Opera Baltimore's The Impresario: Hilarity and Heart in a True Story(s)

For Opera Baltimore’s concluding opera of the season, the company chose to present Mozart’s The Impresario, creatively expanded and personalized, in celebration of the company’s 15th anniversary.  In outline, Mozart’s work is a one-act German singspiel that tells the story, in comedic fashion, of a competition between rival sopranos for a role in an opera company.  Artistic and General Director Julia Cooke had made the decision to involve and empower the singers she employed to help develop their roles and relationships.  OB’s singers used the opera’s plotline to tell their characters’ stories, shaded by their experience and exaggerated for comedic effect, all illuminating the underlying challenges faced by opera companies.  The Impresario was selected in part to add opera comedy to the line-up.  The performances were intended to be spirited fun, enriching for both performers and patrons; and, in that they succeeded, but like with the best comedies, there were touching moments as well.

The impresario (Gina Perregrino) takes a phone call. Photo by Caitlin Moore Photography; courtesy of Opera Baltimore.

Mozart intended for The Impresario to be a bit of non-serious fun. In 1786, Emperor of the Austrian empire, Franz Josef, assigned both Antonio Salieri, the court opera director and the leading composer of the day, and Mozart, whom he also employed as a composer, the task of composing a musical work as entertainment for a family dinner.  The emperor wished to demonstrate his commitment to support both Italian, Salieri’s task, and German opera, Mozart’s task (the Viennese largely spoke German).  He had stages set up at opposite ends of a long palatial hallway with eighty invitees dining in the middle.  Mozart’s German singspiel, The Impresario, less than an hour long with only 24 minutes of music, was performed first and was followed by Salieri’s Italian buffa opera.  Reports of the experience favored Salieri’s comedic Italian opera as the winner, but history has selected Mozart’s German “play with music” which is still performed today, often by college opera companies.  Mozart wrote an overture, two solo arias, and two ensemble numbers for the work.  The original libretto by Johann Gottlieb Stephanie, especially the spoken dialog is often modified by opera companies to include additional humor that works today.

l to r: Madame Goldentrill (Robin Steitz), the agent Mr. Angel (Jason Garcia-Kakuk), and Mademoiselle Silverpeal (Emily Casey); the rivalry begins. Photo by Caitlin Moore Photography; courtesy of Opera Baltimore.

Opera Baltimore commissioned Eric McKeever, screen writer and performing baritone, who has previously worked with the company, to write a new libretto and script; Ms. Cooke brainstormed with him about stories and character presentations.  The non-singing impresario in the original was named Frank.  OB changed the name and the gender to Francine, a la Ms. Cooke, OB’s impresario, and Francine was given an aria and a duet (Ms. Cooke is a former singer).  Additional operatic arias and comic elements were utilized lengthening the singspiel to around two hours.  The script made fun of just about everything, including poking fun at the company’s name for being confused with previous area companies now out of business.  Some of the arias were sung using original text and language and some were altered to English and modified to fit the story line and to work with Mozart’s music.  An interesting aspect demonstrating Ms. Cooke’s emphasis on empowering the singers was that the two competing sopranos sang both the aria that Mozart assigned to each and were allowed to add an aria of their choice, picked to emphasize their talents, much as they would do when competing for roles in real life. 

Madame Goldentrill (Robin Steitz) performs from the floor for the impresario (Gina Perregrino) and her assistant Herr Bluff (Henrique Cavalho). Photo by Caitlin Moore Photography; courtesy of Opera Baltimore.

The cast was made up of five excellent, accomplished young singers.  Francine was played by mezzo-soprano Gina Perregrino, who had one aria adapted from Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito and a soprano duet adapted from Le Nozze di Figaro.  It was well done, and it was a treat to have a mezzo voice added to the mix.  She had even more dialog and acted convincingly as Ms. Cooke…uh, I mean the beleaguered impresario in charge, serving as an anchor for the fictious company Opera Baltimore and for the performance overall.  Her “not-so-good-at-assisting assistant” Herr Bluff was played by baritone Henrique Carvalho.  His role was expanded to make him an aspiring singer, and he was given an aria adapted from Le Nozze di Figaro, which was performed with the enthusiasm and earnestness of an aspiring singer.  Tenor Jason Garcia-Kakuk played a singing role as Angel, a “wily slick” agent, presenting the cases for both sopranos to the impresario and trying to subdue the war between them.  He sang well in two trios with the sopranos, and his portrayal as a wise guy with a NYC accent was amusing.  The two sopranos were both comedic delights both with acting and their vocal embellishments.  Soprano Robin Steitz portrayed Madame Goldentrill, a former superstar coming out of rehab to try to re-establish her career, while acting as though her former status was still in place.  Soprano Emily Casey played Mademoiselle Silverpeal, an aspiring young singer, gentle in persona, but ready to set the house on fire to defend her status and protect her career.  I enjoyed the pair singing the arias Mozart wrote for each character sung in original form, but I especially enjoyed the arias each selected for themselves.  Ms. Steitz sang a cabaret torch song, “Je ne t’aime pas” by Kurt Weil, with charming allure.  Ms. Casey sang “Regnava nel silenzio” from Lucia di Lammermoor beautifully and added to the humor in dialog by affecting (I assume) a deep southern accent.  Both were impressive with vocal fireworks as they sang higher and higher to impress the impresario in one trio with the agent joining to try to calm the two warriors, and eventually a trio where peace is made for the sake of art.

Herr Bluff (Henrique Carvalho) questions Mademoiselle Silverpeal (Emily Casey). Photo by Caitlin Moore Photography; courtesy of Opera Baltimore.

Impresarios know that something unexpected always happens.  The nature of the work caused Ms. Cooke not to use covers, and unfortunately tenor Norman Shankle who was due to play the Agent suffered an injury the week before performances.  She was able to get Mr. Garcia-Kabuk to fill in on short notice, causing one aria to be dropped due to limited practice.  Nevertheless, Mr. Shankle, still committed to the production, participated in a seated, non-speaking role as the anonymous donor offering monetary support if Ms. Goldentrill was given the role.

Herr Bluff (Henrique Carvalho) looks on as the rivalry between Madame Goldentrill (Robin Steitz) and Mademoiselle Silverpeal (Emily Casey) gets physical. Photo by Caitlin Moore Photography; courtesy of Opera Baltimore.

Mozart’s music and arias in The Impresario are the quality we expect of Mozart, and the orchestrations are highly enjoyable.  The modified libretto was designed to work well with Mozart’s music and was successful in that.  I was curious how well piano accompaniment alone, as OB uses for their concert operas would work.  Pianist Joy Schreier, who frequently works with Opera Baltimore, played beautifully as I have come to expect.  I was immediately struck by how much I enjoyed hearing melodies and harmony from the overture played by piano alone.  She, working with Conductor Joshua Hong did well with timing, which included what seemed to be spontaneous eruptions of songs from the singers and the pianist at several points, all for comedic effect.

l to r: Herr Bluff (Henrique Cavalho), the impresario (Gina Perregrino), Mr. Angel (Jason Garcia-Kabuk), Madame Goldentrill (Robin Steitz), and Mademoiselle Silverpeal (Emily Casey) celebrate peace for the sake of art.

This concert version was performed semi-staged in the regal ballroom of the Engineers Club with the stage at one end, reminiscent of its venue for the performance for the emperor.  Semi-staged seemed almost full staged since the action takes place in a theater; the singers were in character with interacting and moving about the stage for comic effect.  Director Claire Choquette did a masterful job keeping the action flowing and devising set ups for comic elements, particularly the ringside effects for the battle between the two sopranos.  Much of the humor was slapstick, Chaplinesque in style.  However, the transformations of the sopranos who discussed how they had come to sing opera were truly heart rending, as their motives for their behavior became clear.  The final comments by Francine surely came directly from Ms. Cooke in emphasizing the singers’ involvement to seek fulfilment by becoming artists and their need for connection to the community they serve, and while challenging, it is worth it.

Bravo to Opera Baltimore for taking the risk of offering its audience something original, that deepened the understanding of all that they had shared over 15 years.  I found it to be a humorous, heartwarming, and entertaining afternoon; I never once felt the urge to look at my iPhone.  I was eager to see what was going to happen next. 

 The Fan Experience: The Impresario was performed in the Engineers Club on April 10, 12, and 14.  The opera was performed in English with some arias performed in the original language; subtitles in English were shown.  The performance with one intermission lasted close to 2.5 hours.

Dr. Aaron Ziegel, OB’s Scholar-in-Residence provides a pre-opera talk one hour before each performance.  He also provides three or four one-hour, highly informative Zoom classes for ticket holders on each upcoming opera.  This review was informed by his online lectures on The Impresario.  These lectures are maintained and available online to all at this link. 

Opera Baltimore will soon be announcing its new season for 2024-2025 and is offering a 16th Season Preview Party on June 4.

From a personal perspective, I hope the success the company is enjoying does not cause them to move completely away from the concert format.  As I previously wrote, when first attending Baltimore Concert Opera performances, “The power of operatic voices is a thing to behold, especially engaged with them for an entire evening.  It will surprise you when you encounter these voices up close for the first time.  You’ve probably experienced the difference between hearing opera singers live in the major opera houses and hearing them on a recording and gotten a taste of the power and clarity of the live performance.  Well, hearing them a few feet away takes that experience to yet another level.”  It keeps me coming back.

Washington Concert Opera's La Rondine: Ailyn Perez and the Price of Love

Stars can elevate their team to overcome all obstacles, and sometimes not, as we found out in Sunday afternoon’s NCAA women’s basketball championship final.  Shortly after the game, for those who made it to GW’s Lisner Auditorium, the remainder of the afternoon was enlivened by superstar soprano Ailyn Perez who upped the game of a Puccini opera still trying to find its way home.  She, along with an excellent cast overall, backed by Conductor Antony Walker and the Washington Concert Opera Orchestra and Chorus, made it an evening and an opera to remember.

Ailyn Perez as Magda in WCO’s La Rondine. Photo by Caitlin Oldham; courtesy of Washington Concert Opera.

La Rondine (1917, The Swallow) is a three-act opera by composer Giacomo Puccini, working with librettist Giuseppe Adami for the first time.  This was a period of experimentation for Puccini.  There was much going on in the world: composers were changing the face of music and operetta had become the rage; WWI broke out in Europe, delaying the opera’s premiere.  Puccini’s personal life had suffered a tragic loss.  La Rondine was his second opera after Madama Butterfly, and there would be an output of one act works in 1918 before his unfinished Turandot in 1926.  In 1910, a Viennese opera company wanted Puccini to compose an operetta; instead, he agreed to compose a comic opera, lighter in nature.  This work, La Rondine, was not well received in its day nor when first produced in the US; it languished in relative obscurity for many years.  A popular version by the New York City Opera in 1984 and more recently it’s championing by soprano Angela Gheorghiu and tenor Roberto Alagna has led to a revival of interest, appearing occasionally in current day.  In fact, a version staring soprano Angel Blue and tenor Jonathan Tetelman is playing this month at the Metropolitan Opera.

Mario Chang as Ruggero and Ailyn Perex as Magda, backed by Conductor Antony Walker and the WCO Orchestra and Chorus. Photo by Caitlin Oldham; courtesy of Washington Concert Opera.

To understand the issues raised with La Rondine, it’s helpful to know the plot.  The opera begins in the Paris of the 1830s, similar to Puccini’s La Bohème, but in a salon for the wealthy, not a tenement for starving artists.  Magda is maintained in a lavish house by her benefactor, Rambaldo, whose company she enjoys though he is not a love interest.  Her poet friend, Prunier is musing that romantic love has returned to Paris, and she approves, while Rambaldo still considers true love tired.  Now, a kept woman, Magda remembers a chance meeting she had years ago with a young man who stirred deeper feelings within her.  A stranger arrives, Ruggero, son of a friend of Ramboldo’s and his first time in Paris.  The guests advise him to spend his first night in Paris at Bullier’s café/dance hall.  Prunier has fallen in love with Magda’s maid Lisette and they head to the café.  Magda declines attendance but then sneaks out in a rudimentary disguise to join them for some free time and a night of fun.  There she encounters Ruggero, who does not recognize Magda from the earlier encounter at the salon; she gives her name now as Paulette.  Both are smitten and their love blossoms in the festive scene at the café.  They run off to Nice to live for love, while their debts pile up (friends say Magda has flown south for love like a swallow, a la the title).  Ruggero wants to marry her and move to his hometown, even getting approval in a letter from his mother, but Magda fears her past as Rambaldo’s mistress, which she has not revealed to Ruggero, will ruin their chances for happiness (yes, it does remind one of Verdi’s La Traviata).  After confessing her past, Magda returns to Paris and Ramboldo to save Ruggero from such a fate, leaving Ruggero, who desparately wants to stay together, distraught and feeling abandoned; Prunier early in the opera stated pain and heartache were the price of love. 

Mario Chang as Ruggero and Ailyn Perez with Conductor Antony Walker. Photo by Caitlin Oldham; courtesy of Washington Concert Opera.

Never satisfied with the ending of La Rondine, Puccini wrote two more endings before his death in 1924.  The plot gets caught somewhere between a drawing room comedy in the first two acts, fine for an operetta, and a lovers’ tragedy in act 3, fine for an opera.  The drawing room comedy seems a little drawn out, even with comedy brought to the stage by Prunier and Lisette’s antics.  It’s not a tragedy since Magda does not off herself; she simply goes back into Rambaldo’s care.  I was left uncertain how I felt about the characters.  Did Magda spare her young lover or was she sparing herself?  Love of what was exacting a price?  WCO of course presents operas in concert style without costumes, sets, or full staging.  While the concert format has much to recommend it, I feel La Rondine is an opera that needs the costumes and staging to communicate the times and ethos of the drawing room comedy, demonstrating the depth or shallowness of the characters and to make the Lisette-Prunier sparing more fun.

Jonathan Johnson as Prunier and Deanna Breiwick as Lisette. Photo by Caitlin Oldham; courtesy of Washington Concert Opera.

The questions raised by the plot aside, Puccini’s music is highly enjoyable, beautiful melodies with lush orchestrations and many gorgeous arias for the singers, solo and in ensembles.  For this work, Puccini even used some dance rhythms at times.  As is usual, Conductor Antony Walker and the WCO Orchestra did a fine job of delivering the music, accenting its beauty, and keeping pace with the vocalists.  At times, I had the feeling of listening to an outstanding orchestra in the big band era.  The WCO Chorus under the direction of David Hanlon added expertly to the fun, coming in at the beginning of Act 2 to elicit the gaiety of the café. 

Javier Arrey as Rambaldo and Ailyn Perez as Magda. Photo by Caitlin Oldham; courtesy of Washington Concert Opera.

The cast was headlined by Met Opera stars soprano Ailyn Perez and tenor Mario Chang.  Mr. Chang has a hefty resonant tenor that compels one to want to hear him more often.  I would love to see him in a fully staged performance where he is looking into Ms. Perez’ eyes, rather than at the score.  Ms. Perez, thy voice is beauty!  I had not heard Ailyn Perez in person before, even though she has connections to the area; this international star soprano was once a Young Artist at Wolf Trap Opera.  Her voice is enchanting and her singing of the opera’s main hit aria, “Canzone di Doretta”, was transcendent. 

