Split personality. Liking the arts, especially opera, and hockey and Los Toros. I know, I know THAT one is non pc currently. But I can't help it saw some in Spain and got hooked, but good.
But on the other hand right now opera and hockey are in the forefront!
by Donizetti. A Bel Canto Opera and so it was.
Two unfortunate events made this an interesting rehearsal:
1) Tenor Cutler was indisposed and HGOStudio member Touhy sang from the side while a staff member mimed action on stage.
2) Bass Gradus sang with less than usual fervor in order to conserve HIS voice.
But the result was the same: an incredibly beautifully realized opera, sets, staging, lights, costumes, music, and ABOVE ALL singing as it should be (Bel Canto !!)
Here a clip from 2005:Di Donato as Maria and Cutler as Leicester
BIG LIKE: Joyce Di Donato as a mesmerizing Maria Stuarda, oh, boy, can she sing, can she act, and CAN she keep the audience so enthralled during her pianissimos that nor a rustle, sniffle or any other sound was heard. The orchestra took a break and only she was heard even when she just barely whispered (pianissimo of pianissimos!).
OH MY YES!
Katie Van Kooten, as Elisabeth I, was imposing and did real justice to her role as the vindictive queen. And yet one could almost, almost, feel sorry for her being so tortured as she appeared to be, too strongly influenced by Cecil (Oren Gradus- who labored mightily overcoming a vocal problem due to?? and so sounding much less imposing than he usually is).
Van Kooten: Photo
OPERA today
Eric Cutler, slated to sing Leicester, was announced to be ill, and so Brendan Touhy of the HGO Studio vocally stood in for him from stage right (audience view) and truly sounded very, yes, very well!
To me, admittedly predisposed to like deep voices, Robert Gleadow as Talbot was just right. Of course that he had a very sympathetic role may have something to do with being liked!
At least by me. I cannot, of course, speak for others.
Opera IS so much a subjective art form, after all.
Since is it BEL CANTO.. the singing must be in the forefront, IMO. And so it was.
Sets and staging were simply (I am not saying cost effective LOL) and nothing, really detracted from the singers!
A beautifully copied coffered ceiling with movable columns (sets by Neil Patel) seemed just right to me! Stage was frequently empty and stark, but that too, seemed just right! After all the play/opera is stark. About emotions of love, hate, evil incubus (Cecil?) and so forth. The lightning by Wood/Clark was also simple and stark and effective.
Costumes by Jessica Jahn were period and - that was a real pleasure!(after the other mish mash as posted before. Especially so).
Patrick Summers honed (it was the last rehearsal remember) the HGO orchestra to perfection, while Richard Bado managed the chorus well, especially during the last act to give much pleasure.
It will be a fitting end to a great season at HGO IMO.
As I am neither singer nor musician, my feelings are strictly due to having seen/heard many operas in many houses.
Houston Grand Opera's 5 acter DON CARLOS sung in the long original (1887 ? version) French, boasts crosses. Lots of them.
Black ones, small ones, big ones!
Red ones, and red ones glowing ominously in the dark.
Stark, dark, ominous and threatening.
Fitting sets to the dark, ominous and strong music Verdi composed for this tragedy in 5 acts set during the deepest gloom in Spanish history- the inquisition after a play by Schiller.
The most glorious voices were assembled as cast.
From Soprano Tamara Wilson's silvery yet big voiced Elisabeth to the deepest male voices.
Yes, the basses were upfront on stage here.
From the veteran Samuel Ramey as the Grand Inquisitor who trumps everyone and everything singing gravelly with power (at age 70 yet); via Oren Gradus, a truly sepulchral spirit of Charles V; and Andrea Silvistrelli as Philippe II, the tortured father and anguished husband of Elisabeth, who was originally slated to be his own son's fiancee, to the lighter voiced Boris Dyakov, as always so elegant, as Count Lerme.
The baritones did not stay far behind.
The dramatically sung and especially acted Marquis Posa of Scott Hendricks was rather emotional to behold. Mark Diamond's Forester showcased his fresh baritone voice in this cameo role.
But the glory of the show went, without hesitations to the 3 main characters.
Soprano Wilson, a regal and yet very sympathetic Elisabeth, trying to uphold her vows.
Christine Goerke, as Countess Eboli, embodied unrequited love scorned and turned to vicious hatred with a powerful mezzo. But was equally believable in her solo O donfatale, bemoaning her fatal beauty and atoning for her misdeeds.
And Brandon Jovanovich as Don Carlos used his amazingly big ringing tenor voice to portray love, desire, desperation, resolution and friendship. And his good looks did not hurt at all. He was undoubtedly easily accepted as the love interest of 2 beautiful and powerful women, plus the inspiration of devotion by his best friend.
In other cameos we heard the fine soprano Brittany Wheeler as celestial voice, soprano Lauren Snouffer in the travesty role of Thibault, page ot Elisabeth, Scott Quinn as King's Herald and Judith Irvington as Countess Aremberg.
The HGO orchestra was led by Maestro Summers with sensitivity, while Chorus Master Bado, as usual, had the HGO chorus singing uniformly with beauty.
Direction by John Caird who placed singers well on stage easily viewed from most seats in the house, (sitting on side orchestra I can attest to that). The set of crosses in all forms and colors was by Johan Engels, well highlighted by lighting designer Levings. Choreography by Sayers.
And now I come to the crux (truly cross to bear, IMO) of the matter:
the costuming by Oberle!
A terrible mish mash of traditional, modernized (but from which decades?) customes. costumes.
The chorus women's royal blues in various shades at least were becoming.
Elisabeth's dresses were y demonstrative of her role as innocent princess and later wronged queen.
