Jon Fosse

Georg Friedrich Haas

I was recently tagged by Peter Matthews on his most-excellent Feast of Music as part of a meme involving books, pages, sentences and the like. While I usually refrain from this sort of activity on constitutional grounds, I did happen to glance next to me and, finding the first book consisting of more than 100 pages, I noticed a bit of synchronicity. The indicated passage is this:

Do you know how old your girlfriend is? he says. Hm? Do You?
I look down at my suitcase.

Any takers? It’s from Melancholy by Jon Fosse. A novel that I’m reading in part due to my upcoming summer European excursion where the novel will serve as the inspiration for a new opera from Georg Friedrich Haas, Melancholia, with a libretto from the author that will premiere at the Palais Garnier on June 9. The synchronicity part is that many of the same things I will be taking in on this trip in June are apparently also on Peter’s agenda for his upcoming trip to Paris and Amsterdam just two weeks before mine. A coincidence to be sure though certainly not an ironic one. Great minds think alike.

I too am scheduled to see many of the operatic offerings in Paris and Amsterdam in early June including Warlikowski’s nursing-home themed Iphigénie en Tauride with the incomparable Mirelle Delunsch et Stephane Dégout, De Nederlandse Opera’s Saint Francois d’Assise with Rod Gilfrey, and the revival of I Capuleti e i Montecchi with Joyce DiDonato. (As fate would have it though, my later arrival results in my seeing one of the Netrebko-less performances of this last offering which is substantially offset by the presence of the lovely and sadly underrated Patrizia Ciofi.)

Peter and my roads diverge in the European operatic woods at this point and my agenda carries on with other items. In Amsterdam, this will include the world premiere of Louis Andriessen’s new opera La Commedia based on Dante’s Inferno starring the genre defying Cristina Zavalloni in a production directed by American independent film legend Hal Hartley. I will also see two Don Carlos, the first in Paris with James Morris and Dimitri Hvorostovsky and the second in Vienna with Thomas Hampson and René Pape. Yes, I know it’s probably unwise of me to be in Vienna in the midst of the European soccer championship series in June, but it’s Verdi time there as well, and I’m also scheduled to see I vespri Siciliani with Sondra Radvanovsky and Leo Nucci and David Pountney's new cowboy-fashion-runway take on La Forza del Destino with Nina Stemme, Salvatore Licitra, and Carlos Alvarez. Just in case you think I’m all work and no play, however, Vienna will also include Strauss’ Capriccio starring Renée Fleming, Bo Skovhus, Michael Schade, Angelika Kirchschlager, and Franz Hawlata. Of course, best of all, hopefully little of this will be weighted down with period costumes, "being transported", or the need to respect the integrity of the original work. Regietheater, here I come.

Tomorrow I’ll follow up with some of the summer’s big attractions state side. Further details for all events can be found on the left.

The EAR Unit and John Luther Adams
Photo : mine 2008

It’s been a week for chamber music at the Walt Disney Concert Hall with two very different programs in two very different spaces. Upstairs in the main hall, the L.A. Philharmonic hosted its final chamber music program of the season. The L.A. Phil’s chamber music programming has had somewhat of a rocky road since the opening of the new hall. Prior to WDCH, these 8 or so shows a season featuring chamber music played by various combinations of the Phil members were held in various, smaller venues around town. But with the new digs, everything is hosted downtown, and, while it is a beautiful space, it is a very big one – often too big for chamber music. Filling the hall even to half-capacity has been a struggle, and strategies to boost attendance have ranged from free wine for subscribers to the inclusion of visiting guests (e.g., Dudamel, Thibaudet, etc.). Sometimes it works splendidly, sometimes it doesn’t.