Jonathan Johnson as Prunier, the poet, and friends of Magda’s, Natalie Conte as Bianca, Tess Ottinger as Yvette, and Melanie Ashkar as Suzy. Photo by Caitlin Oldham; courtesy of Washington Concert Opera.

The roles of Lisette and Prunier were sung by soprano Deanna Breiwick and tenor Jonathan Johnson, young singers who have performed at major opera houses around the US.  Ms. Breiwick sang well and gave us a convincing cheeky maid with dashed aspirations and a winning heart.  Mr. Johnson’s bright tenor displayed well in several arias and gave us a reasonably convincing poet, pretentious and exacting in love.  Both of these young performers appear headed for greater things.  Rambaldo was played by a now international opera star and a local favorite, baritone Javier Arrey whose voice adds color to any performance.  He gave Magda’s companion, Rambaldo, a softer edge, more likable.  I couldn’t help but wonder if the storyline would have been aided by having Mr. Arrey play Prunier and Mr. Johnson play Ruggero, giving us a more worldly wise Prunier and a more youthful lover for Magda to abandon.  Playing Magda’s friends and adding to the fun were soprano Tess Ottinger, soprano Natalie Conte, and mezzo-soprano Melanie Ashkar.

With La Rondine, I feel Puccini provided the melodious music and the showcase roles for excellent singers to display their wares for this opera to be a hit, but in the end, had trouble knocking down the three-point shot to win the game, to return to my basketball analogy.  For a “comic opera, lighter in nature”, I would have preferred a happy ending or at least one more bittersweet than bitter.  That said, WCO with this cast, headed by Ms. Perez made for an exceptional performance.

 The Fan Experience:  Washington Concert Opera performances are typically one and done, and for me, are always a highlight of the opera season.  La Rondine was performed on April 7 in Lisner Auditorium.  The opera was performed in concert style and sung in Italian with English surtitles on an overhead screen. 

WCO has announced their productions for the 2024-2025 season which is expanded to three operas instead of their normal two: Puccini’s Manon Lescaut on November 24, Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito on March 1, and Verdi’s Luisa Miller on April 13.  WCO Executive Director stated in her pre-opera comments that Lisner Auditorium would be upgrading their seats over the summer, more legroom for the orchestra section and more comfort for all.

Peter Russell, General Director of Vocal Arts DC, presented a pre-opera talk and provided program notes.  His talks are impressively detailed and informative.

In my experience, all the seats in Lisner Auditorium are fine for viewing the performance, but the sound is probably better towards the center of the auditorium.  Parking on the street around the auditorium is catch as catch can; be sure to read the signs!  Metro is two blocks away.  WCO has a visitor web page with directions and parking info, helpful in finding nearby parking lots.

Washington National Opera's Songbird: Knocked My Socks Off!

First, let’s adjust expectations.  Yes, Songbird was presented by Washington National Opera, but it is not an opera.  Without knowing its history, I doubt you would think of it even as an operetta, though it is based on an operetta by an opera composer, the link that drew it into WNO’s fold.  It is an in-your-face, high energy Broadway musical by way of Bourbon Street, a comic adult fairy tale produced in vaudevillian style.  What it mostly is, is high entertainment, impressive in the quality, attention to detail, and professionalism shining from every aspect – composition, music, singing, acting, choreography, set design, staging, costumes, and lighting.  It’s as though this group of talented performers and creative staff got together and said, “let’s knock their socks off”, and judged for what it is, they succeeded.  WNO has been reaping the rewards; performances have been sold out or close to it.

Songbird (Isabel Leonard) and Piquillo (Ramin Karimloo) perform for tips. Photo by Scott Suchman; courtesy of Washington National Opera.

Songbird was a child of COVID.  For the 2021 season, the Glimmerglass Festival, then under the direction of Francesca Zambello, WNO’s Artistic Director, decided to hold performances but modify them to meet with COVID restrictions – outdoors, fewer more spaced-out players, and short in length, no intermissions to avoid crowds at bathrooms.  Remember those days; still got your masks?  Hence, the 75-minute Songbird was born, based on the storyline and melodies from Jacques Offenbach’s operetta, La Périchole (1868), a work successful at the time and sometimes performed today, particularly in Europe; the Met Opera last performed it in 1971, but more frequently performs Offenbach’s opera, The Tales of Hoffman.  The locale was moved from Offenbach’s imagined Lima, Peru to New Orleans to allow for Kelley Rourke to write the libretto for this reduced version in English but also include French as one might encounter in New Orleans.  She gave the street singer La Périchole the moniker of Songbird; this songbird not only sings beautifully but has some fight in her.  Ms. Rourke is the Artistic Advisor for Washington National Opera’s American Opera Initiative and resident dramaturg for The Glimmerglass Festival.  Her libretto for Songbird is masterful.

The speakeasy performers prepare for a wedding Mardi Gras style with Mayor Don Andrès (Edward Nelson) in the center wearing a crown. Photo by Scott Suchman; courtesy of Washington National Opera.

The setting for Songbird is a 1920s speakeasy during the prohibition era, giving the villain, the mayor, more power over the staff and patrons there.  The mayor dressed in a disguise to spy on how things are going, and fooling no one, lurks about as a young romantic couple, Songbird and Piquillo, enter to sing for their supper, but the tips are scarce.  Piquillo leaves to find food and an exhausted Songbird sits down to sleep.  Mayor Don Andrès moves in to seduce Songbird with food and money, with a little libation to ease the path.  She momentarily consents to go with him for food, though never intending to sacrifice her virtue or her relationship with Piquillo.  An implausible series of events follows - a letter from Songbird to Piquillo expressing regrets, a sham marriage between the two, one disguised and both tipsy and not recognizing each other at the time, a jail term and escape, and a real marriage for a happy ending.  It is mostly played for laughs and goes down fast.

The Songbird band playing in the New Orleans speakeasy with Conductor James Lowe on the right. Photo by Scott Suchman; courtesy of Washington National Opera.

Director Eric Sean Fogel kept the pace moving and the movements were well-choreographed, including the dancing, quite a feat working with a single set as a site of all the action, especially considering there was a lot of action.  The move of Songbird from the grass of Glimmerglass to the Eisenhower Theater stage led to a great deal of embellishment of the set, an authentic looking New Orleans speakeasy, in Mardi Gras colors; kudos to Set & Props Designer James F. Rotondo III.  The set was bathed in atmospheric lighting throughout thanks to Lighting Designer Robert Wierzel.  For this performance style, the singers wore mikes inconspicuously, and the sound was controlled well by Sound Designer Mark Rivet.  The orchestra was placed in an elevated cove in the back of the set.  The delightful costumes of Costume Designers Marsha LeBoeuf and Timm Burrow were also Mardi Gras-esque, including the flapper dress for Songbird. 

l to r: Don Pedro (Jonathan Patton) and Mayor Don Andrès (Edward Nelson) watch as a tipsy Songbird (Isabel Leonard) struggles to remain upright. Photo by Scott Suchman; courtesy of Washington National Opera.

If I were to offer any significant criticism of Songbird, it would be that it goes two-thirds of the work in enjoyable but unrelenting fashion, sort of like starting your dinner at Commander’s Palace with dessert and they serve you Bananas Foster and then they bring out Creole Bread Pudding immediately followed by Praline Parfait.  I was wanting some nice warm soup, but it wasn’t until Piquillo is alone in jail suffering from the loss of Songbird that we have a chance to relax and absorb the drama and romance gone awry, before moving to warp speed again.

Piquillo (Ramin Karimloo) being shepherded to the altar by Don Pedro (Jonathan Patton) on table and Panatellas (Sahel Salam) seated. Photo by Scott Suchman; courtesy of Washington National Opera.

The person who made the clever suggestion to use a New Orleans jazz band instead of a French chamber orchestra was Conductor James Lowe who also was responsible for the musical arrangement and orchestration.  The 11-performer group included only two strings, one a bass and the other a banjo, and it featured a sousaphone, a type of tuba that Mardi Gras marchers can wear over their shoulders.  A performer specially added was jazz pianist Jo Ann Daugherty.  At one point, clarinetist David Jones stepped out of the group to match vocal riffs by the mayor before slinking back into the band.  The band played on and played well, great fun and very reminiscent of New Orleans; I would go to that club. 

left: Songbird (Isabel Leonard) holding the letter she has composed for her true love. right: Mayor Don Andrès (Edward Nelson) dons another costume. Photos by Scott Suchman; courtesy of Washington National Opera.

The star of the show was, of course the fabulous Isabel Leonard, an opera superstar and frequent visitor to WNO.  She was terrific, a perfect songbird, in both singing and acting and even threw in a little tap dancing.  Her character Songbird was the heart and moral backbone of the story; when she told the sleazy mayor he wasn’t going to get what he wanted, the audience broke into applause.  I was not surprised to see Ms. Leonard in a Broadway style musical.  She played Carmen in WNO’s 2022 production but before that, she performed at WNO’s welcome back from COVID celebration in 2021, bringing down the house singing Jeanne Tesori’s “the girl in 14G”.  Her partner on stage playing Piquillo was Ramin Karimloo, a popular London West End and Broadway star, including leading roles in the Funny Girl revival and Les Misérables (for which he received a Tony Award nomination).  He covers both low tenor and high baritone roles.  His Broadway spit and polish was obvious in his acting and his attractive, nuanced vocals, a huge positive addition to the cast.  The other lead performer was baritone Edward Nelson who was almost shockingly good in both singing and acting as the womanizing mayor.  I had forgotten he appeared in WNO’s Candide a few years back, but his credits are mostly hard-core opera baritone roles. I guess we can call him a crossover artist…now I’d like to see him as Don Giovanni. 

l to r: The Three Muses (Kresley Figueroa, Cecelia McKinley, and Teresa Perrotta). Photo by Scott Suchman; courtesy of Washington National Opera.

The remainder of the cast was mainly the highly talented Cafritz Young Artists and mezzo-soprano Taylor-Alexis Dupont who played the performer Celeste; all contributed handsomely.  The three muses were played by Teresa Perrotta, Kresley Figueroa, and Cecilia McKinley.  Jonathan Pierce Rhodes played the role of Priest and Justin Burgess the role of a local tough guy who made fun of Piquillo’s predicament.  Standouts were Justin Burgess as Don Pedro the manager of the speakeasy and Sahel Salam, his partner in chicanery.  I thought Mr. Salam showed a spark ready for a TV sitcom.

I thoroughly enjoyed Songbird as over the top entertainment.  It was fun just to see this cast and creative team at work.  Not that it needed it, but in this step to the side of opera, Isabel Leonard moved her star even higher in the pantheon.  In his program comments, WNO’s General Director stated, “As you know, we are trying to expand the horizons of how we produce opera, whether it be in content, casting, interpretation, or actual production”.  Songbird has made me sit up and take notice.  We are already promised a new ending in WNO’s Turandot coming up next.  What new wrinkles might be coming in the 2024-2025 season?

The Fan Experience:  Performances of Songbird in the Eisenhower Theater were scheduled for March 9, 11, 15, 17, 20, and 23.  The libretto is mainly in English with French mixed in, and lyrics are shown on the overhead screen; run time was about 75 minutes with no intermission.

WNO’s Turandot will run May 11, 13, 17, 19, 22, 24 and star Ewa Plonka as Turandot and Jonathan Burton as Calaf and will be directed with a new ending by Francesca Zambello.  The 2024-2025 season has been announced at this link.

Parking in the Kennedy Center is typically plentiful at around $25 per day, with a small discount for Kennedy Center members when reserved ahead of the day.  The Metro to Foggy Bottom and the free red Kennedy Center buses, from there to the Kennedy Center running every 15 minutes, are an excellent option.  There is an advantage in getting there a bit early.  KC frequently has multiple performances on its different stages overlapping that can create traffic jams.

There are snack stands in the main lobby, and on the Terrace level, the KC Café offers food cafeteria style at moderate prices; fine dining is available on the Terrace level in the Roof Terrace Restaurant.  Food and drinks except water are not allowed inside the opera house, but you can purchase reusable capped containers with your drinks that you can take inside.

Annapolis Opera's The Elixir of Love: Colorful and Fun!

No one expected Casablanca to become the hit movie it became, but the combination of characters and their players in a love story shrouded by the backdrop of Nazi occupation during WWII achieved perfection: it hit all the right notes and touched our hearts.  I think a parallel can be drawn with composer Gaetano Donizetti and librettist Felice Romani’s bel canto opera L’elisir d’amore (The Elixir of Love, 1832); a simple love story moving forward with comic mishaps propelled by gorgeous music and arias that touched the hearts of the first audiences to hear it; it became an instant hit and classic, still popular today.  Elixir has a special place in my heart, as does Casablanca, which I have seen more times than I will reveal; L’elisir d’amore was the opera that caused me to fall in love with opera.  Annapolis Opera’s updating of the story certainly bears comment but proved to be colorful and fun, colorful costumes and singing, an arresting set design, and an attractive group of talented players.  Read on.

Nemorino (Brian Wallin) hugs Dulcamara (Timothy Mix) who has provided him with a love potion. Photo by Michael Halbig; courtesy of Annapolis Opera.

Romani’s libretto is adapted from a French opera that premiered the prior year, La Philtre, by composer Daniel Auber and librettist Eugène Scribe.   Nicole Steinberg who gave the Annapolis Opera pre-opera talk stated that Donizetti and Romani, the A-team in Italy at the time, wanted to infuse more human poignancy into the story; it worked, and while La Philtre was also a success, it’s telling of the story eventually faded into history while Donizetti’s maintained its status in the opera repertoire.  This is a showcase opera for the music and a soprano, but it really is the tenor’s opera; yet, Elixir contains beautiful arias for all the principal players to display their talents, as well as a major role for the chorus.

Dulcamara (Timothy Mix) and Adina (Véronique Filloux) film a commercial. Photo by David Herron; courtesy of Annapolis Opera.

In the classic plotline, the scene is a country village in Spain where a simple, poor man Nemorino, played by a tenor, has fallen in love with the wealthy landowner Adina, played by a soprano, who is pursued by the military sergeant Belcore, played by a baritone.  In AO’s production, Nemorino works as a cameraman for a 1980s television sitcom, where the star is Adina and her co-star is Belcore.  Nemorino has fallen desperately in love with Adina but is too shy to approach her and tell her of his feelings.  She has feelings for him, but it takes a while for her to become fully aware of how strong they are.  Belcore, her on screen and off screen partner, is an arrogant, belligerent young man who finds himself irresistible and believes that Adina will marry him.  Yet, she is hesitating, and we know why even if she doesn’t.  Nemorino hears Adina telling the story of Tristan and Isolde, recounting how Tristan used a love potion to capture Isolde’s heart.  It so happened a caterer, the shyster Dulcamara, is in the studio who claims to have a potion able to cure whatever ails you.  Nemorino approaches Dulcamara seeking a love potion, and of course Dulcamara obliges with such a potion (a bottle of cheap Bordeaux) for the price of what money Nemorino has in his pocket.  Meanwhile, Adina plays Belcore against Nemorino to get our hero to express his true feelings, while Belcore tries to move Nemorino to a new location.  I will reveal no more of the plot since I thinks it’s more fun on a first viewing to witness how the plot unfolds, but you can see how things are set up for some outrageous comedy before arriving at a happy ending.

center left to right: Nemorino (Brian Wallin), Adina (Véronique Filloux), and Belcore (Kyle Oliver) surrounded by the AO Chorus. Photo by Robert Young; courtesy of Annapolis Opera

Donizetti’s pleasurable music was well played by the 26-member Annapolis Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Craig Kier, who also serves as AO’s Artistic Director.  Maestro Kier maintained the strong support of the action on stage by the orchestra, providing well-timed pauses to let the audience express its appreciation for the singers’ performances.  While mainly the strings carried the beautiful melodies, I really like the ornamentation and interplay provided by Kimberly Valerio on flute, Emily Madsen on oboe, and Robert Delutis on clarinet, and the harp was played beautifully by Madeline Jarzembak for the opera’s most popular aria “una furtivo lagrima”.

