Category: Opera

Bewitched? We Bitched! Met MACBETH

Tuesday March 20, 2012 – I have no one to blame but myself, really. When the Met calendar for the current season came out, I skipped easily over MACBETH even though it is an opera I love: “Not with that cast!” But then a few weeks ago I was listening to the Leinsdorf recording and decided it would be good to experience MACBETH in the opera house. Despite the currrent Met trend for unmemorable productions and often brainless casting, I decided to give it a try.

I’d seen this production before; I love the huge moon with the black, scudding clouds that fills the proscenium as we wait for curtain-rise. But then the opera starts with the trivialized witches in 30s housedresses, coats and purses (each purse contains lightbulbs, how clever!). They are not sinister or even mildly interesting dramatically. And thus the production is off to a ho-hum start, and proceeds on its dreary way with injections of blood and vomit meant to shock us. It doesn’t work.

Gianandrea Noseda is often a fine helmsman at the opera, but tonight his MACBETH was workaday, and the chorus seemed uninspired. I very much liked the firm and dark-hued basso of Gunther Groissbock as Banquo; to hear his aria would have been the only reason to stay longer than we did. But not reason enough.

Over the years I have greatly enjoyed Thomas Hampson’s performances at The Met, but although he’s been fine in the more lyrical Verdi roles of Posa and Germont he simply doesn’t have what it takes for the big-guns parts like Boccanegra or Macbeth. It’s a bit like the borderline between a Merrill and a Warren: the former never trespassed into the Nabucco/Boccanegra/Macbeth region which suited (or would have) the latter so well. It’s a matter of amplitude. The sound of the Hampson voice is still fine, steady and more resonant than I expected. But it’s not Italianate in the least, it doesn’t billow and bloom with the turns of phrase or sail grandly on the words. Verbal over-emphasis, a common gimmick for over-parted singers, was a distration in a few places, as was a tendency to be ever-so-slightly sharp pitchwise. Yet still there was a lot to admire in his vocalism.

I’d heard Nadja Michael about ten years ago singing the mezzo part in the Verdi REQUIEM at Avery Fisher Hall. She sounded awful. Of late her name has cropped up as Salome in a European production that has made it to DVD (so many productions do these days, god knoweth why). I was expecting nothing from her vocally as Lady Macbeth, and that’s what I got. I’ve heard lots of bad, unattractive or hopeless singing in my day but usually it either has to do with a ‘beloved’ singer being past his/her prime, or a perfectly respectable singer attempting a role beyond his/her capabilities, or being indisposed but giving it a go to ‘save’ the evening. In these instances, you can usually still perceive that there is a real instrument at work but just not suited – for whatever reason – to the task at hand. There’s no such excuse to be made for Ms. Michael: this is how she sounds.

Obviously no one at The Met these days knows or cares enough about singing to have sorted this out in advance. Would this woman have passed an audition for the East Buttfcuk, Idaho community choir? I dunno, but somehow she’s entrusted with a great Verdi role at The Met. Her first aria was a mess and wtf is up with giving her a repeat of the cabaletta? Once was more than enough: the voice is shallow, desperate, breathy, wobbly, harsh and grossly unpleasant. Some people have said: “At least she has the high notes!” Yeah, if ill-pitched, desperate screeching counts. Following “Vieni, t’affretta” there was one prominent ‘brava’ (husband? manager? paid goon?) and one boo from a neighboring box, plus tepid applause for an aria that should bring down the house. There was also an oddly rustling sound to be heard which I soon determined to be the joint spinning in their graves of Callas, Rysanek, Nilsson, Dimitrova and Verrett.

The booer got up and left; I eyed my friend Alan to see if he was ready to leave but the opera was going forward and I didn’t want to cause even a slight disruption for those around us, so we stayed on thru the end of the great ensemble that marks King Duncan’s murder. Luckily no one attempted the traditional top note to crown the choral finale. I would like to have heard Mr. Groissbock’s aria but that meant listening to “La luce langue” first. No way.

Despite the mess she made, Michael won’t be bought out. The Met can’t afford to do that anymore. So if she shows up, ready to sing, she sings and gets paid leaving the audience with the stick end of the lollipop. One might wish for her to vanish from the scene, but apparently they have her down for BLUEBEARD’S CASTLE two seasons hence. I won’t go to that, regardless of who sings the Duke.

