BUTTERFLY REDUX

 

Sarah Benzinger, Alex Wang, Chris Drago Fistonich, Kimberly Milburn, Yulin Wang, Yeawon Jun

We enjoyed Amore Opera's production of Puccini's Madama Butterfly so much that we returned to see it with a different cast. Taking seats on the front row made the experience a bit less satisfying musically but more satisfying dramatically, since we were able to see more dramatic details, bringing us even more into the story. 

One might call these details insignificant but we liked noticing household servants spying on the newlyweds and the reactions of the wedding guests. We noticed an elderly guest being carefully led down the hill by a younger woman. There were many more details of Tami Swarz' astute direction, among which appeared to be elements of Japanese theater, particularly the moon and stars appearing as actors bearing masks during Cio-Cio-San's nightlong vigil, with a sun mask announcing daybreak.

However, it was the change of singers that we came to hear. Tenorrific Yulin Wang made a splendid Pinkerton with his strong instrument cutting right through the orchestration. There was something interesting about his characterization as well. One got the impression that his Act I behavior--jingoistic and sexist--was not necessarily a form of narcissism but rather demonstrated his youthful unquestioning acceptance of distorted cultural values. More significantly, his behavior in Act III was indeed cowardly but also seemed truly repentant. His "Ah, sono vil" was not performative as was last night's tenor's performance. It left us with the feeling that he has learned and grown from the tragedy created by his behavior.

Cio-Cio-San was beautifully sung by soprano Yeawon Jun and her petite frame next to Mr. Wang's grandeur reinforced the relative status of their relationship. Ms. Jun's vocal performance left nothing to be desired and we cannot explain why it felt less moving. Let us just attribute it to the fact that we shed all our tears the prior night.

The Sharpless of baritone Chris Drago Fistonich impressed us far more than the prior night's Sharpless who seemed cold and distant. We like the way Mr. Fistonich seemed more caring and concerned, whilst still maintaining his official position. He was appropriately angry at Pinkerton for creating such a mess!

Kate Pinkerton was played by Sarah Benzinger whose portrayal was not as warm and sympathetic as the prior night's Kate.  One wondered how successful would be her motherly skills toward the child Sorrow. This is what makes repeated nights of seeing different casts a worthwhile goal. There is no right or wrong way to play a character and each tiny gesture can affect the way one feels about the story.

Kimberly Milburn's Suzuki made it clear that she knew what Cio-Cio-San was going to do and how powerless she felt to stop the inevitable hara-kiri.

Alex Wang made a darling Sorrow and size wise looked younger than the prior night's Sorrow which worked to advantage.

Xavier Yunxuan Zhu was appropriately slimy as Goro and we were happy to see Ting-Yi Chen again as an elegant Prince Yamadori who graciously accepted Butterfly's refusal of his marriage proposal and did it with pleasantly resonant low tones. We were so glad that the character was not presented as a buffoon. Butterfly does not reject him because he is a fool. She rejects him because she is holding out hope for Pinkerton.

All in all, we enjoyed the performance and were never bored. We would happily see the third cast if we had the time.

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POVERA BUTTERFLY!

 Valeria Chibis, Charles Gray, Emi Noguchi, Tomoko Nago, Maestro Elizabeth Hastings, 

Nikhil Krishna, and Jihye Seo

It took several hours from the curtain call for us to compose ourself sufficiently to summarize our deeply felt experience with Amore Opera's production of Puccini's popular masterpiece Madama Butterfly. There were two aspects of the production that produced these intense feelings and we will deal with them in turn.

To begin with, soprano Jihye Seo turned in a performance that went straight to the heart. There was not a single vocal flaw to distract us from her dramatically valid performance. With beauty of tone, accuracy of phrasing, and excellent Italian, Ms. Seo caught nuances of Cio-Cio-San's journey that was no less challenging than Violetta's journey in Verdi's La Traviata.

She begins her journey as a naïve 15 year-old child with more stars in her eyes than there are in the sky on the night of her honeymoon. As a child she shows her few dear possessions to the older man to whom she has pledged her love.  She is innocent to the ways of the world and the cultural differences between herself and the transient American naval officer. She is all too willing to cut herself off from her family and her Buddhist faith. 