All the principal singers were a delight in this production.  Tenor Brian Wallin, an AO veteran, played Nemorino.  He seemed to walk through his role early on, but his comedic talents came out once he began pursuit of the love potion; I began to like this shy young fellow.  His vocals were generally excellent, and his singing of “una furtiva lagrima” neared perfection; he received the most vigorous and sustained applause of the performance.  Adina was played by French-American soprano Véronique Filloux, whom I’ve had the pleasure of hearing in performances locally as well as in the lead role of Pittsburgh Opera’s Semele.  As Adina, her coloratura virtuosity was impressive, soaring easily from mid-range to high notes on several occasions;  she also provided clearly distinguished high note accents in ensemble pieces, but it is when she sings the gentlest pieces that the beauty of her voice can be best appreciated.  She was a believable actress as Adina, a young woman coming to terms with hidden feelings.  Yet somehow, for me despite the excellent individual performances, the chemistry of attraction between these two never quite developed convincingly, certainly not like that betweeen Rick and Ilsa.

The girls on the set (the AO women’s chorus) chase after Nemorino (Brian Wallin) whose fortune has changed. Photo by Michael Halbig'; courtesy of Annapolis Opera.

The performance of baritone Kyle Oliver as Belacore was a special treat early on as he portrayed comically the narcissistic co-star and love interest of Adina.  His threats of physical violence were less convincing.  His smooth singing with a lovely baritone timbre might have won over Adina if he could have gotten over himself.  Baritone Timothy Mix who played Dulcamara, is a fine singer and a terrific comedian; his antics were the comedic highlight of this performance.  His duet with Adina, once she realized her true feelings for Nemorino, was also a highlight. 

One character not mentioned above is Giannetta, Adina’s friend in the classic version, but here more of a competitive understudy grabbing her chances in the spotlight.  Played by soprano Denique Isaac, she was eye catching on stage, and gave us a measure of her impressive singing as she informed the girls of a recent change in Nemorino’s fortunes.  The 22-member chorus also served as supernumeraries, appearing in costume on stage.  They sang beautifully and powerfully, at times perhaps a little too powerfully.  The ensemble piece with Giannetta and the women members of the chorus as stagehands on the set was a special delight.  Kudos to Chorus Master JoAnn Kulesza.

The happy ending with a closing ensemble with Nemorinao (Brian Wallin) kissing Adina (Véronique Filloux) as Dulcamara (Timothy Mix) celebrates the success of his elixir and Belcore and Gianetta are smooching. Photo by Michael Halbig'; courtesy of Annapolis Opera.

Director Ben Robinson developed this version of Elixir for Anchorage Opera’s production.  In his message in the program notes, he stated that in adapting a classic opera to a new setting, he “wants to account for every musical nuance that the composer infuses into the piece.”  I believe in that he was largely successful.  Still, the updating was a two-edged sword.  The plot line required a greater suspension of disbelief than the classic versioin, difficult to believe that a reserved television cameraman would be unable to come up with twenty bucks and moving to a nearby set carries less weight than being conscripted to go into the military. The set presenting a television sound stage with lights, cameras, and action worked convincingly; kudos to Scenic Designer Rochele Mac.  Overall, it was a familiar setup for modern viewers raised on television.  The overhead screen showing what a TV audience would be seeing added interest but was also a distraction.  The building tension between the two would-be lovers needed focus and time to simmer to also bring the audience more deeply into the love story.  I thought the pace supported the comedic aspects over the love story.  The colorful costumes were fun and accented the light-heartedness of the opera; kudos to Costume Designer Kathryn Braden.  The action was well-orchestrated by Director Robinson.

Overall, I enjoyed the performance; it was colorful and fun, and I liked being able to view the story through a different lens.  The music and the singing were wonderful.  At the same time, I felt the nostalgia for the 80’s television had been substituted for the simple charm of the classic staging.  It was great entertainment, but for me, the human poignancy got a little bit overshadowed in the shuffle and the love story less compelling.  Also, I felt that Felice Romani’s dialog had been altered to the point that perhaps this version should be given a new name, maybe “Nemorino Loves Adina”, adapted from The Elixir of Love. Perhaps it would have worked better for me if I had not seen the classic version first. Nonetheless, it was an enjoyable afternoon, and Annapolis Opera continues to play above its weight in presenting fine arts entertainment to its community.

The Fan Experience: Performances of The Elixir of Love were scheduled for March 15 and 17 in the Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts .  The opera was sung in Italian with supertitles in English shown on a screen over the stage; the performance ran about two and half hours, including one intermission.  Parking at the Maryland Hall was free.

This was the last staged production of the season for Annapolis Opera, but two more events are scheduled:

April 14 – Voices of Our Time: Vocal Competition All Stars; tickets at this link.

May 5 – 36th Annual Annapolis Opera Vocal Competition; this is a free event.  I personally recommend this one, some of the best singing you will hear and at a price that can’t be beat. You also get to vote on your favorites.

Opera Lafayette's "From Saint-Cyr to Cannons: Moreau and Handel's Esther" - Theater as Mass Media

I can’t decide.  Was this program music enriched by history or history enriched by music?  Attending an Opera Lafayette performance is not like opening a box of chocolates.  You always know what you are going to get, beautiful music associated with historical events in 17-19th century France with relevance today.  You can of course treat OL productions purely as musical events.  You go; you hear the beautiful music that OL has unearthed that you likely have not heard before, played authentically on period instruments by an outstanding group of musicians.  That is a rich experience in itself, but if interested, there is more, much more.  In this case, Artistic Director Ryan Brown wondered if there was a connection between Jean-Baptiste Moreau’s music for Racine’s 17th century play, Esther, and George Frederic Handel’s use of the play for his own 18th century Esther, now recognized as the first English oratorio.  Mr. Brown is a musical Sherlock Holmes; the game was afoot.

l to r: Soprano Elisse Albian, soprano Paulina Francisco, and mezzo-soprano Kristen Dubenion-Smith. Photo by Jennifer Packard; courtesy of Opera Lafayette.

For three seasons, the theme for OL productions has been the influence of powerful women on French music of the 17-18th centuries: Madame de Maintenon this season, Madame Pompadour last season, and Marie Antoinette two years ago.  Madame de Maintenon was first a mistress and then the secret wife of King Louis XIV in his later years until his death, which gave her power and influence with the French court, which she, a strong-willed, religious person, used impactfully.  She had a guiding interest in education and the moral upbringing of young women.  She established a school in Saint-Cyr that could accommodate 250 daughters of impoverished nobility; Saint-Cyr is a town close to the palace at Versailles. This effort also served to reclaim the support of nobles made poorer by their required support of Louis XIV’s wars.  Maintenon discouraged opera at the court as too emotional but supported music and song with the right tone and moral message for court performances and performances at Saint-Cyr. 

l to r: Bass-baritone Jonathan Woody, tenor Patrick Kilbride, and tenor Jesse Darden. Photo by Jennifer Packard; courtesy of Opera Lafayette.

One production performed in 1689 gave her more than she bargained for.  She persuaded the great playwright, Jean Racine, employed by the court, to write a play about the biblical story of Esther and called on the court master of music Jean-Baptiste Moreau, to write music suitable for the performance.  In the story, Esther has been selected by Persian King Ahasuerus to be his queen, unaware she was Jewish.  Her cousin Mordecai incurs the wrath of Prime Minister Haman by refusing to bow to him, only willing to bow down to God.  Haman sets in motion a plan to annihilate all Jewish people.  At Mordecai’s urging, Esther pleads with the king, revealing she is Jewish and exposing Haman’s intentions.  Ahasuerus, remembering that Mordecai once saved him from an assassination plot, sides with his bride and orders Haman’s execution.  The choice of this story seemed appropriate and safe, with a religious theme and an avoidance of sexual issues.  Though experts assert the story is not backed by historical record, Esther is viewed as an important parable of God’s deliverance.  Many in Louis XIV’s court also saw Madame de Maintenon reflected in Esther and Louis XIV in Ahasuerus, coincidence or not.  OL’s edition of Moreau’s Esther was created by French Musicologist Anne Piéjus, who worked with Opera Lafayette on this production.

The schoolgirls at Saint-Cyr were trained in theater and acted in performances, a practice not allowed at other schools of the period.  The court provided elaborate sets, costumes, jewelry, and musicians for the shows.  Keep in mind that there was no age of consent in France at that time and young women, often still girls, married early.  Also keep in mind that the acting in the performances was exciting and created feelings of personal empowerment for the girls, generally suppressed for young women of that day.  Finally, consider that male courtiers were known for rakish behavior.  What might have been predicted occurred; the performances became a scandalous affair, causing Madame de Maintenon to clamp down further.  Her agenda to use the theater as social media of the day to promote her view of morality had backfired (see The Fan Experience section below for a note on an essay by Philip Kennicott relating that event to social media today and an essay by Benjamin Bernard on schools of that period offering an alternative to moral education by the church).

Conductor and harpsichordist Justin Taylor. Photo by Jennifer Packard; courtesy of Opera Lafayette.

It seems unlikely that Handel knew of Racine’s play or Moreau’s music for it.  Two poets, Alexander Pope and John Arbuthnot turned it into a masque from which Samuel Humphreys wrote a libretto for Handel.  Handel originally composed his work in 1717 for performance at the Earl’s residence where he resided for a while, named Cannons; he then greatly revised the masque, turning Esther into a full oratorio, first presented in 1732 at the Haymarket theater in London.  One might consider it a tribute to Handel that he could lure Opera Lafayette outside of France.  However, it posed a dilemma for musical co-director and guest Justin Taylor: what to select from the two works for an hour and a half performance and how to arrange the excerpts, either interspersed or as two groupings.  Since Madame de Maintenon placed dampening constraints on the music at the court and the singers used were schoolgirls providing further musical constraints, not limitations for Handel, he chose to present them separately with the more lively music of Handel second in the program, all vocals performed concert style.

The program featured six excellent vocalists and 15 musicians, including Mr. Taylor who served as guest conductor while playing the harpsichord, for which he is renown; violinist Jacob Ashworth was concertmaster.  For the Saint-Cyr section of the program, three female singers were utilized as soloists and as a choir.  Paulina Francisco was Soprano I and the relatively straightforward baroque music by Moreau provided a showcase for the beauty of her voice, again reflected when singing arias by Handel.  Soprano II was Elisse Albian whose lovely singing was highlighted by a natural vibrato.  The Alto role was sung effectively by mezzo-soprano Kristen Dubenion-Smith.  The ensemble singing was a strong feature of the performance.  In addition to the vocals, three instrumental lyric interludes were included, with the Entracte providing the most entertaining music of this section, I thought.  The performance included strings, flute, bassoon, oboe, and harpsichord.  The music made for an enjoyable evening, though it was not closely tied to the drama, as is the case for opera.

l to r: Nancy Jo Snider, Justin Taylor, John Thiessen, Freya Creech, Gesa Kordes, Leslie Nero, Jacob Ashworth, Theresa Salomon, Natalie Kress, Keats Dieffenbach, Alissa Smith, Meg Owens, Isaiah Chapman, Serafim Smigelskiy, Anna Marsh, Jessica Powell-Eig, Jonathan Woody. Photo by Jennifer Packard; courtesy of Opera Lafayette.

For the Handel section, three male singers joined the women featured in the Moreau section.  The role of Haman was sung by bass-baritone Jonathan Woody (who also served as musical co-director of the program), that of Ahasuerus by tenor Jesse Darden, and tenor Patrick Kilbride was in the role of Tenor II. Interactive singing between some of the characters in the oratorio excerpts heightened the emotional appeal, such as the duets between Ms. Francisco as Esther and Mr. Darden as Ahasuerus.  Handel’s music allowed more color by the singers and allowed more expression of emotion.  Haman was given more prominence in Handel’s version for greater dramatic impact.  Handel used music and vocals from another work of his for parts of Esther, which gave Haman the odd chore of singing about the merit of forgiveness at one point. The finale where the vocalists came together as the choir to sing, “The Lord our enemy has slain” was a fitting, strong finish with added emphasis from a trumpet.  At several points in the oratorio, vocal and musical riffs reminded me of Handel’s The Messiah, and though OL’s small chorus had a gorgeous sound, I did find myself wishing for a much larger chorus.  At one point, perhaps between excerpts, Mr. Taylor seemed to be jamming on the harpsichord.  It might be fun to hear more of that.  Each of the singers was a pleasure, and the musicians again delivered an impressive performance.  Conductor Taylor was wise to place Handel’s Esther last in the program, though the limited excerpts from both Moreau and Handel left me wanting more.

Once again, my wife and I headed home from an Opera Lafayette performance feeling that we had experienced something not just enjoyable, but something special.

The Fan Experience: Opera Lafayette scheduled performances of “From Saint-Cyr to Cannons: Moreau and Handel’s Esther” for February 8 in the Kennedy Center and May 9 in St. Peter’s Church, NYC.  The performance lasted an hour and a half, including one 15-minute intermission.  Moreau vocals were in French and Handel’s in English; subtitles in English were shown for both.  The program brought to mind for me the October 7 attack of Hamas on the people of Israel, but it was set and planned prior to that event. Soprano Margot Rood was originally cast as Soprano I and Esther but had to withdraw due to illness.

OL’s 2023/2024 season will conclude on May 3, 4 with “Mouret’s Les Fêtes de Thalie” in the Kennedy Center and May 9 in the Museo del Barrio, NYC. 

The program book, still online at this writing, contained informative program notes by musicologist Anne Piéjus, an excellent essay by Washington Post Art and Architecture critic Philip Kennicott drawing parallels between the French court’s reception of Esther and impacts of today’s social media, and an also excellent essay by music historian Benjamin Bernard who covered private school education at a contemporaneous boys school, Collège Mazarin, and the girls school at Saint-Cyr, Maison royae de Saint-Louis.  In addition, they held two zoom meetings with creative staff to discuss these productions, Salon I and Salon II, still available online.