Tuesday didn't really work. Despite the presence of guest star Eric Owens, this last show of the season fell flat. It was a grab bag of pieces with no real unifying idea. Of course not everything needs a big concept to justify it’s existence, but the performances here were more rocky than not, including a run-through of Schubert’s “Rosamunde” string quartet and two pieces for two pianos from Reinecke and Schumann. Perhaps the biggest surprise, though, was how workman-like Owen’s own performance was in JS Bach’s Catata BWV 82 “Ich habe genug.” While the playing was quite pretty, I didn’t feel much drama here in terms of either faith or peaceful letting-go. It just was.

But, in case you’re thinking it’s all bad news, the REDCAT hosted the California EAR Unit ensemble downstairs at WDCH on Wednesday for a program of “premieres” all from contemporary composers who were present for the performance. They met varying degrees of success, though it must be said the players of the ensemble including Vicki Ray, Amy Knoles, Erika Duke-Kirkparick, Eric km Clark, Phil O’Connor and guest flutist Sara Andon were excellent without exception. The EAR Unit's appearances at REDCAT are a regular affair and always a special treat. The two best items of the evening ironically were not the two world premieres on the program but the pieces that had actually started their lives elsewhere. First up was Eric Chasalow’s Trois Espace du Son for piano and percussion with more than a handful of electronic elements. A “slow” piece about the decay of tones where, in Chasalow’s own words, “different colors of attack are allowed to resonate.” A particularly interesting second movement included both pianist Ray and percussionist Knoles playing the piano - the former at the keyboard and the latter on both the strings and the structure itself. It worked wonderfully and created a nice companion piece to the other highlight of the show, John Luther Adams’ The Light Within from 2007. Here the glow of the tones is more sustained and solid. It’s tempting here to draw parallels to the themes of light and the environment of Adams’ own Alaskan landscape, but it seems too obvious. It’s beautiful music that should be heard – let’s leave it at that.

The rest of the program was silliness that I could attempt to make witty biting comments about, but this post is running long, so for everyone’s sake I'll leave well enough alone.

Labels: John Luther Adams, LA Philharmonic 07/08, REDCAT 07/08

Geoff Elliott and Deborah Strang
Photo : Craig Schwartz 2008

Luckily for those of us not getting married to the son of big tobacco in front of a limestone cross last weekend, there were plenty of other entertainment options. In my case, I went over to A Noise Within in Glendale for their current production of Tennessee Williams' The Night of the Iguana, which in some ways seemed reminiscent of imagined events in the state of Texas. Both sets of characters reel under the influence of faith in the midst of a very hot day. Williams' disparate souls tend to have more complicated and interesting issues to resolve and ANW’s cast and crew have mounted another very fine production of this American classic.

I have a soft spot for this mid-Century psychoanalytic stuff and I’ve always felt that ANW is particularly skilled with this sort of material. The cast of course features many of the company’s regulars – Geoff Elliott as Rev. Shannon, Deborah Strang as Maxine Faulk, and Jill Hill as the “Nantucket spinster” Hannah Jelkes. Elliott, of course, can be overwrought at times, and the success or failure of the productions he stars in often rest on how well the piece tolerates this approach. Rev. Shannon and his desperation seem a good fit here, and Elliott is completely believable. Hill seems to be channeling Katherine Hepburn in a part that seems to be more or less written as a character Hepburn played in many other places. But the real glue that holds this together is Strang who is the biggest and best reason to see this revival of Iguana. She is all flesh and unbridled desire and veritably steals every seen she is in.

Director Michael Murray wisely keeps the focus on the underlying religious aspects of the play.
Williams is interested, more than anything, not simply in how his characters deal with their faith but, more broadly, human mercy and kindness. Murray finds not just tormented souls but one's that can still express their divine qualities. The production will run through May 25.