In the next act, we see from her meeting with Sharpless, the United States Consul at Nagasaki (Charles Gray), that she knows little of the ways of the world and is so immersed in denial of reality that the kindly Consul just gives up. Ms. Seo does show us a Cio-Cio San who has kept her faith in Pinkerton's return and has also made efforts to westernize herself.   Her "Un bel di vedremo" did not fail to move us with vocal beauty and dramatic honesty.  Poor Suzuki (Tomoko Nago) stands by Butterfly, seemingly more aware of reality but unwilling to confront her. The smarmy Goro (Mark Martinez) is only interested in how he can profit from the situation. 

By the time she is confronted with indisputable evidence of her abandonment, the childlike innocence drops away and Ms. Seo gives us a strong young woman who sees the future and rejects the two unacceptable options. Marriage to a wealthy oft-divorced Prince Yamadori (a most effective Ting-Yi Chen, who also made a fine angry Bonzu) or eking out a living to support her son without familial support seem equally unacceptable. With true grit and undeniable purpose she chooses the one option that her culture offers, that of suicide. Her fraught encounter with Kate, Pinkerton's new wife, offers her some relief that her beloved son will be cared for.  

So dramatically accurate and emotionally moving was Ms. Seo's performance that we had tears rolling down our face from Act II until the powerful ending.  We might add that Nikhil Krishna's Pinkerton accurately represented the attitude of a narcissist. It is not just the carelessness of colonialism but a true lack of compassion. Mr. Krishna's performance grew from Act I to Act III although the character of Pinkerton did not. He is simply a selfish child abuser whose final aria "Ah, son vil" is histrionic and performative. He will get back on his ship and will have forgotten this youthful episode. We secretly hoped that Kate (a lovely Valeria Chibis) will make his life miserable and devote herself to helping young Sorrow (Emi Noguchi) deal with the stress of growing up in 19th century America as a mixed race child.

As you may have guessed, Dear Reader, we were quite immersed in the story and now we will tell you the cause. It was the astute direction of Tami Swartz, whose Japanese background and diligent scholarship made the story more real, more impactful, and ultimately more satisfying. Some opera goers may think of Puccini's masterpiece as a love story but we have always seen it as a story of rampant colonialism and narcissistic child abuse. We were glad that Ms. Swartz sees it the same way. This production dates back about two decades when she did the research to make the production more authentic, tweaked the libretto, and starred as Cio-Cio San with her husband Adam Klein as Pinkerton for Harrisburg Opera.

Although we generally disapprove of changes to the classics, in this case the tweaking actually improved upon the original with a few minor changes and additions to the Illica/Giacosa libretto that enhanced the storytelling. The awkward playing space did not stand in the way of Ms. Swarz' directorial creativity. Even the aisles were put into service for the parade of relatives coming to the wedding. Other people in the audience seemed as enthralled as we were as evidenced by conversations in the lobby and in the ladies room. A standing ovation confirmed our impression.

Musical values were fine with Maestro Elizabeth Hastings in firm control of the orchestra. Costumes by Sarah Pearson seemed accurate to the time period which had been pushed back to mid 19th century for reasons of historical accuracy.

We cannot end without noting that the excellent cast deserved a more suitable playing space with the orchestra in a pit. Unfortunately, affordable spaces like that in Manhattan are as scarce as proverbial hen's teeth. These young singers occasionally had difficulty cutting through the dense orchestration, with the exception of Ms. Seo, whose soprano rose right above the orchestra. Lighting was also a problem with the entire space brightly lit, making the excellent titles rather difficult to read. Minor quibbles aside, it was a most worthwhile evening, one we will not soon forget. Actually we plan to attend another performance to see how things work with a different cast, so watch for an addendum.

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PARRISH'S PARISH

 Joseph Parrish and Friends

Rising star bass-baritone Joseph Parrish has been on our radar for some time now. We believe the first time we reviewed his performance was about 4 years ago when he appeared as a most believable Baron Pictordu in Pauline Viardot's Cendrillon. There are many reviews right here on this website that one can access by entering his name in the search bar. One might read about the countless competitions he has won with arias in many languages and many styles. 