Alan and I staggered down to the Plaza in disbelief at what we’d just heard. There’s no excuse for it, really. A sad commentary on the state of things at The Met. And then there were all those empty seats…

March 20, 2012
Tom Gold Dance @ Florence Gould Hall

Monday February 27, 2012 – Tom Gold (above in a Matt Murphys photo), formerly a brilliant and popular soloist at New York City Ballet, has been touring with his own chamber ensemble of dancers for the past four years, performing in Israel and Europe. Tonight he brought his stellar group of City Ballet colleagues (and a luscious ABT guest) to Florence Gould Hall in a full evening of his own choreography.

On the program were four works, three of which were danced to live music. This added to the immediacy of the evening, which was marked by top-notch dancing (a given, considering Tom’s roster) and genuine enthusiasm on the part of the audience. Tom’s choreography is rooted in the classical ballet vocabulary; even when the ballets take on aspects of Chinoiserie or of Argentine tango, the combinations stay true to the essence of classic technique. The dancing is non-stop – there’s no standing about or promenading in Tom’s ballets: if you are onstage, you are dancing…unless you are sitting out one of the tangos. To me it seemed the choreography was really demanding, calling for absolute technique which, of course, these dancers have.

The opening work, ELEMENTAL, immediately set the dance in motion. Alexandre Desplat’s Far Eastern-coloured score (the only recorded music of the evening) along with the delicate gestures of the girls in their silky, short tunics gave the feeling of Orientalia with a contemporary touch. While the dancers played with the subtle wit of their characterizations, there was no stinting on the steps. Duets for Abi Stafford and Robert Fairchild, and for Sara Mearns and Jared Angle, gave us a chance to savour the star quality of four of NYCB’s finest dancers. Meanwhile a sprightly trio for Amanda Hankes, Lauren King and Kristen Segin was particularly appealing. The stage at Florence Gould seemed barely able to contain the energy of these dancers, with Russell Janzen towering over his colleagues and dancing handsomely.

NYCB concertmaster Kurt Nikkanen and pianist Susan Walters gave luminous life to music of Satie, Poulenc and Faure for Tom’s SUITE FRANCAISE, an extended pas de deux in three movements, each with a different mood: lyric, dramatic, romantic. ABT soloist Simone Messmer was partnered by NYCB’s danseur noble de luxe Tyler Angle, a duo I’d love to see more of.

Simone Messmer was simply ravishing; only a handful of ballerinas in my experience have the perfumed radiance of this enigmatic and sublime dancer: total gorgeousness from the moment she stepped onstage. I was thoroughly bewitched.

Tom Gold’s MOZART VARIATIONS is an elegant tutu ballet, and a complete delight. This is the perfect point to commend Tom for his excellent musical choices, and send a signal to other choreographers that great music invariably makes your choreography all the finer. Here my lovely Abi Stafford reveled in her technical refinement with Jared Angle ever the prince of cavaliers. Russell Janzen again made his mark, as did one of NYCB‘s emerging bright lights: Kristen Segin – rather a late addition to Tom’s group – who danced charmingly. In recent seasons, my opera glasses have often been trained on Amanda Hankes, a particular favorite among my beloved NYCBers; she’s simply so fetching and I really enjoyed having the opportunity to see her dancing in this more intimate setting. Rounding out the cast of this Mozart jewel was Devin Alberda, a perfectly polished young dancer whose work always has a distinctive quality. Duo pianists Ms. Walters and Jeffery Moore gave the dancers perfect support.

I have a thing for tango ballets…yes, really. Tom Gold’s TANGO FANTASIE provided a flourishing finale for the evening, keeping things on the up-and-up musically (tango king Astor Piazzolla and other works in the genre) while allowing the dancers to let their hair down a bit, yet with no slouching in the choreographic demands. Hot red frocks for the girls and red billowy shirts for the boys gave everything a sultry feel; when not dancing, the dancers observed their colleagues from chairs placed along the sidelines. Abi Stafford and Jared Angle danced an enticing duet, and Sara Mearns and Tyler Angle crossed paths in this nightclub more than once. Outstanding dancing from Robert Fairchild, exuding star quality even when standing still. As the dancers dipped and swayed thru the dangerous rhythms of the tango, one moment captivated: swirling out of a sexy solo passage, Sara Mearns sank into a chair where she magically arranged herself with the provocative languor of a silver screen goddess. You couldn’t take your eyes off her.

Kurt Nikkanen and Susan Walters gave the tangos all the sinuous allure they deserve; Kurt’s silky style also stood out in an interlude before the final work began.

Maria Kowroski, Wendy Whelan, Stephen Hanna, Suki Schorer, and Anne Bass were among the crowd, along with Stacy Caddell and Willy Burmann, both of whom are working with Tom Gold and his dancers. This was a most enjoyable evening of dance and I hope it heralds more opportunites to see Tom’s work in the future.

