Living at the Opera

UA Opera Theatre with the Arizona Symphony Orchestra
The Crucible, by Robert Ward
November 20, Friday, 7:30 p.m.
November 22, Sunday, 3:00 p.m.
Crowder Hall, $15, 12, 10

Opera Scenes
Student Soloists
December 1, Tuesday, 7:30 p.m.
Crowder Hall,

Amelia Rieman Opera Competition
Student Competition
January 31, Sunday, 2:00 p.m.
Crowder Hall, $Free

UA Opera Theatre with the Arizona Symphony Orchestra
Il Matrimonio Segreto, by Domenico Cimarosa
April 8-10, Thursday-Saturday, 7:30 p.m.
April 11, Sunday, 3:00 p.m.
Crowder Hall, $15, 12, 10

Opera Scenes
Student Soloists
May 4, Tuesday, 7:30 p.m.
Crowder Hall,

Eric Owens as Porgy - Picture © Terrence McCarthy

From SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL OPERA REVIEW
By: Harvey Steiman

The current production of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess concluding its run at San Francisco Opera revels in the scope and scale of grand opera, the oversized emotions and big gestures, both musical and dramatic, that make the blood rush when opera takes wing. For the most part, conductor John DeMain got all that from a sumptuous cast and a revved-up San Francisco Opera orchestra without losing the essential jazziness of Gershwin’s music, which segues seamlessly from 1930s dance beats to the sweep of a full-throated aria, and the orchestral thrusts that draw out those big emotions.

As Porgy, bass Eric Owens, last seen here as General Leslie Groves in John Adams’ Doctor Atomic, dominated the cast. He just got stronger of voice and more powerful of stage presence as the evening progressed. A big man, both tall and broad, he was utterly believable as a game-legged cripple with the upper-body strength to best his rival in a knife fight. He also has the tenderness of body language to make his duets with Bess feel special, and the velvet in the voice to bring a catch to the throat when, in the final scene, his sang the first line of “Oh Lord, I’m on my way” with a perfect mixture of pathos, wonder and resolve.

In this production, borrowed from Washington National Opera, Porgy eschewed the goat cart, instead hobbling on a makeshift crutch as he dragged one leg, a theatrical decision that made for more physical options in the love scenes with Bess and other interactions with the cast. It also created a heartbreaking final tableau as he limped across the stage into the light streaming from an opened door, disappearing on the final chord.
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From SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL OPERA REVIEW
By: Harvey Steiman

Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of San Francisco soloists, conducted by Donald Runnicles, San Francisco Opera. 13.6.2009 (HS)

One mark of a true operatic superstar is that he or she never does anything quite like anyone else. That’s what lifts Anna Netrebko’s Violetta Valéry, the doomed heroine of Verdi’s La Traviata, out of the ordinary. As if her voluptuous tone, fearless stage presence and ever-present musicality were not enough, her performance in the role on its opening night at San Francisco Opera impressed with its originality and aptness.

Time and again, Netrebko sidestepped hoary performance practices that have attached themselves to this familiar opera over the years. For example, in the final scene a dying Violetta reads a rueful letter from her lover’s father, who in Act II had convinced her to leave her one chance for love so that his daughter could be free to marry. Most sopranos pull a crumpled paper from their nightgown and make a big, dramatic deal out of it. Netrebko remained supine, eyes closed, reciting the letter from memory. Not only did this reflect how often Violetta has reread the letter, but it made a more gentle, seamless transition to “Addio del passato,” the heartbreaking aria that follows. Which she then sang with no scooping and fearless pianissimo attacks on high notes.

Ah yes, technical mastery. Another hallmark of Netrebko’s work is her ability to cut through the busiest orchestral moments and complex ensembles without showing the least strain, all the while phrasing with impressive dynamic range from soft to loud. Every phrase had a shape that felt natural, not forced or rote. Unfortunately, the technical mastery did not show itself in Act I. She breathed in odd spots. The coloratura in “Sempre libera” never took off, and, for those keeping score, she not only disdained the high E flat at the end, she sang the E flat on the staff as written and not even Verdi’s optional B flat.