Although we have never made use of Artificial Intelligence in writing our reviews, we are not above quoting our own writing, since his performance at Merkin Hall, under the auspices of Young Concert Artists, so perfectly reflects our prior observations of a performance at The Crypt presented by Death of Classical. We will highlight what we felt to be essential at that time and what continues to be a hallmark of his artistic mission.

"The program began and ended with Mr. Parrish accompanying himself on the piano, evidence that this is an artist who will do things his own way to achieve his own goals, a quality we admire and prize. Apparently, the theme for this recital was a demonstration of the similarity between German lieder and American spirituals, inasmuch as both deal with love, loss, pain, elation,and spirituality. There was a seamlessness to the recital which interspersed works by Liszt, Brahms, and Mahler (our favorite being "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen") with works by Burleigh, Hogan, and Johnson and spirituals that we have heard before but which, in this context, felt entirely new. "Deep River" was sung with art but no artifice.

Except for the opening and the enthusiastically "demanded" encores, piano accompaniment was finely rendered by Francesco Barfoed whose sensitive playing served to underscore the idea that there should be no artificial categories like "art song", "popular song", or "folk song". We first became aware of this concept at Steven Blier's New York Festival of Song; Mr. Blier also mixes things up, so to speak, finding similarities more important than differences."

It would seem that Young Concert Artists gave Mr. Parrish free rein to design his own recital and to prove the above mentioned intent, Afro-American art songs and Spirituals were programmed alongside German lieder, allowing the audience to perceive and appreciate the resonance.

To hear Harry Burleigh's "You ask me if I love you?" next to Gustav Mahler's "Liebst du um Schönheit", written approximately a century earlier to text by Rückert, was a revelation.  Similarly, performing Burleigh's "Her Eyes Twin Pools" next to Schubert's "Ständchen", from about two centuries earlier, reinforced our awareness that love strikes us all, no matter our race, nationality, or generation. 

Having written numerous encomia in prior reviews about Mr. Parrish's magnificent instrument and engaging stage presence, we will only point out one feature that took our breath away; that was the delicate pianissimo at the end of the Burleigh song, at which point the poet James Weldon Johnson speaks of losing his soul in the depths of his lover's eyes. What a magical moment, with impeccable vocal technique used in the service of emotion--probably carefully devised but seemingly spontaneous.

Excellent accompaniment was provided by the superb pianist Francesco Barfoed who has accompanied Mr. Parrish on prior occasions, most memorably at a concert in The Crypt which we quoted above.

This half of the program was well known territory for us whilst the second half of the program brought new delights. We re-entered the theater after intermission to find onstage risers and watched as a large group of enthusiastic bright-faced youngsters filed onstage and arranged themselves on the risers. This was the renowned Washington Performing Arts Children of the Gospel Choir led by Artistic Director Michele Fowlin. Accompanied by Anthony "Tony" Walker, Music Director of the choir, these youngster delighted the highly responsive audience with a program of Spirituals, mostly unknown to us.

The first piece on the program was the New York premiere of a piece by Alistair Coleman, a Young Concert Artists composer, entitled "Psalm" with text by Paul Celan, translated by Pierre Joris. It was commissioned specifically for Mr. Parrish and seemed to us to be quite accomplished for a young composer. It began sparely and rose in complexity.

Various composers have arranged Spirituals, among them Margaret Bond, Moses Hogan, and Hall Johnson. Among the selections, we most enjoyed "Deep River" and "Ride on King Jesus", likely because they had the ring of familiarity. The young choristers seemed to be having a great time with the program, as did the audience, judging by the standing ovation and thunderous applause.

We thought a great deal of the generosity of spirit Mr. Parrish demonstrated by sharing the stage with these youngsters and what a thrill it must have been for them. The excitement was exhilarating for all. 

Let us not fail to mention the stirring encore "Great is Thy Faithfulness" which was popularized by the Billy Graham Crusade, by crossover artist Steve Green, and by Carrie Underwood. One could not have hoped for a better ending.