February 27, 2012
Stravinsky & Desyatnikov @ New York City Ballet

February 23, 2012 – New York City Ballet has been my home away from home since I moved to New York City in 1998. In fact, NYCB was a major factor in my desire to move here in the first place. This season has seen the effects of changes in ticket pricing and seating availability, along with the marginalizing of the 4th Ring Society and the way long-time friends and supporters of the Company feel they have been treated by the powers that be. The official stance seems to be that the changes are working and that everything’s hunky-dory, but the gaping emptiness of the 4th Ring (ten people sitting up there tonight) is a sad commentary on the real situation.

Increases in ticket prices are a necessary evil from time to time, but it’s the way it was done and the lack of sync between the website and the box office in terms of availability and pricing that is off-putting to say the least. The level of dancing is very high and the lure of Balanchine is as strong as ever, but the sheer joy of attending often and feeling you are part of a happy family of ballet-goers is greatly diminished these days. In this Winter season where I’d ear-marked 14 performances on my calendar, I ended up only going six times.

At any rate, when the curtain rose on STRAVINSKY VIOLIN CONCERTO tonight and Janie Taylor was standing there with four handsome boys, I forgot my misgivings. On the podium, George Manahan brought out individual voices in the orchestra – as we might expect a seasoned opera conductor to do – and violinist Lydia Hong conveyed the angular beauty of the concerto in an overall very pleasing performance.

Janie and her partner Ask LaCour gave an especially fine rendering of their duet; in the course of it I noticed things in the choreography that I’d somehow never picked up on before. The allure of the two dancers, and the Taylor mystique, seemed in a way to create a narrative where there isn’t one. I really enjoyed watching them.

Maria Kowroski and Amar Ramasar are developing into a powerful and vastly appealing partnership. Their pas de deux was marvelous in its sense of nuanced dramatic detail and in the dancers’ technical strength and clarity which both underscored the complex choreography and made it seem inevitable.

The corps danced beautifully, and it is wonderful to see Faye Arthurs onstage again after a hiatus. It was a performance of this classic work that re-affirmed its iconic standing in the Balanchine pantheon.

Ratmansky’s RUSSIAN SEASONS is an unique ballet in many ways; drawing on aspects of Russian peasant life, the choreographer presents characters who are anonymous yet differentiated by finely detailed aspects of gesture and movement. The music, with it’s prominent violin (Arturo Delmoni) and soulful singing (Irina Rindzuner) all came back to me from the moment of Manahan’s downbeat. The score, and the rich colours of the dancers’ costumes, weaves a particular spell. I was very glad to see this piece again after a few seasons’ absence from the repertoire.

The Playbill now denotes role debuts at NYCB, and only Georgina Pazcoguin had previously appeared in her role as the Woman in Red. Abi Stafford danced in the premiere of RUSSIAN SEASONS but has now switched to the role originally created by Jenifer Ringer. Beyond that, the cast drew together some of the Company’s most attractive personalities.

Amanda Hankes, Marika Anderson and Lauren Lovette were each lovely and distinctive to watch, while the presence of Taylor Stanley, David Prottas, Andrew Veyette, Adrian Danchig-Waring and Christian Tworzyanski showed off the strengths of the Company’s male contingent.

Abi Stafford’s performance had a nice sense of freshness to compliment her clarity of movement. As the central couple, Rebecca Krohn and Robert Fairchild used their personal magnetism to full advantage. Rebecca’s dancing was serene – and poignant in the passage where she seems to have been abandoned. Rob Fairchild seized the opportunity to make yet another ballet ‘sing’ to his charismatic approach. His dancing was technically impressive and dramatically vivid.

In a glorious performance, Georgina Pazcoguin’s Woman in Red was suffused with her highly individual beauty and intensity; as she swirled with a restless spirit through the many swift pirouettes and space-filling combinations of this demanding role, Gina seemed like a woman possessed. Truly breath-taking at every moment.