Labels: A Noise Within, LA Theater Reviews

Salonen, Griffey, Paasikivi and the LA Philharmonic
Photo : mine 2008

Or at least not this weekend at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. What started out as a great program stumbled along the way to a not necessarily superb finish when Esa-Pekka Salonen led the L.A. Philhamonic in a 20th century program including Hindemith’s Mathis der Maler symphony paired with Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde. Certainly a program with very little fluff and the kind of show that Salonen and our excellent hometown crew can get down to serious business with. The soloists for the Mahler included tenor Anthony Dean Griffey and mezzo-soprano Lilli Paasikivi so my expectations naturally were somewhat high.

Things started off well with a very convincing performance of the Hindemith, which benefited greatly from Salonen’s clean-as-a whistle, detailed approach. The sound was amazing and did get one to wondering exactly why we haven’t heard Hindemith’s operas on these shores more regularly. Smaller amounts of less interesting music have been used to launch a thousand Puccini productions over the years, and this symphony proved extremely rewarding.

So with such a strong start, it was hard to wrap my head around why Mahler’s song-cycle of a symphony didn’t fare better. Part of it sadly was Griffey. I love Anthony Dean Griffey and after his triumphant turn as Peter Grimes at the Metropolitan Opera this spring, one wants to believe he can do anything. But Salonen and Mahler were merciless; easily overpowering him throughout and leaving him inaudible even in the great acoustics of the hall. He was clearly straining as if he were being tormented by Bugs Bunny at another famous Los Angeles landmark.


But this wasn’t the Hollywood Bowl, and with the more lively aspects of Erde under water, the slower drearier bits stood out making the work seem more lumbering and ponderous than it needed to. There were a number of really amazing moments, though, attributable in large part to Lilli Paasikivi – yet another Finnish wonder with an absolutely beautiful voice that she employed to maximal effect. She nailed the thanatos of the work. Her appearances in the U.S. have been limited, which is a situation I’d surely vote to change in the very near future. Still, there are plenty more programs featuring Salonen left on this season’s Philharmonic schedule so we’ll keep our fingers crossed that things pick up.

Labels: LA Philharmonic 07/08

I tend to hold petty grudges over non-existent and perceived slights. Thus it should be no surprise that listening to L.A.’s only classical music radio station, KUSC, this morning pissed me off again. It’s silly really, when you are the only game in town it’s impossible to be all things to all people. We all make decisions about how many negatives we can tolerate in our own minds about the people and things that we otherwise like or admire. But there are limits. KUSC is in the middle of a brief pledge drive and during this morning's opera broadcast time, on-air “talent” Jim Svejda and Duff Murphy were busy hawking the same crap public radio stations always do during pledge drives. (Exactly why anyone who is interested enough to listen to a classical music station to begin with would be tempted to pledge for a 6 CD set of “opera’s greatest arias” is beyond me.) I’m not much of a fan of either of these two to begin with. Svejda, besides having perhaps the most affected voice in all of radio, holds the dubious distinction of having uttered the infamous five words “My good friend Michael Medved” a few years back on-air, forever relegating himself to the realm of people who know many things despite a glaring lack of common sense.

In any event, the blather turned to the topic of the just completed Metropolitan Opera radio broadcast season and after praising last week's performance of Die Entführung aus dem Serail Murphy mentioned the prior week’s performance of Glass’ Satyagraha. With thinly disguised derision Murphy noted that one could tune-in “anytime” during the performance without really having to hear anything more and get everything they needed from a few minutes of the piece. Murphy and Svejda then snickered over this keen insight into the repetitive nature of Glass’ work for several moments until Svejda brought things to a halt noting that they might end up offending people out there who actually like Glass’ music. He went on to note that KUSC even plays Glass. Now isn’t that special.

While Murphy and Svejda are certainly entitled to their opinion, regardless of its lack of originality or insight, it does in fact bother me that neither of these supposed aficionados could quite pick up on the relevance of perhaps one of the biggest musical events so far this year outside of a tag line for some cheap jokes. More concerning, it also highlights the station's tokenism and patronizing attitude toward contemporary and late 20th century classical music. Long relegated to little more than a couple hours on Saturday night, KUSC has had little interest in advocating new(er) music outside of film music.

