Castleton Festival Comes to a Close

The Festival Tent was filled to the brim for the closing concert of the inaugural Castleton Festival, by the Castleton Festival Orchestra. The air-conditioned space, a new addition for this summer’s Festival, could pass for a barn given its location in the middle of a picturesque field and its resident tenor frog, who joined in for the second half of the performance. Musicians from the Royal College of Music, the Qatar Philharmonic, and Charlottesville High School took up the majority of the Tent’s floor space, making for an up-close-and-personal musical experience in works of Bartók, Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Britten, and Verdi.

Festival Artistic Director Lorin Maazel began at the podium for Bartók’s Giuoco delle coppie movement from the Concerto for Orchestra, with a patient demeanor teaching and guiding the orchestra with a light touch. Along with the audience, Maazel assumed good intentions from all participants, who played their hearts out in a work offering a virtuosic moment for everyone. An example of this supportive atmosphere occurred when the flute duo was more than a bit behind Maazel: instead of a sneer, roll of the eyes, or scrunch of the nose, one sensed acceptance and encouragement from Maazel and fellow musicians. Kudos to Maazel for creating an un-stuffy, positive teaching environment for all.

Cellist Han-Na Chang’s performance of Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations was particularly intense, given the immense resonance of her instrument. Chang at times appeared detached from her instrument, often spending more energy listening than playing, the outcome of which was exceptionally sincere. Maazel enjoyably offered a great flexibility in tempo. At one point, Chang overshot a high note by one tone and subtly turned it into an appoggiatura, while making a forgiving look, a handful of the cellists in the orchestra smiled in complete sympathy.

Fifteen-year-old Korean pianist Seongjin Cho joined Associate Conductor Andreas Weiser in Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A Minor. Cho’s approach was to play simply, beautifully, and perfectly, though often lacking invention and at times power. Weiser’s tense conducting featured gestures equally large for both loud and soft material, and overall he did not offer the orchestra much with which to connect; however, Weiser poetically set up the orchestra’s mysterious emergence from Cho’s second movement cadenza.

Other Reviews: Joan Reinthaler, Orchestra Concert Sets Castleton's Double Bar (Washington Post, July 21)

Associate Conductor Timothy Myers, who had deftly conducted the afternoon performance of Albert Herring, took the podium to lead Britten’s A Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, which opens with Agincourt’s Hymn and then soon falls apart into a virtuosic wonder, frog included. The winds and brass had much flair while the orchestra responded rapturously to Myers’s quiet, poised conducting. Most of the Herring cast was standing to the sides of the tent -- not enough chairs -- hooting and hollering in support of Myers when he entered the stage. By the work’s end, they again were again euphoric in praise of Myers, which again was an example of the camaraderie and positive relationships built through the Festival. Maazel closed the concert with Verdi’s Overture to La forza del destino, complete with The Godfather soundtrack phrasings, pungent brass, powerful percussion, and, of course, the frog pervading the dramatic silences between the opening brass chords.

Summer Opera: Castleton Festival 4

(L to R) Jennifer Check (Lady Billows), Benjamin Bloomfield (Superintendent Budd), Ashleigh Semkiw (Miss Wordsworth), Tyler S. Nelson (Mr. Upfold), Alexander Tall (Mr. Gedge) in Albert Herring, Castleton Festival, 2009 (photo by Leslie Maazel)

The first year of Lorin Maazel's Castleton Festival came to a close this weekend, meaning one last road trip to Rappahannock County for me to see the final production: Michael Lodico will have some thoughts about the festival's closing day tomorrow. Of the four Britten chamber operas on the schedule, Albert Herring, composed in 1947, is my least favorite. At its best, it is a very funny opera, making it a favorite for collegiate opera companies, with a charming, if somewhat overlong libretto by Eric Crozier, adapted from Guy de Maupassant's short story Le rosier de Madame Husson (translated into English as Madame Husson's Rosebush). In a way, Albert Herring is the obverse of the Peter Grimes coin, a little like a slapstick parody of that much greater work, with the social outcast transformed from sociopath to awkward mama’s boy (in fact, Claire Seymour noted numerous self-borrowings Britten made from Grimes in Albert Herring). Although Crozier's first impulse was the thought of writing a comic opera after seeing performances of Così fan tutte and The Bartered Bride, is Albert Herring really a "parable of liberation," as Philip Brett once described it?

One suspects that the attraction Britten, Pears, and Crozier felt to Albert was, on some level, returning to the idea of a man who knew he did not fit in. Is the reason that Albert has remained so virtuous and pure that he simply does not like girls, as suggested in a homosexual reading mined from the opera by Michael Wilcox? If that was in the back of their minds, the creators did not go in that direction as the work took shape, and a certain distance between Britten and Albert always strikes my ears. Albert Herring Anglicizes the Maupassant tale, making the prudish busybody Madame Husson into the imperious Lady Billows, transferring the day of the festivities from August 15, the Feast of the Assumption, to May Day, and moving the story from the provincial closed-mindedness of Gisors to a hypocritical Suffolk village (given the imaginary name Loxford, likely based on Yoxford, a town not far from Aldeburgh). It also removes some of the French original's caustic bite -- Maupassant's Isidore, after losing all of his prize money on an all-night bender after the festivities, becomes the town drunkard and later dies in an attack of the DT's, leading the locals to name all of the local drunks le rosier de Mme Husson -- and that sanitizing seems a little dishonest in Britten.