STRAVINSKY VIOLIN CONCERTO: Taylor, la Cour, Kowroski, Ramasar

RUSSIAN SEASONS: Pazcoguin, *Krohn, *A. Stafford, *Lovette, *Hankes, *Anderson, *R. Fairchild, *Prottas, *Stanley, *Tworzyanski, *Danchig-Waring, *Veyette

February 23, 2012
Balanchine in Paris
BALANCHINE IN PARIS, a film by Dominique Delouche, was shown at the Walter Reade Theater on Monday afternoon, January 30th. In the movie, we see footage of Ghislaine Thesmar (above), Alicia Markova, Nina Vyroubova and Violette Verdy coaching dancers of the Paris Opera Ballet and the Bayerische Staatsballett in Balanchine repertoire:

Le Palais de Cristal/Symphony in C
Musique de Georges Bizet, chorégraphie Balanchine (1947/1949)
Ghislaine Thesmar coaching Isabelle Ciaravola et Hervé Moreau, étoiles de l’Opéra de Paris

Le Rossignol
Musique Igor Stravinsky, chorégraphie Balanchine (1929)
Dame Alicia Markova coaching Myriam Ould Braham, première danseuse de l’Opéra de Paris

La Somnambula
Musique Rieti, chorégraphie Balanchine (1960)
Nina Vyroubova et Milorad Miskovitch coaching Muriel Hallé et Valery Colin, sujets à l’Opéra de Paris

Liebeslieder Walzer
Musique Brahms, chorégraphie Balanchine (1960)
Violette Verdy coaching Lucia Lacarra et Cyrille Pierre, étoiles au Bayerisches Staatsballett

Sonatine
Musique Ravel, chorégraphie Balanchine (1975)
Violette Verdy coaching Monique Loudières, étoile de l’Opéra de Paris

The entire film is a delight for ballet fans, and for Balanchine’s admirers in particular. The most moving segment for me was Thesmar coaching Palais de Cristal. And the refinements of Liebeslieder Walzer as coached by Violette Verdy make me more appreciative than ever of that perfumed masterpiece. I certainly hope this film will be released on DVD in the USA.
The showing was prefaced two films by Gabrielle Lamb: En Dedans is a ten-minute reverie on dancers’ dreams which she created for Philaelphia’s Ballet X and which I like especially because my friend Colby Damon is in it. Gabrielle showed me a raw copy of this film on her computer one day last year down at Gibney Dance Center. The finished work is truly dreamlike, the dancers moving in a studio that seems to be drifting through the clouds.

The jewel-like miniature Figment may be viewed on Gabrielle’s website here. Evolving from a dream that she had about a woman with a sword dancing in a tall, slender space this movie has an eerie charm. I also enjoyed hearing Gabrielle, a dancer with a powerful dramatic resonance, speaking about her filmworks.

From Figment
Gabrielle Lamb (2010)
January 30, 2012
Unenchanted Evening

Monday January 30, 2012 – The Met’s Baroque pastiche ENCHANTED ISLAND made for a dismal night at the opera. Placido Domingo as Neptune, in a Ken Howard production photo above, gave the performance one of its few perk-up moments. His voice, though aged, remains a distinctive instrument and he brought a real personality to his relatively brief appearance, something no other singer in the cast was able to do.

The Playbill featured a two-page synopsis. Drawing on two complex and brilliant Shakespeare masterpieces, THE TEMPEST and MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, the plot is a mishmash of characters and situations that do not engage us emotionally, and rarely even theatrically. The libretto is cheesy and stilted; avoiding Shakesperian style, it has a contemporary feel at odds with the setting and the music. Forced humour abounds, and the characters are made to sing uncomfortably-structured sentences. Unable to understand much of the diction, I flipped on my Met Titles and regretted it because reading the script added to a sense of deflation as the first act progressed.

The opera is much too long. The 90-minute first act seemed to have reached a pleasant climax with the Neptune scene, but then there was another prolonged slow aria for Prospero. Oddly, the house lights suddenly came on at full brightness during the postlude of this aria, then were dimmed and turned off again.

Slow arias in fact abound; but that proved as well since none of the singers had the needed vocal facility to astonish us with their coloratura. The annoying voice of Danielle DeNiese as Ariel went in one ear and out the other; she made no vocal impression at all. Anthony Roth Costanzo, replacing David Daniels as Prospero, seemed over-parted in the big house; pushing for volume, his sustained notes sometimes took on a steady beat. At other times the voice vanished behind the orchestra. Joyce Di Donato was announced as indisposed but she had “graciously consented…blah, blah, blah.” Please singers: if you are unwell enough to need an announcement, don’t sing. We don’t pay Met prices to hear sick singers. At any rate, Di Donato only had one bad low note, but her voice – even in full health – lacks a distinctive colour, the sort of personal timbre that made singers like Teresa Berganza, Dame Janet Baker and Frederica von Stade so instantly identifiable. Luca Pisaroni tended to be over-emphatic in his fiorature which verged on barking at times. Lisette Oropesa sang attractively as Miranda as did Paul Appleby as as Demetrius. The libretto did them no favors, but they – and in fact everyone onstage – went at the words gamely enough, even if they felt foolish doing so.