Which brings me back to the question, how much do you have to agree or disagree with an organization in order to support it? KUSC is an important enterprise here in L.A. and I usually pledge several hundred dollars a year to do my part to keep it going despite the fact that I rarely listen to it. But maybe the hosts are right. My interests in western art music and theirs are pretty divergent. Heaven knows they’ve got plenty of listeners who can’t get enough Beethoven and Mozart and can’t wait to get their hands on those generic compilation CDs they’re pushing so hard right now. Clearly my money would be better spent going to something I actually support. So this year my KUSC donation will go to REDCAT or perhaps to fund my trip to see Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten during this year’s Lincoln Center Festival in New York. Ah, that’s the ticket. I feel better already.

Labels: KUSC

Christoph von Dohnányi and The Philharmonia Orchestra
Photo : mine 2008

Last night was the first of two performances from London’s Philharmonia Orchestra at Walt Disney Concert Hall here in Los Angeles. This was the group’s debut in the hall, and Christoph von Dohnányi, their current Principal Conductor, led the performance. Of course, this position will soon be vacated only to be occupied by the L.A. Phil's soon-to-exit music director, Esa-Pekka Salonen, starting this Fall. So, in some ways, this show was kind of like meeting your ex’s new boyfriend shortly after he’s dumped you. Of course, this is completely unfair considering that Salonen has a long-standing relationship with the Philharmonia and it's certainly not the matter of his leaving Los Angeles in order simply to take on another conducting position in London. Still, seeing the new, younger, sexier occupant of your former position can rub against the grain. Salonen was there last night sitting next to Peter Sellars who is in town for who knows what. But, while the L.A. Philharmonic big wigs and press were all there, apparently the locals didn’t get the memo in that there were more than a few empty seats throughout the hall.

The show itself was rather meat and potatoes – Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4 and Mahler’s First. Why you ask? Hell if I know, but there it was. Dohnányi gets a bad wrap in some circles, but his leadership here was completely reasonable if not always ideal. The Mendelssohn was no-nonsense. Brisk without airs, this very young-appearing orchestra played a spirited and totally sensible version of the work. Mahler, of course, is always the greater challenge in that his music is anything but sensible and sooner or later decisions are going to have to be made. Dohnányi came out swinging with a surprisingly aggressive account at times. Not that it was sloppy or insensitive, but a little overpowering and unnecessarily loud in spots. The players clearly had a lot of spirit though and in the end seemed to pass the most important test – they acted like they truly cared about what they were playing and looked like they were having a heck of a time doing it. On balance, not a half-bad evening. Tomorrow’s even less interesting program includes Beethoven’s 5th and Schumann’s 1st for those who may be interested.

Labels: Dohnanyi, LA Visiting Orchestras

Kate Fleetwood and Patrick Stewart debate their stain removal options
Photo : Richard Termine 2008

I decided to stick around New York an extra day in part due to the recommendation of a friend that I see the Chichester Festival production of Macbeth that opened last month at BAM and has since transferred to Broadway to the Lyceum Theater on 45th Street. One of the reasons this production has received so much attention is that amongst its very good cast Patrick Stewart appears in the title role. I was advised by my friend that this may be the best Macbeth I’ll ever see and given Stewart’s performance that might well be the case. He’s excellent primarily because he’s one of those performers who seems to understand the similarities, and more importantly the differences, between Macbeth and Shakespeare’s other torn “hero” Hamlet. Stewart is neither endlessly conflicted, nor is he so menacing that there is no room for sympathy. He does the mad business well to boot.