Adrian Kramer (Sid), Tammy Coil (Nancy), Benjamin Bloomfield (Superintendent Budd), Jennifer Check (Lady Billows), Alexander Tall (Mr. Gedge), Rachel Calloway (Mrs. Herring), Tyler S. Nelson (Mr. Upfold), Kristin Patterson (Florence Pike), Ashleigh Semkiw (Miss Wordsworth), Brian Porter (Albert Herring) in Albert Herring, Castleton Festival, 2009 (photo by Melody Mudd)

Rising soprano Jennifer Check, who may not have impressed in recital a few years ago, has had considerable success at the Met and other opera houses. On Friday night, she reigned over the cast as a most potently voiced and absurdly draconian Lady Billows, slicing effortlessly through the many, generally noisy ensembles and reacting with good comic timing to the direction of William Kerley. The other women, somewhat overshadowed, included a slightly strained but husky Kristin Patterson as Lady Billows's assistant, Florence Pike, the flutey soprano of Ashleigh Semkiw as Miss Wordsworth, and the edgy bite of Tammy Coil's Nancy. Among the men, the gullible, sweet-voiced Albert of Brian Porter was upstaged by the more stentorian voices of Adrian Kramer's Sid, a little roughshod, and the more subtle Mr. Gedge of Alexander Tall. Much like Così fan tutte this is an ensemble opera, and the cast was a cohesive and well-balanced group, giving clear renditions of the vocal fugues of the opening scene, for example.

None of the possible dark subtext of Albert Herring figures in the Castleton production. Not that it should, since on the surface, the opera is a simple comedy of manners, although the ambiguity of the conclusion strikes the ears as at least inconclusive. Maazel has made a point of railing in print, on many occasions, against the excesses of directors who apply the rules of Regietheater to opera. In his new Resident Stage Director for the Castleton Festival, William Kerley, Maazel has found a traditional director after his own heart. Like his other three festival productions, Kerley's vision of Albert Herring is mostly traditional, down to the meticulously coached English accents (only in The Rape of Lucretia, not actually set in Great Britain, were American accents allowed). The set, designed once again by Nicholas Vaughan, features a grass-green sloping staircase at the back, with miniature building shapes that evoke the cozy village. Little details bring out comic moments, like the hell-flash lighting that highlights the copy of John Foxe's Book of Martyrs given to Albert at the May King ceremony.

Other Reviews: T. L. Ponick, 'Herring' sparks festival (Washington Times, July 20, 2009) Anne Midgette, Lorin Maazel, Fostering Artistry at Home (Washington Post, October 13, 2008)

Young conductor Timothy Myers, who was also at the podium for Wolf Trap's production of Così earlier this month, stood in for Maazel at all three performances, shaping the score confidently and managing to get everyone back on track after a nervous slip by Florence Pike put her ahead of the pit. The talented musicians from the Royal College of Music seemed mostly to go with Myers, who not only conducted the production but prepared it, having fun with the many comic effects of whistles, clunky string harmonics, timpani glissandi, and giving a pleasant swing to the jazz-influenced courting music of Sid and Nancy. The horn calls that open the second act, played by Samuel Pearce, were especially fine, as were the wild warbling of running notes in the winds and the lengthy interscenic dialogue of bass clarinet and (alto?) flute.

Summer Opera: Castleton Festival 3

Read my review in the print edition of today's Washington Post:

Charles T. Downey, 'Lucretia': Death and Depravity, Well Sung
Washington Post, July 13, 2009

The third opera of the Castleton Festival, Britten's "The Rape of Lucretia," opened Friday night. The appeal of this chamber opera -- precisely calibrated to fit eight voices and 13 instrumentalists -- was heightened by the intimate theater on Lorin Maazel's Rappahannock County estate. Performing so close to the receptive audience, the singers enunciated every word clearly, making the supertitles projected above the stage unnecessary.

Britten's 1946 work -- about an Etruscan prince's violation of a virtuous Roman wife -- was his first in the series of chamber operas at the heart of the festival's first year. Mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford reprised her devastating performance in the title role from two years ago, with an opulent tone and molten lower register that incarnated the character's wounded grief. The music of the women's scenes, airy textures featuring the clear-fingered harp of Jane Yoon, enveloped her in the lambent soprano of Marnie Breckinridge (Lucia) and the anchored chest voice of Alison Tupay (Bianca). [Continue reading]

Britten, The Rape of Lucretia and The Beggar's Opera
Castleton Festival
Châteauville Foundation (Castleton Farms, Va.)

