Out West Arts: Performance at the end of the world

Patricia Racette
Photo: Ken Howard/Santa Fe Opera 2009

I suppose the good news about The Letter, the world premiere opera from Paul Moravec and Terry Teachout now finishing its run in Santa Fe, is that it is not a total disaster. It’s close, mind you, but not quite there. Or comparing it to other recent world premieres, it’s not as bad as Howard Shore’s The Fly, but it made me pine for the musical and theatrical values of Tan Dun’s The Last Emperor. The opera is based on W. Somerset Maugham’s play of the same name but is frankly far more indebted to the William Wyler film version from 1940 starring Bette Davis. It’s a simple melodramatic story about a wife who kills her lover and then tries to cover it up by claiming self-defense in the face of an attempted rape. The murderer, Leslie Crosbie, thinks she’ll get off until the victim’s mistress finds an incriminating letter from Crosbie and uses it to blackmail her. Crosbie is set free, but everyone is dragged into the big shame spiral.

The opera was intended to mimic the feel of a movie and runs just around 100 minutes in a single act. Sadly, it’s this very effort to maintain a cinematic scope that is the work’s major downfall. It’s well paced, but it felt like a retread. Teachout’s libretto is little more than a moderately altered version of the screenplay, which wasn’t Shakespeare to begin with. Teachout joins a long line of music critics and authors who’ve crossed the divide between creator and commentator. Sadly, he ends up not with the likes of Shaw and Virgil Thomson, but instead with the likes of Roger Ebert. Think of The Letter as the operatic equivalent of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. Only much funnier.

There also seems to be a complete lack of awareness of camp by the creators. Due to the passage of time, The Letter has gone from tense melodrama to comic walk down memory lane. The show elicits more than a few unintentional laughs from the audience with its histrionics and outdated cultural mores. In fact the piece probably would have worked better as a comedy than it does in its current form. Moravec’s music, of course, can be taken independently of the text. It’s not bad, and at times there are some moments of intrigue. However, there are just as many moments that sound like they could have been taken wholesale from any film noir soundtrack of the period. The vocal writing never really ignites into something memorable or affecting. Patrick Summers was at the podium and seemed to have things under control with no wavering or confusion on anyone's part that I could tell at this point in the run.

The cast itself does admirably with the meager material foisted upon them. Anthony Michaels-Moore is Robert Crosbie, Leslie’s husband, and comes off with an almost sexy frustration in his part. James Maddalena plays Leslie’s lawyer Howard Joyce in the most consistent and believable acting in the show. The big part, though, is reserved for the underrated American soprano Patricia Racette. She is commanding and dispatches this mess with ease. All I could think about was when is someone going to get around to writing a new role for her that actually lives up to her prodigious talent. It hasn’t happened yet. One piece of good news for her, though. She gets to wear a number of excellent period costumes designed by Tom Ford for the production. I hope she gets to keep them so that they see the light of day again.

So it appears that The Letter is likely to sink quickly into memory. Teachout and Moravec claimed at one point that their opera was written specifically targeted at people who don’t like opera. It appears that they have succeeded. As one might suspect, though, this is not a recipe for success given that The Letter also appears to be unable to convert anyone into liking opera either.