The production is bloody, bold, and resolute if nothing else and may be one of the most disturbing and dark Macbeth’s I’ve seen. Set in what appears to be an abandoned institutional kitchen (or perhaps a New York subway station) in some totalitarian period of the 20th century, the feeling is definitely more Stalin than Hitler. The witches become off-kilter nurses, and guns are brandished as readily as knives. However, all of this is augmented with technologically savvy audio-visual elements in the form of synched video projected onto the set at key moments. This is particularly effective during a bit of stage business derived to place the intermission in the middle of the banquet scene. Act I concludes with the actual arrival of Banquo’s ghost who, covered in blood, appears at the rear of the stage arriving in the service elevator as we see a video projection of blood steadily increasing from a trickle to a pour on either side of the elevator entrance. Banquo approaches Macbeth directly on top of the table allowing his shocked response to conclude Act I. Act II opens again at the beginning of the banquet scene, but this time it is replayed from the point of view of the dinner guests, now with Macbeth suddenly responding to an unseen specter. It’s a clever ruse and just one of many that director Rupert Goold has masterfully woven into the production. Not only does this Macbeth have the expected body count, but the military campaigns that underpin this work seem more visceral and urgent than one usually expects.

Of course, there is much more to the evening than clever tricks and Patrick Stewart. The rest of the cast is very good and Kate Fleetwood’s take on Lady Macbeth is immensely gratifying. It’s a rather multi-dimensional take on the role that is much more than just unbridled fearful ambition. But she nor anyone else skimps on the ick factor here. There is little sunshine in this chamber of horrors but, while brutal, it’s a trip definitely worth taking.

Labels: Out of Town Theater Reviews

Ramón Vargas and cast
Photo : Marty Sohl/Met 2008

It was a mostly Mozart kind of weekend with two productions that are wrapping up the Metropolitan Opera season here in New York, Die Entführung aus dem Serail and La Clemenza di Tito. I saw both today and while they are both less commonly performed works, together they support the argument that overall, the Met’s Mozart productions are in more dire needed of replacement than perhaps those of any other major composer. This evening’s season opening performance of La Clemeza di Tito was poorly attended, which is a shame considering its many fine qualities. Foremost among these was a return appearance of Baroque and 18th century music specialist Harry Bicket who led a wonderfully detailed and lively performance of this work in a house where no one else but James Levine has conducted it since he marshaled it back into the repertory in 1984. A tough act to follow and perhaps some of the reason for the small crowd, but Bicket was spectacular with the Met opera orchestra. He was joined by the typical A-list cast including the legendary Susan Graham. Every note from her throat was perfection and even though she was forced to dress as Barney Rubble throughout Act II she was reason enough to be there. Ramón Vargas made his umpteenth appearance on the Met stage this year as Tito. He is no slouch, but like Domingo’s performances of Bajazet in Washington this month, Vargas is not going to go down in the history books as an illustrious performer of Mozart and Baroque operas. He’s a little too zesty for this material in my opinion but he’s game and can act. The cast also featured an excellent Heidi Grant Murphy as Servilia and Tamar Iveri as Vitellia.

All of this takes place amongst perhaps the most massive and unnecessary set imaginable. Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's design dates back to 1984 and gives everyone a very nice place to stand around while they sing and look for something else to do. Some, like Iveri, take the Norma Desmond approach to this problem, while others emote within a more predictable range. What's the point of all the massive columns and arches if the burning of Rome at the end of Act I is represented by litle more than a few red flashes of light. This is still part of that 80s trend to make it look like the 18th century version of ancient Rome, but today it just looks ridiculous. It’s musical qualities do compensate for many of it’s theatrical problems, though, and there are three more performances remaining over the last two weeks of the season. Unfortunately, only the final one will be broadcast over Sirius so you may want to check out to live internet stream of Tuesday’s performance coming up on May 6 or, better yet, with so many tickets available, why not actually go see it.

