Classical Month in Washington (September)

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Classical Month in Washington is a monthly feature. If there are concerts you would like to see included on our schedule, send your suggestions by e-mail (ionarts at gmail dot com). Happy listening!

September 2, 2008 (Tue)
12:10 pm
Cornelia Frazier (soprano) and Ruth Locke (piano) [FREE]
Church of the Epiphany

September 6, 2008 (Sat)
12:30 to 4:30 pm
Scott Houston ("The Piano Guy")
Piano lecture-demonstration (Smithsonian Resident Associates)
Freer Gallery of Art

September 8, 2008 (Mon)
8 pm
Christopher Dudley, trombone [FREE]
Clarice Smith Center

September 9, 2008 (Tue)
12:10 pm
Jeffrey Chappell, piano [FREE]
Church of the Epiphany

September 9, 2008 (Tue)
8 pm
Mobtown Modern: Too Cool for School
Contemporary Museum (Baltimore, Md.)

September 11, 2008 (Thu)
8 pm
National Symphony Orchestra
Classical Hollywood (Richard Kaufman, guest conductor)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall

September 12, 2008 (Fri)
8 pm
Jessye Norman, with jazz quartet
Music of Duke Ellington
Clarice Smith Center

September 12, 2008 (Fri)
8 pm
National Symphony Orchestra
Golden Age of Film Music (Richard Kaufman, guest conductor)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall

September 13, 2008 (Sat)
12 noon to 11 pm
Open House Arts Festival [FREE]
Kennedy Center

September 13, 2008 (Sat)
6 pm
Emerson Quartet
Smithsonian Resident Associates
National Museum of Natural History

September 13, 2008 (Sat)
7 pm
Verdi, La Traviata
Washington National Opera
Kennedy Center Opera House

September 13, 2008 (Sat)
8:30 pm
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Season Opener, with Yo-Yo Ma
Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (Baltimore, Md.)

September 14, 2008 (Sun)
3 pmSara Daneshpour, piano
Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture

September 14, 2008 (Sun)
4 pm
Viva La Voce (four singers with Frank Conlon, piano)
Amadeus Concerts
St. Francis Episcopal Church (Great Falls, Va.)

September 14, 2008 (Sun)
7:30 pm
Matt Haimovitz, cello
Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington

September 15, 2008 (Mon)
7:30 pm
Indira Mahajan
Marian Anderson Award Recital
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater

September 15, 2008 (Mon)
7:30 pm
Broken Reed Saxophone Quartet and Carl Banner (piano)
Washington Musica Viva
Music of Mozart, Tailleferre, Wilder, and Gerard
Dennis and Phillip Ratner Museum (Bethesda, Md.)

September 16, 2008 (Tue)
12:10 pm
Armonia Nova [FREE]
Church of the Epiphany

September 17, 2008 (Wed)
7 pm
Benoît Delbecq, piano
Corcoran Gallery of Art

September 18, 2008 (Thu)
7 pm
Lecture: “After Pearl Harbor: Music, War, and the Library of Congress” [FREE]
Professor Annegret Fauser (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)
Library of Congress

September 18, 2008 (Thu)
7:30 pm
Verdi, La Traviata
Washington National Opera
Kennedy Center Opera House

September 18, 2008 (Thu)
8 pm
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Holst, The Planets
Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (Baltimore, Md.)

September 19, 2008 (Fri)
1:15 pm
Jennifer Ellis Kampani, soprano [FREE]
Georgetown University, McNeir Hall

September 19, 2008 (Fri)
8 pm
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Holst, The Planets
Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (Baltimore, Md.)

September 20, 2008 (Sat)
7 pm
Bizet, Pearl Fishers
Washington National Opera
Kennedy Center Opera House

September 20, 2008 (Sat)
7 pm
National Symphony Orchestra
Season Opening Ball Concert
Kennedy Center Concert Hall

September 20, 2008 (Sat)
8 pm
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Holst, The Planets
Music Center at Strathmore

September 21, 2008 (Sun)
2 pm
Verdi, La Traviata
Washington National Opera
Kennedy Center Opera House

September 21, 2008 (Sun)
3 pm
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Holst, The Planets
Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (Baltimore, Md.)