On a closing note, there is a 2000 film titled “Saint-Cyr” available for purchase, but only in French, that covers the personal history of Madame de Maintenon and the Esther performances.  Because I had not seen the film, through OL, I asked their expert in the area, musicologist Anne Piéjus for comments on the historical accuracy of the film; she is Director of Research at the CNRS Institute for Research in Musicology.  Many thanks to her for a detailed response.  I have included her comments below, slightly edited to maintain the focus on the film.  She has further piqued my interest in seeing the film and learning more:

“Patricia Mazuy's film (2000) is based on the novel La Maison d'Esther, published in 1991 by actor Yves Dangerfield……another film about Saint-Cyr and Mme de Maintenon, L'allée du roi, made only 4 years earlier, by director Nina Compañez, is based on the magnificent novel L'allée du roi by historian Françoise Chandernagor….. Saint-Cyr is a pretty film, but it's a long way from reality. The sets at Caen Abbey are magnificent, and the story of the two little Normandy girls who speak poor French is fairly faithful to what we know about the linguistic unification sought at Saint-Cyr Theatre and music also helped them to learn French. The female characters, masters of their own destiny, are quite convincing.

However, in my opinion, there is a distorted reading of the story……[re] Mme de Maintenon (a "beautiful brunette" poorly portrayed by Isabelle Huppert) and the institution: the highly sexualized and unhealthy sado-masochistic relationship between Mme de Maintenon and the teenage girls, a sort of tawdry retelling of a real health problem in the 18th century: the tuberculosis epidemic that killed many pupils and adults. In the same vein, the scene with Mme de Maintenon washing herself in the pond after having sex struck me as highly inappropriate. Apart from the fact that she was hated at court, she would never have risked losing her reputation by making love in the wild like a prostitute.

The episode of Iphigénie [in the movie] is a classic in the romance literature of Saint-Cyr, but it is false…..

What remains is the effervescence of the young girls, the theatre that went to their heads, the rehearsals, the court audiences, and the marriage that took place after the performance, all of which are attested to in the archives and fairly well captured in the film…..” Now, if only the company will re-issue the film with English subtitles!

Virginia Opera's Sanctuary Road: Beautiful Music and Heart

They had me at the choral beginning.  Yet, I had qualms about attending Sanctuary Road.  It is a modern opera about slavery, and I suspected I was in for a gut-wrenching experience of man’s inhumanity to man.  Beyond the weight of the subject matter, how would this work as an opera?  On the upbeat, opera has never shied away from social issues, but has been a tool for addressing them.  Powerful social issues are the driving force for many of our most popular operas.  I once wrote in a post and I’ll stand by it, “Science helps us to control our world; the arts and humanities help us to control our selves”.  Yes, Sanctuary Road takes us deep into the painful world of slavery, but this work also attends to the wounds we suffer with beautiful music, reviving us with hope, and inspiring us with the beauty of those who will do the right thing at great risk to themselves.  Sanctuary Road presents a powerful ode to our human need to be free and equal in our rights as human beings and the sacrifices we will make for it.  All of this was packed into one hour.

l to r: Soloists Tesia Kwarteng, Adam Richardson, Terrence Chin-Loy, Laquita F. Mitchell, and Damien Geter in Sanctuary Road. Photo by Dave Pearson Photography; courtesy of Virginia Opera.

One important thing to know about Sanctuary Road is that it is not fiction.  The libretto by Mark Campbell is based on the histories and records in The Underground Railroad Records, written and published in 1872 by William Still.  The librettist extracted from this manuscript several of the more poignant personal stories of several of the slaves escaping their owners. They were aided by what is widely known now as the Underground Railroad, though it was not a railroad and was not underground; it was a loose collection of networks of people, both white and black, who strongly opposed slavery and were willing to risk prison and other penalties to help desperate escapees gain their freedom; the slaves risked much more.  The estimate is that when the Civil War began, there were about 4,000,000 slaves in the United States and in the forty years leading up to the war, about 100,000 slaves had escaped their captors with the help of the Underground Railroad.  Mr. Still, a major conductor of the Railroad, and his family in Philadelphia are credited with having assisted almost 800 slaves gain their freedom.  The penalties for both slaves and their enablers were harsh when caught; Mr. Still hid his writings in a cemetery as they were compiled to avoid detection.  According to Mr. Campbell, the opera is meant to honor Mr. Still and others who had the courage to do something.

The Virginia Opera Chorus in Sanctuary Road. Photo by Dave Pearson Photography; courtesy of Virginia Opera.

Sanctuary Road premiered in 2018 as an oratorio; later recast with staging, it premiered as an opera in 2022.  In Virginia Opera’s performance in Fairfax on Saturday evening, Composer Paul Moravec’s tonal, melodic music and affecting arias and ensemble vocals gave strong support to the powerful stories that unfolded.  Conductor Everett McCorvey led the Virginia Symphony Orchestra in an outstanding performance; Maestro McCorvey was also the opera’s conductor for its premiere performance in 2022.  Time and again I found myself making a mental note to mention how beautiful the music was.  The 39 choristers were in costumes, serving as supernumeraries on stage; as a group the chorus played a substantial role in the opera, particularly in the menacing vocal number “Reward”.  The chorus led by Associate Conductor and Chorus Master Brandon Eldredge sang with feeling and a marvelous sound.  The choral music was also a highlight of the opera. I hope to have additional opportunities to attend works composed by Mr. Moravec.

William Still (Damien Geter) interviewing an escapee (Laquinta F. Mitchell). Photo by Dave Pearson Photography; courtesy of Virginia Opera.

The cast of five soloists was anchored by bass-baritone Damien Geter who portrayed William Still with excellent vocals, displaying gravity and determination to “write, record, chronicle”.  The other four vocalists played different characters from the engaging stories told.  They included soprano Laquita F. Mitchell, mezzo-soprano Tesia Kwarteng, tenor Terrence Chin-Loy, and baritone Adam Richardson, all accomplished, excellent vocalists.  I enjoyed all the solo arias and ensemble numbers.  My two favorites were the showstopping aria “Rain” sung with such clarity and beauty by Ms. Mitchell and the early quartet “Free” sung with gorgeous harmony by Mitchell, Kuarteng, Chin-Loy, and Richardson. 

Soloists Alan Richardson and Tesia Kwarteng in Sanctuary Road. Photo by Dave Pearson Photography; courtesy of Virginia Opera.

Director Kimille Howard’s staging was effective and affecting, with a simple set, often with Mr. Still’s writing desk as the focal point, and a few props, backed by a screen showing images of documents and moving landscapes (kudos to Projection Designer David Murakami and Lighting Designer John D. Alexander).  The choristers served as townspeople sometimes seated and sometimes in the action.  The scenes for the different stories were semi-staged, often commanded by Mr. Still at his desk.  The costumes were interesting, mostly middle to upper class finery of the times; I thought it contributed an uplifting aspect to the story (kudos to Costume Coordinator Pat Seyller and Wig and Make-up Designer James P. McGough).  The character portrayals were well done by the soloists.  Though fear, anxiety, and desperation ruled the stories, some had amusing aspects, such as two sisters fooling white passengers by singing about their trip to see dear sick Aunt Abigail. 

Escapee Wesley Harris (Terrence Chin-Loy) surrounded by onlookers (Virginia Opera Chorus. Photo by Dave Pearson Photography; courtesy of Virginia Opera.

The brevity of the opera is perhaps an advantage but also a limitation.  In particular, the powerful story of William Still’s brother sprang and ended too quickly.  I would have liked to have gotten to know the characters in all the stories better; then the tears that had welled up in my eyes at the end would have been tears rolling down my cheeks through much of the opera.

The travesty of slavery in the U.S. is of course well known.  Sanctuary Road allowed me to experience not only the fear, anxiety, and desperation of the slaves, but also the courage of the men and women forsaking their family and friends, risking their lives to be free, and to experience the beauty of those who bravely aided and abetted them, whites as well as people of color.  All of this with such beautiful music and singing.  This is an opera I would go see again; I only wish that Sanctuary Road was a mini-series.  Sanctuary Road is a gem with star quality. We need more like this one, operas that not only take us to dark places but also show us the hope for deliverance from evil.

The Fan Experience: Performances of Sanctuary Road were scheduled for January 26, 28 in Norfolk, February 3, 4 in Fairfax, and February 9, 11 in Richmond.  The opera is written and performed in English with English subtitles on screen projections.  The opera lasted for one hour without an intermission.  The George Mason University Center for the Performing Arts theater, located on the GMU campus, is moderate in size, offering seat prices in different ranges – the same being true for other venues.

Many thanks to Virginia Opera for providing its audience with a variety of operas from different ages, including modern operas and for their theme of showcasing operas with connections to Virginia.  VO’s next production this season will be Madama Butterfly in Norfolk on March 8, 9, 10 and Fairfax on 16, 17 and Richmond on 22, 24. See this link for details.  VO also just announced their 2024-2025 season which will feature the premiere of a new opera, Virginia v. Loving, with music composed by none other than Damien Geter.

I always recommend the online presentations, given by Joshua Borths, Virginia Opera’s scholar in residence, which originate about a month before the performances and remain online for viewing. Viewing in real time makes it possible to ask questions of Mr. Borths.  The online video for Sanctuary Road, can be accessed at this link, where Mr. Borths focuses on the operatic aspects of the opera, leaving the associated history for the pre-opera talks.

For Sanctuary Road, the pre-opera talks feature distinguished experts in black history.  The pre-opera talk in Fairfax was given by Dr. Spencer Crew, currently the Clarence J. Robinson Professor of History at George Mason University and Emeritus Director of the National Museum of African American History and the National Museum of American History.  Dr. Crew gave an interesting and highly informative talk about the Underground Railroad.

AOI's Three 20-Minute Operas 2024: Mission Impossible, Opera Style

Good morning, composer and librettist teams.  Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to come up with 20-minute operas, complete with music, vocals, and storyline to be presented semi-staged, with Cafritz Young Artist singers accompanied by a chamber ensemble of musicians from the Washington National Opera in the Kennedy Center in one year.  You will receive mentoring from an established conductor, composer, and librettist, among others, and you will be given access to the resources of WNO.  This tape will self-destruct in 5-seconds.  Phfft!  Smoke appears.

Each year Washington National Opera’s American Opera Initiative selects three composers and three librettists through a highly competitive process, pairs them in teams, and gives them this charge.  Their new works are premiered at the Kennedy Center the following January. The results are so engaging and so much fun, one could view this as a party game, but these creative artists are dead serious.  It’s what they do, the drama behind the drama.

One year is a short time frame to conceive, construct, and develop to stage ready form for any opera, especially for young creative staff still developing their skills and talents.  There is also general agreement that writing a 20-minute opera can be more challenging than writing longer works: the introduction, development, and resolution of a problem must be done in 20 minutes, and keep in mind that it takes longer to sing thoughts than to verbalize them…the music must help to tell the story.  The mentors are already established in their fields and the team members already have strong CVs, replete with accomplishments and awards.  The composer/librettist teams are to be in attendance and come forward to be recognized with applause at the end of each performance along with the performers.  I felt that the volume of artistic talent in the Terrace Theater on Friday night must have caused the sides of the building to bulge. 

I find WNO’s American Opera Initiative exciting and look forward each year to seeing what these creative artists will produce.  I also greatly look forward to seeing operas with stories I can more readily identify with, that in addition to the universal themes associated with human motives and actions, we encounter familiar landscapes, including  TikTok, microplastics, and cell phones.  The relevance of these operas to life today never has to be argued.  Also, the production of new opera is only one goal of the AOI program.  Giving librettists and composers the opportunity to work with mentors and with conductors, musicians, singers, and creative staff provides a boost in developing careers in opera and theater.  AOI mentors this year were Conductor David Bloom, Composer Kamala Sankaram, and Librettist Deborah Brevoort.  This is a fun and exciting event that typically sells out.  One other thing you will see in audiences for AOI performances that you rarely see in the opera houses is lots of young people.

Here are comments on this year’s group of three:

A Way Forward

     Composer - Laura Jobin-Acosta

     Librettist - José G. Alba Rodríguez

            Characters and Cafritz Singers:

            Julia – Kresley Figueroa

            Helena – Winona Martin

            Gabriel – Sergio Martínez

Sergio Martínez as Gabriel, the father, Winona Martin as Helena, the grandmother, and Kresley Figueroa as Julia, the daughter. Photo by Bronwen Sharp; courtesy of the Washington National Opera.

A Way Forward featured a Mexican family that included a grandmother, her son, and his daughter at a time when they are dealing with the fact that the family traditional bakery is failing.  Each argues for a remedy based on where they are in time regarding their cultural heritage, and the intensity of their arguing strains the family bonds.  The strength of their love for each other leads them to a way they can move forward together.  The creative team sees this struggle as especially “poignant for individuals from BIPOC cultures” (I admit I had to look it up – Black, Indigenous, People of Color).  The storylines for all three operas were engaging and worthy of exploration.  A Way Forward perhaps most needed more time for development.  The father was an especially rich character, but we had to learn about him from his words more than his actions.  All three singers were excellent in both acting and singing, soprano Kresley Figueroa as the daughter, mezzo-soprano Winona Martin as the grandmother, and bass Sergio Martínez as the father. The music in this work was the most pleasing to me, tightly wed to what was developing in the drama. 

Forever

     Composer - Elizabeth Gartman

     Librettist - Melisa Tien

            Characters and Cafritz Singers:

            PFAS 1 – Teresa Perrotta

            Tardigrade – Cecelia McKinley

            PFAS 2 – Sahel Salam

Sahel Salam as PFAS 2, Teresa Perrotta as PFAS 1, and Cecelia McKinley as Tardigrade. Photo by Bronwen Sharp; courtesy of the Washington National Opera.

Forever takes place in a superfund site of a post-apocalyptic world and features two pieces of microplastics (PFAS 1 and 2; PFAS stands for polyfluoroalkyl substances which have the moniker “forever chemicals”) and a Tardigrade (an eight-legged micro-animal).  These are lovable characters, but this is not a children’s opera.  Apparently these are the last remaining sentient entities on an earth, victimized by environmental pollution and global climate change (why didn’t Mozart and Lorenzo Da Ponte ever think of that).  The choice of objects as the characters in a future world without humans was very clever as was the choice to bring up environmental degradation and climate change using absurdist humor.  It worked for laughs and for impact and was the most complete work of the three short operas and scored really high on the enjoyable meter.  The singers, soprano Teresa Perrotta as PFAS 1, tenor Sahel Salam as PFAS 2, and contralto Cecelia McKinley as Tartigrade were quite charming and effective in singing, and were hoots in their acting.  Try to imagine a vampish, polyamorous tartigrade; Ms. McKinley pulled it off (one could imagine Lorenzo Da Ponte thinking of polyamory, but he’d have no concept of a micro-animal).  I will point out that the Cafritz singer/actors are young artists, not amateurs.  For example, I have already enjoyed Ms. Perrotta’s excellent recent performances in WNO’s Grounded, in Maryland Lyric Opera’s Falstaff, and in Washington Concert Opera’s Nabucco.  The adventurous music supported the tragicomedy well.  Special Kudos to percussionist John Spirtas who had to make a lot of different sounds with spot on timing.  The creative team managed a minor miracle with their approach to such a dark subject.  Even when the characters all expired to leave a quiet stage, the need for connections had been affirmed and lived on; hope did not die, at least in the audience.