Matthew Polenzani and Diana Damrau
Photo : Ken Howard/Met 2008

The parallels between the successes and failures of Clemenza and the Met’s concurrently running Die Entführung aus dem Serail are numerous and I suppose unsurprising. A 1979 production from John Dexter is revived largely as an excuse to have the marvelous Diana Damrau return to the stage. It’s a rather cartoonish staging that is so dated it could border on the transcendent. What at the time was meant to be whimsical, now gives the whole production a rather minimal look. But it's still dull. If the current production of La Fille du Régiment is what comedy is today, this genteel production is a reminder of what comedy was. Serail also has a somewhat miscast tenor in the form of Matthew Polenzani who is fine but not particularly Mozartian in any way. Kristinn Sigmundsson plays Osmin for maximum effect and is quite good here throughout. Damrau is, of course, the star of the show and deservedly so. Though her costumes also do her little favors, the agility and litheness of her voice carries everyone along, regardless of their sins. David Robertson was in the pit with the orchestra and, while he does not necessarily have a big reputation in Mozart circles, his leadership was quite admirable. There is one more performance on Wednesday that will be broadcast on Sirius. Here's keeping our fingers crossed that while Peter Gelb is busily retiring all the out-of-date productions at the Met (a Herculean task I grant you) these two losers make it onto the pile as well.

Labels: Damrau, Graham, Met opera reviews 07/08, Out of Town

Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Flórez
Photo : Ken Howard/Met 2008

Perhaps the biggest hit of the spring season, the Metropolitan Opera’s current run of Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment is quite a wonder. Although it is fashionable on some music blogs to peck and moan about the production, it should be noted that Laurent Pelly’s design, which features Juan Diego Flórez and Natalie Dessay, does in fact live up to all the sold-out, high C, media blitz hype that has been pursuing it across the globe and into New York. I could sit here and carry on about Flórez’ performance, but there’s really no need at this point. (BTW he did not do an encore on Friday's performance, which frankly was A-OK with me. If I wanted to spend all evening marveling at physical prowess, I'd watch sports.) Instead, I’d like to focus on two other major contributors to this huge success.

First and foremost is Laurent Pelly. Directors and designers who specialize in opera often get a bad wrap these days, but Pelly is one of the most exceptional directors working in the field today. Infinitely witty, with a playful visual style, he has helmed several of the best productions throughout the world in the last decade, many for the Opéra National de Paris. Not that he doesn't have his detractors who find his irreverence calculating and distracting. But frankly, they're missing the joke, but no matter, almost everyone else in these sold-out audiences seem to get it. His set of mountainous maps is brilliant and his comic use of chorus and dancers always seems right on the money. The criticism that this production is “too small” for the Met stage is ridiculous but not surprising considering the stages full of unnecessary shit that Met audiences have grown used to in countless productions for decades. Pelly’s Fille is one example of what an excellent opera production can look like when the cast isn’t forced into submission but their dull surroundings and instead allowed to fill the theater with their singing and acting talents. (Gelb cannot get rid of all of those Zeffirelli monstrosities fast enough for my dollar.) Or in response to the couple next to us at dinner afterwards, yes this Fille does not "look like an opera" and may be "too Broadway." That is precisely the point. "Looking like an opera" is exactly what makes them so often suck when they do.

But Pelly’s genius must have the performers to carry it out, and not only is he blessed with Flórez, but additionally benefits from a kindred spirit in Natalie Dessay. With so much attention and marketing around encores and high notes, Dessay’s brilliant work is getting short shrift. She is hysterical. Her Marie has apparently developed the ADHD one would associate with a child raised by a group of soldiers. Her singing is wonderfully acrobatic but best of all she never succumbs to making her entire acting performance subservient to it. She performs throughout with a physicality that demands attention and a subtlety to marvel at. This is not your great-grandmother’s stand-and-deliver performance and it should put to shame anyone who would continue to support such an approach to that particular art form. Dessay’s achievement is made all the more sweet by the support of two other world class singing actors – Felicity Palmer and Alessandro Corbelli. Dessay mentioned in last week's half-time feature of the HD broadcast that she finds a true mark of success when the audience can watch and forget that everyone on stage is singing. This run of La Fille du Régiment stands as a great achievement towards this endeavor.