Labels: Santa Fe Opera 09

Lucas Meachem and Susanna Phillips
Photo: Ken Howard/Santa Fe Opera 2009

I’m sad to report that Santa Fe Opera’s current revival of Don Giovanni may be the worst production of a Mozart opera I’ve ever seen. It is certainly the worst Don Giovanni I’ve ever seen. In fact, its probably the greatest disservice to Don Juan since Johnny Depp and Marlon Brando made Don Juan de Marco in 1994. Of course, that film did have a Bryan Adams song to recommend it. I should make it clear that I don’t necessarily see this production's failure as having anything to do with the cast or with conductor Lawrence Renes. This was the kind of young cast Santa Fe likes to put in its longer-running popular summer fare and I rather liked Lucas Meachem in the title role. He can’t quite pull of the Tim McGraw look that he and Matthew Rose, who plays Leporello, are asked to contend with, but I really don’t think anybody could. Meachem is attractive and can muster the arrogance of a lothario on stage. Of course, the rest of the cast, including Kate Lindsey (Zerlina), Susanna Phillips (Donna Elvira), Elza van den Heever (Donna Anna), were all attired in late Victorian garb for one of those non-specific hodgepodge looks that I typically like but here just seemed lazy. Again the singing was uniformly solid and enjoyable though the acting seemed unfocused with zero direction or guidance. Everybody had found some shtick of their own and they were sticking with it from Zerlina's homage to Nellie Oleson to Leporello's repeated regret over not electing to have the V8 when he was able to.

Director Chas Rader-Shieber and his design team have created perhaps the most unsexy, unmenacing Don Giovanni imaginable. They take Don Giovanni as nothing more than a comedy, a point not lost on the audience that openly laughed as Giovanni is dragged to hell in the final scene. Yes, there is ample comedy in this opera, but there’s much more too it than that. For all intents and purposes this Giovanni might as well have been Cosi Fan Tutte. The set consists of a wall of many doors and windows suggestive of an urban street, again including several coexisting, but unspecified time periods. The walls move back and forth in two halves and there are a couple of trees that get pushed around. In the final scene the stage is filled with cabinets that eventually act as light sources when opened, and one serves as the entry point for the protagonist into hell. Otherwise, there is nothing going on and nothing for anyone to do but stand around and gesticulate a little bit. Oh, and everything is painted red. Even the trees. I suppose this is a production that might appeal to someone…who…really likes red. Otherwise it’s stone cold dead and seriously misjudges the non-comic content of this particular opera.

Labels: Santa Fe Opera 09

Dimitri Pittas and Jennifer Black with cast
Photo: Ken Howard/Santa Fe Opera 2009

I’ve begun to wonder. Is it possible to do a bad staging of L’Elisir d’Amore? Donizetti and Felice Romani fashioned such a taught comic gem that it seems to induce laughter in the hands of nearly any director and design team that comes into contact with it. Sure it’s not the musical monument any of the Mozart/DaPonte operas are, but L’Elisir is a crowd-pleaser with its share of memorable music. Here in Santa Fe the director duties belong to Stephen Lawless who has updated the action (you guessed it) to a post WWII-era Italy with American occupying forces. Nemorino is a mechanic and Adina is now a sort-of local school teacher. The action takes place in front of a roadside billboard that carries several different banners throughout including both ads and scenery. There’s a red sports car Nemorino is working on that he wheels out and later drives on stage and there is also Belcore’s jeep. (How a motor vehicle on stage always elicits applause like it’s Top Gear or something is beyond me.) Wedged in between this are a number of outright funny gags. Take for instance the chorus' preparation at the sound of Belcore’s approach. They immediately grab small Italian flags to wave until realizing that these are Americans on the way up the hill. The entire chorus runs around to dump the Italian flags only to return with American flags seconds later as the sergeant arrives. There’s also a rather funny segue from the intermission into act two where one of the local women writes Adina’s wedding menu on a blackboard as she carefully mulls over each course before writing it down. It’s when she gets to the third course that the audience begins to note that everything includes chicken, even the dessert.

So, with such appropriate frivolity why was the evening such a drag? Sadly, it comes down to the musical part of this evening of musical theater. Even with a completely competent young American cast, the musical values of Wednesday’s performance were not so great. The chorus was AWOL for most of the evening. They were almost completely inaudible at the end of Act I and with only moderate revival after the break. Unfortunately, the disorganization spilled over into the pit where conductor Corrado Rovaris managed a rather flat and lifeless interpretation of a score that is all about zing.