The idea of doing a Baroque pastische is not a bad one but it seemed to me that between the tedious libretto, too many ‘laments’, and the too-busy plot, ENCHANTED ISLAND was going nowhere. Two 45-minute acts with a 20-minute intermission should have sufficed; instead there were expendable arias, unnecessary da capos, and overdrawn recits as the first act stretched onward. We left at half-time and so, it seems, did lots of other people.

January 30, 2012
Three Robbins Ballets @ NYCB

Tuesday January 24, 2012 – Three works by Jerome Robbins, each featuring an ideal ballerina in its central role, were performed tonight at New York City Ballet. The music? Ravel, Berg, Chopin. What a great way to spend a cold Winter’s evening! In the Paul Kolnik photo at the top, Wendy Whelan borne aloft by Jared Angle and Ask LaCour at the end of IN MEMORY OF…

The evening opened on a beach where the dancers, in pastel 1920s beachwear, cavorted to the Ravel piano concerto IN G MAJOR. Maria Kowroski (above in a Paul Kolnik) gave a radiant performance and Tyler Angle was a frisky young god in his solo. In the ballet’s central adagio, the two dancers found a fine rapport and a sense of freshness that kept the audience spellbound as they shaped their long limbs into a series of beautiful snapshots. The final lift, as Maria’s leg sweeps heavenward and her pointed foot seems to brush the sky, was thrilling. Excellent corps dancing: a neat moment when Maria is partnered by the tall and slender Austin Laurent made me wish that principals and corpsmen could dance together more extensively. IN G MAJOR has a striking backdrop by Erté , a designer perhaps forgotten nowadays but whose work resonates with Art Deco elegance. His set features a fanciful sunburst and dark outlines suggesting clouds and waves: a remarkably classy beachscape.

With George Manahan (of New York City Opera) as a guest conductor bringing out some lovely nuances in the score and pianist Susan Walters giving a polished performance at the keyboard, the musicians and dancers conspired to make this a wonderfully gratifying performance in every regard.

Mr. Manahan also took up the baton for IN MEMORY OF…, the poignantly dramatic work that Robbins set to the violin concerto of Alban Berg. The composer crafted this, his only concerto for solo instrument, in reaction to the death from polio of Manon Gropius (daughter of Alma Mahler and Walter Gropius) at the age of 22. Berg was deeply shaken by the girl’s demise and wrote “To the Memory of an Angel” on the score’s title-page. Tonight the City Ballet‘s concertmaster Kurt Nikkanen gave the work a lustrous performance.

Robbins sets the ballet in a three-part narrative where we first see the young woman dancing with her beau, later joined by friends. Signs of the girl’s illness begin to manifest and as the corps stride in unison across the stage, the figure of Death appears.

In a long and intense pas de deux, Death stalks the girl (Ask LaCour and Wendy Whelan, above). She puts up a mighty struggle but in the end she is bested by his implacable strength. Her crumpled body is borne away as the stage fills with the corps, now white-clad angels, who eventually welcome the young woman to the celestial realm.

Of the many and varied roles in Wendy Whelan’s repertory, the central character in Robbins’ dramatic IN MEMORY OF… suits her most particularly well. Here she is able to convey the girl’s passionate love of life, her confused state as Death begins to attack her, her frantic attempts to stave off the inevitable, and her luminous vulnerability as she succumbs. In the ballet’s final moments, Wendy re-appears, now in virginal white with her hair down, moving among the spirits. Every element of technique, dramatic instinct and expression that Wendy embodies are filtered into this character and her performance is a complete marvel in every sense.

Ask LaCour, towering over the ballerina, brings an interesting sense of nobility to the Death figure. As he gains control over the girl’s soul, Ask uses his long arms and expressive hands to keep her in his thrall even as she tries to escape. An excellent portrait. Jared Angle was handsome and gently ardent as Wendy’s mortal lover, and I was especially happy to see Faye Arthurs back onstage – after a long hiatus – dancing with the very attractive corps ensemble.

Sterling Hyltin talks about her role in THE CONCERT here.

No performance at the ballet or opera these days can ever be free of audience distractions. I had such a nice seat for the evening but on returning from the intermission two idiot girls sitting a couple of seats away had brought in snacks and a bottle of water which they decided to enjoy during IN MEMORY OF… they were just far enough away so that shushing them was to no avail.

