Topic: General Opera News

[Wendell_E]

Did anyone see "Mozart in Coney Island", or rather, the Met's "Cosi fan tutte"?

A friend of mine got a ticket and was not particularly impressed, even less so by the call for donations at the interval.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/13/nyregion/coney-island-sideshows-met-opera.html

https://www.newyorkcitytheatre.com/theaters/metropolitanoperahouse/metropolitan-opera-cosi-fan-tutte.php?ppcsrc=ppc-adwords-event-c-e-23443-metropolitan%2520opera%2520cosi%2520fan%2520tutte%25202018&gclid=Cj0KCQjw4_zVBRDVARIsAFNI9eCIgLeTerSS-virvwujsWmydxyQmOq6iP_SevUFsiHNMY-l1ZF-DokaAsKlEALw_wcB

I liked it better than I thought I would, but seeing it once was plenty.

Non-profits are always asking for money, and AFAIK, every Met "Live in HD" has included a request for contributions. It's brief, and necessary. I do wonder how many people who wouldn't give otherwise are inspired to do so, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

[k a rl h e nn i ng]

Review of “Out of Darkness: Two Remain,” by Jake Heggie, production in Atlanta.

[Cato]

The Wall Street Journal has an article about young European - and American adults - coming to hear operas:

Some excerpts:

...Opera is unexpectedly hip among many European young people. Through a series of innovative efforts, European cultural institutions like La Scala and the Paris Opera are attracting a younger set. La Scala’s longtime special season premieres in its Under30 program—with tickets at €20 ($23.22)—have proved to be wildly popular. The Paris Opera has introduced a similar program and in June debuted a “Phantom of the Opera” game that lets players roam through its historic venue. Membership in the youth chapter of the nonprofit Milano per la Scala foundation has risen by 60% since a new youth outreach coordinator was appointed last year.

Opera houses, ballet companies and orchestras in Europe and the U.S. face steep challenges in attracting younger audiences, and many are experimenting with new formulas to attract them. London’s Royal Opera is planning to expand its youth program next season. New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 2015 started Fridays Under 40 with performances paired with a pre- or post-performance event, at $100 for an orchestra seat...

“Attracting new and younger audiences is critical to the future of the Met, as it is for all other performing arts companies,” says Tim McKeough, a Met spokesman, adding that 3,000 tickets were sold through Fridays Under 40 for the 2017-18 season. More than 700,000 people attend performances at the Met every season....

...La Scala‘s youth and elderly attendance has increased by 30% over the past three years and now some 20% of the theater’s tickets are sold to these two age groups, says Alexander Pereria, the theater’s manager and artistic director. He points to a new program of hour-long, simplified matinee performances of classic operas he introduced for children and their parents.,,,

See:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-europes-opera-houses-won-over-millennials-1529332646

[ritter]

Star tenor Roberto Alagna has cancelled his role debut as Lohengrin at this year’s Bayreuth Festival. Rehearsals were to start next Monday, and the premiere of the new production by Yuval Sharon (the first American director to be invited to the Green Hill), under the baton of Christian Thielemann, is set for July 25th.

Apparently, Mr. Alagna has not managed to learn the role (which is surprising, because his engagement was announced several years ago). German newspaper Die Welt goes as far as saying that this is the most unprofessional behaviour you could expect from an opera star. No replacement  has yet been announced.

[ritter]

Star tenor Roberto Alagna has cancelled his role debut as Lohengrin at this year’s Bayreuth Festival. .... No replacement  has yet been announced.

Well, the replacement has been found. It’s Piotr Beczala, who already debuted the role under Thielemann in Dresden last year IIRC.  He’s been released from an engagement at the Granada Festival next Friday (July 6), where he was set to sing French arias under Pablo Heras-Casado, in order to be able to attend the rehearsals sin Bayreuth. The Granada program has been changed, and the wonderful pianist Francesco Piemontesi has stepped in and will play the Ravel Concerto in G. I guess everyone ends up winning: the Granada program seems more attractive to me—but anyone not happy with the change can ask for a reimbursement—, and Bayreuth gets a solid tenor who already knows the role. Only Mr. Alagna’s image comes out tarnished from this affair...

[André]

I may be wrong, but I’m not sure Alagna would have managed the opera’s conclusion where, at the end of a long evening he has to sing Mein lieber Schwan, with its high tessitura and soft tones.

[Wendell_E]

For the First Time, the Met Will Perform Opera on Sundays

[Cato]

A review from the Wall Street Journal by Heidi Waleson of Marnie by Nico Muhly.

By Heidi Waleson
Oct. 22, 2018 2:05 p.m. ET

New York

To appreciate Nico Muhly’s opera “Marnie,” which had its U.S. premiere on Friday at the Metropolitan Opera, the commissioner of the work (the Met also commissioned and produced Mr. Muhly’s “Two Boys”), you have to be willing to be unmoored. With its whispering, overlapping choruses and unsettled orchestra, Mr. Muhly’s music reflects the slippery world of the troubled protagonist, a liar and a thief who trusts no one and doesn’t know why.