Hairpiece

     Composer – Joy Redmond

     Librettist – Sam Norman

            Characters and Cafritz Singers:

            Ester – Tiffany Chloe

            Ari – Jonathan Pierce Rhodes

            Gale – Justin Burgess        

left photo: Tiffany Choe as Esther. middle photo: Jonathan Pierce Rhodes as Ari and Justin Burgess as Gale; right photo: Jonathan Pierce Rhodes sans wig. Photos by Bronwen Sharp; courtesy of the Washington National Opera.

Hairpiece featured Esther, a wigmaker, Ari, a gender-nonconforming stranger who approaches her to have a wig made, and Gale, a guy the stranger had an encounter with in a bar.  All three are dealing with identity issues: Esther is veteran wig maker with failing eyesight near the end of her career, who finds her craft being replaced by machine-made wigs; the stranger is seeking validation, and the guy had just lost a husband the previous year.  Composer Redmond and librettist Norman state: “They want the world to see them on their own terms.  They want their dignity.”  Again, the Cafritz singer/actors delivered strong performances; each created their own identity and made connection with the audience through their singing.  In analogy to wig making, the composer/librettist team planned to have different threads of music interweaving to reflect the stories and themes being interwoven on stage.  There certainly was a lot going on in the orchestra, but too small a sample to get an overall gauge on it.  That said, I enjoyed the music and found it interesting in its coupling with the drama.

The director for the semi-staging of the operas was Chloe Treat who effectively used the few props to assist in telling the stories.  The staging of Forever was clever and worked to enhance the comic elements.  Costumes by Timm Burrow were well done to support the dramas, with special kudos for Tardigrade’s costume.  The orchestra on the small Terrace Theater stage was seated to the left in the back.  All three operas were conducted by Maestro David Bloom leading the thirteen piece chamber ensemble from the Washington National Opera Orchestra, and applause to them for their excellent tight knit playing for all three operas.

Long live the American Opera Initiative!  There is so much good going on in the AOI program, good for audiences and everyone involved, and for the future of American opera.

The Fan Experience:  American Opera Initiative’s Three 20-Minute Operas were performed in two evening showings on Friday, January 19 in the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater.  Even though written and performed in English, subtitles are shown on two small screens on either side of the stage, which might be challenging viewing near the back of the seating area.

The performances were essentially sold out well ahead of the date.  One suspects a significant fraction of the audience is made up of family and friends of the creative staff and performers involved, which makes it more fun, but WNO might consider adding performances, with a matinee on a separate day.

Note: Normally composers and librettists apply individually for the AOI program and are subsequently paired.  Preformed teams can apply but both the composer and librettist must be selected individually to remain a team.  The review and awards process is managed by AOI Program Director Christopher Cano and AOI Artistic Director Kelley Rourke.

Parking in the Kennedy Center is typically plentiful at around $25 per day, with a small discount for Kennedy Center members when reserved ahead of the day.  The Metro to Foggy Bottom and the free red Kennedy Center buses, from there to the Kennedy Center running every 15 minutes, are an excellent option.  There is an advantage in getting there a bit early.  KC frequently has multiple performances on its different stages overlapping that can create traffic jams.

There are snack stands in the main lobby, and on the Terrace level, the KC Café offers food cafeteria style at moderate prices; fine dining is available on the Terrace level in the Roof Terrace Restaurant.  Food and drinks except water are not allowed inside the opera house, but you can purchase reusable capped containers with your drinks that you can take inside.

NSO's Ring without Words: I tried to enjoy it, honest.

The enthusiastic and elongated standing ovation at the conclusion of the National Symphony Orchestra’s playing, under the direction of Maestro Gianandrea Noseda, “Ring without Words” offered compelling evidence that I was in a minority of one.  Further, I could find no solace in reviews of this work when performed by other orchestras.  Well, I tried to enjoy it, honest, I did.

The National Symphony Orchestra led by Conductor Gianandrea Noseda. Photo by Scott Suchman; courtesy of the National Symphony Orchestra.

For me, Wagnerian opera was an acquired taste, but once acquired it became a passion, though with a bitter taste.  Wagner was both a great composer and, from all reports, a seriously flawed human being.  His forte was composing operas, not symphonic works; he has eleven operas that are still performed today.  He completed only one symphony, which was not well received.  His desire was to create what he called musical dramas as “gesamtkunstwerk”, a theater package that included all art forms as a maxed out dramatic experience, with music being an active participant in the dramas.  He popularized the concept of using leitmotifs or short musical themes to identify with people, places, objects, or ideas.  His music in many of his operas has been redrafted with success for presentation as orchestral works.  Given that my first love is opera and that the NSO performances are always a treat, I could not pass this one up, especially given the chance to hear Wagner’s music performed by an orchestra the size and quality of the National Symphony Orchestra. My expectations were high.

This history behind this performance bears mentioning.  In 1987, the recording company Telarc persuaded the late, great conductor Lorin Maazel to make a condensed orchestral version of music from Richard Wagner’s the Ring Cycle (Der Ring des Nibelungen or The Ring of the Nibelung), a work consisting of four separate operas –

Das Rheingold (or The Rhinegold),

Die Walküre or (Valkyrie),

Siegfried,

Das Götterdämmerung or (Twilight of the Gods) –

a grouping which lasts over 16 hours in total.  The plot-line from Norse mythology that runs through all four opera concerns a golden ring that gives the possessor god like power over everyone… but with the condition that they give up love; overall, the Ring is an engrossing and compelling drama about the destructive influence of power when not guided by love.  Telarc had a confining stipulation for Maazel: the work had to come in under 75 minutes to fit on a single compact disc.  Maestro Maazel’s effort that he labeled the “Ring without Words” stitched together musical highlights from the four operas, presented in the same order as the operas; his program came in around 70 minutes.  The “Ring without Words”, which began as a studio recording, has enjoyed popularity as a concert piece, still performed occasionally today.  This distillation offers music fans the chance to sample Wagner’s music without committing to 16 hours required to hear the operas.  It so happens that NSO’s Music Director and Conductor Gianandrea Noseda has recently conducted the entire Ring Cycle and will do so again in May 2024 for the Zurich Opera House, where he holds the position of General Music Director.  Now, it also happens that there was another concert scheduled for NSO’s season in the January 11, 12, and 13 slot, but the solo performer to appear canceled this past November.  This confluence of need and competence enabled NSO to quickly fill the void with a quality and timely replacement.  I don’t know how season ticket holders took the news, but the KC Concert Hall was mostly packed on Thursday evening.

Conductor and NSO Music Director Gianandrea Noseda. Photo by Scott Suchman; courtesy of the National Symphony Orchestra.

Let me be clear: my issues were with the program, not the performance thereof; this is great music by a great composer, assembled by a great conductor, and it was played with verve and beauty by a great orchestra led by a great conductor.  All the elements were in place for a fine performance. In the beginning, the music of the Rhine entered slowly and swirled, engulfing the audience; the orchestra pushed the ride of the Valkyries out over the audience.  Further along a clanking sound of a hammer fashioning a sword drifted out.  Siegfried and Brunnhilde began their love affair.  Finally, Brunnhilde makes a sacrifice to cleanse and offer hope once more.  That was happening in my mind’s eye which was conjuring images from the operas.  Certainly, it was beautiful music, sometimes in a slow encompassing pace, moving slowly and now and then surging with raging crescendos, sometimes with a wall of shimmering sound (I love Wagner’s use of horns).   Individual sections of the orchestra took turns with the lead and even a lovely cello solo was offered. 

So, what’s your problem, dude?  Well, I looked forward to the opportunity to focus on hearing this music sans the singing and story, but I could not.  One of my favorite moments in opera is the beginning of Das Rheingold when the swirling music of the Rhine rises as in a wave and the Rhine maidens break into song - it’s thrilling, but they weren’t there that night and the water simply moved on empty and alone.  I tried to adjust, but more and more the moments of beauty seemed lonely and disjointed.  I can only wonder what someone unfamiliar with the Ring Cycle heard.  Were they enticed to attend the entire Ring Cycle, or will they think that its music that had its moments but is not worth 16 hours and the expense required?  Based on what I heard that evening, I would be delighted to attend Noseda’s performances of the complete cycle with the Zurich Opera in May, or better yet, how about doing it again in the Kennedy Center.  Francesca Zambello’s 2016 Ring was outstanding; it’s time for another round!

Perhaps for me the experience was like having one potato chip when there are four varieties on the table, but it goes deeper, maybe like hearing four movements from Mozart symphonies without pause, where each movement came from a different Mozart symphony.  Music elicits feelings or at least it shades feelings, but in a personal way, speaking to us in a language we can only understand subconsciously.  Great composers like Mozart could compose ensemble arias where different individuals singing at the same time to the same tune were expressing very different feelings.  The great opera composers became adept at using music to assign meaning to stretches of music that works for their dramas, and when we hear it in the opera, the meaning given to us becomes imprinted on our consciousness.   That music becomes associated in our minds with those characters or places or ideas. I cannot hear the theme from the TV show “Have Gun, Will Travel” without seeing in my mind’s eye Paladin dressed in black, or hear Lara’s Theme without seeing fields of wind caressed flowers in Russia or hear “Do you hear the People Sing” from “Les Misérables” without sensing the patriotic pride of liberty, equality, and fraternity.  Think of what you experience when you hear the musical theme from the movie, “Jaws”.  Wagner refined that ability to create short snippets of music that became associated with characters or places or ideas that helped him tell his stories.  Classical music also has an underlying order, even though it is something I cannot articulate.  That order is why I most often feel calmed by classical music.  However, in opera the meaning of the music has been assigned.  Perhaps when I heard Maazel’s suite of opera music from the Ring Cycle played as an orchestral piece, those meanings, the music and the opera-assigned ones, clashed at transition points, and it felt chaotic, even though musically the transitions were relatively smooth.  Perhaps, seventy minutes of these changes was too much for me to enjoy at one time.  Or perhaps, like Scrooge I can hope that the ghost visiting me that night was just an undigested piece of potato (in my case peanut butter crackers).

Finally, the performance by the National Symphony Orchestra led by Conductor Noseda was as strong as I anticipated, no problem there, but for whatever reason, the Ring without Words program did not work for me that night. For me, Maestro Maazel’s Ring suite of seventy minutes, at best, only made me long for the sweet sixteen hours of Wagner’s. Maybe for the Ring Cycle, I need the gesamtkunstwerk; I hope Ms. Zambello is listening.

The Fan Experience: Performances of “Ring without Words” were scheduled for January 11, 12, and 13 in the Concert Hall at the Kennedy Center.  The work is intended to be performed continuously without interruption, though in Thursday’s performance, enthusiastic fans could not resist interrupting the performance a couple of times with applause.

Parking in the Kennedy Center is typically plentiful at around $25 per day, with a small discount for Kennedy Center members when reserved ahead of the day.  The Metro to Foggy Bottom and the free red Kennedy Center buses, from there to the Kennedy Center running every 15 minutes, are an excellent option.  There is an advantage in getting there a bit early.  KC frequently has multiple performances on its different stages overlapping that can create traffic jams, even unexpected ones inside the Center.  Thursday, the middle section of the Grand Foyer in front of the Opera House was squadroned off and only attendees for “Frozen” could enter that area, and they had to pass through metal detectors to enter.

There are snack stands in the main lobby, and on the Terrace level, the KC Café offers food cafeteria style at moderate prices; fine dining is available on the Terrace level in the Roof Terrace Restaurant.  Food and drinks except water are not allowed inside the opera house, but you can purchase reusable containers with your drinks that you can take inside.

Shakespeare Opera Theatre's Hansel and Gretel: A Fun Experience for All Ages

I attended Shakespeare Opera Theatre’s performance of the opera, Hansel and Gretel, on Saturday afternoon, and it proved to be quite a pleasure as well as a rewarding arts experience.  I told my wife that next time we should bring some friends (be sure to read The Fan Experience section below).

Engelbert Humperdinck (the composer, not the 1960s pop music singer who adopted his name to help the singer revitalize his career) was a talented, even gifted German composer.  He wrote six operas and many other well received musical compositions, but it is his opera Hansel and Gretel for which he is widely known today.  The libretto by his sister Adelheid Wette is based on the famous Brothers Grimm fairy tale.  The collaboration that led to the opera occurred when his sister asked him to compose music for four folk songs to be part of a children’s marionette show she was planning.  The very pleasing melodies and themes of the folks songs are employed in the opera.

In the rear, JP Gorski as Peter, the father, Alicia Woodberry as Gertrud, the mother, with Julie Silva as Hansel and Catherine Moss as Gretel. Photo by Joshua Waits; courtesy of Shakespeare Opera Theatre.

The opera was first performed on December 23, 1893, in Germany, conducted by the even more famous composer Ricard Strauss.  Humperdinck’s opera enjoyed immediate success and became associated with Christmas in Germany and gradually also in the rest of the world.  The Metropolitan Opera’s first live, on-air broadcast was of Hansel and Gretel, performed in New York City on December 25, 1931.  It is frequently performed worldwide today, especially during the holiday season.  It’s themes of childhood innocence and vulnerability, coupled with an overriding divine protection of the innocent fit well with the celebration of Christmas.  To make the opera more accessible, SOT used an English language adaptation of the opera, slightly trimmed and modified; musical accompaniment was by piano.

Shakespeare Opera Theatre is a local opera company founded in 2015 by soprano, Dr. Lori Lind and based in McLean, VA.  After spending years touring around the world, Dr. Lind decided to settle down in northern Virginia and to stay connected to the performance arts by merging her two loves, acting in Shakespeare productions, and singing opera.  She found an acceptance and performance venue at the Grace Episcopal Church in The Plains, Virginia, which was expanded a few years ago to include performances at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, McLean; maximum seating at both is around 85.  While operas based on Shakespeare’s plays are a repeating element of the company’s seasons, the name is meant to indicate a focus on classic works, especially operas where acting is emphasized.  After a couple of rocky years in the beginning, SOT found its footing, and Dr. Lind reports now that performances are frequently selling out.  Based on the matinee performance I saw on Saturday afternoon, it is easy to understand why.

Amanda Wyand as The Witch. Photo by Portraits by Bronder; courtesy of Shakespeare Opera Theatre.

You might wonder about the quality of singers that a small, local opera company can attract and afford to employ; I did.  However, during the performance, those thoughts changed to how can SOT attract singers of such quality!  SOT’s target pool is “emerging artists” (we once called these singer’s young, but now they arrive holding college degrees in music and graduate degrees in voice and have already been performing professionally for years, though still youngish).  The vocalists come from across the U.S. and even beyond.  Dr. Lind told me that SOT auditioned 48 singers for the seven soloist positions, requiring each singer to perform five arias.  As performers themselves, Dr. Lind and the production team have a great deal of experience to draw on; of local interest, I noted that Dr. Lind won the 2005 vocal competition held annually by Annapolis Opera and is the current Organist and Choirmaster at St. Thomas.