September 21, 2008 (Sun)
7 pm
Keyboard Conversations with Jeffrey Siegel
Haydn and Mozart—Humor and Heartache
George Mason University Center for the Arts

September 22, 2008 (Mon)
7 pm
Bizet, Pearl Fishers
Washington National Opera
Kennedy Center Opera House

September 22, 2008 (Mon)
7:30 pm
Francesco Tristano Schlimé, piano
La Maison Française

September 23, 2008 (Tue)
12:10 pm
ArcoVoce [FREE]
Church of the Epiphany

September 23, 2008 (Tue)
6 pm
NSO Chamber Ensemble [FREE]
World premieres of commissioned works
Millennium Stage
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater

September 23, 2008 (Tue)
8 pm
Fessenden Ensemble
Music by J. C. Bach, Jacob, Rheinberger
St. Columba's Episcopal Church

September 24, 2008 (Wed)
7:30 pm
Verdi, La Traviata
Washington National Opera
Kennedy Center Opera House

September 24, 2008 (Wed)
8 pm
Squonk Opera: AstroRama [FREE]
Clarice Smith Center

September 25, 2008 (Thu)
7:30 pm
Bizet, Pearl Fishers
Washington National Opera
Kennedy Center Opera House

September 25, 2008 (Thu)
7:30 pm
Le Cabaret de Carmen
American Opera Theater
Baltimore Theater Project

September 25, 2008 (Thu)
8 pm
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Mahler/Bernstein, with Kelley O'Connor
Music Center at Strathmore

September 25, 2008 (Thu)
8 pm
Squonk Opera: AstroRama [FREE]
Clarice Smith Center

September 26, 2008 (Fri)
1:15 pm
Hampton Trio [FREE]
Georgetown University, McNeir Hall

September 26, 2008 (Fri)
6 pm
Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra [FREE]
Kennedy Center Millennium Stage

September 26, 2008 (Fri)
7:30 pm
Mozart, Don Giovanni (in English)
Opera Vivente (Baltimore, Md.)

September 26, 2008 (Fri)
7:30 pm
Le Cabaret de Carmen
American Opera Theater
Baltimore Theater Project

September 26, 2008 (Fri)
8 pm
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Mahler/Bernstein, with Kelley O'Connor
Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (Baltimore, Md.)

September 26, 2008 (Fri)
8 pm
Music from the Court of Isabella d'Este
Folger Consort
Folger Shakespeare Library

September 26, 2008 (Fri)
8 pm
Squonk Opera: AstroRama [FREE]
Clarice Smith Center

September 27, 2008 (Sat)
2 pm
Anna Vinnitskaya, piano
WPAS
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater

September 27, 2008 (Sat)
5 and 8 pm
Music from the Court of Isabella d'Este
Folger Consort
Folger Shakespeare Library

September 27, 2008 (Sat)
7 pm
Verdi, La Traviata
Washington National Opera
Kennedy Center Opera House

September 27, 2008 (Sat)
7:30 pm
Le Cabaret de Carmen
American Opera Theater
Baltimore Theater Project

September 27, 2008 (Sat)
8 pm
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Mahler/Bernstein, with Kelley O'Connor
Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (Baltimore, Md.)

September 28, 2008 (Sun)
2 pm
Bizet, Pearl Fishers
Washington National Opera
Kennedy Center Opera House

September 28, 2008 (Sun)
2 pm
Music from the Court of Isabella d'Este
Folger Consort
Folger Shakespeare Library

September 28, 2008 (Sun)
2 pm
Walsum Awards for New Music [FREE]
Evelyn Elsing (cello), Loren Kitt (clarinet), Santiago Rodriguez (piano), David Salness (violin)
Clarice Smith Center

September 28, 2008 (Sun)
2 pm
Le Cabaret de Carmen
American Opera Theater
Baltimore Theater Project

September 28, 2008 (Sun)
3 pm
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Mahler/Bernstein, with Kelley O'Connor
Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (Baltimore, Md.)

September 28, 2008 (Sun)
3 pm
Mozart, Don Giovanni (in English)
Opera Vivente (Baltimore, Md.)

September 28, 2008 (Sun)
5 pm
Chamber Music Concert
Members of Capital City Symphony
Atlas Performing Arts Center

September 28, 2008 (Sun)
7:30 pm
Shunske Sato (violin) and Tao Lin (piano)
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater

September 30, 2008 (Tue)
12:10 pm
Tom Gallagher (tenor) and J. Reilly Lewis (keyboard) [FREE]
Church of the Epiphany

September 30, 2008 (Tue)
6 pm
NSO Chamber Ensemble [FREE]
World premieres of commissioned works
Millennium Stage
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater

September 30, 2008 (Tue)
7 pm
Bernhard Gal at Sonic Circuits
Festival of Experimental Music
Austrian Cultural Forum
Pyramid Atlantic Art Center (Silver Spring, Md.)