I therefore decided to move for the closing ballet; but having heard that the ushers now don’t allow people to move to another part of the house (even if you’ve paid $100 and want to sit in an unused $29 seat), I decided to try watching THE CONCERT on the screen on the Promende. This did not work out too well, but at least got to watch Sterling and Joaquin de Luz for a while.

The saddest aspect of the evening was seeing the vast emptiness of the 4th Ring which was open but occupied by only 2 or 3 spectators. I’m simply at a loss to comprehend what the administration is doing to my favorite dance company. It’s disheartening and alienating. They can spin it however they want, but empty seats are empty seats. It’s especially depressing because the Company are dancing so well.

January 25, 2012
Rita Gorr Has Passed Away

Another colossal figure from my early days as an opera lover has passed away: the Belgian mezzo-soprano Rita Gorr died on January 22, 2012 at the age of 85. The great singer had a relatively brief but busy career at the Metropolitan Opera; from 1962 thru 1966 she sang 42 performances in New York City and on tour, including Amneris, Eboli, Dalila, Santuzza, Waltraute in GOTTERDAMMERUNG and Azucena. It was in the last-named role that I heard her live for the only time, at the Old Met:

Metropolitan Opera House November 25, 1965
IL TROVATORE {350} Giuseppe Verdi Manrico.................Bruno Prevedi Leonora.................Gabriella Tucci Count Di Luna...........Robert Merrill Azucena.................Rita Gorr Ferrando................Bonaldo Giaiotti Ines....................Lynn Owen Ruiz....................Charles Anthony Messenger...............Hal Roberts Gypsy...................Luis Forero
Conductor...............Georges Pretre

Her singing was powerful and intense, and all evening long she and her colleagues received vociferous applause and bravos. What a great evening for a young opera buff!

Rita Gorr extended her career into the 21st century; her final stage performances were in 2007 as the Old Countess in Tchaikovsky’s QUEEN OF SPADES at Ghent and Antwerp.

Only recently I acquired a copy of the Leinsdorf recording of Wagner’s LOHENGRIN and have been listening to it over the past few days. It now takes on greater significance since Ms. Gorr is the majestic Ortrud, singing in the grand manner. In the great duet for husband and wife which open Act II, William Dooley as Telramund expresses his fear that his defeat by Lohengrin in Act I was a sign from God. “Gott????!!” Gorr/Ortrud responds ironically, then lets out a daemonic laugh. Brilliant!

Rita Gorr’s classic EMI solo disc of arias seems to be unavailable now; I owned it on LP as a young man and literally wore out the grooves. But several tracks can be found on YouTube. Here is her Liebestod from TRISTAN UND ISOLDE, sung with an Old World grandeur that seems to have vanished as opera moves away from its voice-centric uniqueness into a more generalized feeling of being mere entertainment.

January 23, 2012
The Angel

December 23, 2011 – Today is the birthday of Mathilde Wesendonck (above) who wrote five poems which Richard Wagner set to music in 1857-1858; the cycle became known as the Wesendonck Lieder. At the time, Wagner and his wife Minna lived together in the Asyl, a small cottage on the estate of Otto Wesendonck, Mathilde’s husband. It is unclear whether Wagner and Mathilde actually had an intimate physical relationship but the composer certainly was infatuated with her, causing his mentally unstable wife to erupt in jealous fits.

The poems themselves are wistful and dreamlike; their language reflects the emotional intensity of the Romantic style which by that time was highly developed. Wagner called two of the songs in the cycle “studies” for TRISTAN UND ISOLDE: in Träume we hear the roots of the love duet from the opera’s second act, and Im Treibhaus uses themes later developed in the prelude to Act 3. The chromatic-harmonic style of TRISTAN suffuses all five songs and creates the musical unity of the cycle.

Wagner initially wrote the songs for female voice and piano alone, but later produced a fully orchestrated version of Träume, which was performed by a chamber orchestra under Mathilde’s window on the occasion of her birthday in 1857. The orchestration of the whole cycle was later completed by Felix Mottl, the famed Wagnerian conductor.

Tiana Lemnitz sings the cycle’s opening song, Der Engel here.

“An angel came down to me
on shining wings
and bore my spirit heavenward.”