Hansel and Gretel are the lead roles for the opera, featured in every scene.  Soprano Catherine Moss as Gretel and mezzo-soprano Julie Silva as Hansel were an excellent pairing, believably portraying a teenaged or preteen sister and brother who love to quarrel almost as much as they love each other’s company.  Ms. Silva sang with a lovely medium deep tone, perfect for a pants role, and Ms. Moss’ voice has a very pretty timbre.  Their voices blended beautifully in their duets.  Ms. Moss is a current member of the University of Maryland Opera Studio; Ms. Silva has sung mezzo-soprano roles worldwide, including performing previously as Hansel.  The Witch was portrayed by mezzo-soprano Amanda Wyand, who in addition to singing well seemed to enjoy giving a fine, campy performance as the Witch.  Ms. Wyand was an apprentice artist with Opera Roanoke and in 2022 was an Ader Emerging Artist with Charlottesville Opera.

Gertrud, the mother, and Peter, the father were sung by soprano Alicia Woodberry and baritone JP Gorski, both of whom sang well and gave engaging performances.  Peter constantly singing la, la, la, la melodically became an earworm for me.  The roles of the Sandman and Dew Fairy were sung by two charmers, mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Barnes and soprano Kathryn Brode, respectively; both left me longing for more.

Elizabeth Barnes as Sandman and Kathryn Brode as the Dew Fairy. Photos by Portraits by Bronder; courtesy of Shakespeare Opera Theatre.

Hansel and Gretel’s popularity is not only due to its appeal as a fairy tale opera for children; it also offers a melodic, musically sophisticated score.  Composer Humperdinck became friends with Richard Wagner and assisted him in a production of Parsifal at Bayreuth.  Musicologists state that the music offers a Wagnerian range of colors and textures, with endless polyphonic variations on the folk melodies; they have even questioned whether the music is too rich just for a simple fairy tale opera.  The piano accompaniment for this performance was supplied by SOT’s Associate Director and Conductor Dr. Lisa Bloy.  The melodies and themes translated well for a production of Hansel and Gretel in a smaller venue.  Ms. Bloy’s playing might have been more nuanced but her timing with the singers was impeccable.  Time and again I marveled at how well they performed together.

The small performance hall for Hansel and Gretel had simple attractive, thematic sets: a cottage set, a forest set, and a candy house set for the different scenes; amusingly, Ms. Lind told the audience that we must ignore the sets not in use for the current scene; it was not a problem.  The Bavarian styled costumes were a delight, though Gertrud’s lavish red gown, while lovely, was more fitting for a queen than an impoverished broom maker’s wife.  This version of the opera was modified for the final scene where, in other versions, the children previously consumed by The Witch appear and are brought back to life.  My difficulty deciphering sung text, even when sung in English, left me unclear whether that aspect had been addressed; my wife, who had not seen the opera before, thought the ending worked as presented.  Regardless, it was a happy ending for all, even The Witch, and the audience was treated to a closing chorus by the ensemble.

Hansel and Gretel is based on a fairy tale that can be presented in many ways.  The SOT presentation is mild in terms of scariness, played more for comedic effect.  Still, children become lost (happiness endangered); children are threatened (innocence lost), and children save themselves (with a little divine intervention) and eventually are reunited with their grateful parents (oh, joy).  All that coupled with great singing and music works for me, at Christmas or anytime.

The Fan Experience: Shakespeare Opera Theatre scheduled Hansel and Gretel performances for December 9 (matinee and evening) and 10 (matinee) at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Mclean, and on December 16 (matinee and evening) at Grace Episcopal Church in The Plains, Virginia.  The opera is sung in English without subtitles.  SOT’s next production will be Verdi’s Macbeth in July.

SOT’s performance had more of a party atmosphere rather than the church service atmosphere of our major opera halls.  I found little pretense with SOT; they readily own their limitations and still managed to engage us fully.  Dress is “as you like it” and seating is at tables.  Thematic snacks and non-alcoholic drinks are offered for sale (I had the endless hot chocolate) which can be consumed before, during, or after performances.  Children were not only encouraged to attend but Ms. Lind, in her opening remarks, stated not to worry if your children began to act like children, let them be children, and if any adults wanted to play with the toys and coloring books at the back, feel free. Autumn Grimes is SOT’s children’s helper and keeps the children engaged.  

I will close with a personal anecdote and just a wee bit of pontificating.  The college I attended required attendance at church your first year.  I fell in love with the choir which featured an outstanding soprano soloist.  The second year I kept attending regularly, in all honesty, primarily to hear the choir.  This was not the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, but this local choir provided some of my most cherished musical experiences, further enhanced by being part of a community.  I worry that opera has lost much of its direct connection with people and the community contact has become too impersonal, especially as younger generations move increasingly online.  Shakespeare Opera Theatre offers an old-time approach in a modern setting using professional quality singers.  You might find it rewarding, and if you’d also like to rekindle that old flame of community connection, maybe bring a friend.

Washington Concert Opera's Ermione: OMG!

Washington Concert Opera presented the rarely performed Rossini opera, Ermione, Saturday evening in Lisner Auditorium on the GW campus.  With a cast headlined by Metropolitan Opera veterans Angela Meade, David Portillo, Lawrence Brownlee, and Ginger Costa-Jackson with Conductor Antony Walker, I was expecting a good show or maybe just an interesting evening; however, after Ms. Costa-Jackson sang Andromacha’s opening aria with such passion as a woman fearful for her son and crushed by the loss of her husband, all resistance to this opera vanished.  The other singers must have realized at that point that they needed to bring their A-game to match up with her, and they did!  Each of the principal singers elicited explosions of applause from the audience time and again for their various arias, one wow moment after another.  This was the most fun at the opera that I have had in a long time.

Angela Meade as Ermione with Conductor Antony Walker; the Washington Concert Opera Orchestra and Chorus in the background. Production photo by Caitlin Oldham; courtesy of Washington Concert Opera.

I wish Gioachino Rossini himself could have been there.  To say that Ermione failed to impress when it premiered in 1819 can hardly be overstated; it closed after seven performances and the opera was not staged again for one hundred and fifty years.  Even in modern times, it has been produced worldwide only six times in the last ten years.  Rossini moved on, but evidently kept it in his heart, referring to it in his later years as his “little William Tell”.  Many reasons have been proffered for its lack of popularity – it was too avant-garde, seen as an effort of Rossini to break free from the Italian operatic conventions of his day.  The infrequency of its productions today may be a combination of cost – a large cast with four extraordinary singers is needed – and the limited popular appeal of Greek tragedy today, especially one with such a complicated, dark storyline, devoid of comic relief and lacking superheroes…lacking any kind of hero, for that matter.

l to r: Ginger Costa-Jackson as Andromacha, Angela Meade as Ermione, David Portillo as Pirro, and Lawrence Brownlee as Oreste, with Conductor Antony Walker on the platform and in the background the WCO Orchestra and Chorus. Production photo by Caitlin Oldham; courtesy of Washington Concert Opera.

The librettist for Ermione was Andrea Leone Tottola; he adapted the story from Jean Racine’s play, Andromaque.  The time is shortly after the Trojan War, with Trojan prisoners held in Epirus, where King Pirro has placed Astianatte, the son of slain Trojan hero, Hector, in prison; his wife Andromacha is allowed to move about under the protection of King Pirro, who has fallen in love with her.  Noble woman Ermione has learned of his affection for Andromacha and feels jilted and betrayed.  Oreste, son of Agamemnon arrives as an emissary who wants Hector’s son put to death out of Greek fear he could lead a new Trojan uprising.  Oreste is deeply in love with Ermione, who has no interest in him.  The women control the guys with Andromacha wanting to save her son and Ermione wanting Pirro back.  Ermione goes too far, asking Oreste to kill Pirro to get her hand, and then wishing the Furies on him for carrying out her request.  It ends with the Greeks protecting Oreste by escorting him back to Greece by sea.  Epirus is left in turmoil, with the stories of Ermione and Andromacha left unfinished, and no season 2 planned.  If Rossini had employed supernatural Furies and had them do some earlier dirty work, it might have played better for modern American audiences.  Ah, what might have been.

l to r: Kate Jackman as Cefisa, Ginger Costa-Jackson as Andromacha, Erin Ridge as Cleone, and Angela Meade as Ermione, Production photo by Caitlin Oldham; courtesy of Washington Concert Opera.

The outstanding soprano Angela Meade, who portrays Ermione, has appeared in several productions of Ermione over the last ten years, and her performances have been influential in the renewed interest it has received.  In her opening comments, Executive Director Meg Sippey cautioned that Ms. Meade was recovering from a respiratory infection and while fine she might need to cough on stage; she never did, and if this was Ms. Meade at less than her best, please let me experience her best at a future performance.  This is a difficult role, especially in Act 2 when Ermione moves through one emotion to another, from jealous anger to guilt to love to grief to fury, all decorated with melisma and trills in high and low registers.  Despite the caution, her virtuosity and beautiful tone did not disappoint, and I was on my feet with everyone else applauding at the end.  Tenor David Portillo as Pirro was a marvel, singing beautifully with a silvery tone while being pushed back and forth in different directions by Ermione and Andromacha.  He managed some portions requiring rapid fire delivery with his beautiful tone completely in tack.  Tenor Lawrence Brownlee is a treasure and brought his A-game as well playing the love struck, one dimensional Oreste, also requiring some vocal pyrotechnics in a higher range, something he is known for.  Mezzo-soprano Ginger Costa-Jackson as Andromacha was so good and so emotionally expressive I suspected she was channeling Maria Callas on her 100th birthdate (Dec 2, 1923).  She was quite good in a previous appearance with WCO, but she is now performing on an even higher, more accomplished level.  The performance was further embellished by a perfectly cast group of soloists familiar to Washington area audiences, which included bass-baritone Matthew Scollin as Pirro’s tutor Fenicio, Kate Jackman as Andromac’s confidant Cefisa, tenor Rolando Sanz as Pirro’s confidant Attalo, soprano Erin Ridge as Ermione’s friend Cleone, and tenor Matthew Hill as Oreste’s friend Pilade.

David Portillo as Pirro, Lawrence Brownlee as Oreste, Matthew Hill as Pilade, Rolando Sanz as Attalo, and Matthew Scollin as Fenicio. Production photo by Caitlin Oldham; courtesy of Washington Concert Opera.

Ok, the vocals are great; what about Rossini’s music that so few people have heard?  Well, it is Rossini, always enjoyable to listen to but not always dramatically in sync with the drama, but in Ermione, it mostly is.  The great composer in breaking free of the typical opera seria format of his day, had the chorus chime in during the overture; the overture sounds like a celebration with a great crescendo at the end, but the chorus sings as Trojans bemoaning their loss of the war.  I suppose the point was to contrast what the citizens of Epirus were feeling versus the Trojans?  Staging might have helped this point, though it evidently did not for Italians in the day.  A few times, I had the feeling the music I was enjoying was for a different opera (my wife disagrees), but think of it as two for one.  I read that this opera by Rossini was more in the style of middle Verdi than early 1800s.  Perhaps, but I have trouble imagining Verdi writing that overture and some of the happy time music supporting a Greek tragedy.  Rossini also broke from convention in having his arias join with the next step in the story and even join with other singers.  Actually, there were some great duets!  Rossini also chose to portray a strong, domineering woman dominating supposedly great men.  Evidently, these innovations were off putting to the first Italian audiences.  Rossini was a bel canto master and wrote this opera for some great singers who could make the vocals shine.  Washington Concert Opera took on that challenge and met it with flying colors.

Angela Meade as Ermione and David Portillo as Pirro. Production photos by Caitlin Oldham; courtesy of Washington Concert Opera.

Washington Concert Orchestra led by Artistic Director and Conductor Walker got off to a slow start for me but quickly built to their usual mastery.  It took a lot of effort to stay in sync with these singers singing this great music; I wish I had a recording of Mr. Brownlee’s interplay with the orchestra, a treat that I will long remember.  The WCO Chorus under the direction of Assistant Conductor and Concert Master David Hanlon made the evening more enjoyable, with the men’s section doing most of the heavy lifting in this one.  The finale for Act 1 was thrilling, with all the vocalists and orchestra and chorus participating in the bedlam that had developed.  No staging was used for the performance of this opera, but the singers in character and the music told the story eloquently with great feeling.

Lawrence Brownlee as Oreste and Ginger Costa-Jackson as Andromacha. Production photo by Caitlin Oldham; courtesy of Washington Concert Opera.

If you have the opportunity to see Ermione, I strongly recommend you go, especially if you think the singers can handle it.  Going to see Washington Concert Opera performances is simply something you should put on your calendar.

The Fan Experience: Washington Concert Opera opened their 2023-2024 season with the performance of Ermione on December 2 in George Washington’s Lisner Auditorium.  The opera was sung in Italian with English surtitles on a screen overhead.  This performance was on Saturday, but WCO performances are more typically on Sunday evening, as will be their April 7 performance of La Rondine featuring soprano Ailyn Pèrez in her first appearance with WCO.

Peter Russell, General Director of Vocal Arts DC, presented a pre-opera talk and provided program notes.  Mr. Russell also presents a one-hour lecture on each production in the free Opera Gems Online series.  His lectures are impressively detailed and informative, with samples of the music to be heard.

In my experience, all the seats in Lisner Auditorium are fine for viewing the performance, but the sound is probably better towards the center of the auditorium.  Parking on the street around the auditorium is catch as catch can; be sure to read the signs!  Metro is two blocks away.  WCO has a visitor web page with directions and parking info, helpful in finding nearby parking lots.

Washington National Opera's Romeo and Juliet: Lush with Beauty and Romance

With all the beautiful music, singing, and staging, tragically, Romeo didn’t get the memo.  As a bona fide user of social media, I feel like it is my responsibility to use the entirety of this report to attack, in harsh and vulgar and capitalized terms, Frére Laurent, the well-meaning friar who failed, I say FAILED, to get the word to Romeo that Juliet just looked dead but was not dead.  I repeat – NOT DEAD!  It was kind of important for him to know that as I will explain.  It is also my responsibility, nonetheless, to be more balanced for my readers’ sake.  After all, stuff happens, and besides, we don’t know the details.  With that off my chest, here goes:

Rosa Feola as Juliet in center of ring in party scene from Washington National Opera’s Romeo and Juliet. Photo by Scott Suchman; courtesy of Washington National Opera.

French composer Charles Gounod led an interesting life and managed to write two operas that still get performed regularly today, this one and Faust (1859); as the popularity of Faust has waned, that of Romeo and Juliet (1867) has grown worldwide; of his twelve-opera total, his first opera, Sapho, also occasionally gets produced.  Gounod won the Prix de Paris award for composers when he was only twenty which offered him training in Italy and made additional travel in Europe possible.  His interest was mainly sacred music; his “Ave Maria” is one of the famous versions of the hymn; the composer had a gift for writing beautiful music.  At the age of 28, he entered a seminary to train for the priesthood; he left when he discovered that celibacy was not his thing.  He was befriended by famed mezzo-soprano and socialite Pauline Viardot, who got him started in opera with Sapho.  This led to favor with impresario Léon Carvalho and introductions to other elites of the Parisian musical establishment, including librettists Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, who worked with him on both Faust and Romeo and Juliet.  At the height of his fame, he was considered the leading composer in France.

