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!
So, I was NOT there in Avery Fisher Hall that November 17, last year, to have enjoyed first hand the dazzling array of world class opera singers with their beautiful voices. Yes, indeed...over the decades I rarely missed any telecasts of this event.
Of course, I am a bit biased towards all former Houston Grand Opera Studio alumni (Greer Grimsley, Eric Owens, Joyce DiDonato), but having heard and admired ON STAGE at HGO several others (Fleming, Graham, Perez) as well, it sure felt like a glorious reunion for which I have waited so long (all of 3 months) to see telecast.
To select which singer made the deepest impression is darn hard. Yes, really!
BUT to me Joyce DiDonato, the current (2013) Award winner Isabel Leonard, both mezzi, but with a difference; and powerhouse soprano Angela Meade simply bowled me over! Could not help but yell BRAVA after each of their performances.
DiDonato with Tanti affetti, followed by Angela Meade with Tu al cui sguardo onnipossente and a sample by Isabel Leonard-enjoy them all:
Rereading the review, it seems to me that the telecast was a shortened by a few songs or was it? Because, cher readers I WAS there at 9 PM sharp, almost salivating in advance of the smorgasbrod of talent and sounds.
HGO presents a remake of Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss, Jr. - seen on Sunday- with English libretto. This frivolous, frothy, oh, so Viennese Operetta emigrated (my guess is by force, by Mme director!) to New York.
Before I delve into the details and the singing, I must owe up being vastly biased.
Viennese born, bred, and fed Opera and Operettas from early on, well, perhaps not with mother's milk, but soon, I love my waltzes. And the societal and political parodies which find such fine and amusing outlets in den Operetten. Heard first via Radio...much later TV.
Even in post WWII Vienna, those frothy lilting sounds were everywhere. Street corners abounded with musicians; playing hurdy-gurdies, violins, flutes; and even vocalists. Yes, they did it to beg for alms, but for a child walking those streets it was musical heaven - my ears then were much less discriminating ;-)! And from the tales of the years before my birth told me by my elders, music never left Vienna, bombs falling or not! Our wooden furniture bore scars by glass from splintered windows after bomb blasts. For years after, that side of the piece felt like a gigantic emery board.
So having said this, let me proceed to enumerate the pros and cons.
Pros:
1. I liked the idea using silent movie lead ins and endings (which by the way some of the audience missed, they were in such a rush to get up and get going). I thoroughly enjoyed the updated parodies presented by actor (?) Jason Graae, remembered dimly {due to advanced age ;-) no doubt} as a funny Njegus in The Merry Widow (also in English). I am afraid some of the audience will have missed the hint to Peter Grimes (in a previous HGO production Peter Grimes was sung by Anthony Dean Griffey - now in this luxury cast singing Alfredo).
2. The IMO outstanding performances of the day were Wendy Bryn Harmer as Rosalinde - sung with a beauty that, almost in a Viennese way, charmed;
and the athletic, debonair Liam Bonner as Eisenstein whose ringing baritone seemed created for just this role.
Photo courtesy HGO
3. Michael Sumuel
was an credibly bumbling Frank with his warm baritonal sound.
4. Samuel
Schultz a supercilious Dr. Falke with a crystal clear baritone.
5. The English singing chorus did quite well, but the absence of those Viennese accents, was felt. Alas.
Cons:
On the other hand Laura Claycomb as Adele, was rather perfect in appearance;
Susan Graham as Prince Orlovski ( was SIR Elton John the inspiration for her make up and manerisms?),
and Anthony Dean Griffey as Alfredo (why make him behave in such slapstick manner?)
was a luxury cast, that did not quite live up to the promises.
The other cameo roles of Ida & Blind weer sung bu current HGO Studio members Uliana Alexyuk and Reginald Smith, Jr.
Staging and sets were ...welll... quite New York.
Dresses were amusing and - in the ball scene, finally provided a bit of that froth for which Viennese operettas are known worldwide.
I did feel that Austrian born Conductor Thomas Roesner, while trying his utmost best to infuse that lilting sound into the production, was, perhaps, hampered by the forced emigration of this quintessential Viennese piece to New York. Add the addition of Astaire/ Rogers dance show (BTW well dances by Broomhead/Richmond), plus the occasional 'modern' music bits and pieces (Release me, let me go, for example), the zing and froth that so defines this Operetta became lost. Die Fledermaus has become The Bat, an American Musical...sigh!