December 22, 2011
HANSEL & GRETEL at The Met

Wednesday December 21, 2011 – The presence of a number of intriguing names in the cast (led by Kate Lindsey, above, as Hansel) drew me back to the Met’s dark and not very pleasing production of HANSEL & GRETEL which is playing during the holiday season. It’s a far cry from the Met’s older production with its fanciful gingerbread house and jolly, green-tongued witch, Rosina Daintymouth. In the current incarnation the characterizations of both the witch and the parents are based on infamous British serial killers. There’s little magic to be found visually…

…though a couple of nice images crop up here and there, like the phalanx of chefs (above) who serve a feast to the starving children. But for the most part the production is earthbound and lacking in fantasy.

What drew us to see it again – in addition to the singers – was the music itself (Humperdinck greatly admired Wagner), as well as a conductor new to the Met podium: Robin Tacciati . He provided appealing orchestral textures all evening and his interpretation brimmed over with emotionally satisfying colours. Unfortunately, his first act seemed rushed and he often let the large orchestra overwhelm the voices.

As the two children, Alexandra Kurzak and Kate Lindsey (above) entered fully into the demanding staging of the work which calls for lots of physicality, dancing and mime…and getting plastered from head to toe with foodstuffs from the witch’s kitchen. Kate was virtually slathered in pudding and jam, then plentifully dusted with cocoa and powdered sugar. Alexandra staggered around the set with a huge platter of melting chocolate cookies and a bowl of custard. She continues to sing while stuffing various sweets into her mouth. Sticky fingers? Who needs Mick Jagger?

Despite all the things they are called on to do and eat, both Alexandra and Kate managed to sing very well into the bargain. Alexandra’s voice has girlish, lyrical appeal and even though the orchestral volume forced her to push the voice in a couple of spots, her Gretel was very prettily sung, especially in her exquisite vocalizing of the famous prayer. Kate has one of the truly distinctive voices in the opera business these days and her singing is impeccably tailored, warm and clear. As hansel, she is a truly convincing boy onstage, expanding her repertory of trouser roles: her Cherubino and Nicklausse were perfect, her Siebel’s coming up, and I’m longing for her Octavian. But she shouldn’t spend her whole life in pants, she’s far too pretty: so I hope we will have her Rosina and Dorabella soon, and I’d love to see her as Berlioz’s Beatrice.

Robert Brubaker, a teriffic Mime in SIEGFRIED at the Met a couple of seasons back, was a huge-voiced and creepy Witch. It’s so eerie to hear his voluminous character-tenor sound emanating from the frumpy old biddy in a fat-suit. Robert was superb and, like Kate and Alexandra, simply threw himself into the production’s food fantasy. Photo above: Robert Brubaker and Alexandra Kurzak.

As the parents Peter and Gertrude, Dwayne Croft and Michaela Martens (above) excelled. They have authentic Met-size voices and took the waves of sound coming up from the pit in their stride. I’ve always loved Dwayne Croft’s voice since I first heard him as Puccini’s Marcello at Glimmerglass many moons ago. He sounded fabulous tonight. Dmitry and I are very fond of Ms. Martens and she sang with power and attractive tone as the desperate mother. If the Met management had any imagination, Michaela would be doing roles like Fricka, Venus, Brangaene and the Berlioz Cassandra here. I could even imagine her as a very fine Sieglinde.

Ashley Emerson (above) was a delicious Dew Fairy, a petite elfin maiden with tiny Sylphide wings. Her singing was bright and light-filled, a perfect wake-up call. She carries on a tradition – both in-house and on recordings – of casting wonderful singers in the opera’s two cameo solo roles. Her evening counter-part was the Sandman of Jennifer Johnson Cano who sang very nicely indeed.

The musical pleasures of the evening were offset by the overall drabness of the production. There were lots of empty seats throughout The Met so word must have gotten out that this is not a festive holiday treat with an underlying moral message but rather a grotesque take on a story and score which should be heart-warming but instead leaves us slightly nauseous.

A major failure of stagecraft comes hear the end when the many children who had been under the witch’s spell are set free. The director apparently couldn’t think of any better way to handle this than to lower the curtain on an empty set and then bring it up again 30 seconds later on a stage filled with two dozen urchins. Then the uplifting melodic benediction launched by Peter as the work comes to an end failed to resonate because there was no context of religiosity anywhere else in the production.

Act I takes place in a desolate kitchen where Hansel and Gretel seem like manic-depressives and where Gertrude is on the verge of committing suicide. The scene in the forest is instead set in a large empty hall with green-leaf wallpaper. It’s too dim, and nothing seems to be happening til the old Sandman and – later – the chefs arrive. The witch’s kitchen is drably industrial and she is played like an over-the-top drag version of Julia Child, flingling flour and powdered chocolate all over the place. Candy, pudding and strawberry preserves are smeared on Hansel and Gretel, and Hansel is trussed up for roasting. The scene is vulgar and not funny in the least though it is broadly played.