September 30, 2008 (Tue)
7:30 pm
Verdi, La Traviata
Washington National Opera
Kennedy Center Opera House

Ionarts in Santa Fe: Radamisto

For more background on this opera, see my preview article on Radamisto.

In the last 20 years, Handel's operas have undergone a Renaissance of interest. In the past year alone, we have reviewed two of them in stage productions (Alcina and Tamerlano), a couple complete recordings (Tolomeo and Floridante), and several recital discs. Radamisto is the fifth Handel opera staged at Santa Fe Opera, and the company turned to a notorious name in the Handel revival for its new production. American director David Alden has been upsetting traditionalist artists for years, especially in associations with Peter Jonas at English National Opera and in Munich; the latter company reprised all of Alden's Handel productions in 2006, as part of Jonas's farewell. Alden has directed at Santa Fe before, but this was the company's first attempt to import his sensational Handel staging.

(L to R) Laura Claycomb (Polissena), Heidi Stober (Tigrane), Kevin Murphy (Farasmane), Luca Pisaroni (Tiridate),
David Daniels (Radamisto), and Deborah Domanski (Zenobia) in Radamisto, Santa Fe Opera, 2008 (Photo © Ken Howard)
The results, predictable enough, are mixed: people sat up and paid attention, if only to wonder why the hell a leopard pierced with arrows was being suspended from the ceiling mid-aria; many of those same people were left wondering what most of the stage business had to do with Handel's story. With this kind of postmodern production, a traditionalist is likely to be irked, whether the outrages imposed on the libretto have any connection to the story or not. Unlike some directors, who seem to direct an opera without having read the libretto thoroughly, Alden's choices are generally based on careful thought. That does not necessarily mean that the staging will make sense.

Alden's staging turns on the character of Tiridate, presented as a sadist who relishes the domination and humiliation of his wife, Polissena. Costumed in colorful robes and forbidding armor and weaponry (costumes by Gideon Davey), he is the unhinged alpha dog, practically foaming at the mouth. His fetishization of violence is expressed in the animal symbols of ferocity that decorate the stage (sets also by Davey): croaking ravens perched on the walls and just inside the theater, the beastial masks of Tiridate's soldiers, the sculpted elephant lying on its side under a growling bear, a silver dragon with fiery mouth, even that sensational pincushioned leopard (which almost certainly was inspired by a very similar installation piece, with tigers instead of a leopard, in Cai Guo-Qiang's retrospective at the Guggenheim this winter). Even the peacocks in Tiridate's garden make sense, as the ultimate symbol of macho rodomontade.

Heidi Stober (Tigrane) with, above, Deborah Domanski (Zenobia) and David Daniels (Radamisto) in Radamisto, Santa Fe Opera, 2008 (Photo © Ken Howard)

The leopard may simply be drawn from the same kind of eastern sources from which Alden drew his imagery, illustrations in Persian and Mughal manuscripts. The leopard also resonates with Ashurbanipal hunting lions or similar works in Assyrian art. The imagery helps reinforce the ruthlessness of Tiridate, which in turn explains the foil to this image of Middle Eastern savagery: his ally Tigrane, who is costumed, rather ridiculously, in grimy white suit, wide necktie, fez, fake paunch, and sandals. In other words, he is a dead ringer for Sidney Greenstreet's Signor Ferrari in Casablanca (and, by way of satirical tribute, Groucho Marx in A Night in Casablanca). Alden's productions are often political, and the fez, of Ottoman associations, was worn by native soldiers who fought for colonial armies and generally a hated symbol of European domination. Tigrane, at first Tiridate's helper, eventually becomes the instrument of his humiliation. It's hardly new, but the staging appears to be a postcolonial critique.

The libretto by Nicola Francesco Haym was itself the result of a shift of location from the original story. As told by Tacitus in Book 12 of the Annals, Pharasmanes and Radamistus were king and prince of Caucasian Iberia (Iveria), a kingdom in what is now Georgia, involved inextricably in warfare with what is now Armenia (notably against Mithridates). Through the intermediary sources, Handel's story was resituated to Armenia and Thrace, a shift that Alden's staging has corrected. Alden also demonstrated a willingness to make his staging and the music work together, as the most outrageous embellishments came from the singers in reaction to onstage action. The superb program notes, by Handel scholar Terence Best (editor of the Hallische Händel-Ausgabe), quote the characterization of Radamisto by Winton Dean, as an arch-serious opera seria with "no place for ironical light and shade." Be that as it may, Alden even found occasion to introduce some humor, as when Polissena has herself dumped before Tiridate in a rug, just like Zenobia -- anything to arouse her husband's interest.