Labels: Dessay, JDF, Met opera reviews 07/08, Out of Town

Act II of Satyagraha
Photo : Ken Howard/Met 2008

I feel I shouldn’t say anything negative about Philip Glass’ Satyagraha that wrapped up its run at the Metropolitan Opera in New York last night. Simply put, this is exactly the kind of opera repertoire I’d like to see more often, so if you want to reinforce good behavior the best thing to do is praise it. So let me start there. It’s really a beautiful opera. Everybody wants to call the music “hypnotic” or “mesmerizing” which frankly is garbage. It’s no more “hypnotic” than Wagner is. Saying that Glass’ music is “mesmerizing” is basically trying to apologize for the fact that it’s repetitive. It is repetitive – get over it. It’s also popular (still) to debate Glass’ overall importance or significance as a composer. But I can think of no composer of art music today whose work would be so immediately recognizable to a lay ear without foreknowledge of the particular piece in question. After several hundred years of music history, that is a decidedly rare accomplishment. Like his work or not – I wager it’s going to be remembered.

Thursday’s final performance of Satyagraha also benefited from the only appearance in the run from Alan Oke as Gandhi. Oke is the British tenor who preformed the role in this production’s original outing with the English National Opera last year. Although Richard Croft sounded great on the radio throughout the run, I was glad to see Oke who carried the evening with his magnificent performance. The whole cast was exemplary as would be expected here in New York, though I was particularly fond of Rachelle Durkin as Miss Schlesen. The production is filled with numerous memorable images including a sky full of hanging lanterns and monstrous puppets waging war with one another. The stage business throughout milks a rather smart and often effective newspaper motif with sheets acting at times as projection screens, scenery or the stuff that puppets are made of. All of this dreamed up by Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch and their Improbable theater group. Glass himself showed up at the end, as he had in earlier performances, to a huge hero’s welcome from the audience. Good for him, he well deserves it.

But, to tell the truth, as much as I want to encourage good behavior, in a perfect world where performances of operas like Satyagraha would be much more common, I’d be less worried to ask why everyone’s sights were set so low here. I didn’t care for this production anywhere near as much as the Achim Freyer staging filmed for Stuttgart Opera in 1983 and currently available on DVD. Freyer seems unafraid of Glass’ concept and lack of narrative structure creating scenes that often have little to do with any action described and instead focusing on the philosophical concepts that underpin them. Phelim and Crouch take a very literal interpretation of the work right down to period costumes and the like. They do everything they can to emphasize the narrative elements of the piece. Even the lack of opera titles reinforces this effect. Since the Sanskrit text is essentially philosophical tracts from the Bhagavad Gita, without titles, it appears the cast members are actually communicating to one another with their own words, which is not exactly the case. Some of the ideological thrust of the work is lost among the late Victorian falderall. The set itself is an enclosed semi-circular wall of rusty corrugated steel. It’s been a big season for new productions featuring walls at the Met and again we are besieged by people popping in and out of various windows in the wall throughout the performance.
Musically there was a little left to be desired as well.

Dante Anzolini led the Met Orchestra through a performance that was all smooth rounded edges and soft landings. Transitions between segments are made with ease and contrasting elements are played down. While a completely legitimate approach, I found it rather timid in a work with as many jarring elements as lyrical ones. Still, these are all minor complaints in my mind. This staging of Satyagraha is a major accomplishment long overdue in this specific corner of the opera world. Let’s hope it’s just the beginning of things to come.

