Oberon's Glade

Category: Opera

  • Barbara Conrad Has Passed Away

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    Mezzo-soprano Barbara Conrad has passed away; famously the center of a racist imbroglio during her college days at the University of Texas, Ms. Conrad went on to a long and distinguished career. 

    In 1957, when she was 19 years old, Barbara Conrad was chosen to play Dido, the queen of Carthage, opposite a white student as her lover in a production of Henry Purcell’s DIDO & AENEAS. The interracial pairing stirred up a major controversy: Ms. Conrad drew death threats from white students, who harassed her with phone calls. The case reached the Texas legislature, which threatened to withdraw funding from the university if she was not replaced in the production. When university officials caved in to the legislature’s demands, Ms. Conrad was publicly gracious, but on a personal level she was devastated.

    Harry Belafonte offered to pay the young singer’s tuition at any school of her choice if she desired to transfer, but she stuck things out in Austin. Belafonte later arranged for Ms. Conrad to fly to New York City for auditions; the trip’s expenses were underwritten by Eleanor Roosevelt.

    Putting the past behind her, Conrad emerged as a distinctive singer and stage personality; she sang at both the New York City Opera and at The Met, where I saw her as Maddalena in RIGOLETTO and Preziosilla in FORZA DEL DESTINO. She was also heard at The Met as Annina in ROSENKAVALIER, Hecuba in LES TROYENS, and as Maria in the Met’s premiere performances of PORGY AND BESS.

    Ms. Conrad appeared with major opera companies and orchestras, and worked with such conductors as  Maazel, Bernstein, and Levine. She went on to teach at the Manhattan School of Music, where she co-founded the Wagner Theater Program.

    Amazingly enough, I got to hear Barbara Conrad yet again: in 2008, she sang Fricka in the Wagner Theater Program’s semi-staged WALKURE. She was “…vivid, larger-than-life…her frustration and anger grandly portrayed. Despite some tension on the uppermost notes, Conrad’s intense, chesty sound and authoritative command of the stage elicited applause as she made her exit…”

    Incredibly, part of this WALKURE performance is to be found on YouTube. It will give you an idea of Ms. Conrad’s vibrant performance as the queen of the gods.

    There was a post-script to the story: a few days after the WALKURE, Barbara Conrad came to Tower Records where I was working. I struck up a conversation with her, using her Fricka as an entrée. She was beyond gracious, and so tickled that I recalled seeing her as Preziosilla; I remarked that not only had she made a smouldering physical impression, but that she was the one Preziosilla in my experience who really made something of the music.

    Barbara Conrad is the subject of a documentary, WHEN I RISE.

    Here’s a sampling of Ms. Conrad’s singing, from her repertoire of spirituals:

    Barbara Conrad sings ‘Deep River’

    May she rest in peace.

  • Catherine Robbin

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    Canadian mezzo-soprano Catherine Robbin sing’s Robert Schumann’s atmospheric ‘Mondnacht’ (‘Moonlit Night’).

    Catherine Robbin sings Schumann’s Mondnacht

    “It was as if the heavens
    Had silently kissed the earth,
    So that in a shower of blossoms
    She must only dream of him.

    The breeze wafted through the fields,
    The ears of corn waved gently,
    The forests rustled faintly,
    How starry was the night.

    And my soul spread
    Far its wings
    And sailed o’er the hushed lands
    As if gliding homeward.” 

  • William Stone

    William Stone

    William Stone is an American baritone who gave some very impressive performances at New York City Opera in the 1980s and 90s, most notably as Germont in TRAVIATA, Zurga in PECHEURS DES PERLES, and Count Almaviva in NOZZE DI FIGARO. He also sang at The Met from 1998-2003, and extensively throughout North America as well as at such premiere European theatres as the Monnaie, La Scala, Opéra National de Paris, and at the Wexford Festival.

    Among the baritone’s many recordings is an especially impressive performance of William Walton’s BELSHAZZAR’S FEAST.

    William Stone – Hai già vinta la causa! ~ NOZZE DI FIGARO

  • Jerry Hadley

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    Above, an all-star quartet: Thomas Hampson, James Morris, Samuel Ramey, and Jerry Hadley

    Back in 1980, at the New York City Opera, a young tenor singing the role of Gastone in TRAVIATA made me prick up my ears with his brief lines. It was Jerry Hadley. He is one of a four singers who captivated me initially in a small role and went on to a major career; the others were Samuel Ramey (1st Nazarene in SALOME), Kathleen Battle (Shepherd in TANNHAUSER), and Lisette Oropesa (Cretan Woman in IDOMENEO). They all became great favorites of mine.