Handel, "Son contenta di morire," from Radamisto

In general, Handel's score sounded beautiful and lavishly decorated with embellishments. The only singer who could be considered a Baroque specialist, countertenor David Daniels, showed why he has made a career largely out of navigating the composer's vocal roulades. We just reviewed him in Washington's Tamerlano, and here as there he was a sure dramatic presence. The agility of his technique makes up for a slight shrillness at the top and a tendency to get covered at the bottom. His "Perfido, di a quell'empio tiranno" had some thrilling ornamentation, and the arching, drawn-out lines of "Ombra cara" were matched by the exquisite sotto voce rippling of the strings. The audience needed some education in the expectations of Baroque opera, however: as in several other places, applause before the return of the A section destroyed the moment. Laura Claycomb was the best of the female cast (see Scott Cantrell's feature article on her), a deranged Pollyanna version of Polissena, who suffered all of Tiridate's humiliations and often danced like a lunatic through her ritornelli. Her entrance with the cavatina "Sommi Dei" was smooth and luxurious, and the interpolated high notes and other embellishments of "Barbaro, partirò" were breath-taking.

Luca Pisaroni was an unhinged and vocally robust Tiridate, and the role does sit much better in the bass voice than in the tenor of the 1720 version. He overpowered Kevin Murphy's affecting Farasmane (he was a Santa Fe apprentice in 2006 and 2007), cast as a bearded, white-haired old man who spent most of the evening being dragged about in bonds. As the mysterious Tigrane, mezzo-soprano Heidi Stober had a slight nervous tendency to rush ahead of the orchestra, but produced a bold and generally beautiful sound. Former Santa Fe Opera apprentice Deborah Domanski replaced Christine Rice in the role of Zenobia in the final week before the production opened, and it is impressive that she could memorize all of the recitatives in that time, as this is surely not a role that any singer has ready. Domanski has a pretty sound, with a radiant upper range, and few sopranos would look that good in her midriff-baring costumes à la Barbara Eden in I Dream of Jeannie. Unfortunately, she was at sea in some of her more challenging arias, not able to keep up with the brash, jagged tempo of the blockbuster "Son contenta di morire," for example.

Other Reviews: George Loomis, Radamisto, Santa Fe Opera (Financial Times, August 5) Anthony Tommasini, From Handel, Faithlessness and Devotion (New York Times, August 4) Anne Midgette, Promising 'Adriana' Could Use a Drama Lesson (Washington Post, August 4) Scott Cantrell, 'Radamisto' voices, visuals dazzle (Dallas Morning News, August 3) D. S. Crafts, Superb Arias in 'Radamisto' (Albuquerque Journal, July 22) Craig Smith, A complex, vibrant 'Radamisto' (Santa Fe New Mexican, July 20)

Harry Bicket did an excellent job of whipping a group of non-specialist musicians into shape, twenty-odd players drawn mostly from the regular Santa Fe Opera orchestra. It was a broad, edgy sound, with strong wind and brass contributions, all played on modern instruments. For example, the oboe solos in Zenobia's cavatina "Quando mai, spietata sorte" were plaintive and lush, and the trumpet solo and timpani gave an impressively martial sound to the war Sinfonia of the first act. The continuo consisted of two players from the cello section, augmented by specialists on two harpsichords, theorbo, and Baroque guitar (the latter's percussive sounds in "Son contenta di morire" were a highlight); there were also some special instruments in the percussion section.

Bicket had the appropriate volume of the best edition currently available, the Hallische Händel-Ausgabe, on the podium, although with some changes inserted on individual printouts. This was mostly the second 1720 and 1721 version of the opera, as edited by Michael Pacholke, seen by the editors of the HHA as "the best and most artistically satisfying." All of the dance music was cut from the score, except the gorgeous Passacaille, which served as introduction to the second half. With a few quibbles aside, this excellent Handel is one of the highlights of the Santa Fe Opera season, a chance to experience a taste of what Handel in Munich has been like in the past decade.

Handel's Radamisto will be repeated on August 1, 7, 15, and 20 at Santa Fe Opera.