More impressive were her interactions with the other characters. The pinnacle came in Act II, essentially a series of scenes with her lover Alfredo and his father Giorgio Germont. I cannot recall a more natural, conversational Act II in my 37 years at the opera. That was as much the work of baritone Dwayne Croft as Germont and tenor Charles Castronovo as Alfredo. Croft, a veteran character singer, brought to the role gravitas and just enough sense of doubt about what he’s doing to make his scenes with Violetta riveting. He also rolled out the music in “Di Provenza il mar” flawlessly. In previous appearances in San Francisco, Castronovo has struck me as an uninspired actor, but here he radiated a passion and youthful vulnerability that made Alfredo into a sympathetic (if largely clueless) character. It all worked so well because Netrebko created a full-blown woman free of caricature. When Germont begins by insulting Violetta, for once we could believe that this as a character with enough substance to respond with dignity, and Germont’s response later, an expression of admiration, makes sense. It created the tension that propelled the rest of the scene.
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By: Bernard Jacobson

All you need to ensure a satisfactory performance of Il trovatore, Enrico Caruso declared, is the four greatest singers in the world.

Well, I am not about to assert that that is what we were presented with in this staging of Verdi’s great piece of operatic blood-and-thunder. Nevertheless, Leone Cottrell-Adkins had managed to secure four principals who offered a deal of fine singing.

I have had occasion to admire tenor Gino Lucchetti and soprano Barbara Smith Jones more than once in the past. As Manrico, Lucchetti again showed himself to be a better singer than some I have encountered on the most famous operatic stages in the world. The voice is attractive in timbre, and beautifully produced throughout its range. Ms Smith Jones did scarcely less well as Leonora, floating her voice with often caressing delicacy, and Charles Robert Stephens, a baritone new to me, brought solid vocal virtues to the difficult role of the Count di Luna, as well as matching Lucchetti in the matter of Italian diction-an area of expertise in which the chorus clearly needed better coaching. Of the principals, only the Azucena seemed to me less authoritative of voice, though Victoria Chaussee made the ill-fated gypsy an eminently touching human figure, and the rest of the cast, including Friedrich Konstantin Schlott as Ferrando, Sharalyn R. Bechtel as Inez, and Zander Martin as Ruiz, fulfilled the demands of their parts very competently.
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From SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL OPERA REVIEW
By: Jose M Irurzun

There is no doubt that Juan Diego Flórez is one of the very greatest singers nowadays: in his own repertoire, he is literally incomparable with any other singer. What I have discovered in the last two years however is that the Peruvian divo has become a singer who shines in a very special way in concerts and inrecital. For an artist to attain such excellence it is necessary not only to be a great singer, but also to have a very special capacity for communication with the audience. This capacity demands a natural manner and friendliness which is getting ever more accentuated. There have been many singers who have been admired by all their audiences, but it is more than difficult for a singer to be loved as well as the subject of admiration. This aspect of Juan Diego is most evident with in his concert and I have rarely witnessed such an evident love affair between a singer and his public as this time in Madrid.

This recital and the one that will take place next Sunday are a kind of a debt of gratitude that Juan Diego Florez is paying to the Teatro Real public after he cancelled his appearance in Rigoletto there. I am sure that the particular close friendship between the opera house’s Artistic Director Antonio Moral and the Peruvian tenor had much to do with his decision to go ahead with these concerts.

Accompanied at the piano by the equally excellent Vincenzo Scalera, this recital was not an easy programme for Florez, although he makes everything seem easy, even the more than difficult. To open the recital with Prince Ramiro’s aria from La Cenerentola was a bold decision, unless like Florez a singer is fully confident of his abilities. He sang all the Rossini pieces with genuine taste and musicality ending the first part of the concert with the “Terra amica” from Zelmira which is full of difficulties, including several high Ds. Judging from what I could hear, his Zelmira at Pesaro next August is going to be something not to be missed.
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by: Paul Duclos

Verdi, Requiem: Heidi Melton (soprano) Stephanie Blythe (mezzo) Stefano Secco (tenor) Andrea Silvestrell (bass) Ian Robertson (Chorus director) ; The San Francisco Opera Chorus and Orchestra conducted by Donald Runnicles, San Francisco Opera House, San Francisco, 30.5.2009 (PD)

It was supposed to be all about Donald Runnicles, the outgoing artistic director of the San Francisco Opera conducting his own gala concert for an adoring audience eager to make it known that he would be truly missed. Leave it to a diva, however, to steal some of the anticipated thunder.