Previously:
Britten, The Turn of the Screw | The Beggar's Opera | The Rape of Lucretia (2007)

July 4th at the Castleton Festival

As part of the opening weekend celebration of the Castleton Festival, Lorin Maazel and Dietlinde Turban-Maazel welcomed the public to their home at Castleton Farms on the Fourth of July for an open house featuring art, opera, and fireworks. Just a week after his retirement as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, having conducted Mahler’s Symphony of a Thousand (live recording to be released soon), Maestro Maazel has upgraded the musical activities on his 550-acre Virginia estate from a twice-yearly residency to a full-fledged three-week summer festival. With 200 young musicians on hand, it is featuring four Britten operas and fifteen conducting masterclasses among other performances. The Festival Tent, an additional performance venue, has been constructed to supplement the 130-seat Theater House built in 1997. A current Festival conducting apprentice summed up the experience in two words: “It’s Maazel.”

The Castleton Festival is gently raising its public profile with last weekend’s glowing story on National Public Radio by Robert Siegel; however, as Executive Director Douglas Beck pointed out to me, the vision behind the festival is more about outreach toward the participants rather than the audience. Beck also mentioned the challenges of bringing together an entire cast for one-off performances at the Kennedy Terrace Theater, where they have a standing invitation, although an audience would be easier to attract in Washington. Perhaps it would be possible to bring 2010 Festival productions the sixty miles to Washington during the Festival when everyone is available. For those able to obtain some of the limited number of tickets to the festival's operas, the experience of Castleton Farms is incredibly rewarding both musically and as an escape into the countryside.

The art exhibit that opened on Saturday afternoon displayed works by Virginia artists, which beyond the expected landscapes included realist photos and descriptions of impoverished rural Virginians of all races. The works lined the walls of the long tunnel connecting the Manor House (where the Maazels live, shown at left) to their pool house. Tours of the Manor House and bowling alley were also available. A picnic lunch was catered by Market Salamander of Middleburg, at a site near the other eccentric residents of Castleton Farms: emus, zonkey, camel, and a lone swan.

The 5 pm performance of Britten’s Turn of the Screw was, according to Beck and conducting apprentice Paul Kim, significantly smoother than the opening night performance the prior evening. At their best, the operatic productions at Castleton Farms match musical excellence with stage direction of the utmost vision. Turn of the Screw, a complex ghost story based on a novella by Henry James, was absolutely haunting. Given that only Britten operas have been offered over the past few years, one wonders how the Festival’s repertoire will evolve -- perhaps a new chamber opera might be commissioned?

The evening was capped with an illustrious fireworks display, followed by dancing with a live band in the Festival Tent. The casual atmosphere and welcoming environment of the Castleton Festival made it the perfect summer day trip for music lovers.

The Castleton Festival continues the next two weeks, with two more opera productions: Britten's Rape of Lucretia (July 10 to 12) and Albert Herring (July 17 to 19), among many other performances and events.

Summer Opera: Castleton Festival 2

Donald Groves (Filch) and Melissa Parks (Mrs. Peachum) in The Beggar's Opera, Châteauville Foundation (photo by Nicholas Vaughan)

The second production of Lorin Maazel's new Castleton Festival, sponsored by the Châteauville Foundation at the Maazels' estate in Rappahannock County, Virginia, is The Beggar's Opera, heard at its opening on Sunday night. The afterlife of John Gay and Christopher Pepusch's history-changing comic opera includes Benjamin Britten's ingenious 1948 adaptation of the work, in which Britten streamlined the work by selecting among the many airs and giving them new harmonizations and orchestrations. We commend Maazel for mounting an all too rare staging of the Britten version, already reviewed by our own Michael Lodico last year. Britten was a great admirer of historical British music, seen in his adaptations of Purcell (A Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra) and Dowland (Lachrymae, among others), and he once called the ballads and other tunes recycled by Gay and Pepusch as "among our finest national songs."

The problem with reconstructing The Beggar's Opera is that the printed sources indicate only the name of the tune to which Gay's new words were sung (see this facsimile of the 1765 edition). Pepusch's overture and short scores of the tunes, just melody and bass line, were written down, but later performances all have to rely on arrangements, like the one by Frederic Austin. Britten not only made the work leaner, by not setting all of the tunes or keeping all of the dialogue, he made the work flow much better, by providing some musical bits under the spoken lines, which helps link together a work that can come off as quite fragmentary. It is not a reconstruction as much as a reimagining of this crucial work in operatic history, an early comic opera that laid the foundation for the English operetta tradition of Gilbert and Sullivan, as well as for the American musical. Within two decades of the work's 1728 premiere, The Beggar's Opera was staged in New York and other American cities: according to Donald Grout and Hermine Weigel Williams (A Short History of Opera, 4th ed., p. 566), a performance of the work in Upper Marlborough, Maryland, was the first American operatic performance that had a full orchestral accompaniment for the singers.