Labels: Met opera reviews 07/08, Out of Town

Is that a doughnut? Domingo in Tamerlano
Photo : Karin Cooper/WNO 2008

Great opera does not live by great vocal performances alone. If there is anyone who needs yet more evidence of this fact, check out Washington National Opera’s new production of Handel’s Tamerlano, which opened last night at the Kennedy Center. It’s got a great cast with David Daniels in the title role, Placido Domingo as the humiliated Bajazet, Sarah Coburn as his daughter Asteria and the very underrated Patricia Bardon as Andronico. Everyone is more than adequate – they’re actually excellent. Even Domingo, who is clearly not cut out for the Handelian brand of pyrotechnics, is stunning in that he produces the level of performance that he does in a new role for him at this stage of his career. He’s taken up this role recently in Madrid as well, and his stamina is awe-inspiring. I continue to be taken with how strong Bardon is and can only hope she continues to be cast in more prominent ways on this side of the Atlantic. The rather adorable Andrew Foster-Williams made the most of his small role of Leone, leaving only the periodically pitchy Irene, voiced here by Claudia Huckle, to raise any eyebrows during the performance.

So what’s my problem? Well, everything else. William Lacey conducts a frustratingly slow and plodding version of the score that swells to three-and-a-half hours even with significant cuts. The musical lifelessness is unfortunately matched by a new and surprisingly uninteresting production directed by Chas Rader-Shieber with design by David Zinn and lighting design by Christopher Akerlind. This is the same team responsible for New York City Opera’s popular Flavio production and their recent disastrous La donna del Lago. The production is thankfully modern dress, but little other drama has survived. The large empty gray room that serves as more or less a single set for the whole opera occasionally benefits from a chair or the moving of the back wall of the set, but that’s about it. The color scheme is black and white except for occasional red in the lighting and the costumes of Bajazet and his daughter Asteria. Otherwise everyone stands around looking for something to do – especially the rather large corps of black-clad storm troopers who appear to have oddly little policing to do in their imaginary totalitarian state. The whole thing might as well be set in a doughnut shop for all the listless and bored officers standing around. Apparently handling weapons was not a crucial part of their training either in that such items are wrested from them with virtually no effort and all the ho-hum brandishing of them gives the production a Hogan’s Heroes feel. In fact Rader-Shieber seems to have a knack for the ridiculously ineffective gesture. Tamerlano induces fear in those around him by such means as knocking over small piles of books or removing his tie as if to bind someone up before subsequently wussing out of it. As any Regietheater practitioner can tell you, the tie isn’t going to cut it in the tension production world where a little bondage, blindfolding and bloodying are standard practice.

So maybe it should be no surprise that the audience seemed fairly underwhelmed on this opening night with so much going for it on paper. Even with a very notable cast, Handel’s opera can definitely do better overall than this.

Labels: David Daniels, Domingo, Out of Town, WNO

Salonen at the podium
Photo : mine 2008

I must keep reminding myself that separation is a process. It will hurt less over time and things do get easier as life goes on. So it is with me, Esa-Pekka Salonen and the L.A. Philharmonic. With a little over a year to go until his departure, I find that I now believe myself about 4 times out of 10 when I tell myself that everything is going to be all right when he is gone. Every day things get a little better.

Of course, nights like yesterday's don’t necessarily help. Salonen was back in town for a series of concerts that will wrap up the 07/08 season in May. This weekend’s main event was an absolutely kick-ass rendition of Bruckner’s 6th Symphony. Clear, cool, and lyrical, it was a performance with insight and Salonen's own brand of detail we’ve come to love here in L.A. Those ringing, solid final notes of each movement were a wonder to hear. Is it crazy to say I'd have paid to hear Salonen lead this excellent group of musicians for those three or four notes alone? It’s like they’re a machine that can stop and turn in a new direction in a split second with no sign of effort. Mozart's clarinet concerto was also on the bill with the L.A. Phil's Michele Zukovsky as soloist. It was thoroughly enjoyable and a nice warm up for the Bruckner. These performances will conclude with a visit to the Segerstrom concert hall tomorrow afternoon.

Labels: LA Philharmonic 07/08, Salonen