The premise of the opera’s source materials—Winston Graham’s 1961 novel and Alfred Hitchcock’s 1964 film adaptation—seems quaint today: Marnie’s criminal tendencies and, most important, sexual frigidity were caused by childhood trauma and could be “cured” through Freudian analysis. Mr. Muhly and his librettist, Nicholas Wright, have skillfully critiqued that assumption while leaving the basic arc of the story intact. In their opera, Marnie has every reason to feel betrayed and assaulted because she is, at every turn. The story is set in the late 1950s, and all the men Marnie encounters feel they have the right to put their hands on her, or worse. As embodied by the remarkable Isabel Leonard, Marnie refuses to be a victim, however; her most vivid characteristic is ferocious self-control. With her rich yet keenly focused mezzo-soprano, Ms. Leonard makes a magnetic, complex heroine. You might not like Marnie, but you have to respect her.

The psychological-thriller plot is deftly laid out in quick, snapshot scenes. Marnie has a pattern: She adopts a new name and hair color, gets a job, steals the company’s cash, and then repeats the process in another city. She gives the money to her unpleasant mother (a gravelly-voiced Denyce Graves), who doesn’t know about Marnie’s crimes but tells her she’s bad; we don’t know why. At a new job, she is caught stealing by the owner, Mark Rutland, who blackmails her into marriage and tries to rape her on their honeymoon. Mark, sung with authority by baritone Christopher Maltman, is a very 1950s mix of aggression and sentimentality. He apologizes to Marnie, bribes her to see an analyst (where a version of the childhood trauma is revealed), and tries to conceal her past crimes. But, finally, Marnie’s salvation is not through a man or analysis; it is the discovery that her mother betrayed her, and that she can free herself.

Mr. Muhly’s choruses powerfully conjure up Marnie’s sense of the world as a place of constant threat. In Act I, as the ensemble sings “All night long, the guilty hear malevolent voices,” words like “judgment” and “discovery” jump out of their muttered, layered phrases, and the unstable harmonies seem to slide over one another. At a party, as the guests gossip about Marnie, short motifs get a propulsive, repetitive energy reminiscent of the music of John Adams. Four Shadow Marnies (Deanna Breiwick, Dísella Lárusdóttir, Rebecca Ringle Kamarei, Peabody Southwell) amplify Marnie’s presence in a kind of murmuring Renaissance quartet. The orchestra plays with extremes to create tension, setting high, twittering woodwinds against groaning brass. Mr. Muhly also supplies arresting orchestral voices for the main characters, most notably a sinuous oboe for Marnie and the muted trumpet for Terry, Mark’s brother, that matches the spiteful menace conveyed by the countertenor Iestyn Davies. The solo vocal writing is also skillful, establishing undercurrents of emotion without showiness.

Michael Mayer’s production presents the world through Marnie’s eyes. Sliding panels swiftly alter the configuration of the set, and the gauzy, indistinct projections are as slippery as the music. (Julian Crouch and 59 Productions designed the set and projections; Kevin Adams did the complementary lighting.) Only Marnie wears real color. Her stunning period dresses by Arianne Phillips leap out in brilliant hues of yellow, pink, blue and green. There’s even a formal orange gown with a silver-lined cape (“Balenciaga,” she says). The Shadow Marnies also get bright frocks and coats. Mr. Mayer’s efficient direction keeps Marnie aloof from the chattering crowds around her, whether in an office or at the pub. However, the fox hunting scene, in which Marnie’s beloved horse falls on a jump and has to be shot, required too much suspension of disbelief, since everyone, except for a pile of undulating dancers—presumably the fox and the hounds, choreographed by Lynne Page—was standing still. A mere shadowy projection of galloping horse legs couldn’t match the driving force of the narration.

The large and excellent supporting cast included Anthony Dean Griffey as the vengeful Mr. Strutt, bent on exposing Marnie’s crimes; the boy soprano Gabriel Gurevich, a surrogate child for Marnie’s mother; and Janis Kelly as Mark and Terry’s domineering mother. Additional notable cameos came from Ian Koziara as Derek, another of Marnie’s assailants; Stacey Tappan as Dawn, a co-worker; and Ashley Emerson and Will Liverman as a poker-playing couple with an agenda. The Met Chorus was impressive, and conductor Robert Spano, making his Met debut, held all the forces together while capturing the sinister yet seductive instability of Mr. Muhly’s score.

—Ms. Waleson writes about opera for the Journal and the author of “Mad Scenes and Exit Arias: The Death of the New York City Opera and the Future of Opera in America” (Metropolitan).