Sarah Moule (Lucy Lockit), Julia Elise Hardin (Polly Peachum), Dominic Armstrong (Macheath) in The Beggar's Opera, Châteauville Foundation (photo by Nicholas Vaughan)

William Kerley's production gallops and romps its way through the first and second acts, on a crudely assembled raked stage in a temporary pavilion erected near a field serving as the festival parking lot. A painted backdrop sets the action in the city of London, with the Cathedral of St. Paul's prominently featured, and the audience and part of the playing area surround the makeshift pit space, just large enough to accommodate the small chamber orchestra called for by Britten. Stock 18th-century costumes (sets and costumes designed by Nicholas Vaughan) mostly kept the action in the original period, with clownish white face make-up on all the actors encouraging our perception of the characters as buffoonish types rather than individuals. With superb comic timing, the singers captured the rakish, literary tone of the text: Gay was, after all, a member of the Scriblerus Club, and the idea for The Beggar's Opera reportedly came from a remark Jonathan Swift made to Alexander Pope.

Tenor Dominic Armstrong was a charming Macheath, with a sweet upper register if not necessarily the profile of a dashing criminal. Michael Rice's Mr. Peachum was garrulous and single-minded in his greed, while the Mrs. Peachum of mezzo-soprano Melissa Parks was a full-bodied presence vocally and physically. Julia Elise Hardin gave Polly a soubrette lightness, while Sarah Moule's Lucy Lockit was noteworthy more for the acting than the singing, which was a little strained, especially in the upper register. Darren Perry and Donald Groves gave fine supporting performances as Lockit and Filch, respectively. A chorus of fourteen singers had an almost too powerful sound for the size of the venue, adding ridiculous extras in the background. The young musicians of the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra, whose Kennedy Center concert with Lorin Maazel we sadly had to miss earlier this spring, played with poise and accuracy. The flutter-tongued flute accompanying Polly's turtle dove song and piccolo (Nicole Pressler) and melancholy English horn in the prison scenes (Svetlin Doytchinov) were particularly fine.

Other Reviews: T. L. Ponick, Pitch-perfect 'Beggar's' (Washington Times, July 7)

After such a promising beginning, Kerley came down like a ton of bricks on the Newgate Prison scenes, putting Macheath and his conspirators in orange jumpsuits and, under harsh fluorescent lighting (credited to Rie Ono), underscoring the horror of imprisonment and hanging. We are not intended to take seriously the characters' defense of their larcenous way of life, their mercenary approach to love and marriage, their vicious sexism -- the libretto must hold the record for the sheer number of times words like slut, hussy, and wench are pronounced. Are we not also to laugh at, and thereby understand the seriousness of (the purpose of ironic parody, after all), the thought of Macheath being hanged? The sermonizing tone adopted by Kerley sucked all of the oxygen out of the production, bringing the forward movement to a halt in the final scenes.

This production will be repeated this Sunday (July 12, 7 pm) and twice the following week (July 16, 7:30 pm; July 18, 2 pm). Assistant conductor Jordi Bernàcer will take the podium for the performances on July 12 and 18.

Summer Opera: Castleton Festival 1

(L to R) Harry Risoleo (Miles), Rachel Calloway (Mrs. Grose), Charlotte Dobbs (the Governess), and Kirby Anne Hall (Flora) in The Turn of the Screw, Châteauville Foundation (photo by Nicholas Vaughan)

The area's newest summer opera festival, the Castleton Festival, opened on Friday night at Lorin Maazel's estate in Rappahannock County, Virginia. This festival's model, if indeed it has one, is likely Glyndebourne: an improbable location far into the countryside where city-dwelling opera lovers would come on pilgrimage to get away from it all. As the roads became narrower and narrower on the drive to Castleton Farms, the location of Maazel's Châteauville Foundation, the clean air and rural smells flowed through the car window. As I waited for the curtain of the festival's first production, Britten's Turn of the Screw (libretto by Myfanwy Piper, based on the novella by Henry James), the sound of cows lowing and frogs croaking wafted over the pond behind Festival House. Surrounded by a menagerie of animals -- a camel (named Omar and fond of matzo), a zebra, and the fabled zonkey (the zebra's offspring with a donkey) -- Maazel reigns here like Prospero on his island, directing young performers he invites to mount productions of chamber operas.

Maazel has been hosting concerts in his home for over a decade, but he first came onto the Ionarts radar when a chamber opera production sponsored by the Châteauville Foundation suddenly appeared on the schedule of the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater back in 2005. Not quite sure what to expect, both Jens and yours truly showed up and were very impressed by that bone-chilling performance of The Turn of the Screw. Maazel decided not to revive that sinister staging, by director Barbara Eckle and choreographer Abigail Levine, instead entrusting a new staging to William Kerley, recently appointed as the festival's Resident Stage Director. It took advantage of the unusual shapes and details of the smaller Festival House stage, with Miss Jessel and Peter Quint serenading the children from the rail of the balcony. The single set backdrop (sets and costumes by Nicholas Vaughan) established the predominant tone of black color, with a large window and columns that moved back and forth, adding to the possessed, claustrophobic feel of this incarnation of Bly Manor. A black arch framed the proscenium, echoed by a narrow walkway that extended the stage space around the pit, which also served as Bly Park's lake.