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Joseph Parrish and Friends

ALL ABOUT ADULTING

 Kate Morton, Jamal Al-Titi, Chea Kang, Reed Knepper and Zoë Zhou

Steven Blier's New York Festival of Song never fails to entertain and educate, but last night's iteration made a particularly strong impression on us due to the theme of the evening--"Beginner's Luck--the Artist's Journey". Mr. Blier and I share an interest in fostering the careers of young singers; the program not only involved four preternaturally gifted young singers but the structure of the program was the journey from adolescence to adulthood. In addition, we heard songs written by composers at the very earliest stages of their careers. We have a special affection for early works when young composers are experimenting with inherited forms and taking steps to put their own stamp on things.

There were sections on the program devoted to the stirrings of first love in young women and the youthful ambitions of young men, the yearning for a wider experience in the world, and finding one's way emotionally and professionally. Spending as much time with young artists as we do, we easily related to the experiences; we confess that the songs about women resonated more than those about men but we suppose that is understandable. We particularly related to songs about coming to New York City where everything happens!

Rather than tracing the development through the various stages, we would prefer to dwell on the young artists, Schwab Vocal Rising Stars all of them. We have not a single criticism of the voices; all four singers are accomplished artists. What we would like to focus on is the manner in which they engaged the audience with their storytelling gifts. Contemporary songs were treated with the same respect as 19th century lieder and mélodie.

Heard by us only once about five years ago was the memorable soprano Chea Young Kang who made a lasting impression singing a zarzuela number in which a mulatto woman has been abandoned by her lover. Last night she impressed us with her artistic growth, whilst maintaining (and enhancing) her emotional reach. We were enchanted with her communicative artistry in Grieg's "Die verschwiegene Nachtigal".  She seemed to taste the words of the text and her very specific gestures had us hearing the call of the nightingale. 

This was followed immediately by another song about this avian species--Alban Berg's "Die Nachtigal" in which the song of the nightingale causes the rosebuds to open, obviously a symbol of a young woman's erotic awakening. This is the only lied by Berg that we love and the more we hear it the more we love it.

A famous Korean song by Dong Jin Kim was new to us but was deeply felt. We love when singers use their entire body to communicate with the audience and we couldn't miss the graceful way Ms. Kang used her arms, leaving us wondering whether she has had ballet training.

Mezzo-soprano Kate Morton gave a delightful performance of Robert Schumann's gentle "Der Nussbaum", conveying all the hints of a young woman's dreaming of a romantic future. Ms. Morton is close enough in age to connect with this period of a woman's life and was somehow able to stir our own memories. Perhaps this was the most impactful performance ever of one of our favorite songs. How amazing that a male composer set text by a male poet (Julian Mosen) so sensitively that sense memories were evoked.

Ms. Morton captured an entirely different set of feelings in Hugo Wolf's "Begegnung", the tale of a rather circumspect meeting of a young couple the morning after a tumultuous encounter, so well captured by the piano.

Where Ms. Morton truly shone was a funny piece by Jason Robert Brown who wrote a most accurate piece describing the frustration of auditioning. We have heard from our singer friends of such disappointments as auditors who aren't paying attention, often fatigued from hearing too many singers. And the confusion of being given conflicting advice. All too true and an occasion for sympathy!

Understanding male bonding and reliance on achievement was a bit more of a stretch for us to identify with but tenor Reed Gnepper and baritone Jamal Al-Titi went a long way toward making it easy. Jeffrey Stock's "We Two Boys" made a fine case for the male bonding in Walt Whitman's text with the harmonizing vocal lines telling us everything we needed to know. 

Mr. Gnepper gave a fine reading of the sensual "I Knew a Woman" by William Bolcom, never hitting us over the head with the double entendres  of Theodore Roethke's suggestive text. 

Frank O'Hara's tribute to his mentor "I'm so much more me" set by Robert Beaser reminded us of a most important feature in the development of opera singers and their relationship to their teachers and coaches. This was well captured in a duet by Mr. Gnepper and Mr. Al-Titi utilizing the sweetest of harmonies to express mutual admiration and caring.

We do love duets and our favorite was "When the Children are Asleep" from Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel. Mr. Gnepper and Ms. Kang showed their acting chops, making the scene believable.

Mr. Al-Titi blew us away with "The Traveler's Song" by Mikhail Glinka, an energetic tongue twister involving a novel train ride and the anticipation of a new love affair. This was in stark contrast with the very tender "A Child is Born" by Thad Jones and Alec Wilder.