Thank god for Dimitri Pittas. Santa Fe Opera has been billing him as the big star for this production, and he is. With tenor disappointment an international pastime these days, hearing someone sing this role fluidly with so much ease and command is a wonder. He’s a decent actor as well and a rising star at the Metropolitan Opera in New York where he’s gotten into some higher profile assignments lately. Which is very good for him if he can maintain the quality demonstrated here this evening. The Belcore, Patrick Carfizzi, and Adina, Jennifer Black, are both alumni of the vocal apprenticeship program in Santa Fe and both were strong, assured performers. There were no obvious weak links and everyone looked fresh and excited, which goes a long way. So while not everyone in the show came to the dance in quite the same shape, Santa Fe’s current L’Elisir is by no means a total disaster. It competently sung and has a cute and funny staging. It just needs a little more musical inspiration.

Labels: Santa Fe Opera 09

Natalie Dessay as Violetta
Photo: Ken Howard/Santa Fe Opera 2009

What’s the best strategy for an opera company to weather tough times? I can’t tell you. But I do know that Santa Fe Opera has lucked into a confluence of factors that’s hopefully helping to keep this vital American company afloat in the rising economic waters. It is typical for the company to schedule lots of performances of at least one old warhorse every summer. This company is also no stranger to the occasional big A-list star. But this year they have two of these factors rolled into one with what is clearly the hottest ticket here this season with Natalie Dessay returning to Santa Fe for her first performances in Verdi’s La Traviata. I saw it on Tuesday and will say that despite criticism from some quarters that she’s too lightweight for the role, there is no question that she is a viable and intriguing Violetta. That’s not to say she’s one of the best ever, or even one of the best currently signing the part based on this viewing. But she clearly brings something to the table, so to speak.

Specifically, the thing I found most interesting was that she actually seemed like a somewhat naive, high-spirited party girl. When love comes along she is totally blindsided by it and unable to contend with the implications. Her approach stands out in a world filled with rich creamy interpretations from the likes of Gheorghiu and Fleming who sing the role exquisitely, but create the sensation that Violetta is both matronly and worldly wise. Violetta should always be a little more Sophie than the Marschallin in my view, and this is one Traviata where I didn't sit around wondering why Alfredo would be so in love with someone obviously his mother's age. Dessay appears to be the youthful red-hot center of light in this world as she bounds from the back of the stage in her opening scene with a squeal in a flouncy pink gown and fire-red hair. Her singing is beautiful and her coloratura is on full display in an Act I that seems to fit her better than the demands of the later acts. She is paired with Saimir Pirgu as Alfredo and Dessay's real life husband, Laurent Naouri, as Germont. Neither is quite up to her game, but Naouri is fairly close giving a competent if not completely heartbreaking turn in the role. Pirgu is likable, attractive, and athletic, but overwhelmed in the vocal clutch with some gravel-tinged high notes. Frederic Chaslin conducted the orchestra in a lively turn and seemed to have things well coordinated with the stage.

Natalie Dessay as Violetta
Photo: mine 2009

Of course, this is not only Dessay’s return to Santa Fe, but also that of one of her favorite collaborators, Laurent Pelly. Pelly has created marvelous comic productions too numerous to mention including the recent worldwide smash staging of Donizetti's La Fille du Regiment (which starred Dessay) and Platée for Opera de Paris. And while Pelly is undoubtedly a comic master, here in a drama things aren’t quite smooth sailing. The opera opens with Alfredo watching a funeral procession complete with coffin crossing the stage. The implication is that the opera to follow is all told in flashback and I would argue also that Violetta is always, already dead. The stage is filled with a mountain of various-sized gray boxes with narrow walkways in between. And while it’s not explicit, the stage itself may be one giant memento mori - the boxes being tombs in some older European cemetery. The boxes are dressed up with turf and later mirrors in Act II and covered in sheets for Act III, but Violetta is always aware of exactly where she is headed. She just can’t keep dancing on her own grave forever. It’s a production that is short on spectacle, but big on ideas, which, needless to say, would make it a production that is a hard sell if it weren’t for Dessay. In the end, despite all the thought, though, it was a little hard to connect with and wore on one's nerves after awhile. But it was Dessay's night, and things rolled right along with a strong public response to the show. Given that this is her first turn in the role, the next question would be where does she go with it from here and how does her performance continue to evolve in the part. She's starting from a very interesting place.