Charlotte Dobbs (the Governess) in The Turn of the Screw, Châteauville Foundation (photo by Nicholas Vaughan)

At the top of the young cast was the Flora of Kirby Anne Hall, singing with a convincing child-like tone (which did much to strengthen the sound of her Miles when they sang together) and acting with commitment and an intensely sinister face. She was matched well by the ghoulish Miss Jessel of Greta Ball, who with her sharp and present voice was much more insidious in this production than Quint, rising up like a viperous specter from a patch of reeds (the only time the hair on my arms stood on end) and again, her hair dripping, from the lake-pit in Act II. The Quint of Steven Ebel was rounded and suave more than particularly evil, although one might suspect that, given Britten's attachment to teenage boys, the role might have some ambiguities. The Miles of St. Alban's student Harry Risoleo, while admirably composed and glowingly sung (the Malo aria was boyishly sweet), seemed curiously detached, deflating some of the opera's most anxious moments.

Other Reviews: Anne Midgette, Coming Up Big in a Tiny Space (Washington Post, July 6) Tim Smith, Castleton Festival on Lorin Maazel's Virginia estate opens with compelling 'Turn of the Screw' (Clef Notes, July 6) Philip Kennicott, The Debut of the Castelton Festival (Philip Kennicott, July 6)

The dryness of the theater, perhaps affected unfavorably by the addition of the proscenium and walkway, seemed to expose the voice of Charlotte Dobbs as the Governess, although that timorous quality also suited the character's neurotic hysteria, which she captured beautifully. Dobbs's knowledge of the role did not seem all that secure either, with at least one false entrance and numerous others prevented only by the firm gesture of Maazel's cue hand. She had a strong counterweight in the vocally stout Mrs. Grose of Rachel Calloway. Thirteen young musicians from the Royal College of Music in London gave a mostly smooth reading of this complex score, an extended set of variations growing from the theme presented in the prologue. For the first time in the history of Festival House, a real (spinet) piano was somehow hoisted down into the pit (the harp, timpani, and tubular bells must have been hard enough). All in all, it was not the stunning experience of that first Turn of the Screw in 2005, but it was a fine opening to three weeks of Britten's chamber operas.

This opera will be repeated this evening (July 4, 5 pm) and tomorrow afternoon (July 5, 2 pm). Today's performance is the crowning moment of an Independence Day Open House at the Castleton Festival, with chamber music performances, food and activities, and post-opera fireworks and dancing.

Beggar’s Opera at Châteauville Foundation

Lorin Maazel, conductor

Saturday evening, Lorin Maazel led an “in-house” production of Britten’s The Beggar’s Opera, adapted from the original airs of John Gay’s ballad opera from 1728, as a culmination of the 2008 Castleton Residency for Young Artists. Sponsored by the Châteauville Foundation and staged in the Maazels’ Castleton Farms Theater House at the foot of the Shenandoah mountains, the Castleton Residency has built upon the gripping success of their 2007 production of Britten’s Rape of Lucretia and Turn of the Screw in 2006. The 2008 Residency has provided an opportunity for up to 50 young artists “to live and work together intensively.” The outcome of this intensity is apparent in the fully staged production’s quality and level of detail.

Rarely performed in the United States, Britten’s 1948 adaptation of The Beggar’s Opera does not idealize John Gay’s adaptations of popular songs in a vividly colorful, Poulenc-like way. Britten’s earthy neo-classical approach sets the songs with rather thick orchestrations that remove much of the rhythmic character of the period, thus creating his own flavor. Britten’s thematic, sometimes melodic use of the timpani is clever.

Indeed, whenever the audience was likely saturated with the expert acting by the singers, a wonderful series of songs would unfold. The quick wit of the thieves Mr. and Mrs. Peachum (Michael Capra Rice and Melissa Parks) and their loyal gang of corrupt parties – the police, jailer, prostitutes, and street criminals – could only be accommodated in fleeting, brawny, accented dialogue. Information about the secret marriage of the Peachums’ daughter, Polly, to the charming philanderer Captain MacHeath (Dominic Armstrong) was met with Polly being addressed as “hussy,” “wench,” or “slut” by her parents throughout the entire work. “I love the sex,” said MacHeath, speaking of women. The expressive tenor then sang a sappy song at the side of a female audience member of “roses and lilies her cheeks disclose,” which kept on going to the point that Maazel began to roll his eyes. MacHeath then remarked, “I must have women.” Maazel quipped from the podium, “I know the feeling.”

The most expressive singing came from the wives of Captain MacHeath – Polly Peachum (Julia Elise Hardin) and Lucy Lockit (Sarah Moule). Both sopranos had voices that complemented the other, as the impassioned and bitterly jealous women sang for MacHeath’s favor. With voices always in motion, their fast, narrow vibratos allowed for a piercing clarity fitting for this music with equally clear text. Peachum and Lockit (Darren Perry), with their booming bass and baritone voices, demand a hanging.

