. Famed jazz saxophonist Charlie (“Bird”) Parker is a role that was written expressly for him--but that doesn't mean it was without its challenges.

“The Tudor Trilogy” --putting together Donizetti's ANNA BOLENA, MARIA STUARDA and ROBERTO DEVEREUX--was fabricated to light Beverly Sills' fire as “America's Queen of Opera” at the old New York City Opera. This season, soprano Sondra Radvanovsky was charged with bringing the trio of operas to the Met for the first time and, in completing this hat trick, she proved herself opera royalty indeed.

Vittorio Grigolo's fans were out in force last week when he took on the star-tenor role of Nemorino in Donizetti's L'ELISIR D'AMORE (THE ELIXIR OF LOVE) at the Met and it seemed like they'd taken a potion of their own.

In THE ORPHIC MOMENT, a “dramatic cantata,” composer-librettist-conductor-poet (phew!) Matthew Aucoin takes an 18th century masterwork, Gluck's ORFEO ED EURYDICE—one of numerous operas based on the Orpheus legend--and knocks it on its ear.

MADAMA BUTTERFLY was never my favorite Puccini until the current production conceived by Anthony Minghella. Before, Butterfly always seemed too submissive, Pinkerton too brutish and their child, well, too cute. Now—particularly with the current cast, headed by the magnificent Kristine Opolais as the young geisha and the dashing Roberto Alagna as the clueless Pinkerton, her American husband--seemed to put my past reservations to rest. The result was a magnificent performance, from beginning to end.

Point/counterpoint: As if to set off its trio of Elizabethan tragedies by Donizetti, the Met is presenting two of the master's comedies. First up: DON PASQUALE, and it was a pip. (The other is L'ELISIR D'AMORE.) Too bad the Met underestimated its appeal, because it had a truncated run of only five performances. Judging by the audience reception, they could have done more--certainly if tenor Javier Camarena was at bat.

Tenor Matthew Polenzani--he of the refined singing, elegant deportment and serious nature--is having a great season at the Met, with major roles in a pair of new productions. First, he was Nadir, whose love for the priestess Leila (Diana Damrau) tempts her to give up her vows in Bizet's LES PECHEURS DE PERLES (THE PEARL FISHERS). Now he's working his mojo on no less than Elisabetta (Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen of England), in the new production of Donizetti's ROBERTO DEVEREUX at the Met, premiering March 24.

On the surface, LoftOpera and Regina Opera couldn't be more different--the former turning away hipsters in East Williamsburg (call it Bushwick), the latter providing a matinees-only environment for a family audience. But these two Brooklyn institutions do have one important thing in common: They respect the classics (TOSCA and LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR, respectively)--do them up simply and well, and reach their audiences without gimmicks (or high prices). And, I found, their performances were more enjoyable than recent big-name outings of the same titles in New York, with performers who stood up well against better known singers.

On the surface, LoftOpera and Regina Opera couldn't be more different--the former turning away hipsters in East Williamsburg (call it Bushwick), the latter providing a matinees-only environment for a family audience. But these two Brooklyn institutions do have one important thing in common: They respect the classics (TOSCA and LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR, respectively)--do them up simply and well, and reach their audiences without gimmicks (or high prices). And, I found, their performances were more enjoyable than recent big-name outings of the same titles in New York, with performers who stood up well against better known names.

Brahms wasn't having a midlife crisis when he composed his masterwork, EIN DEUTSCHES REQUIEM (A GERMAN REQUIEM), his meditation on death. In fact, he was only 33 when he started writing it in 1866 and had written sections of the opening as early as 1861. His reasons for taking on the piece are unclear, though his mentor, Robert Schumann, had died in 1856 (and his mother would die before it was finished), deeply affecting him. Let's just call him “interested in death,” but that doesn't mean there was anything deathly about the performance of the hour-long work at the New York Philharmonic, heard last weekend. Conducted by the great Brahms specialist, Christoph von Dohnanyi, with the ample contributions of the New York Choral Artists, under Joseph Flummerfelt, and soloists Camilla Tilling and Matthias Goerne, the performance was transcendent.

Anna Netrebko came out on stage in a shimmering white and silver gown with matching headband, looking like an Art Deco goddess in a poster by Alfonso Mucha. It's a look that suited her--not only because the Russian soprano has Bellini's NORMA on her Met schedule in the not-too-distant future, but because she's about as close to a goddess as the Met can conjure up these days (with maybe one or two competitors). And the audience ate it up.

Lincoln Center's American Songbook series doesn't usually cross the road to opera-land, but I'm glad it did, when it presented the Ricky Ian Gordon-Leonard Foglia chamber opera A COFFIN IN EGYPT with mezzo extraordinaire Frederica von Stade last week. Performed in Jazz at Lincoln Center's tiny Appel Room, EGYPT brought us up close and personal to von Stade--and her alter-ego here, 90-year-old Myrtle Bledsoe--and proved she still has “it” as a performer.

Grand opera--lavish in scale, setting and voices--certainly has its place, but, oh, the joys of hearing Cavalli and Faustini's bawdy, early baroque charmer LA CALISTO in a theatre with fewer than 100 seats! The Juilliard Opera production not only proved a great showcase for the singers, dancers and instrumentalists involved but for the opera itself, which is still infrequently heard and should be better known.

Take one part “Casablanca,” a taste of Bernstein's CANDIDE, some Alfred Hitchcock and you get Sir Richard Eyre's film noir concept for the Met's new MANON LESCAUT, now set in France in the 1940s, complete with Nazis. Tack on that behind-the-scenes drama of “Roberto Alagna to the rescue”--when tenor Jonas Kaufmann cancelled at the last minute--and add the visual and vocal glamour of soprano Kristine Opolais and you have, well, a messy-but-enjoyable evening at the opera.