Labels: Santa Fe Opera 09

Paul Groves and Christine Brewer
Photo: Ken Howard/Santa Fe Opera 2009

I love visiting Santa Fe. About half-way through the first show of my current opera festival excursion, Gluck’s Alceste, that sense of relief and excitement hit me. It’s all so beautiful. Of course, this really enjoyable production contributed greatly to the feeling. In fact, despite some obvious flaws, it pretty much made for an ideal evening. Alceste is admittedly an odd opera. The king of Thessaly, Admete, is dying and in a desperate attempt to save his life, Alceste, Admete’s wife, offers her life in exchange for his to the god Apollo who has mandated the need for such a transaction to save Admete's life. Everyone moans about these circumstances for two hours until Hercules suddenly shows up out of nowhere, on break from his many labors, to rescue them both from the gates of hell.

You’re going to have to spice this up a little bit, and Santa Fe Opera, as usual, delivers the goods. First up, they’ve recruited a great cast headed up by the unparalleled Christine Brewer. She was freaking fantastic. All I could think about was how tragic it was that she canceled those met Opera Brünnhildes this year. A lot has been made of her recent health limitations, and it is true that plenty of opportunities are made available for her to be seated over the course of this evening. I've never seen such a ingratiating chorus before, chairs always at the ready constantly offered to leaders. But make no mistake, Brewer is in this to win it. She's up and down, lying on the floor, and kneeling on at least two occasions while singing during the performance. If there are knee problems, you wouldn't know it to look at her. Brewer’s performance alone is worth seeing this show. Meanwhile, Paul Groves sings Admete, a role he’s done in may other venues. He’s a solid and quite convincing actor and vocally agile. There was a little trouble at the high end of his range, but not devastatingly so. He was also pretty game in a sort of goth tunic with red laces at the back and slits in front high enough to get some above the knee bare leg action in a handful of moments. I totally bought Groves and Brewer as a married couple.

Then there is the conceptual production from Francisco Negrin. You’ve got to admire someone who finds room for Spock, Edward Scissorhands, and five dancers dressed like the Jigsaw killer from Saw all in the same opera. The gray stage is surrounded by gently curving walls that later fold together to reveal a stairway to the underworld. There’s also a giant cracked egg that serves as altar, hearth, and other central points. There is some struggle to create the sense of scene changes. Act I has a ridiculous detached wall with a doorway in it that is moved back and forth in front of the egg. The wall is also made of a scrim and sometimes we can just see through it. As with many other things in the staging, you begin to get too wrapped up in what exactly everyone is doing with that stupid wall rather than following the rest of the action. There are dancers that act both as the keepers of the gates of hell and at other times ultra-expressive mourners. It could get a little Rhythm Nation at times if you know what I mean, but the good news is it never looked dull. Apollo and his denizens came off as Trent Reznor's idea of the Greek gods, which only made Herucles' appearance in a baby blue tunic with Dr. Spock wig all the more peculiar. There were saplings in various stages of growth, and bolts of sheer fabric with "la Mort" embroidered on them. It was a lot to handle and in Act III, some of the staging business came off as confused and clunky as everyone tried to manage a seemingly endless amount of activity. In the end Negri tweaks the conclusion of the opera by implying that while Alceste and Admete are given a reprieve from death, it's only for now. Rather than flip the tone of the opera, he wants to drive home the notion of the temporality of human life in the face of the gods as Alceste and Admete are wrapped in the "la Mort" sheet and dragged off the stage again after the celebration. But I'd take this any day over a stand and deliver production. It's fun and interesting and has a point of view.

Alceste is really a very good show and an excellent chance to see Brewer in action. There are two more performances and I imagine from the many available seats at Monday's show, tickets are still available for those who want to go.

Labels: Santa Fe Opera 09