Ionarts-at-Large: Mahler's 8th at the Tyrolean Festival 2008

It is impossible for a performance of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony not to be an event. Even as Mahler performances become commonplace among the better orchestras, the Eighth is by far the least often performed – simply because the logistics are so forbidding. Even if a thousand choristers and musicians are not gathered as at the 1910 premiere (a fact that inspired impresario Emil Gutmann to the catchy nickname “Symphony of a Thousand”), a good three hundred performers still need to be assembled (and paid) to tackle this symphonic behemoth. The Eighth is unlike any of his other works, it isn’t the favorite Mahler-Symphony of “Mahlerians” by a long shot (Iván Fischer, for example, has said he’d not complete a Symphonic cycle, simply because he’d not feel inclined to conduct that work), and some find its particular brand of overt emotionality more embarrassing than uplifting.

Yet, whenever it is actually played, lovers of Mahler and lovers of spectacle will turn out. And so they did on July 13th for a performance at the Tyrolean Festival in Innsbruck, Austria where Gustav Kuhn conducted his Festival Orchestra & Chorus, assembled from the greater region of Tyrol, South-Tyrol and Austria’s eastern neighbors.

Kuhn, who has landed many a coup at his Festival with ambitious projects (complete Ring Cycles since 2003, for example), didn’t preside over a polished, much less perfect performance of course. But given the material he had at hand, the result was a joyous success with the choirs performing particularly splendidly. The entry for “Veni, veni creator spiritus” was full-throttle excitement, especially for the tenor and bass sections.

The soloists were predictably a variable bunch: Bass Andrea Silvestrelli, the most experienced of the bunch, like a booming bear in a barrel, was easily audible even in the lowest register, but the voice uncontrolled and unpleasantly sloppy. Tenor Tenor Jürgen Mülluer was strained to the edges of his ability and beyond. But baritone Michael Kupfer and the female soloists were all fine – notably soprano Arpiné Rahdjian with a voice of promising potential, even if she needed (and got) help at high ranges.

Violas and brass had some very felicitous moments in the opening of Part Two – and the keystone moment – the Chorus Mysticus was done with great care. Excellently calm the opening of “Alles Vergängliche…” and rousing, unabashedly bombastic the final climax. As a performance hardly beyond criticism; as an event a spectacular success.

___Recommended recording:

Mahler, Symphony No.8, Ozawa / BPO - Tanglewood

Santa Fe Preview: Adriana Mater

By far, the most exciting event of the Santa Fe Opera season is the American premiere of Kaija Saariaho's new opera, Adriana Mater. Santa Fe introduced American audiences to the extraordinary L'amour de loin, the Finnish composer's first opera, and it was naturally expected that she would return to New Mexico with her second. Saariaho was reunited with the "dream team" of L'amour de loin, librettist Amin Maalouf and director Peter Sellars, for a story that is as unlike that medieval romance as possible. Set in an unspecified country at war, the parallels with the Bosnian-Serbian conflict are overpowering, but its story of a woman being raped, giving birth to a child, and the inevitable chain of violence that follows that child is found, unfortunately, in many places.

The premiere of the opera at the Bastille was nearly scuttled, but fortunately only delayed by strikes. The critical reception of the premiere was mixed, with some very harsh criticism directed at the naive simplicity of the libretto, in particular. Alex Ross's review was generally positive, although he did note that Adriana "lacks the enveloping mystery that distinguishes L’Amour de Loin," noting especially the "standard" use of dissonance that "makes for a sullen first act, short on contrast." By happy circumstance, I was able to hear the Paris performance on a Canadian radio broadcast, which I wish I had been able to record.

You can learn more about Kaija Saariaho in this interview with David Patrick Stearns. In the last few years, she has received a staggering amount of prize money from American compositional awards: the 2008 Nemmers Prize ($100,000) -- she will be in a residency at Northwestern in January 2009 -- and the Grawemeyer Award in 2003 ($200,000). Most recently, she was named composer in residence at Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival, where she will be next month; a CD will be released in September. Musical America also named her Composer of the Year in 2008, and the Emerson Quartet has been playing her new piece for string quartet, Terra Memoria. It is likely that American audiences will be hearing more of her music in the coming years.

Happily, some of the Santa Fe cast comes from the Finnish National Opera production earlier this winter, including Monica Groop (Adriana) and Pia Freund (Refka). It will also feature the conductor from that performance, Ernest Martinez Izquierdo, although it is hard not to miss Esa-Pekka Salonen, who was at the podium in Paris. More thoughts on Adriana in the coming days.