Eboli's simply did not convey the countess's implied (O don fatale! remember) attraction. Oh my, that insipid pink at first.
Later the deeply decolletage'd black lace (a midi-skirted fifties look?) did give perhaps a slight hint of a night of debauchery with the King!
But the men's.
Deliver me from the men's.
From Don Carlos' first appearance in asemblance of Raiders of the Lost Ark get up, to his later costume reminiscent of Pontevedrian counts, with perhaps a soupcon of Mikado thrown in; to the gangster (not gangsta - thank heavens) look complete with black fedoras of the male court, and finally the black stormtrooper looks of the jailers and guards, IMO caused hysterical rather than sinister impressions and seemed, to me, without rhyme nor reason.
Oh, I should not forget the red "Ku Klux clannishly" (:-) clad inquisition executioners. While the Grand Inquisitor was cardinally (lol) dressed simply in black with purple sash and scull cap.
The production by HGO is worth going to, just to the hear the original opera composed by Verdi for the French in the French language (later it was translated into multiple versions, shortened, and re-shortened LOL into Italian which IMO sounds more suited to Verdian Music). But the singers overall did a magnificent job singing en Francais, in French that was actually understood rather well by those in the audience who have knowledge of that tongue, moi included!
Pure Beautiful Singing! Nothing to distract from it. No cluttered stage and scenery. No glaringly colored costumes. No 'busy, busy' hyper activity.
Instead you get a stage in grey on grey with grey. A set of guillotine like triangles suspended in grey cloud shades in the first act. Evocative of looming castles of grey granite, misty lands and stark forbidding lochs, perhaps? Add a few chairs. And a refectory banquet table albeit covered in large white cloth, which becomes a major part of the scene in Act 3 and you have the settings!
Almost forgot, occasionally a 'wall' descends like a ponderous curtain, naturally in grey with grey, from the rafters. And on such 'walls' , thanks to well placed lightning (by Jane Cox), shadows of the soloists are cast like dooming portends, borrowing from Balinese Shadow Puppet plays, perhaps? Direction by the Scot John Doyle.
Costumes are dark grey, highlighted in black, dark navy blue. Customes and set by Liz Ashcroft. Chorus women with Gibson Girl hairdos, in dresses seemingly from the 1900's marching slowly across and in between.The occasional baroque patterned vests for the principal male singers, as may have been worn in the 1700's with Mozartean ponytails. In burnt orange to brown, highlighted by a dash of white. Lucia's dress in muted reds in the first act and her wedding gown and night gown in bright beiges with white. Not to forget the spatters of blood on the latter.
BUT THE singing! AND THE singing! A glorious feast for the ears-Ohrenschmaus par excellence. A return to what opera used to be and, perhaps, be again? Glorious singing by beautiful and expressive voices - I like, I like!
Provided by Albina Shagimuratova(*) as Lucia, tossing off high notes with utter ease, spinning out phrases so long we are beginning to think she has NO need to breathe. What a duet with the flute during her mad scene! Shimmering notes taking flight, softly at times, forcefully at others, always with great beauty. A spellbound audience sits mesmerized in utter silence. One could have heard the proverbial pin drop...if there had been one!
Just a soupcon for your listening pleasure - Shagimuratova tosses off The Queen of Night's aria with consumate ease! Let's hope she will soon be heard on CD/DVD .. her voice IS so good!
Dimitri Pittas as Edgardo delivers. And how he delivers! His dramatic talent shines as he gives fresh meaning to the lover betrayed, with his brightly ringing and, yet,warm tenor. here a bit from his MET appearance as MacDuff!
Scott Hendrick's(*) Enrico, as the overbearing brother uses his baritone and histrionic talents to good avail. And he casts a threatening shadow, too.. see above description ;-)!
Here a sip for you: he is Silvio in Pagliacci (with Futral as Nedda)
(In an aside: the pairing of Hendricks and Shagimuratova is a repeat casting-they were, in a previous incarnation, the fool Rigoletto and his daughter Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto-when chairs also played a large role in the staging of the father/daughter scene).
Beau Gibson (*) (did that inspire the ladies' hairdo-:-)?), is a sneaky, sly-boots Normanno, the instigator of doom, a "Iago of Lammermoor" (so to speak but this time a tenor, the Iago of Otello is a baritone) who prowled the stage endlessly, insinuating, observing, tattletaleing!
Bass Oren Gradus (*) lends his deep booming voice to Raimondo, the priest, who persuades Lucia to obey her brother, then, IMO, becomes turncoat and accuses Enrico as the cause of Lucia's madness and death.
The cameo role of Arturo, the rich suitor and projected savior of the Lammermoors,is sung with lyrical beauty by Tenor Nathaniel Peake, who also looks rather dishy in his attire, the brightest colors on stage.
Rachel Willis-Sorenson is a rather youthful Alisa. attendant to Lucia, but well cast with her sure sounding Mezzo. Maestro Antonino Folgiani, after an inital slow paced start, conducted with fervor and verve. Singing right along the principals!
Now if you only are awed by overpowering stage sets and super active direction.. well, do sit back, close your eyes tightly, open your ears wide and let the beautiful sounds in. Your soul will be stirred and transported. Just have an ambulance standing by as happened last night! (Was someone so overcome by the emotions of the Bel Canto to have fainted ?)
The male chorus and supers carrying poles (not a spear in sight here) in cutaway like suits, grey and black, moves to and fro, ebbing and surging, weaving and webbing. All in a stately manner as befittting dour Scots copying a Greek Chorus of doom. It IS a gloomy, tragic opera, thus the gloom and doom of set and costumes is only too fitting. BTW all singers, except Pittas are HGOpera Studio artists, curent or alumni (*)