Stage Director William Kerley utilized the entire theater by having entrances from ladders leading from the back balconies, passageways from below the stage, and multiple side entrances. Additionally, a platform was built around the pit so that singers could pass behind the podium. The set (basic furniture and a mural of St. Paul’s Cathedral) and period costumes (Nicholas Vaughan) were fitting. The Keio University 150 Student Orchestra of young, non-music major Japanese musicians made a fine effort.

Polly and Jenny (Laura Quest) were at times behind Maazel’s beat, leading him to frantically gesture for their attention. The dynamic mezzo Melissa Parks astounded with the bitterly expressive range of her voice, which might one day be appropriate to the role of Herodias in Salome. As Charles has mentioned, we hope that the Châteauville Foundation's Castleton Residency for Young Artists will one day be expanded to include performances in Washington, D.C.

The next concert hosted by the Maazels at Castleton Farms will feature the Attacca Quartet (April 6, 4 pm). All performances are by invitation only, so put yourself on the Châteauville Foundation's mailing list.

Encounter with Stradivari: Châteauville Foundation’s 10th Anniversary

Tokyo String Quartet, photo by Peter Checchia

Lorin and Dietlinde Maazel hosted the 10th anniversary celebration of the Theater House on the property of their Virginia farm, the base of the Châteauville Foundation’s activities. Sunday afternoon’s events were a fundraiser for the Castleton Residencies, a superb program bringing young artists to live and work intensively with mentors to produce chamber opera. From the collection owned by the Nippon Music Foundation – Maazel is chair of the instrument loan committee – a dozen Stradivarius instruments and recipients were on location.

The high points of the concert were the lush reading of Webern’s Langsamer Satz by the Tokyo String Quartet and a meticulous reading of Mendelssohn’s Octet led by Tokyo Quartet and friends. Showcasing the “Paganini Quartet” of instruments, the nickname of the four Stradivarius instruments once owned by Paganini, Langsamer Satz featured indulgent Romanticism at its best. With an impressive softness, the quartet targeted and exploited dissonance to their advantage. The second muted section features a sweet viola line accompanied by pizzicato. Paganini was supposedly so impressed with this particular viola that he commissioned Berlioz to write Harold in Italy for it. Additionally, since only about a dozen were made, hearing a Stradivarius viola is a much rarer pleasure than one of his 600 to 700 violins. However, the gentle, descending-triplet motif was never quite natural enough, and the quartet’s super-wide approach to vibrato was indeed excessive as it often prevented harmonies from fully locking, which brings us to the gut string vs. steel string issue: Do players of steel-stringed instruments overly use vibrato to compensate for the supposed lack of overtones compared to gut strings? Should these historic instruments even have steel strings on them?

The Mendelssohn Octet’s opening themes subtly surged through the full texture since players with less important lines politely moved aside for more important ones. First violinist Martin Beaver did an excellent job leading the ensemble in terms of flexible tempi, perfectly coordinated dynamics, and phrasing. Full of details, the rising 5-6 motion in the Andante movement was very poetic, while the Scherzo and Presto were clear and never pushed beyond control in terms of tempi and volume. The musicians, as with the audience, appeared to enjoy the long pedal point in the final movement. What a great work to in which to showcase strings.

Other Reviews: Daniel Ginsberg, Chateauville Foundation Benefit (Washington Post, October 9)

The beginning of the program contained two Duos for Violin and Viola of Mozart that were very Romanticized in interpretation and often lacked coordination and perhaps rehearsal time. Violinist Viviane Hagner’s “Sasserno” instrument had richness and depth through its high upper range. Unfortunately, Hagner often did not give any silence between variations in the Duo No. 2 in B-flat and often lacked rhythmic definition.

Sarasate’s Navarra for two Violins did not come off very well. Placing two talented soloists (Sayaka Shoki on the “Joachim” instrument and Arabella Steinbacher on the “Booth”) side by side and expecting them play together quickly in unison turned out to be rather optimistic. The high glissandi and virtuosic passages were all experienced with an echo effect, except for the flashy ending, which was obviously well-rehearsed. One was appreciative that the program ended strongly with the Webern and Mendelssohn.

The next concert at the Châteauville Foundation's exclusive venue in Castleton Farms, Va., is the recital by baritone Nathan Gunn, rescheduled after a cancellation for a week from Sunday (October 21, 4 pm). The program is one-half Mozart and Schubert and one-half American songs by Moore, Ives, and others.