Kaija Saariaho on Adriana Mater

TRANSLATION
I have a memory from when I was very little: it was in the evening, when I had gone to bed. I put my head down on the pillow, and I started to hear music. I thought it was coming from the pillow, and it was keeping me from going to sleep, so I asked my mother if she could turn off the pillow. It took a while for me to realize that I had music in my head, to express the need to learn how to write it down on paper.

A composition can begin in so many different ways. It can be a formal idea, it can be an atmosphere, but whatever it is, that very first idea, afterward I try to imagine the music. I imagine its atmosphere, I imagine its orchestration, and when I have something really sonorous in my mind, then I try to write it down.

The first thing about Adriana Mater came by chance, when I saw a performance with Amin Maalouf, who is the librettist, and in this performance, they were talking about motherhood. And that's when I said to Amin, if we ever make a second opera, I want us to make it about motherhood. You know, for me, when I was expecting my first child, when I understood in my heart -- in my body, that there were two hearts beating at the same time, that was for me an idea that really struck me.

I go through a lot in my music. I have been happy for a long time now because I found a way to express myself with music. Before that I was really miserable, and I don't know how my life will go from here. I have no other projects, except to try to make sure that I have enough time to write my music.

You can also hear Saariaho speaking English in this interview with The Guardian.

A Little More from Maine

As with any destination that caters to tourists, much of the art here is "memento art," with memories of that place. This can get tedious -- please, no more lobster boats! no more paintings of fantastic sunsets! Then there is an exhibit of David Dewey's small gouaches at the Caldbeck Gallery, in Rockland, that are so tight and right on, that it will inspire you to deal with horse flies and f**king no-see-ums, to continue to paint the landscape.

I saw Hannah Bureau's paintings in the Saachi booth at this past year's Pulse Fair; as a matter of fact, I liked her work so much that it's one of my fondest memories, and here she is in a summer group show at gWatson in Stonnington.

Next to Bureau are three gems by Robin Reynolds; she finds the lyrical beauty in a chaotic natural world.

Ionarts Turns 5: State of the Blog

The improbable adventure of Ionarts began five years ago today. I thank all of the people, especially Jens, Mark, and Michael, who have put in a lot of time and work, without any real remuneration, to make Ionarts what it is. We thank all of you who read, comment, link to us, and have helped put Ionarts on the map.

The state of the blog is good, very good, and we continue to gain ground in all of those things bloggers care about. Ionarts has continued this year as one of the Top 10 Classical Music Blogs, according to several rankings:

• Top 50 Classical Music Blogs, #4 (A. C. Douglas)
  
• Google Links, #3 (Scott Spiegelberg)
  
• Technorati Links, #9 (Scott Spiegelberg)
  
• Google Reader Subscriptions, #10 (Classical Convert)
  
• Bloglines Subscriptions, #6 (Classical Convert)

Who knows where this is all going, but for now we are content to sit back and enjoy the ride.

Carmen @ Summer Opera

Teresa Buchholz, mezzo-soprano (photo by Josh South)

After a mostly beautiful and certainly welcome production of Die tote Stadt, given to unfortunately undersold houses, Summer Opera Theater Company has gone for the bank with a big love letter to its conservative audience. In the first performance in its continuing residency at the Harman Center for the Arts, the company returned to the first opera it presented, thirty seasons ago, Bizet's Carmen. Rather than trying to say something new and unexpected, director David Grindle's staging recycled the most traditional ideas about this old chestnut (his background is in stage management), right down to the sets, designed by Edwardo Sicango, that were borrowed from Virginia Opera (last seen in 2006, with Cristina Nassif in the title role). That the company could not even sell out the Shakespeare Theater's new 775-seat theater with such a proposition gives hope that boring choices are not always rewarded.

Carmen (piano-vocal score) is a beautiful opera, with a charming, effective libretto, by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on a novella (.PDF file) by Prosper Mérimée. It is not that the opera is not enjoyable to watch, but that it takes extraordinary singing and an interesting staging (as much of it was in Santa Fe in 2006) to counteract the doldrums. The primary virtue of Summer Opera's production was the singer in the title role, mezzo-soprano Teresa Buchholz, who cut a seductive figure in the pretty, but very traditional costumes designed by John Lehmeyer. The voice has a chocolatey middle and bottom range, with powerful top notes that are noteworthy more for their power than their beauty. Her Habanera was a little timid and colorless, but by the Séguedille ("Près des remparts de Séville") the wattage of that lower range had kicked in.