    Hadley had a generous lyric tenor with an Italianate sense of warmth and passion. The voice was clear and ardent, and he looked good onstage. He sang quite a lot at New York City Opera – where I saw him as Alfred in FLEDERMAUS, as Faust, and Nadir in PECHEURS DES PERLES. I also was present when he sang the title-role in Mozart’s IDOMENEO (Strauss version) at the Mostly Mozart Festival.

    In 1987, Hadley made his Met debut as des Grieux in MANON and sang 125 performances there – in roles as diverse as Donizetti’s Edgardo, Mozart’s Ferrando and Don Ottavio, and Stravinsky’s Tom Rakewell. I saw him at The Met as Alfredo in TRAVIATA, Tamino in ZAUBERFLOETE, and Lensky in EUGENE ONEGIN. His final Met performances were in the title-role of Harbison’s THE GREAT GATSBY in 2002. He committed suicide in 2007, at the age of 55.

  • My Only Meyerbeer

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    To date, this concert performance of LES HUGUENOTS presented at Carnegie Hall in 1969 is the only Meyerbeer opera I have experienced live. Listening to Lisette Oropesa’s recent performance of the aria “Robert, toi que j’aime” from ROBERT LE DIABLE put me in mind of that Carnegie HUGUENOTS which marked one of many high points in the era of Beverly Sills Mania.

    Die-hard Meyerbeer admirers continually clamor for more productions of his operas, yet to me they always seems like musically sprawling works wherein a few stimulating arias or ensembles are to be found amidst much that is merely workaday. Here is New York City, Meyerbeer fared quite well during the first 50 or so years at the Old Met, where productions of ROBERT LE DIABLE, LE PROPHETE, L’AFRICAINE and especially LES HUGUENOTS (the fabled ‘nights of the seven stars’) were given fairly regularly; but by the mid-1930s they all seem to have faded away. A production of PROPHETE – starring Marilyn Horne, Renata Scotto, and James McCracken – was given at the New Met in 1977 and repeated in 1979 before vanishing. 

    Over the years, I have made numerous attempts to connect with these antique operas: a recording of ROBERTO IL DIAVOLO from the Maggio Musicale 1968 with Scotto and Boris Christoff held by attention for a while, as did a video from San Francisco of L’AFRICAINE with Placido Domingo and the sultry-voiced Shirley Verrett. I bought the commercial recording of LE PROPHETE but never made it past the first LP before turning it over to the library.

    Sutherland had her HUGUENOTS at La Scala (with Corelli and Simionato driving audiences to distraction), and ROBERT LE DIABLE has been revived for Samuel Ramey and, more recently, for Bryan Hymel. 

    But, getting back to that 1969 HUGUENOTS at Carnegie Hall, my opera diary (volume 1) reveals that Licia Albanese, Régine Crespin, Bidu Sayão, and Dame Alicia Markova were among the audience.

    The evening essentially was a Sills triumph. She wore a queenly white and gold gown and sang all of Marguerite de Valois’ fanciful coloratura brilliantly, tossing off strikingly clear notes in alt and driving her fans to distraction. Here is a sample of Sills in this music:

    Beverly Sills – O beau Pays ~ LES HUGUENOTS

    There was also excellent singing from Justino Diaz as Marcel (who intones the old Lutheran hymn ‘A Mighty Fortress is Our God‘), and fine work from Thomas Jamerson (de Nevers) and Joshua Hecht (St Bris). As the desperate lovers, Angeles Gulin (Valentine) and Tony Poncet (Raoul) were less impressive. Despite some attractive passages, Gulin’s “almost painfully huge” voice was beset by pitch problems. Poncet, who had had an estimable career singing demanding roles from the French and Italian repertoire starting in 1957, had been in vocal decline. This performance was viewed as something of a comeback, but it was not very successful.

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    The queen’s page Urbain was beautifully sung by mezzo-soprano Kay Creed (above, after singing Angelina in LA CENERENTOLA at NYC Opera). At the time, I had a huge crush on Ms. Creed, who in 1960 had been named Miss Oklahoma. I saw her many times at NYC Opera: as Suzuki, and as Maddalena, Siebel, Mlle. Clairon in CAPRICCIO, Cherubino, Annina in ROSENKAVALIER, and as Nancy in a delightfully-cast performance of ALBERT HERRING.

  • EUGENE ONEGIN @ The Met

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    Above: Anna Netrebko as Tatiana

    Author: Ben Weaver

    Saturday April 22nd, 2017 matinee – Tchaikovsky’s operatic adaptation of Pushkin’s “Eugene Onegin” arrived this Spring at the Metropolitan Opera. Today, the season’s final performance of the opera was telecast via HD to cinemas around the world. It’s a practice that has been contributing to the hemorrhaging of live audience attendance for the house. The Met auditorium has countless empty seats more often than not, and many of those that are filled are actually papered and subsidized by donors. Today’s ONEGIN matinee was one of only two performances of the opera that actually sold out.