Th program ended with Bob Dylan's rousing "Forever Young" in which the four singers raised voices to celebrate good will toward the young. This summarized so well the feelings that we share with Mr. Blier for young artists. the final line is "And may your song always be sung". Yes indeed!

Collaborative piano wa provided by Mr. Blier himself as well as by the excellent Zoë Zhou and Associat Artistic Director Bénédicte Jourdois. 

As usual, we have a small quibble. If only there could be projected titles! Trying to read translations from a program book detracts from one's involvement in the performance, especially in a darkened theater. Singers took turns introducing the songs and saying a bit about them but a good singer does not always mean a good speaker. Just sayin'.

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ARTISTIC COLLABORATION

 Juan Jose Lazaro, Rosario Armas, and Magdalena Kuźma

It seems odd that we have to issue a disclaimer but here it is...every word of our reviews expresses our own opinion in our very own words. We do not (and never will) employ Artificial Intelligence to speak for us. If we find it necessary to quote (even our own writing) we will place the words in quotation marks.

So let us now praise genius. What a remarkable recital we witnessed last night and what a joy it was for us to note the growth of artists of whom we are very fond. Hearing the same singers and pianists over a period of years demonstrates to us the manner in which inborn gifts respond to superb tutelage and achieve depths that come with maturity.

Juan Jose Lazaro first came to our attention at Manhattan School of Music about eight years ago when he was a participant in the late Thomas Muraco's Opera Repertoire  Ensemble. In the intervening years we have enjoyed his collaborative piano artistry on countless occasions. We well recall the brilliant recital he performed as he achieved his Masters Degree in Collaborative Piano. So of course we needed to be there for the recital he gave last night at Opera America, a requisite for his finally achieving his Doctor of Musical Arts degree.

Collaborative Piano is a highly specialized and demanding branch of the musical field. It requires not just consummate pianistic skills and intense knowledge of the enormous opera and song literature but also a unique ability to highlight the singing partner, often stepping up to the coaching plate to fine tune a performance. There is no room for grandstanding or stealing the show.

Last night's recital opened with Gustav Mahler's intense song cycle Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen. Here, both pianist and singer have a two-fold task. The pianist must create a tapestry of sound, particularly illuminating the forces of nature that both mock and support the narrator of the text; the singer must somehow get the audience to experience the various emotions experienced by a person watching his beloved marry another. There is anger, regret, despair, and a futile attempt to heal. All this without the singer collapsing into a pool of tears. Only the audience is allowed such an emotional luxury of catharsis.

And this was perfectly accomplished by the mezzo-soprano chosen to sing it, Rosario Armas Alom, another artist whose growth we have been enjoying since her undergraduate days at Manhattan School of Music. This Mahler cycle is one of Ms. Armas' signature pieces and we would like to quote from our review from three years ago when we attended Ms. Armas' Masters Degree recital.

"... how many times we have enjoyed hearing a baritone singing Mahler's emotionally shattering cycle Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen; on a rare occasion we have heard a female singer make an attempt, leaving us with a kind of negative opinion of singers tackling works meant for the other gender. Last night was completely different! It was the essence of the text that came across as Ms. Armas completely disappeared. (If a baritone ever does the same with Schumann's Frauenlieben und Leben we may very well fall off our chair.)

Serving the music and the text to this degree requires the abandonment of self indulgence. The narrator in this cycle is suffering from the loss of his beloved and in spite of the beauties of nature he sinks into despair.  Eventually his agony yields to a calm acceptance.  Ms. Armas limned each and every emotion; even if the listener did not understand the German (which our singer enunciated with Teutonic perfection) one could not fail to understand."

Now, Dear Reader, imagine how much greater depths were plumbed after three years of growth and experience! Mr. Lazaro was with her emotionally every step of the way and what a journey it was. Something new was added by both member of this artistic team. The elements of nature were more intensely elucidated. And there were a couple phrases given a marcato reading that lent a special emphasis. We had not noticed that before. Through our ears and through Ms. Armas' artistry we felt a deeper experience. We had to pull ourselves together for the next set of songs!