Even if as well done, as we expect from any HGO production!!
OK, so maybe I am a bit too critical.
But - to me, and some other Austrian-born people in attendance (we did commiserate together during the 2. intermission) the production left us wanting for some Sekt to help overcome our loss; and bolster the felt nostalgia forthat Wien I/we all knew with its array of dialects, accents and food which grew out of its multi-nationality over centuries!
And THAT simply does NOT translate into English. Especially when done so by Australians: Director Hume and Designer Roberts.. yes, from that country so often confused with Austria.
No, there are NO kangaroos in Austria - Oesterreich! Ooops, sorry just had to put that in!
Mea culpa! So there!
Just as some great Austrian Wines suffer by transportation to these shores!
And the delectable Viennese desserts, so full of calories but thus so full of unbeatable flavor, suffer when prepared according to the latest 'health" guidelines :-) or rather ;-(.
I am left with homesickness for my Wien, Wien Nur Du Allein, Sollst Stets Die Stadt Meiner Traeume Sein!
was much better than expected.
I really went for one, well maybe three, reasons.
One: Susan Graham. I just enjoy her voice. Her composer was all I expected.
I have heard/seen her so many times I lost count, but every time I feel soothed, and filled with warmth by that unexplainable quality she has - it is subjective of course!
Two: wondering how Dolgov (seen in Tosca and liked) and Goerke (seen as Ortrud for which did not care much, then) would sound. I honestly admit, I was blown away by Christine Goerke's Ariadne.
Even though her strong big steely voice is still not my cup of tea, her presentation was superb!
Alexey Dolgov was a more than adequate Bacchus. But at times seemed to strain to keep his own in duets with Gorke's overpowering Ariadne.
Three: Laura Claycomb: a saucy Zerbinetta with incredible vocal and physical agility, high notes, and enormous breathcontrol. I have seen her sing Handel (and like her rather much in either opera), as Verdi's Gilda (sososo-I know that it not what most thought) as Donizetti's Lucia (she did wow me with that).
The smaller roles were filled with youthful enthusiasm and pleasant voices by current (Wheeler, Deonarine, Martin, Dyakov, Peake, Touhy) and ex-Studio (Kolbet) members, and other comprimario singers.
The last two times I saw Ariadne, I was underwhelmed and - I admit it - bored by less than inspired conducting, less then adequate singing (truly I don' t even remember who sang - either time),
and a blah staging and sets. Static sets, boring staging! No sign of the theater within the theater concept..
Neither flashy nortrashy staging! What more need I say.
So, maybe this production had its flaws, very minor ones but overall I like the (is camp the right word?) staging, sets and costumes. They seem traditional, but then this is one opera where traditional (though camp) works for me - LOL!.
I am rather tired of some over the top 'modern' productions in which the directors' will takes precedence over the composers' musical ideas and moods!
So, call me an old foggy!
I don't care.
I liked this production, especially the end..why chandeliers? Why not-it seems a fitting starry end ;-0!
I liked the theater within an old private housetheater concept.
I liked the onstage set changes and machinery as may have been used way back then!
Liked the 'campy' Echo in thecloud...sung by Brittany Wheeler.
Liked the way Summers coaxed dulcet but also powerful tones from the orchestra.
It's probably only due to having been brought up with the sound of the Vienna Philharmoniker playing Strauss, that the strings seem to miss something, that something that the Vienna Philharmoniker seem to do so well! Did my ears deceive me, or did I hear a note or two from Brahms Lullaby? Well, never mind. Strauss took it and composed his variations and they did sound lovely, as did the frquent small waltz like movements.
And then Hugo von Hoffmansthal brought some of that kind of Galgenhumor the Viennese excel in, to the libretto and contents. In the 'funny' parts AND the solemn ones.
After all, Ariadne sees Bacchus (god of Wines!!) as the angel of oblivion, to help her drown her sorrows!
If that is not a bit of irony/sarcasm, I don't know what is! Don't you?
And not only that, but having the Master of the House via his flunky, the Mayor Domo (a speaking role -Jon Kolbet) demand that an opera seria be merged with a harlequinade! BECAUSE he paid money for it - and money talks (and pays for singers and dancers and entertainers, eh?) is sooo ironic!