As Don José, tenor Benjamin Warschawski had the high notes, but with occasional flatness and a compressed, nasal sound that was especially unsatisfactory when the character unraveled in jealous anger in the fourth act. As the doomed couple, the two singers had no magnetism on stage, mostly just singing near one another. The lovely soprano Lara Colby, a CUA alumna and Summer Opera regular, was a vision of blonde purity as Micaëla, down to her jupe bleue and natte tombante. Her voice, a beautiful instrument, was a little cloudy in its high notes for my taste in this role but overall very good. Thomas Beard's Escamillo was generally well sung, if not all that remarkable vocally, but completely devoid of the necessary macho arrogance. In the supporting roles, mezzo-soprano Michelle Rice was a husky-voiced Mercédès, and soprano Lisa Archibeque's high notes rang out over the ensemble as Frasquita, although she tended to be just ahead of the beat in fast passages. Baritone Zachary Nelson, a student of Sharon Christman's at CUA, had an attractive turn as Moralès.

Other Reviews: Anne Midgette, 'Carmen' Rises to Lowered Expectations (Washington Post, July 22) T. L. Ponick, 'Carmen' as powerful as ever (Washington Times, July 22)

The opera was performed nearly complete, with a cut made in the March of the Toreadors in Act IV. The company chose not to use the recitative settings of the dialogue and had the singers speak the lines in English, which generally came off to embarrassing effect. The chorus of student performers was uneven vocally, when heard section by section, but gave an impressively full sound in spite of their somewhat reduced numbers. One of those impossibly cute parts of the opera, the chorus of street boys, was sung well by the unnamed children's chorus, whose enthusiasm was unmatched on the stage. Conductor H. Teri Murai, who is the director of orchestral activities at the Peabody Institute, seemed to struggle to keep all of his forces together at times. The orchestra, mostly student players especially in the strings, played exceptionally well (especially the serene flute solos in the introduction to Act III), with only a few blemishes in the brass. It is not a Carmen that offers enough reasons to see this over-performed opera another time. For the adventurous opera listener, the much more daring season at Wolf Trap Opera is still the best ticket in the area.

The remaining performances of Carmen are scheduled for Wednesday (July 23, 7:30 pm) and Sunday (July 27, 2:30 pm), at the Harman Center for the Arts (610 F St. NW). Summer Opera's 2009 season will be less adventurous, with productions of La Traviata and The Merry Widow.

Santa Fe Preview: Billy Budd

Britten, Billy Budd, S. Keenlyside, P. Langridge, London Symphony Orchestra, R. Hickox [2-act revised version] Britten, Billy Budd, A. Rolfe Johnson, T. Hampson, Hallé Orchestra, K. Nagano [original 4-act version] Britten, Billy Budd, P. Pears, P. Glossop, M. Langdon, London Symphony Orchestra, B. Britten [2-act revised version]

Although Santa Fe Opera generally holds the lead in presenting contemporary opera to American audiences, it has been playing catch-up with the major Britten operas. The company finally staged Peter Grimes in 2005 (the production by Paul Curran will come to Washington National Opera this season) and, as we expected, takes up Billy Budd this summer. The Francesca Zambello production from Washington National Opera in 2004 was a blockbuster, but Santa Fe has turned again to Paul Curran for this new production. Whatever else the staging has in store, the company has notified its outdoor theater's neighbors that three cannon shots are fired during the performance.

The libretto is an ingenious adaptation of Herman Melville's last prose work, the novella Billy Budd, Foretopman, which was written from 1888 to 1891 and concluded five months before Melville's death, but not published until 1924 (the published version only the last of a number of forms Melville worked through). The opera was originally divided into four acts, but Britten created a two-act revision in 1960, which is now the standard version. Britten wrote that "who brought up the idea of Billy Budd no one can quite remember; it was probably telepathic and simultaneous," but it was around the same time, in 1948, that E. M. Forster first became a party to Britten's plans with librettist Eric Crozier. To the possibility of working with Forster, Britten wrote, "opera needs a great human being like him in it--which is a dazzling prospect." It is possible that the idea came first from Forster, who had admired the novella in the 1920s, during his Clark Lectures at Cambridge. Another Britten friend, W. H. Auden, also referred to Billy Budd in a poem about Melville.

Britten cast the captain, Edward Fairfax Vere (nicknamed "Starry Vere" by his adoring crew), as an idealistic tenor, the role created by Britten's partner, Peter Pears (see Kenneth Green's Portrait of Peter Pears and Benjamin Britten, a painting from 1943). Vere relies on the Master-at-Arms, John Claggart (a sinister bass nicknamed "Jemmy Legs"), who is responsible for law and order on the ship. Most of the crew members are not even known by name, with the obvious exception of the new foretopman, impressed unlawfully with other "recruits" in the opening scene, Billy Budd (nicknamed "Baby" and "Beauty"), the baritone torn between the opposing representatives of the two poles of the male voice.