Although there was Teutonic perfection in the Mahler, it was delightful to hear our two artists performing in their own language. (Ms. Armas is Mexican and Mr. Lazaro is Peruvian). Alberto Ginastera was a 20th century Argentinian composer and his Cinco canciones populares Argentinas are filled with Latin flavor, a flavor we always enjoy. Mr. Lazaro conveyed the rhythmic vitality to perfection.

Claude Debussy was a contemporary of Mahler but his Gallic style could not be more different. We love the mythic and impressionistic feel of his Trois chansons de Bilitis. It was here that both artists captured an imaginary world of antiquity, the gentle strumming of a lyre, the sensuality of a sexual awakening, and the chill of disillusionment.

The final set comprised six songs by Sergei Rachmaninov in which soprano Magdalena Kuzma gave us the gift of experiencing the emotions through her voice since we do not speak or understand Russian. We have watched her winning prizes at a number of competitions and always enjoy the Polish or Russian selections. Mr. Lazaro's piano seemed to love the lavish Russian Romanticism and so did we!

And so...we heard four different styles of music, each one given its full measure. We heard Mr. Lazaro accommodate to two different singers. We are ready to call him Dr. Lazaro. Perhaps the next time we write about Mr. Lazaro we will be writing about Dr. Lazaro!

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ENGAGING HEART AND MIND

 Roberta Mameli

We love a gorgeous unamplified human voice and we love learning things. Both these wishes were granted last night at Bohemian Hall when Aspect Chamber Music presented a program entitled The Ghosts of Hamlet. First we heard a stimulating illustrated lecture by the engaging John Brewer, Professor of History and Literature, Emeritus; then we heard a most gratifying concert of Baroque music performed by Le Concert de l'Hostel Dieu featuring stunning soprano Roberta Mameli.

To those of us who know the story of Hamlet as a 1601 Shakespearean play and as an 1868 grand opera in five acts by the French composer Ambroise Thomas,  (based on a French adaptation of the Shakespeare work by Alexandre Dumas, père, and Paul Meurice ) the lecture was a revelation. The origin of the Hamlet story was Gesta Danorum, a history of the Danish people written at the beginning of the 12th century by Saxo Grammaticus. The story concerns a King of Denmark treacherously murdered by his brother who then marries the King's widow. The King's son feigns madness and the usurper tries to reveal him. The son uncovers a spy and brutally murders him along with a bunch of nobles and the usurper, then manages to become King himself.

From this raw and bloody material, Shakespeare fashioned a play filled with ambiguity, subtlety, and exploration of character. A century later, one Apostolo Zeno created a dramma per musica for Venice, one that derives directly from the source and departs significantly from Shakespeare's iteration,  giving much more importance to the female characters.

And thus we have a great deal of music of the Italian Baroque based upon Zeno's rendering of the Danish "history" which may or may not be legend. Amongst a slew of composers who wrote operas entitled Ambleto, the only composers of the group with whom we are familiar are Scarlatti who wrote his opera for Roma in 1715 and Handel who wrote another Ambleto  for London in 1712.

Performing excerpts from several of these operas was a most talented chamber group Le Concert de l'Hostel Dieu, the members of which were unfortunately not mentioned in the program; but there were three violinists, a cellist, and a theorboist who doubled on lute, all conducted by Franck-Emmanuel Comte who played an instrument that sounded like a harpsichord but was very small. Dear Reader, forgive our ignorance but we are not specialists in the field of Baroque music.

Performing the arias was the glorious Roman soprano Roberta Mameli whose penetrating and flexible instrument was well under her control as she negotiated all manner of Baroque fioritura whilst conveying a panoply of emotions. We enjoyed the performance the most when the violins were silent and she was accompanied only by the cello and the theorbo. The texture was divine. One could tell how much she enjoys singing these works and if we ever got the chance to hear her perform a Monteverdi opera or a Händel one, we would be in seventh heaven.

Some of the other Italian composers who were unknown to us were Francesco Gasparini, Giuseppe Carcani, and Carlo Francesco Pollarolo.  Johann Joseph Fux also composed something instrumental for Vienna and Johann Adolf Hasse for Paris, although we are not sure whether their works were related to Hamlet.

Which brings us to a small quibble. We would have loved projected titles since we were unwilling to tear ourselves away from the compelling performance to follow the program, not to mention the fact that the lighting was insufficient for reading it.