A spoof on opera seria, diva and divoallures,
composer's self importance,
the 'heart of gold' of a 'less virtuous than she should be' Zerbinetta!
And so on! So it was then and so it still is, don't you think?
Ah, well.. am I reading too much into it? Perhaps.
If you want to know what goes on in this opera, I'll let you google for it ;-)!
Goerke and Dolgov
Kolbet, Graham, Rosel(dancemaster)
Zerbinetta Troupers: Gleadow, Dyakov, Touhy, Peake and Claycomb
Overall it was a surprise and a very pleasant one! At least I think so!
But honestly, no more Ariadne auf Naxos for a while! The 'third's the charm' as they say,
and that's it for me!
AND ANOTHER REAL PLEASANT SURPRISE: In the 2. battle between Airforce and Navy (lol), the Aeros shut out Admirals 2-0 in Round Two Game 2 in Milwaukee with goals by Peters, Wellman, Earl and Gillies, Ortmeyer and Scandella. Hackett getting his FIRST ever play off shut out! GO AEROS.
Three more games for sure right here in Houston TUESDAY, THURSDAY AND FRIDAY!
to describe adequately XERXES by G. F. Handel as performed by HGO?
Exquisitely delightful, beautifully dainty...everything BUT the voices! There was nothing dainty about those, even the countertenor's.
The 4 'ladies of the night' sung superbly.
Susan Graham (a clear, wide ranged mezzo) easily believable in the trouserrole of Xerxes without a beard (lol), is placed opposite David Daniels (countertenor, with a beard) as Arsamenes, her brother, both with flowing locks, both enamored of Romilda, sung delightfully by Soprano Laura Claycomb who really does love Arsamenes. As her sister, Atalanta, also in love with Arsamenes, Opera Studio alumna Heidi Stober, delivered stunningly the woes of a girl shunned in love and so driven to scheming and plotting, only to end up with nothing.
Now, if that isn't confusing enough, there is also the foreign (naturally) Princess Amastris betrothed to Xerxes, who, travelling alone, dons the costume of a soldier. She is in love with Xerxes and deeply hurt to overhear him moaning about his love for Romilda. Amastris was sung gravelly voiced (was she a contralto or an alto or a deep mezzo - I could not tell) by HGO 'debuting' Sonia Prina.
you decide:
As Ariodates, general and father of Romilda and Atalanta, Philip Cutlip; and in the comic-relief role of Elviro, servant to Arsamenes, Adam Ciofari (HGO studio) were notable by rich bariton/bass sounds.
The set and scenery for this - admittedly - static opera was designed in cheerful bright colors, charmingly and well lit to deepen the moods, and enhance events (thunderstorms and deluge). It was a real treat for sore (speak older) eyes, to actually discern what was ON stage and around it! And no one died! And the lovers were happily united! An upbeat opera, eh!
The chorus, well rehearsed by chorus master Richard Bado, took on a role akin to a Greek chorus, but was mostly used - impressively , I think - as part of the stage set. They were dressed alike in grey, with grey wigs/caps, and faces. Like a sea of nondescript statues - an 'eminence gris' of the action - if you will. Plus a slew of 'servants' in frock coated livery moving about the wide open spaces dotted with sparse but well placed props.
The star singers (a truly well deserved term for this stupendous cast) were the only ones dressed brightly. Not, as one might have expected in Persian costumes, but in costumes akin to what may have been worn by men in Handel's times, the women's were harder to classify...maybe late 1800's?
This is an opera which showcases VOICES, which set off fireworks of sound and shadings in their da-capo arias. Each and every singer has multiple opportunities to shine brilliantly.
And they all did, to the utter delight of the audience, which sat spellbound through of 3 plus hours, only to remain clapping, seemingly, forever until, finally, the curtain was lowered allowing the cast to escape to their dressing rooms, unless the Maestro, Baroque specialist, William Lacey, needed them to run through some bits and pieces. Lacey conducted the orchestra, including several period musical instruments, such as 2 harpsichords and a theorbo, a lute like stringed instrument with long neck and more strings than normally seen on modern lutes or mandolins.
Now I don't have a recording of THIS production with THIS cast, alas...but here is a clip from the ENO production - the sets and scenery have traveled here, the singers are QUITE different