Due to a sudden onset of illness, soprano Patricia Racette withdrew on the eve of the performance. That left Heidi Melton, a third-year Adler Fellow, to step in at the 11th hour. And step in she did, rising to the occasion and demonstrating that she has a voice of her own to be reckoned with. Not that SFO subscribers were completely unfamiliar with her: Melton made her debut here in 2007 as Marianne in Der Rosenkavalier, sang Diana in Iphigénie en Tauride, and created the role of Mary Todd Lincoln in the world premiere of Philip Glass’s Appomattox. In other words, Heidi Melton has been on a fast track for some time now, and she was not about to break pace.

Nor could she afford to do so on this rare occasion, when the San Francisco Opera Chorus and Orchestra was staging a one-night only performance. Sharing the stage with her was the renowned mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, making her SFO debut. Both singers exchanged cheerful, if somewhat jittery, greetings as the chorus intoned the Requiem and Kyrie.
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By Bernard Jacobson

Reprinted with permission from Seen and Heard – Music Web’s Live Opera, Concert and Recital Reviews.

Die Zauberflöte Pacific Opera Victoria, soloists, cond. Timothy Vernon, dir. Glynis Leyshon, sets and costumes by John Ferguson, lighting designer Gerald King, chorus dir. Michael Drislane, Royal Theatre, Victoria, British Columbia, 25.4.2009

Mozart Dances Garrick Ohlsson and Yoko Nozaki, pianos, Stefan Asbury, cond., Mark Morris, choreographer, Howard Hodgkin, set designer, Martin Pakledinaz, costume designer, James F. Ingalls, lighting designer, Seattle Symphony, Mark Morris Dance Group, Paramount Theatre, Seattle, 1.5.2009

Le nozze di Figaro Seattle Opera, soloists, cond. Dean Williamson, dir. Peter Kazaras, set designer Susan Benson, costume designer Deborah Trout, lighting designer Connie Yun, choreographer Wade Madsen, hair and makeup designer Joyce Degenfelder, Marion Oliver McCaw Hall, Seattle, 2 & 3.5.2009

Think of it: two of Mozart’s greatest operas, as well as a dance program founded on three of his works for piano, all in the space of just over a week. It’s a tough life, this music-criticism lark, but someone has to do it.

The pleasures began in Victoria. I confess to having had my apprehensions in advance, for Die Zauberflöte was to be directed by the same Glynis Leyshon whose travesty of Rigoletto in Vancouver back in March I had found so offensive.But this time Ms. Leyshon did herself–and Mozart’s great spiritual fairy-tale–proud. Her staging scored high on the entertainment scale, with many enjoyable touches of humor and much charm, while doing justice also to the more profound aspects of the work.
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Lucretia-Robyn Rocklein Tarquinius-Seth Kershinik

Sometimes an opera will reveal its artistic nature in a way the listener had not expected. That is what happened at the Opera Theater’s April 3rd performance of Benjamin Britten’s Rape of Lucretia. Composed after the success of his thoroughly orchestrated Peter Grimes, Britten chose to make his Lucretia a two-act chamber opera, with 13 instrumentalists and eight singers. Librettist, Ronald Duncan used Andre Obey’s play Le voil de Lucrèce in telling the tale of Lucretia — the wife of Collatinus, a Roman general — who is raped by Prince Tarquinius, son of the Etruscan tyrant, Tarquinius Superbus. Junius, another Roman general who is jealous of Lucretia’s devotion to her husband and who has aspirations to rule Rome, underhandedly encourages Tarquinius to go to Collatinus’ house in the dead of night to seduce the chaste Lucretia. The opera, which is set in Rome in 500 BC, presents two difficult artistic challenges in its quest to succeed as drama.

