Late but very enthusiastic

And so I am.
My take on Opera in the Heights' MACBETH!
Yes, Houston readers of this blog who are opera lovers as well, most likely will have seen it before and/or read the raving reviews. I do try hard to refrain from reading reviews, although I could not miss hearing things like "a must see" etc. but tried to shut out anything more, so I can report, as unbiased as possible, what I felt,and heard, and saw.

Which Better Half and I did Sunday afternoon to a sold out house at Opera in the Heights.
Saw is perhaps the wrong word.. most definitely HEARD wondrous music.
I really think MACBETH is my fave Verdi, right next to Trovatore and Othello! Maybe because all 3 are dramas dealing with human frailty and  'bad vibes" :-)  sort of "drammas horribiles" ;-)!

 

The voices of the 4 major singers, and the huge chorus (how did they all fit on that postage sized stage even if not crowded with props?) were so strong I am still amazed the roof didn 't fly off the rafters. Maybe a sign of the sturdiness of this historic church building on Heights Boulevard at 17th... they did build well in the 20's, didn't they?

Joke aside, the production set in a gangland   (NOT like this  PSY-gangman)

 

style was effective, IMO, the music and the singers were so overwhelming, one tended to overlook the iconoclastic sight of gangsta attire and machine guns (no protest forthcoming, methinks, but then we are in Texas!) in Birnam Woods and the Highlands of Scotland. Not a single Tartan in sight!

But no matter.

Andrew Cummings, (he will sing Kurwenal in Bogota, then return to OH! in La Traviata),
baritone with Wagnerian lungs, portrayed the ambitious and murderous (spurred on by his wife) Thane of Cawdor with raw vocal power,
ably matched in volume. albeit with much more vocal flexibility,
by soprano Emily Newton as his scheming and, finally, guilt ridden wife. Newton, sang with force when needed, but floated exquisite piano notes, where proper, without batting a lash!

BTW those of my chers readers in Germany should look her up at the Dortmund opera, where she will sing the title role in ANNA NICOLE (premiered by Westbrook) alas, those dates are not compatible with my European trip, since I shall be at Salzburg, Vienna (VOP and Staatsoper), and 5.17 Berlin at Komische Oper as a - hopefully - spell bound audience  member ;-)! And on the high seas on May 27! Otherwise... you better believe me.... I WOULD be there!

 Anna Nicole by Mark-Anthony Turnage

April 27 & May 2, 5, 10, 17 & 29 2013

Oper Dortmund

Dortmund, Germany

Aaron Sorenson, the Banco,  produced an amazingly rich bass sound from a very slender body, whose Banco reminded me of Che Guevarra.

Cameron Schutza, tenor, sang Macduff's beautiful aria with ringing sound and garnered much applause. Here Filianoti with this aria from Salzburg

OH chorus master Fuller schooled and managed the large chorus to huge success. Better Half opined that this was - in his mind - the best chorus yet seem/heard at OH in years!

Witches - photo thanks to Gwen Turner Juarez

The orchestra followed Maestro Carreon-Robledo's guidance with intensity and virtuosity.

Otello

So you thought you knew your Shakespeare?
Knew your Verdi?

Possibly so, but here comes Opera in the Heights' Rossinian Otello.
And it is different. Violently different.
Physically violent. Vocally violent.

Powerful music played superbly under Maestro Carreon-Robledo who enthusiastically sang along most of the time (inaudibly sure - over the power of the orchestra - but you could see his lips move, and his arms, too, of course ;-)!.

And then there were the principal singers.
Each and every one managing the incredible and rather demanding sounds that Rossini composed.

Soprano Jessica E. Jones (familiar to us from Moores School of Music's Il Postino, and earlier, Elmer Gantry) a very persuasive Desdemona singing with feeling and beauty.

Below Caballe with the Willow song

Mezzo Ann Sauder was her servant Emilia, with a burnished rich and yet clear sound.

BUT the tenors surely had "Vorrang" in this Bel Canto Opera.

Eric Barry as Otello was very credible and seemed at ease with the 2 1/2 octaves the role requires.

While Luke Grooms as Rodrigo (a much enlarged role here), also a Tenor, managed the fiendishly high tessitura without too much trouble. And sounded stunning, once one adjusted to this high sound.

The third Tenor (no not Carreras) was Brent Reilly Turner as Iago.
Which one, too, had to get used to, since Verdi's Iago is a baritone!

And the fourth tenor, the small role of the Doge, was adequately presented by Felipe Gonzalez.

The deepest role, written for a bass, was Desdemona's father Elmiro, sung with stentorian authority by Joseph Rawley, a bass-baritone.

Sure there were other deep voices in the chorus: to count 4 basses, 1 baritone, 3 Mezzo sopranos, but also 4 tenors, 5 sopranos, including the versatile Traci Davis, a long time chorus member.

Anyway, IMO, the update to more modern times felt right as Erica Miller, who previously sang the soprano role of Marie (La Fille Du Regiment), and thus quite at home with high C's by tenors, at OH! spread her wings as Director here. After all we daily read about the abuse of women by husbands and fathers, men stabbing men, men killing women, and so on! We do live in a ever more violent world! So an Otello by Rossini directed in this way by Erica Miller felt almost - almost - normal!

There was a moment which tickled my funny bone:
THE (verbal ;-) fight on stage between Rodrigo and Otello - both enamored of Desdemona!
The image created in my mind resembled nothing less than a crowing and clawing cockfight, or harts matching rack against rack like proverbial stags in heat -
ahem-  just kidding of course, but...

Anyway, here is Juan Diego Florez as Rodrigo..

and if you don't agree that this is treacherous high note singing.... you may need to have a hearing test!

Giorgione The Tempest.

And before all that we heard David Brauer, one of our favorite lecturer at MFAH who spoke on what I call  'painted storytelling ;-)' with his usual wit and humorous interpretations of old masters' paintings, and made us laugh out loud often! 
And he will have a second lecture in that vein Oct 26/27!