Romeo (Adam Smith) and Juliet (Rosa Feola). Photos by Scott Suchman; courtesy of Washington National Opera.

Librettists Barbier and Carré used Shakespeare’s play as their source and stayed close to it.  The great Bard’s story of young lovers who cannot be together because they are from rival, warring families, and that wind up committing suicide together, is an all-time classic, presented in uncountable productions of the play and many adaptations in movies, musicals, and operas.  Among the significant changes by the librettists, only Juliet and Romeo are in the Capulet crypt scene, and Juliet wakes up before Romeo’s death to allow for a nice romantic duet and more time for the audience to shed tears.  As a reminder, the friar’s scheme to help the young lovers escape is to have Juliet take a potion making her look dead; then he and Romeo will revive her in the crypt; alas, Romeo doesn’t get the memo and takes a poison when he discovers her body in the tomb…but she then wakes up, and when Romeo dies, she plunges a knife into her chest so that they will remain together forever.  Frankly, with so many deadly conflicts going on today, I was praying that WNO had changed the ending, but no, that was not to be, and I am left to harshly critisize Frére Laurent.

Juliette (Rosa Feola) and Romeo (Adam Smith) in balcony scene. Photo by Scott Suchman; courtesy of Washington National Opera.

Ms. Feola as Juliet lived up to her star diva billing.  Her early on singing of the opera’s pop hit aria, “Je veux vivre” was a delightful, lyrical pleasure.  Ms. Feola is not a belter; she sings with grace and texture and enjoyable clarity, bringing the nature of Juliet more fully to life.  The surprise of the evening to me was just how good tenor Adam Smith was who played Romeo; he was an outstanding pairing with Ms. Feola.  He proved to be a pure voiced tenor with excellent vocal power and a strong stage presence.  I wanted to hit replay on their duet on the balcony late in Part One, a scene where the beautiful couple also displayed youthful agility scaling the wall.  It was not the only time I wanted to hit replay for their arias and duets.

The supporting cast was also strong: I will single out just a few.  Justin Austin made for a rather endearing Mercutio, a friend who loses his life defending Romeo’s honor.  You might remember this young singer’s recent appearance in WNO’s American Opera Initiative’s American Apollo; he is this year’s winner of the Marian Anderson Award.  Tenor Duke Kim, also an AOI alumni, was excellent as hot-headed Tybalt, though casual business attire made his character more difficult to believe for me.  Mezzo-soprano Jill Grove as Gertrude, Juliet’s nurse, was a magnet for attention anytime she was singing or just on stage.  Bass Nicolas Testé sang the roles for both the Duke of Verona and Frére Laurent.  His beautiful voice and singing readily take command of the stage, making me even more baffled that the friar failed to get the memo to Romeo.  Lastly, I will mention mezzo-soprano Winona Martin, a veteran of Wolf Trap Opera who sang the role of Stéphano, a friend/defender of Romeo; her singing of “Que fais-tue, blanch tourterelle” was a standout.

Two views of Mercutio (Justin Austin), party crashing and engaged in deadly combat(includes Adam Smith as Romeo and Kevin Punnackal as Benvolio). Photos by Scott Suchman; courtesy of Washington National Opera.

The Washington National Opera Orchestra under the direction of Conductor Evan Rogister gave an outstanding performance.  Gounod’s marvelous music was played with beauty and sensitivity, expertly partnering with and not overwhelming the singers.  Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet was a perfect match of composer with story.  The orchestra was a joy from beginning to end.  The large WNO chorus was also a delight under the steady hand of Chorus Master Steven Gathman.  The opera opens with both a dramatic overture by the orchestra and a grave prologue by the chorus.

The Director for WNO’s production was Simon Godwin, the Artistic Director for DC’s acclaimed Shakespeare Theater Company; this was his entrance into directing opera.  His talent as a theater director was evident throughout this excellent performance; exceptionally well played was the ending scene between Romeo and Juliet.  Mr. Godwin chose costumes of the mid to late twentieth century to make the story seem more current but kept the setting Veronese; it worked, kudos to Costume Designer Loren Shaw.  The opening party scene was eye catching and circus like, clearly the Capulets were well off.  The set was romantic, mostly lovely stone and arches bathed in soft glowing light; kudos to Set Designer Daniel Soule and Lighting Designer Robert Wierzel.  Scrims were used to open most scenes with mood defining smoky movement, dramatically used at the end of Part One to foreshadow the tumult to come; kudos to Projection Designer Blake Manns.  The party scene and the Mercutio/Tybalt fight were very well done, kudos to Choreographer Jonathan Goddard. 

Juliet (Rosa Feola) and Romeo (Adam Smith) in a dying embrace in the Capulet crypt. Photo by Scott Suchman; courtesy of Washington National Opera.

I was greatly looking forward to attending Washington National Opera’s production of Romeo and Juliet.  Composer Charles Gounod’s music is simply beautiful throughout, and it was my first opportunity to hear the highly acclaimed soprano, Rosa Feola.  I got all that and more.  It was a particularly rewarding artistic experience.  Maybe at some point I will forgive the good friar…but don’t hold your breath. 

The Fan Experience: Romeo and Juliet was scheduled for performances in the Kennedy Center’s Opera House on November 4, 6, 10, 12, 15, 17, and 18.  The November 17 performance will feature WNO’s Cafritz Young Artists in the lead roles.  The opera is sung in French with supertitles shown overhead; it lasts about 2.5 hours in addition to a 25 minute intermission.  Tickets for remaining performances are available at this link.

WNO’s Romeo and Juliet is a co-production with the The Glimmerglass Festival where the opera was performed this past summer.  It is also part of the DC-wide Shakespeare Everywhere Festival; details at this link.

Half hour pre-opera talks are given to ticket holders one hour before performances.  Post-performance question and answer sessions were scheduled with members of the cast on November 6 and 2.

Parking in the Kennedy Center is typically plentiful at around $25 per day, with a small discount for Kennedy Center members when reserved ahead of the day.  The Metro to Foggy Bottom and the free red Kennedy Center buses, from there to the Kennedy Center runnning every 15 minutes, are an excellent option.  There are snack stands in the main lobby, and on the Terrace level, the KC Café offers food cafeteria style at moderate prices; fine dining is available on the Terrace level in the Roof Terrace Restaurant.  Food and drinks except water are not allowed inside the opera house, but you can purchase reusable containers with your drinks that you can take inside.

Washington National Opera's Grounded: Good Opera, Great Show

As WNO’s Artistic Director Francesca Zambello said in her pre-opera talk, “A world premiere is a big deal.”  Her guest, retired Air Force pilot Major Scott Swanson, began his comments with, “War is ugly.” It used to be that you confronted war in its own place on its own terms with a band of brothers (mostly, but not exclusively male).  For drone pilots operating from the U.S., it can be “war with all the comforts of home”, with no one shooting back.  The element of risk has been removed, but so has the band of brothers that offer comradery and emotional support.  No risk?  The data informs us that the levels of PTSD among drone pilots is similar to that of combat pilots.  Drone warfare of current sophistication is relatively new and mostly operates outside of current awareness.  We’ve all seen the exploits of Captain Peter Mitchell (Tom Cruise) as a fighter pilot in the “Top Gun” movies; Jess is his drone counterpart in a military control room near you.  Ms. Zambello said a goal of Washington National Opera is to produce operas that promote discussion of important topics in society today.  Mission accomplished.

An opening number in Washington National Opera’s Grounded. Photo by Scott Suchman; courtesy of Washington National Opera.

The next question - Is Grounded a good opera?  The libretto is by George Brant and is based on his successful 2013 play with the same name.  The play’s only speaking character is an unnamed Air Force combat pilot with swagger, ala a female Tom Cruise.  Enter Janine Tesori, composer of Broadway musicals and opera, who became interested in the play as the basis for an opera; WNO performed her opera Blue last season and her children’s opera The Lion, the Unicorn, and Me will be featured on their December schedule.  Enter the Metropolitan Opera, interested in funding Ms. Tesori to fashion a new opera; they commissioned her and Mr. Brant in 2018 to make an opera of Grounded.  Enter Washington National Opera interested in producing new opera (remember their ongoing American Opera Initiative), who became a co-producer with Met Opera and held a workshop for a first run through of the work in January 2022.  Thus, we have Saturday night’s world premiere at the Kennedy Center of Grounded, the opera.  Grounded will open the Metropolitan Opera’s new season next year.  To some extent this production is a proving ground for next year’s introduction to Met audiences.  One suspects some changes/improvements will be made before the Met debut; so get your tickets for that one as well.

Emily D’Angelo (center) as fighter pilot Jess. Photo by Scott Suchman; courtesy of Washington National Opera.

For the opera, composer Tesori and librettist Brant gave the lead character a name, Jess, and gave other characters a voice, principally her husband and daughter, her navigator, and Air Force commander.  Jess is an Air Force combat pilot loving her job and rightly proud of her accomplishment in securing the job (1% of Air Force personnel are pilots, and 2% of those are female).  She meets and falls in love with rancher Eric and becomes pregnant, which forces her out of her favorite place, “the blue” (note: current rules allow female pilots to fly during the first two trimesters of their pregnancy).  She leaves the service for eight years to care for her family, then reenlists to do what she feels is right for her, but her Commander in charge only gives her the option of serving as a drone pilot on the ground, a position in the “chair force” where she will spend her time in a room staring at gray images on a screen.  Reluctantly, she accepts and begins splitting her time and her personality between days spent combining 12 hours of conducting lethal drone attacks on ground targets on the other side of the world and spending family time safely at home, unable to talk about her work.  The opera tracks her mental dissolution, ending with the denouement of her being ordered to strike a target in Iraq standing next to his young daughter that will cause the death of both.  I was expecting Lucia di Lammermoor’s solution but was much happier with the one that the Tesori/Brandt team chose.  It is a powerful and timely story, worthy of operatic treatment.

On the mid-level stage above, Commander (Morris Robinson) and on the mainstage level below, Jess (Emily D’Aangelo), her daughter Sam (Willa Cook), and her husband Eric (Joseph Dennis). Photo by Scott Suchman; courtesy of Washington National Opera.

World renown mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo, in her WNO debut, gave an outstanding performance as Jess.  She possesses a strong voice and demonstrated a strong stage presence in singing the ongoing dialog and a beautiful mezzo in the softer arias.  None of this surprised me.  I saw her play Dorabella in Santa Fe Opera’s Così fan tutte a couple years back; she was sensational in that performance as well.  The supporting cast began with tenor Joseph Dennis who sang well playing her husband Eric.  He was convincing as a Wyoming rancher smitten by Jess, who then takes on the role of caretaker of the marriage; as his mother told him, “Sometimes in a marriage you are the kite and sometimes you hold the string”.  Their daughter Sam was played by Willa Cook of the Children’s Chorus of Washington, providing endearing charm and lovely vocals while displaying the needed innocence to make the story work.  The Commander was played by DC favorite bass Morris Robinson, who gave his usual authoritative performance.  Highly talented tenor Frederick Ballentine provided some comic relief with underlying tension, as her drone trainer.  The role of Sensor, Jess’ drone navigator, was well sung by baritone Kyle Miller.  Sensor was recruited for his job because of his acumen at computer games, and Mr. Miller gives him a relaxed nonchalance in front the computer screen, pulling his legs up in the chair, which spoke to the emotional disconnect of having a young nonmilitary computer wiz in a kill position, and highlighted the increasingly impersonal nature of life today provided by modern technology.   Mr. Miller and Mr. Ballentine are former members of WNO’s Cafritz Young Artists.  Soprano Teresa Perrotta, a current member, was a standout in the brief role of Also Jess, a character created for the opera to express a part of Jess that had split off; I suspect we will see much more of Ms. Perrotta in years to come.  A group of five singers – Michael Butler, Joshua Dennis, Rob McGuinness, Jonathan Patton, and Sergio Martinez – sang the role of the off stage Kill Chain providing information and directions to Jess and Sensor.

A scene from Grounded with the control room overhead and the victims below. Photo by Scott Suchman; courtesy of Washington National Opera.

Composer Tesori’s score was written for a full orchestra, well played by the Washington National Opera Orchestra led by Conductor Daniella Candilliari.  I found the music which combined several musical styles to be melodic, pleasing, and supportive of the singers and action on stage.  The opera is mostly sung-through recitative with some moments of reflection, though it lacked a catchy, tuneful aria.  The opening of Act Two was a mall scene that was a hoot, very Broadway in style, until Jess begins to obsess about the cameras overhead, more evidence of our surveillance culture.  One other memorable moment occurred late in Act Two with a duet between Jess and Also Jess when their voices harmonize so beautifully but then devolve into dissonance.  Yes, yes!  More of that type of innovation, please, more moments when the music stands out!  I found myself wanting to hear Jess and Also Jess sing the Flower Duet.  The score also makes good use of the chorus, ably sung by the WNO Chorus under the direction of Chorus Master Steven Gathman; particularly enjoyable was an opening number involving a large cadre of fighter pilots singing about their destructive capabilities as warriors and their love of “the blue”.  We in the U.S. have been largely buffered from experiencing the realities of modern warfare (with the exception of 9/11); I suspect that hearing our soldiers sing proudfully of their impact as warriors might be eye opening for those who haven’t served in the military: “I break down the airfields, the refineries, the consulates, and factories. I return them to desert, to particles.” The camaraderie of soldiers is important to their mental stability.

Daughter Sam (Willa Cook) and father Eric (Joseph Dennis) in left photo. Drone pilot Jess (Emily D’Angelo). Photos by Scott Suchman; courtesy of Washington National Opera.

Grounded is an opera and a drama, but it also a show.  The technology-enhanced staging by Director Michael Mayer was spectacular, entirely appropriate for an opera involving drone warfare.  Two intersecting planes above and running the width of the mainstage were fitted with LED screens.  On the mainstage level were setups for changeable room scenes, a bar then a home.  The top screen varied between projections of blue sky and clouds, mountain scenes, and then multi-view depictions of on ground moving targets, dial displays, and often a menacing Reaper drone stretching the width of the stage.  Group scenes took place on the middle plane, cadets and Jess’ small attack group. Unless it was a technology illusion, I must give the performers credit for moving deftly on an inclined plane, and kudos to Set Designer Mimi Lien.  The conditions of drone warfare seemed effectively presented to me, and the mall scene expanded the view to surveillance everywhere.  The difficult challenges of depicting technology enhanced warfare and the personality splitting of a single individual were mostly met.  I did think there was some mushiness and overly slow progression in presenting the psychological developments in Jess, especially in Act Two; the progression of Jess’ journey could possibly benefit by being shortened or by defining its stages more sharply and poignantly. Finally, one wonders what the impact will be when this opera is presented in theaters that cannot afford or manage the technology summoned by WNO and the Met; will it be more personal and thus more impactful separated from the technology?

War is of course a timely and highly sensitive topic, and WNO arranged for several sessions of military and community outreach prior to performances. In response to concerns expressed that General Dynamics, a military contractor, supported the production, WNO made it clear that the company support was for the entire season and they had no involvement with the selection or development of any of its operas.