    Robin-Ticciati

    In the pit was the English conductor Robin Ticciati (above). He led a really magnificent reading the score, the Met Orchestra responding to Tchaikovsky’s superb orchestration with perfection. Ticciati was careful not to overwhelm the singers with sound (Tchaikovsky’s orchestral writing is often dense). There was a wonderful lightness to his interpretation, each musical strand rising magically out of the tapestry of sound. His energetic, forward moving pacing mostly worked well. Perhaps if Tatiana in her Letter Scene and Lensky in his Act II aria had been allowed to linger just a tad longer…but overall Tchaikovsky’s magical score danced and sighed superbly.

    The cast assembled for the revival of this 2013 production was first rate. At the heart of it was Anna Netrebko as Tatiana. When Netrebko first sang the role at the Met in 2013 I did not think she made a great impression. Primarily I objected to her bland reading of the text, disappointing for a native speaker. She has certainly been able to deepen her understanding of the role. This afternoon she was a living, breathing heroine. Her Letter Scene was by turns wistful and sad, excited and terrified. Fear as she awaits Onegin’s arrival, and shame at his rejection, were palpable. Haughtiness, in a crimson gown at the royal ball in Act III as she sees Onegin for the first time in many years, was delicious. And the final scene revealed verismo-ish declarations that she will not betray her husband. I suddenly remembered that Netrebko has sung Lady Macbeth and intends to sing Tosca too. These flashes of pure steel were thrilling. Vocally she was excellent. There are occasional tendencies (not new to her) to stray off pitch in her middle voice. But her top was strong and gleaming, and the aforementioned steel in the final scene brought to mind Galina Vishnevskaya. The young, impressionable Tatiana is a woman now, royalty even. She won’t let Onegin forget this.

    Mattei ONEGIN

    Peter Mattei as Onegin (above) was in stunning voice. Truly this is one of the most beautiful baritone sounds in the world. Soft and plush, but not lacking in volume. Mattei’s long-limbed figure undergoes a reverse transformation of Tatiana. Haughty and indifferent at first, he unravels as Tatiana grows in stature. While Mattei’s singing was beyond reproach, his Russian diction was quite poor. In Act 1 it was still recognizable as Russian. Alas, as the opera progressed I often wasn’t sure he was singing in Russian at all, or just making sounds intended to sound vaguely Slavic.

    Russian tenor Alexei Dolgov was a terrific Lensky. His singing is effortless. Perhaps his neurotic, bordering hysteric Lensky would not be to all tastes, but it was believable, and – again – the singing was terrific. His Act II aria was heart-wrenching; his Russian diction crystal clear. Elena Maximova, as Lensky’s fiancée Olga, did everything right dramatically and musically. Perhaps the voice is a bit too monochrome and lacks warmth, but during the Act II ball she wonderfully conveyed a flirty, young woman who only too late realizes that her behavior towards her fiancée will lead to tragedy.

    It is a great touch to have a young bass play Prince Gremin. Usually Gremin is seen as an old man, but a youthful Stefan Kocan, with the necessary low notes in full bloom, leaves no doubt why Tatiana would refuse to leave him for a now-pathetic Onegin. 

    It was wonderful to see and hear two veteran Russian mezzos as the matriarchs. Elena Zaremba as Madame Larina showed off a still gleaming, forceful mezzo, effortlessly dominating ensembles. The great Larissa Diadkova, long one of my favorite singers, was a superb Filippyevna. There is still much voice left and dramatically her fussy Nanny was by turns funny and deeply moving as she recalls her own youth. My first live Filippyevna was the legendary Irina Arkhipova making a much belated Met debut in 1997. It is the highest compliment I can pay Diadkova to say that she is in the Arkhipova stratosphere of artists. 

    There were wonderful supporting appearances by Tony Stevenson as Triquet (lovely singing of the birthday song; it’s a character that can be very grating, but Stevenson is a superb character singer/actor), Richard Bernstein as Zaretski, and David Crawford as a Captain. The chorus was in excellent form, under the leadership of Donald Palumbo. 

    The big problem with the Met’s ONEGIN, alas, is the mediocre-to-terrible production by Deborah Warner, sets by Tom Pye, costumes by Chloe Obolensky and lighting by Jean Kalman. Warner’s boring conception is old-fashioned in the worst sense of the word. I’m as fond of a “period appropriate” production as anyone, but Warner’s staging contributes nothing to the work. The previous, gorgeous production by Robert Carsen showed more depth with a simple white box and autumn leaves than Warner and team manage with stuffy period detail. The silly “when in doubt, just lay down on the stage” trope should be made illegal. All of Act I is set in the Larin country home living room. Why the family would bring their entire farming staff in there, and then allow people to throw wheat on the living room floor, is a mystery. The Duel scene is the most effective, a moody wintry landscape. But the columns in all of Act III are simply too large, sitting like titans, distracting from any and all action on the stage. 