Châteauville Foundation, Rape of Lucretia

The critical failure of Lorin Maazel's partially self-financed opera, 1984, was quite a fiasco. Another project funded by Maazel and his wife, the Châteauville Foundation, is poised to become an inspirational success. The Maazels have given over their own property -- Castleton Farms in Rappahannock County, Virginia, about 90 minutes by car from Washington, D.C. -- to build a 150-seat theater/recital hall. There is also enough guest housing space to invite 50-some young musicians once a year to collaborate on a chamber opera under Maazel's experienced baton. Last year's production of The Turn of the Screw, presented for a single performance at the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater, was the best opera of the Washington season. That was the first experiment with what the foundation is now calling its Castleton Residency for Young Artists.

The goal is to foster the careers of young instrumentalists and singers, as well as to offer educational programs that bring music into the lives of young children. The Castleton Farms campus is set in the bucolic hills near Shenandoah National Park, and the Maazels have created a fairy tale atmosphere by bringing a host of unusual animals to live there, emus, llamas, and a zebra -- a sort of Prospero Maazel's Island. Indeed, Ionarts discovered on Saturday evening that, as you drive on smaller and smaller roads to get to Castleton Farms, you know you are there when you see the zonkey, the zebra's offspring with a donkey. A camel named Omar, pictured here, makes scary noises but is a soft touch if you come bearing matzo.

The foundation's latest production, Britten's The Rape of Lucretia, which I have reviewed recently in a DVD performance by English National Opera, sets the famous story from the prehistory of Rome. Livy told the story in the first book of Ab urbe condita, and it was adapted by Britten's librettist Ronald Duncan from a modern French play, André Obey's Le Viol de Lucrèce (adapted separately in English by Thornton Wilder), itself based on Shakespeare's adaptation, The Rape of Lucrece. The news of the virtuous Roman wife's rape by her Etruscan overlord inflamed the rebellious spirit of the Romans, according to Livy, and led to the overthrow of the Etruscans. In the opera that story is told by a male and female narrator, who relate its tragedy to the redemption offered by Jesus Christ.

Last year, for Turn of the Screw, members of the New York Philharmonic recommended worthy students from Juilliard to Maazel. This year the program draws upon members of the Youth Orchestra of the Americas for its orchestral musicians. They are all talented young players, who can now list an opera under Lorin Maazel on their resumes. The plaintive and low sounds of the alto flute (Bianca Garcia) and English horn (Elizabeth Koch) were especially moving on Saturday night, as were the all-important colors of the much-used harp (Earecka Tregenza). The only minor disappointment was the sound of an electronic keyboard, played well by Justina Lee, but with an unfortunately canned sound. The pit in the warm, blond wood-paneled theater is accessed by a staircase, and space is at too much of a premium to have a piano hoisted in. It was bad enough to manage to get the harp down there.

Matthew Worth (Tarquinius) and Tamara Mumford (Lucretia), Rape of Lucretia, Châteauville Foundation, 2007, photo by Giuseppe Di Liberto (see more pictures of this production)

The vocal cast was uniformly excellent, with stand-out performances from lovely mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford as Lucretia and baritones Paul LaRosa (Junius) and Matthew Worth (Tarquinius). When Mumford's Lucretia walked through the audience in a black veil and carrying the harness that was the symbol of Tarquinius's attack, it brought home the dread of the opera's conclusion. Vale Rideout was full-voiced and dramatically convincing as the Male Chorus, and Arianna Zukerman embodied the sympathetic anger of the opera's women as the Female Chorus. I reviewed the Peabody Chamber Opera's production of The Rape of Lucretia in February, and that collegiate cast was given the opportunity to serve as covers for the Châteauville Foundation main cast.

William Kerley's elegant and minimalist production cast the roles of male and female chorus as fervent Christians who appeared to be writing a book together about this episode in Roman history. They sometimes crossed themselves, which seemed Catholic, but their costumes, including the Male Chorus's tie with a cross design on it, seemed Protestant. The best part of the staging was in the second act, which began with cast members shining flashlights insidiously over the audience. The singers then delivered the chorus of angry Romans while standing in the aisles along either side of the audience, even pounding loudly on the screens from the side stairways.

We hope that the Châteauville Foundation's Castleton Residency for Young Artists flourishes as it should. It does seem a shame not to bring these productions for at least a single performance at the Kennedy Center. The audience will be unfortunately limited for private performances. (My understanding is that scheduling difficulties made the Terrace Theater impossible this year.) Before too long, the Foundation will exhaust the limited number of chamber operas appropriate for the size of the Rappahannock venue and ensemble. It is time to begin thinking about commissioning new chamber operas, too, which could be an excellent, if more expensive, way to foster new audiences for opera.

Châteauville Foundation's Next Opera

You may recall the strong reviews Jens and I wrote about the production of Britten's The Turn of the Screw last spring. It was the work of the Châteauville Foundation, the brain child of Maestro Lorin Maazel, staged in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater with a chamber orchestra and cast of young musicians. This year, the group is presenting another chamber opera, Britten's Rape of Lucretia, which I also recently reviewed in another production. Maazel will also conduct these performances, scheduled for only two days next weekend (April 14, 8 pm; April 15, 4 pm) and only at the organization's home in Castleton, Virginia.