However, let us end on a high note, so to speak. The most welcome encore was an aria "Lascia ch'io pianga la mia sorte" from Händel's 1711 opera Rinaldo. The composer had used that melody a number of times with different text before it achieved fame in Rinaldo. It achieved further fame when used in the film Farinelli. We were thrilled to hear something familiar to close this excellent program.

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MANNES DOES ALCINA

 David Khang, Zhedong Ren, Ruijia Dong, Brooke Jones, Maestro Geoffrey McDonald,

Marcella Astore, Jooyeon Park, and Yoonji Kim

The music of Händel is favorable for young voices and we were pleased that Mannes Opera chose one of his operas to showcase seven young and talented singers. We are pleased not only because we love his music but also because it means that these young singers will have learned a role that may lead to employment. Casting students in unknown contemporary operas has always seemed to us to be wasteful of the singers' time and efforts, inasmuch as they will likely never get to reprise the role. Alcina is one of our favorite Händel operas and we have seen it and enjoyed it a number of times.

Each character gets a chance to shine since each aria offers a ritornello that invites decoration of the vocal line-- as much as the singer can Händel.  (Sorry about that; we just couldn't resist.) The story is just one episode in a 16th c. epic poem by Ludovico Ariosto entitled Orlando Furioso. It is not necessary to know the entire poem to appreciate this 1735 opera seria but it is amusing to note that poor Bradamante has been pursuing Ruggiero throughout the entire epic, and also that the prolific Händel drew not one but three operas  (Orlando and Ariodante) from the same source.

In this episode, Ruggiero (mezzo-soprano Ruijia Dong) winds up on an enchanted island where the beautiful sorceress Alcina (soprano Brooke Jones) has seduced men and turned them into animals, plants, and rocks. Poor Bradamante (mezzo-soprano Marcella Astore) has disguised herself as her own brother and, accompanied by Ruggiero's former tutor Melisso (bass-baritone David Khang), come looking for Ruggiero.

Alcina's sister Morgana (soprano Jooyeon Park) instantly falls for the disguised Bradamante and casts aside her lover Oronte (tenor Zhedong Ren). The youth Oberto (soprano Yoonji Kim) is also on the island searching for his father Astolfo who had been converted into a beast.

As you can see Dear Reader, the plot is complicated but has to do with infatuation, seduction, betrayal, forgiveness, revenge, delusion and disillusionment. Having read the notes of Director Sam Helfrich a few hours after the conclusion of the opera, we were a bit surprised to learn that his interpretation of the themes were quite similar to ours.  We can understand his intention to highlight these themes but somehow presenting the work as a French farce didn't work. 

Set designer Daedalus Wainwright created a beautiful set which seemed to be early 20th century art nouveau, at least we recognized some pieces of furniture that reminded us of Musée D'Orsay in Paris. There was a divan, a chest, gorgeous lighting, and lots of doors which emphasized the dramatic entrances and exits of the performers. 

The costume designs of Camille Charara were disappointing. Ruggiero looked not a bit heroic. Bradamante was stuffed into an ill-fitting man's suit which appeared rather contemporary. Alcina might have looked more glamorous. Morgana and Oberto made out somewhat better. As a matter of fact, in terms of acting Ms. Kim's Oberto was most convincing, since it was sincere and underplayed. Oberto's reunion with his restored father was touching.

So, between the anachronism of contemporary clothing and the art nouveau set, magnified by substituting a pistol for the libretto-identified spear--well, we just didn't get it. It's no wonder we associated a French farce with characters  running in and out. 

This is not the only strange concept a director has imposed upon this opera. We reviewed one in Santa Fe that took place in a theater, and one in New York City in which Alcina's magic spell was produced by narcotics and all her victims had to endure withdrawal. We suppose there will never be a straight production of this opera so the best we could hope for is consistency within a given concept.

We decided to try to ignore the silly stage business and focus on the musical values which were fine. Maestro Geoffrey McDonald always brings out the best in musicians and the Mannes Orchestra did not disappoint. By a strange coincidence, the first time we heard Mo. McDonald conduct, it was at least ten years ago, in a chamber production of the same opera!

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