One person commented:

"... In Act I, as the ensemble sings 'All night long, the guilty hear malevolent voices...'"

That's a lyric? What's next, an opera based on Microsoft's annual report?

 

[Cato]

A (very short) excerpt from the Muhly opera Marnie:

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/Jpl39PXL7Ek" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/Jpl39PXL7Ek</a>

[knight66]

Very listenable to, though the vocal line sounds like Douglas Moore which goes back 60 years and the accompaniment is like Glass. If it came to a theatre near me, I would give it a go.

Mike

[Wendell_E]

Very listenable to, though the vocal line sounds like Douglas Moore which goes back 60 years and the accompaniment is like Glass. If it came to a theatre near me, I would give it a go.

Mike

It'll be part of the Met's "Live in HD" series on November 10, I'm planning on seeing it. I mostly missed the premiere on the Met's Sirius/XM station because I had a live Barbiere di Siviglia that evening, but there'll be another broadcast on the 7th.

[knight66]

If it is on in my town, I will try to get along, though we will have someone staying with us. Thanks.

Mike

[Cato]

Kurtag's opera is in the news:

...It was in Paris during this period that Mr. Kurtag first saw Samuel Beckett’s play “Endgame.” The encounter set him on a lifelong journey, studying Beckett’s works and creating music inspired by them. Six decades later, on Nov. 15, this odyssey — and the career of one of the last living giants of 20th-century music — will culminate in Mr. Kurtag’s long-awaited, long-delayed first opera, based on “Endgame,” at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan.

Mr. Kurtag’s career has been full of unfinished projects, among them several operas; Alexander Pereira, the general director of the Teatro alla Scala, has been waiting to present the premiere of “Endgame” for nearly a decade. He has persevered, he said, because Mr. Kurtag is “probably the most important composer in the world at this moment.”

...In an interview last month in his attic study at the Budapest Music Center, where he lives with his wife, Marta, Mr. Kurtag, 92, spoke about the importance of opera to him. (Stuffed with papers and books, the study has whole shelves devoted to Beckett.) The art form, he said, brought together his two great passions: the spoken word and the singing voice.

Mr. Kurtag said he had reached back to Claudio Monteverdi for inspiration. The Italian Renaissance composer, whose “Orfeo” was one of the first operas, made it clear that words and score need to be equal partners. In Monteverdi, Mr. Kurtag said, “the text doesn’t move to the background in favor of the music.”...

See:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/07/arts/music/gyorgy-kurtag-opera.html?fbclid=IwAR3UcpegPwdTV-iE5lSi7WrYpJ5EjklbwFXquTnGPwcB0pTRrYgF2rKF-TU

[GioCar]

^^^

On Nov. 15 we (king ubu and I) will be there! I just can't wait.

[king ubu]

^^^

On Nov. 15 we (king ubu and I) will be there! I just can't wait.

Same here! 

[JBS]

Someone was definitely not impressed by the Met's new Traviata
https://observer.com/2018/12/the-met-la-traviata-opera-tragedy-disney-schmaltz/amp/

[André]

Anthony Tommasini, longtime music critic of the NY Times has the exact opposite opinion:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/05/arts/music/review-metropolitan-opera-traviata-yannick-nezet-seguin.html

A couple of pics and a clip of Damrau in Addio del passato (from that Met performance?) are included.

[Tsaraslondon]

Interesting to see two such conflicting views.

The photos do make it look rather garish and, dare I say it, tasteless. What price Lila de Nobili's fabulous sets for Callas's 1955 La Scala production, or indeed Liliana Cavani's for the 1990s La Scala production (preserved on video) with the vocally fallible but dramatically superb Tiziana Fabbricini as Violetta (what happened to her?)

Mind you, I hated La Scala's more recent effort with, as it happens, Damrau as Violetta, the crucial second act duet with Germont delivered as a kind of bargaining session between two business people. Damrau's Violetta, in this production anyway, lacked any vulnerability, and therefore eliminated any sympathy for her plight, which rather dulls the impact of the opera. I've seen La Traviata many times with a lot of different sopranos, both big names and unknowns, but this was the first time I was completely unmoved.

[zamyrabyrd]

Mind you, I hated La Scala's more recent effort with, as it happens, Damrau as Violetta, the crucial second act duet with Germont delivered as a kind of bargaining session between two business people. Damrau's Violetta, in this production anyway, lacked any vulnerability, and therefore eliminated any sympathy for her plight, which rather dulls the impact of the opera. I've seen La Traviata many times with a lot of different sopranos, both big names and unknowns, but this was the first time I was completely unmoved.

Exactly, in the clips I saw Damrau had an uncanny resmblance to Meryl Streep.

[JBS]

Another review of that Met Traviata
https://www.vulture.com/amp/2018/12/la-traviata-the-met-opera-review.html