Director Charles Roe and Music Director and Conductor Thomas Cockrell had to find a way to keep Britten’s musical pathos flowing at those moments when Duncan’s text became turgid and unresponsive to the story. In addition, Britten decided to mix Christian beliefs with Roman creed throughout the opera, the two contrary views showing up at unexpected intervals. Roe and Cockrell overcame these literary difficulties by concentrating on the emotional and musical aspects of the opera, deflating what was cumbersome in the text, thus allowing the dramatic impact of Lucretia’s plight to be fully realized.

With only a chamber orchestra in the pit, the singers performed the demands of the piece with vocal confidence and dramatic security fulfilling Roe and Cockrell’s artistic intentions.
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In today’s opera world, many opera companies are anxious to seek out theater directors to flesh out the story lines of the operas they are presenting; opera impresarios are overjoyed when they can find a director who can excite their audiences. From the reviews some of these productions receive online and in the press, the results can be a mixed bag. There was no doubt, however, from the Met’s encore telecast of Madame Butterfly on March 18th, that Anthony Minghella’s production of Puccini’s favorite operatic heroine was a stunning success. Assisted by his wife, choreographer and director Carolyn Choa, the couple’s impressive artistic production deserved the praise it received when it opened the Met 2006 season. A great sorrow has accompanied the production’s success since the sudden passing of Mr. Minghella last year, made more tragic because this was the director’s only opera production.

This viewer attended the telecast with a prickly foreboding. After Gary Halvorson’s edgy, dizzying filming of the Lucia di Lammermoor telecast, I wondered if his lack of cinematic restraint would resurface. What unfolded, however, was a beautiful representation of Minghella’s production. One could hardly believe it was the same video director. He deserves praise for capturing the many touching moments Minghella and Choa infused into the opera, as if the camera, along with the rest of the production team, were in love with the opera.

But who wouldn’t think of visually capturing as much of Mr. Minghella’s classic Japanese production as possible. The pleasure of watching Minghella’s work unfold came from the combined artistic choices of his production team.

The costumes by Han Feng, the lighting of Peter Mumford and the set constructed by Michael Levine coalesced into a mosaic of color. The reds, greens and blues flowed into pastel shades of pinks, creams and off whites giving the vivid colors a subdued texture capturing the essence of the Japanese personality. Interwoven in this mosaic was an Eastern sense of design, so clean and orderly, but full of exotic imagery. The work of Feng, Mumford and Levine appeared integrated and yet stood out in crucial ways.
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The unending close-ups and ‘pseudo-artistic’ camera angles shot by video director, Gary Halvorson, came close to deflating the emotion out of the February 7th Telecast of G. Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. In Act One, he ran so many quick facial shots, it seemed there was one for each musical measure. He also interjected some unwieldy camera angles from the floor that distorted the singers’ figures.

In Acts Two and Three, however, he calmed down by holding some of the shots longer, leading to smoother camera transitions that gave the viewer more time to focus on a work that is considered the prime example of 19th Century Romantic Opera. In the end, however, the telecast and the forces that surrounded the work – the interviews, the stage direction and the cinematic choices – proved overpowering for Donizetti’s music and the poetry in the Salvatore Cammarano’s libretto that both men so skillfully adapted to represent their beloved genre.

French soprano Natalie Dessay was the afternoon’s host. Since she was the Lucia in the production’s premiere last year, she looked like a good bet to entertain and inform, and entertain she did with big dollops of opinion disguised as information. She started her interview with director Mary Zimmerman with a warning not to mention the music as one of her reasons for directing the opera. So Zimmerman proceeded to tell us the reason she likes directing opera is the challenge of working in a big space. Dessay was cautious in her talk with conductor Marco Armiliato knowing the guy was going to spill the beans and say how much he loved the music. Recognizing his sincerity she had no choice but to listen in silence.
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