The English translation is very Brit-oriented and, thanks largely to the over-enthusiastic conducting, much of it didn’t register. I’d like to see the Met dump this production and give us a more attractive, kid-friendly look at this opera. It should cast a Christmastime spell of hope and familial love; instead it only reminds us of the American knack for wasting food while children right here in Gotham don’t have enough to eat.

Production photos: Mary Sohl/Metropolitan Opera.

Metropolitan Opera House December 21, 2011 In English
HANSEL UND GRETEL Humperdinck Hansel..................Kate Lindsey Gretel..................Aleksandra Kurzak Gertrud.................Michaela Martens Peter...................Dwayne Croft Witch...................Robert Brubaker Sandman.................Jennifer Johnson Cano Dew Fairy...............Ashley Emerson
Conductor...............Robin Ticciati

The evening ended on a sweet note when I went backstage to see Kate and Ashley; I met both of them when they were in the Lindemann Young Artists Development Program at the Met and I’m very pleased to be following their successful careers. It was also nice to wish happy holidays to Michaela Martens and Dwayne Croft.

December 21, 2011
Alto Rhapsody: Mildred Miller

Above: Mezzo-soprano Mildred Miller as Cherubino in LE NOZZE DI FIGARO. Photo: Sedge LeBlanc.

Every year ar Christmas approaches I find myself wanting to hear the Alto Rhapsody of Johannes Brahms. I am not quite sure what it is about this unusual and unique vocal/choral work that suggests Christmas to me because the text has nothing to do with Christ’s birth. But it is about a Winter journey, and about hope and spiritual refreshment; maybe those are thoughts that should come to mind this time of year.

Brahms wrote this work – I suppose we could call it a cantata – in 1869 as a wedding gift for Julie Schumann, daughter of Robert and Clara Schumann. Brahms is thought to have been in love with Julie. It was first performed privately but in 1870 it was heard by the public for the first time in a concert at Jena where the soloist was Pauline Viardot. (Viardot looms large in my musical imagination; hers is the one voice from out of the past that I most dearly wish I could hear; and how I would love to have met her…her, and Lillian Nordica!).

The Alto Rhapsody begins with a sort of narrative for solo voice in a minor key; it seems a bit bleak, well-suiting the poetic image of a lost soul wandering in the desolation of a lonely landscape. The mood lifts as the chorus joins in, hymnlike and now in major-key mode. The music is tranquil, luminous, joyful in a calm way. The solo voice intones the melody against the choral harmonies – gorgeous – and the piece ends with a sort of benediction that has the effect of an amen.

The Alto Rhapsody is not often performed in concerts these days. For symphony orchestras it means hiring a chorus in addition to the soloist, and for choral societies it’s a little difficult to program as it is a bit too short to be half of the bill, and you need to think of something else for your guest soloist to sing during the evening. I’ve only experienced it once in a concert hall.

Many great singers have recorded the Alto Rhapsody: Kathleen Ferrier, Marian Anderson, Dame Janet Baker, Christa Ludwig, Marilyn Horne. I have Ludwig’s lovely rendition, and up til a couple years ago I would often break out Sigrid Onegin’s recording. But that magisterial performance is somewhat dampened by the singer’s tendency to be ever-so-slighly off-pitch at times. This year I decided I wanted a different recording and so I went to Amazon to peruse the listings and very quickly settled on the SONY recording with mezzo-soprano Mildred Miller, conducted by Bruno Walter. I got it for a bargain price, paired with the same composer’s Deutches Requiem.

When I had a bit of free time the other day, I slipped the disc in and found the recording to be just perfect in every regard. The sound is warm, full and plush, Maestro Walter is perfectly in his element, the chorus sounds heavenly and Mildred Miller is a complete delight. She doesn’t falsely weight her lower range; her timbre is feminine and not overly-maternal, and she avoids overdoing the angst of the opening passages.

Mildred Miller sang at The Met for 23 years, making more than 300 appearances. She made her debut as Cherubino in 1951 and went on to sing Suzuki, Nicklausse, Octavian, and the Composer in ARIADNE AUF NAXOS. By the time I encountered her in the 1960s she had settled into a repertoire of ‘major-secondary’ roles; I loved her as Annina in ROSENKAVALIER and the Second Lady in the Chagall ZAUBERFLOETE. She was my first ‘Lene in MEISTERSINGER in 1968, when she signed the cast page of my program:

December 18, 2011