    So it was the superb cast of singing actors, the orchestra, and thrilling conducting by Ticciati that made this ONEGIN a superb musical event.

    ~ Ben Weaver

  • Nadine Denize as Cassandra

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    In this rare recording from the 1978 Ravinia Festival, mezzo-soprano Nadine Denize sings Cassandra’s monologue, “Malheureux roi!” from Berlioz’s LES TROYENS. Following a brief pause, the final moments of the Cassandra-Chorebus duet are heard.

    Nadine Denize as Cassandre ~ LES TROYENS – Levine cond – Ravinia 1978

  • Kristine Jepson Has Passed Away

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    Above: Kristine Jepson as the Composer in ARIADNE AUF NAXOS at Covent Garden in 2008. Photo by Clive Barda.

    It is very sad to note the passing of Kristine Jepson, a wonderful singer and stage presence, after a long battle with cancer. The mezzo-soprano made her Met debut in Britten’s DEATH IN VENICE is 1994 and subsequently sang over 100 performances at The Met, where her roles included Cherubino and Octavian.

    It was as the Composer in Strauss’s ARIADNE AUF NAXOS that Kristine Jepson first intrigued me with the youthful glow of her voice and her wonderfully natural portrayal when she sang the role at Boston in 1991 – the very production that marked the ascendancy of Deborah Voigt, who sang the title-role. In 2003, Ms. Jepson again excelled in this role at The Met in a splendid performance that featured the Met debut of Christine Brewer.

    In 2006, Kristine Jepson sang Idamante in Mozart’s IDOMENEO at The Met; her performance was truly impressive, but sadly these were to be her last appearances on that stage.

  • Nadine Denize as Geneviève

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    Currently enjoying my re-discovery of mezzo-soprano Nadine Denize, I was recalling the only time I saw her onstage: as Geneviève in Debussy’s PELLÉAS ET MÉLISANDE at The Met in October 2000.

    This was my diary entry, written the morning after the performance:

    “The Met’s PELLÉAS was a tremendous evening, the gorgeous score played with great clarity and haunting beauty by The Met orchestra. This is one of James Levine’s best operas, and he wove the marvelous sound-tapestry with superb control. The production is exceptionally atmospheric: the slow, timeless world of Allemonde is ever in shadow; unanswered questions hang over the hyper-civilized, stifling palace like a brooding cloud.

    In an outstanding cast, Dwayne Croft as Pelléas gave an outstanding performance: the warmth of his darkish sound seeped into the music, producing long stretches of incredible vocal beauty. Susanne Mentzer was not an innocent Mélisande but a young woman whose experiences have left her dazed and shell-shocked…an engrossing interpretation, exquisitely sung…so full of lyricism and vulnerability.

    It was thrilling to see José van Dam on the Met stage again. He is one of our greatest singers, and his Golaud is perfection in its sheer naturalness of vocalism and austere, haunted presence. In the unaccompanied plea to his wife for forgiveness in the opera’s final scene, the house was held enraptured as van Dam sustained a gossamer pianissimo welling up from the depths of his soul.

    As Geneviève, Nadine Denize’s wine-coloured contralto and splendid diction made her ‘letter scene’ a vocal highlight of the evening. Her dignified presence in the opera’s final scene was so moving. Sheer vocal magnificence made Robert Lloyd’s Arkel the anchor of the evening musically, his moving portrayal of the old king culminating in his wistful acceptance of Mélisande’s death and his silent departure from the bed-chamber.

    Alfred Walker sang well as the Physician, and James Danner did a fine job as Yniold. The singing all evening flowed over the orchestra with speech-like ease and natural, un-theatrical simplicity. A great evening!

    Nadine Denize – Pelléas et Mélisande ~ Voici ce qu’il écrit à son frère Pelléas

  • Natalia Troitskaya as Adriana Lecouvreur

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    Natalia Troitskaya, born in Belgrade of Russian descent, had a major career as a lirico-spinto soprano during the 1980s. She sang at many major European houses, having a long association with both the Vienna State Opera and the Staatsoper Hamburg. She sang in South America, and in the USA at Washington DC and Los Angeles.

    Troitskaya seemed to vanish from the operatic world around 1991; later, I learned that she had passed away in 2006 at the age of 55 following a long illness. She left hardly any commercial recordings, but there are some live performances that were preserved from broadcasts.

    Natalia Troitskaya – ADRIANA LECOUVREUR – Adriana’s entrance – Barbican~London 1987