The English director Will Kerley is staging the opera, with a cast of young singers brought to Castleton for a special residency. The players are all drawn from the Youth Orchestra of the Americas. The Foundation has recently suggested that we encourage the readers of Ionarts to contact them, if you are interested in being added to the Châteauville Foundation mailing list. For more information, write to them by e-mail (janetr at chateauville dot org) or call (540) 937-8969. Supporters on that mailing list are invited to the Castleton facility for these private events.

A Merciless, Glorious Turn of the Screw

B. Britten, The Turn of the Screw, Britten / Pears, Vyvyan B. Britten, The Turn of the Screw, Harding / Bostridge, Rodgers B. Britten, The Turn of the Screw, Bedford / Langridge, Lott

There was little advance notice that the season for opera in Washington got an exciting addition, but the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater was filled nonetheless when Lorin Maazel presented Benjamin Britten’s The Turn of the Screw on Monday night. Everyone who was there will likely agree: it was the best opera performance that this city has witnessed this season. By far.

Britten’s Turn of the Screw is a fantastic opera – for chamber forces, three sopranos, tenor, and boy and girl soprano – but also a difficult opera and not likely to appeal to everyone. All those who attended the Châteauville Foundation production at the Terrace Theater knew what they were in for: a dense, chilling, creepy, and creeping psychological thriller set to haunting music that matches the action (or unbearable inaction) every step of the way.

I cannot recall the last time I had – literally – chills from head to toe. Here I did, when Miles, the boy, musters his courage, acknowledges the evil done to him, and cries out against his tormentor, the (molesting) spirit: “Peter Quint, you devil.” It was but one highlight among many. The cast was very even, very good – even superb. Primus inter pares was the outstanding tenor Jeffrey Lentz (excellent diction, haunting singing, good acting) as former manservant cum ghost Peter Quint. Michelle Rice as housekeeper Mrs. Grose had a marvelous, rich voice; Anne Dreyer was a very attractively chirruping and well-acted Governess, if with less clear diction than the rest. Miss Jessel, the former governess, now haunting Chez Bly (the uncle of the children Flora and Miles) in tandem with opponent/partner in crime Peter Quint was dramatic and ethereal in equal parts, sung by Valerie Komar. Tucker Fisher (Miles) and Jessica Moore (Flora) acted and sang their parts as well as one can imagine; just towards the very end of the opera did one hear the strain on little Mr. Fisher’s soprano. But at that point, drama and acting are more important – and they both were delivered spectacularly.

The opera's story by Henry James was adapted with sly and cunning skill by Myfanwy Piper. It combines the entertainment (albeit a very dark, scary entertainment) of a Broadway show with the quality of the finest literature, compelling the viewer/listener along with music that becomes a soundtrack (but none of the negative associations of “soundtrack” whatsoever) of the most haunting sort. Unforgivingly, the story of the hidden torture that the kids have to endure plows ahead. By the end, the opera has the audience in its palm and we allow it to crush us, willingly. Neither goosebumps nor chills were caused by the air conditioning.

Other Articles: Tim Page, Young Singers Take A 'Turn' for the Better (Washington Post, May 21) Charles T. Downey, Turn of the Screw (DCist, May 23) Philip Kennicott, Maazel & Co. Make Impressive 'Turn' (Washington Post, May 24) T. L. Ponick, 'Screw' a tricky vocal turn (Washington Times, May 24) Tim Smith, Maazel, performers' 'Turn' with Britten is remarkable (Baltimore Sun, May 25)

If one takes to the music – and compelled by the drama one might more easily than by simply listening to a recording – it is impossible not to find it glorious. The chamber orchestra of youngsters under Lorin Maazel was a perfect little troupe. They supplied the passion, Maazel, probably the technically most gifted American conductor, turned them into perfection of playing and expression. Not only were the exposed and often challenging parts mastered with bravura, even the pauses and silences were masterfully judged. Piano, celesta, bells and harp play a prominent role amid four strings, flutes, oboe (and cor anglais), clarinets and horn. Fourths (alternatively threatening and joyful) and minor thirds dominate the musical mood and run through the score and story like the Ariadne-string – in ever changing, slightly different guises. Layer after layer is peeled away from the horrible truth that plagues the children. When salvation finally comes, it comes at the cost of Miles's life. The – already bitter – triumph of the Governess turns into a concluding requiem.

After this utterly moving experience, parents of small children will have been tempted to set up watch at their youngsters' bed; opera lovers meanwhile cannot wait to be granted another such gift from Maazel and his Châteauville Foundation. Indeed, the event just screamed out for the opportunity to hear other chamber or Baroque operas in the Terrace Theater with its very fine acoustic. Less expensive productions for the cognoscenti – Hindemith, Menotti, Blacher, Martinů, Glass, Henze next to Rameau, Lully or Scarlatti – would enrich the cultural life in Washington immensely. Whether that will remain a pipe-dream or not, the memory of this Turn of the Screw will remain something to feast on for a while.