Vere is a noble ideal, an honorable man lost in a genteel system, who cannot do the right thing to defend Billy from Claggart. The classically educated Vere, at one point seen reading Plutarch in his cabin, calls Claggart "a veritable Argus" (the Greek god of 100 eyes), a mythological reference lost on his officers. Billy pledges an almost matrimonial loyalty to the ship's captain ("Starry, I'll follow you through darkness"), whom the crew uniformly adore. When Billy is told he has been appointed foretopman, he exuberantly bids farewell to his old ship, the Rights o' Man. The officers think it is a reference to Thomas Paine's revolutionary tract The Rights of Man (1791–1792), an English adaptation of a French revolutionary document (Déclaration des droits de l'Homme et du citoyen, August 26, 1789). English sailors in this period were often sympathetic to the American revolutionaries, which led to a mutiny on the HMS Nore (the officers in Billy Budd call that ship the "floating Republic"). The suspicious officers order Claggart to keep an eye on Billy, which the Master-at-Arms interprets as a mandate to destroy him.

Humphrey Carpenter, Benjamin Britten: A Biography Mervyn Cooke and Philip Reed, Benjamin Britten: Billy Budd (Cambridge Opera Handbooks)

Claggart walks along the deck to sing his aria ("O beauty, o handsomeness, o goodness! ...I am doomed to annihilate you"), in which we understand that Billy has upset what Claggart established, "an order such as reigns in Hell." Paraphrasing the opening verses of the Gospel of John, Claggart says of Billy, "the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness comprehends it and suffers." (There are interesting similarities between Claggart and Iago in Verdi's Otello, especially his aria "Credo in un Dio crudel che m'ha creato," in which he delights in his life's mission, to be evil.)

Around the time of the work on Billy Budd, Britten became friendly with a young Aldeburgh fisherman, Billy Burrell, whose family also ran a beach station near Britten's house, where Britten met, also around this time, a boy named Robin Long, nicknamed "Nipper." As described in Humphrey Carpenter's chatty but well-informed biography, Britten often rode in Burrell's boat, sometimes with Nipper: a photograph of the three together in the boat, taken around the same time as this one, was used as the cover art of Britten's recording of the opera. Britten's complicated relationships with boys were the subject of a painstakingly researched book by John Bridcut, Britten's Children.

Carpenter also makes an analysis of the HMS Indomitable in terms of a British boys school, an all-male environment that all of the creators of Billy Budd knew and hated: Vere as the idolized headmaster, Claggart as a bullying prefect or master, and the tormenting of the newcomer, Billy, as the rituals of schoolboy hazing. Carpenter makes a connection with a remark Britten supposedly made to Crozier, about being sexually abused at school. It does not square up with Britten's efforts to desexualize the libretto, in opposition to the Melville text and Forster's wishes (who said he wanted Claggart's attraction to Billy to be portrayed as "love constricted, perverted, poisoned, but nevertheless flowing down its agonising channel; a sexual discharge gone evil"). According to Carpenter, Michael Tippett stayed with Britten and Pears and heard the score of Billy Budd. He did not think much of the libretto, remembering a "marvelous remark -- I think it got changed -- when they were going to clear the decks in order to let off the gun, and the wonderful order, given by Claggart or somebody, 'Clear the decks of seamen!' I roared with laughter!" That line ended up simply as "Clear the decks!"

Teddy Tahu Rhodes makes his first American appearance in the title role, having debuted it earlier this spring with Opera Australia. It is widely expected to be a role well suited to the New Zealander, known both for his incisive baritone and his good looks. For reasons that are examined at length in Carpenter's biography, Billy is really not the main character of Billy Budd, as the opera is more about Vere, the role created by Peter Pears but also memorably sung by Philip Langridge (in the only DVD version). William Burden, a one-time Santa Fe apprentice, is singing Vere (the last time he was mentioned here was when he withdrew from an opera in Paris, and he was generally admired as Aschenbach a couple years ago), with Peter Rose's Claggart rounding out the twisted "love triangle" of the opera. Edo de Waart, chief conductor of Santa Fe Opera, will be on the podium.

Performances of Billy Budd remain on July 25 and 31, August 6, 14, and 21 at Santa Fe Opera.