Sam (Willa Cook) and Jess (Emily D’Angelo) as Jess sees the cameras recording overhead. Photo by Scott Suchman; courtesy of Washington National Opera.

Grounded is a good opera about a relatively new dehumanizing aspect of war, and it is a great show presenting a powerful and timely drama about today’s culture; overall, it is an exciting event that I can strongly recommend.  Furthermore, Grounded represents an auspicious step in the direction of bringing grand opera into the modern era, speaking directly to life today.  For that I give it a standing ovation.

The Fan Experience:  Grounded was scheduled for performances in the Kennedy Center’s Opera House on October 28, November 1, 3, 5, 11, 13.  The opera is sung in English with supertitles shown overhead; it lasts about 2.5 hours plus a 25 minute intermission.  Tickets for remaining performances are available at this link.

Half hour pre-opera talks are given to ticket holders one hour before performances.  Post-performance question and answer sessions were scheduled with members of the cast on November 1, 5, and 13.

Parking in the Kennedy Center is typically plentiful at around $25 per day, with a small discount for Kennedy Center members when reserved ahead of the day.  The Metro to Foggy Bottom and the free Red Kennedy Center buses from there to the Kennedy Center which run every 15 minutes are an excellent option.  There are snack stands in the main lobby, and on the Terrace level, the KC Café offers food cafeteria style at moderate prices; fine dining is available on the Terrace level in the Roof Terrace Restaurant. 

Opera Lafayette's Couperin le Grand: Time Travel, First Class

Entering the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater for an Opera Lafayette performance often feels like boarding a time machine back to France in the 17-19th centuries.  It’s a first-class cruise: the music is always highly enjoyable, and it will be performed authentically on instruments of that period by outstanding musicians.  The adjectives that will typically come to mind will be elegant and exquisite, and like with most travel, you will leave richer for the experience. 

l to r: Opera Lafayette’s cast for Couperin le Grand, harpsichordist Christophe Rousset, viol player Joshua Keller, bass-baritone Jonathan Woody, flutist Immanuel Davis, and violinist Jacob Ashworth. Photo by Caitlin Oldham; courtesy of Opera Lafayette.

OL’s vision statement includes: “Opera Lafayette gives new life to centuries’ old compositions, supported by scholarly research that highlights both the historical context of these works and their relevance to today’s world. Through this unique combination of entertainment and education, audiences discover opera in a whole new light”.  In their last three seasons, OL has dropped us off in eras in France greatly influenced by women who held sway by their wits and their relationships with the King.  For the 2021-2022 season, it was the era of Marie Antoinette married to Louis XVI, the next season the era of Madame de Pompadour, chief mistress of Louis XV; and this season we are transported to the era of Madame de Maintenon, a wife of Louis XIV married in secret.  And I would add that nobody does time travel better than Opera Lafayette.

Before she was Madame de Maintenon, she became known to Louis XIV as a caretaker for some of his children, eventually becoming his mistress and then his wife in a secret ceremony; she remained his wife until his death.  The influential Maintenon became known for starting a boarding school for girls, Maison Royale de Saint-Louis, where music was a core subject.  She favored religious music and was suspicious of any music that generated feelings not in accord with religious vows; she disliked opera altogether for this reason. Until her influence, Louis XIV had favored using opera to expand his authority.  She reigned in her husband, who had multiple official and unofficial mistresses, and she played to his increasing interest in religion as he moved into his later years; thereby, she also reigned in the music supported by the king.  Secular music moved away from the court, mainly to Paris, and adopted new forms.  There also developed a struggle within Paris with more freewheeling Italian music, vying for the soul of France; and of course, while each remained distinctive, there was a meld, as features of the Italian genre seeped into French music.  These are the broad strokes of a complicated history underlying OL’s intriguing season and that influenced the music presented in Couperin le Grand.

left photo: Christophe Rousset. right photo: Jonathan Woody. Photos by Caitlin Oldham; courtesy of Opera Lafayette.

The primary focus of the evening’s concert, François Couperin, composed music for Louis XIV’s court recitals near the end of his reign.  The highly regarded composer was known as Couperin le Grand to distinguish himself from other members of a musically talented family.  This carefully focused program was arranged by renown harpsichordist and conductor Christophe Rousset who also played, beautifully I might add, anchoring the program.  Mr. Rousset is founder and director of the French famed early music ensemble, Les Talens Lyriques. He was joined by Opera Lafayette’s concertmaster Jacob Ashworth on baroque violin, also by Joshua Keller on viola da gamba, and Immanuel Davis on baroque flute. Opera, in the era of Couperin’s influence, was not favored by the court. Likely for this reason, the program included only cantatas with vocals by bass-baritone Jonathan Woody; Mr. Woody has often appeared with Opera Lafayette and continues with the company as chorus personnel manager.  Overall, the program included three cantatas, one by Couperin, separated by two chamber concert works by Couperin:

Cantate: La Morte d’Hercule by Louis Nicolas Clérambault

Concert no. 7: from “Les Goûts Réunis, ou Nouveaux Concerts” by François Couperin

Cantate: Ariane console per Bacchus by François Couperin

Intermission

Concert no. 3: from “Concerts royaux” by François Couperin

Cantate: L’Enlèvement d’Orithie by Michel Pignolet de Montéclair

l to r: Christophe Rousset, Joshua Keller, Immanuel Davis, and Jacob Ashworth. Photo by Caitlin Oldham; courtesy of Opera Lafayette.

The cantatas involved Mr. Woody as the narrator providing commentary on stories of Roman gods, focusing on the denouement and moral outcome of each story/cantata, rather than singing as a character.  Mr. Woody’s weighty voice seemed to me a perfect match for these stories.  The first cantata by Clérambault centered on the death of Hercules as an allegory for the death of Louis XIV, in praise for the revered king.  The meaning of the actions in the cantatas are often open to interpretation and Clérambault’s as presented by OL was centered on warning lovers to be kind and respectful to one another.  The second cantata was a piece recently discovered by Mr. Rousset and determined to be a work by Couperin.  It tells a story of Bacchus’ pursuit of Ariadne, encouragement perhaps for wine drinkers (this was written for the French).  The third cantata centered on the story of Boreas’ pursuit of Orithis; brutal in the legend that includes abduction and rape, OL chose words carefully to focus on advising lovers to demonstrate their worthiness as well as expressing their longing for the the object of their affection, if they want to be successful.  In all three cantatas, bass-baritone Woody sang beautifully, embellishing the lines with emotion and expressive gestures, and to the delight of all, Mr. Woody returned with the ensemble for a marvelous encore, “Vos mépris chaque jour” by Michel Lambert, actually a highlight of the program. 

The intervening Couperin pieces were quite pretty. The intricate interplay of instrument lines, such as one observes with string quartets, required I suspect, considerable virtuosity to play well and add in embellishments.  Couperin’s works were written for harpsichord with additional instruments to be added as desired to create a chamber ensemble.  I thought the pairing of harpsichord, viola da gamba, flute, and violin was a beautiful pairing.  The different sections of the works played allowed different instruments to be the center of attention, especially the flute and violin.  Mr. Ashworth’s violin was especially expressive, particularly in the last cantata where Boreas conjures up a storm to impress Orithia.

l to r: Jacob Ashworth, Christophe Rousset, Immanuel Davis, Jonathan Woody, and Joshua Keller. Photo by Caitlin Oldham; courtesy of Opera Lafayette.

All in all, Couperin le Grand was another gem of a concert by Opera Lafayette.  My wife and I went home, had a glass of wine, and enjoyed the glow it had created.

The Fan Experience: Couperin le Grand was performed on October 22 in the Terrace theater of the Kennedy Center, sung in French with surtitles in English.  All Opera Lafayette performances are also performed in NYC, this one on the following day, October 23, at the Kosciuszko Foundation.  Typically, OL’s education efforts include online presentations and discussions on the upcoming performance.  Two Salon Series videos, Part I and Part II covering the Era of Madame de Maintenon, are currently available online.  There was also a pre-opera discussion one hour prior to the performance featuring Opera Lafayette’s Founder Ryan Brown and musicologist Saraswathi Shukla.

The next installment of the Era of Madame de Maintenon is titled From Saint-Cyr to Cannons: Moreau and Handel’s Esther to be performed at the Terrace Theater on February 8 and in St. Peter’s Church in NYC on May 9.  This will be an orchestral concert with several vocalists.  The climax of this season will be Mouret’s Les Fêtes deThalie, a modern premiere of the opéra-ballet, to be performed in the Terrace Theater on May 3, 4 and at the El Museo del Barrio in NYC on May 7.

Opera Baltimore's Rigoletto: A Stellar Classical Production

If you like your nineteenth century operas staged in a Las Vegas Casino or a spaceship, this is not that opera.  Amusingly, I found it almost shocking to see an opera staged today in the time period it was written for, the 1500s.  Verdi’s Rigoletto is a great Italian opera, perhaps the finest example of classic Italian opera.  It has maintained its enormous popularity since its premier in 1851, regardless of how it is staged.  Worldwide, the current average is two productions of Rigoletto every week of the year and was, for many years, my favorite opera.  Opera Baltimore’s stellar, classically staged performance on Sunday afternoon reminded me why I love it.  Let me count the ways…and why it bothers me.

Rigoletto (Grant Youngblood) surrounded by masked courtiers. Photo by Moonloop Photography; courtesy of Opera Baltimore.

There are three main characters in Rigoletto (Warning – spoilers ahead): The Duke of Mantua, a one dimensional womanizer who wields enormous power due to his position; Rigoletto, his sharp-tongued court jester, a more complex character who while sympathetic is no innocent, venting his wrath on an unfair world; and Gilda, the sheltered daughter that Rigoletto has raised alone and maintained in a secluded apartment, innocent, unaware of the deception and evil lurking in the world.  The Duke spots a beautiful young woman and follows her home, not knowing who she is, and plots her seduction, pretending to be a poor college student (note: at the beginning of the opera, he is seducing the wife of a courtier and at the end, he is attempting to bed a tavern wench, Maddelena).  Protected by the Duke’s patronage, Rigoletto frequently mocks members of court, incurring their anger.  He continues to ridicule Count Monterone, whose daughter was defiled by the Duke, and Monterone places a curse upon him, “…you who ridicule a father’s grief, my curse upon you!”.  Rigoletto is frozen with fear.  Ultimately, with the help of the courtiers who then laugh at Rigoletto, the Duke succeeds with Gilda, and the enraged Rigoletto hires the assassin Sparafucile to kill the Duke.  Rigoletto leads Gilda to witness the Duke’s attempt to seduce the tavern wench Maddelena and orders her away.  But no, her purity and her love for the Duke cause her to remain and sacrifice her life “for the Duke to lead a happy life”.  In the final scene, Rigoletto discovers it is Gilda and not the Duke who has been killed.  The curse has been realized. 

Gilda (Rachel Blaustein) sits alone, isolated in her upstairs room. Photo by Moonloop Photography; courtesy of Opera Baltimore.

The opera was adapted by Verdi and his librettist Maria Francesca Piave from a Victor Hugo play that was banned after one performance for political and moral reasons.  Mr. Hugo’s play, and thus the opera, was mostly based on real people but the storyline is fiction.  A story this powerful and complex needs the compositional powers of a Verdi to have music that both draws the audience into the opera house and draws them into the story.  Pleasing, feel good tunes abound and melodies flow like wine, but all are carefully constructed, with purpose, by Verdi.  Conductor Viswa Subbaraman made his Opera Baltimore and OperaDelaware debuts with this production.  I was surprised to read after the performance that this was also his debut in conducting Verdi.  Maybe I should scale back the positive comments I was going to offer about the musical performance?  No, I thoroughly enjoyed the Verdi music performed by the OperaDelaware Orchestra under his direction.  On a few occasions, the music seemed a little overpowering, but was overall not a major issue.  The music, which often uses phrases with only a few instruments, is carefully crafted and needs to be precisely delivered.  Maestro Subbaraman and the orchestra did well; kudos to both.

The Duke (Dane Suarez) pursues the married Countess Ceprano (Denique Isaac). Photo by Moonloop Photography; courtesy of Opera Baltimore.

Opera Baltimore/OperaDelaware have brought together a large cast for this production; thirteen named performers are listed in the performance notes.  Veteran baritone Grant Youngblood delivered a standout performance as Rigoletto.  Early on, my heart melted at the beauty of his voice and his singing of Verdi’s duet with Gilda.  His portrayal of Rigoletto was equally effective.  I had the feeling I was observing the Duke’s physically and morally deformed court jester and not just an actor performing the role.  I had the feeling Mr. Youngblood was born to play this role.  Tenor Dane Suarez sang the role of the Duke of Mantua with an appealing, deeply resonant voice.  He performed the hit tunes “Questa e quella” and “Donna e mobile” pleasingly, and his act 2 solo with emotion.  I never quite got the measure of him as the Duke; early on he seemed a bit sensitive, though at the end in the tavern, he achieved the Duke’s vacuousness.  I have become a big fan of soprano Rachel Blaustein who sang the role of Gilda, having attended two performances by her where she was a standout, especially as Countess Almavira in The Marriage of Figaro; she was also a 2022 grand finalist in the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition .  She portrayed Gilda convincingly; however, at the beginning of her act one duet with Rigoletto, she initially seemed pushed to the background by the level of the music and the power of Mr. Youngblood’s baritone.  How much this was due to stage placement and the acoustics of the hall, I could not tell.  In the second half of her aria “Caro Nome” she soared beautifully in her upper register at a pleasing volume; her singing was gorgeous, and she won me back.  I quite enjoyed the rest of her performance, though on a couple occasions she also seemed to need a bit more volume to ride over the orchestra. 

Count Monterone (Eric McKeever, on steps) proclaims his curse on Rigoletto (Grant Youngblood, lower left), the Duke (Dane Suarez, top left), and Count Usher (Gordon Blodgett). Photo by Moonloop Photography; courtesy of Opera Baltimore.

All of the supporting singers performed well, but I will single out just two more, bass Young Bok Kim who gave us excellent vocals and a scary Sparafucile, and baritone Eric McKeever as Count Monterone, who made me glad I was not the object of his venom.  Verdi, who makes such good use of the chorus in his operas, chose to only use a male chorus in this one; the four tenors and five basses in the Opera Baltimore Chorus under the direction of Aurelien Eulert were a pleasure in enhancing the storytelling, even singing as the wind in the last act.

Rigoletto (Grant Youngblood) has brought Gilda (Rachel Blaustein) to witness the Duke (Dane Suarez) pursuing Maddalena (Megan Marino). Photo by Moonloop Photography; courtesy of Opera Baltimore.

The staging of this Rigoletto including set design, lighting, and costumes made for a complete and appealing package.  The attractive set design placed us in Italy of the sixteenth century, with stone steps and broken columns for larger gatherings. and to the right, a revolving platform that provided more intimate settings.  The lighting gave a glow to the stage that made it more impressive and adjusted as the action progressed to focus our attention.  The gorgeous costumes pleased the eye and helped establish the time period.  Kudos to Scenic Designer Jefferson Ridenour, Lighting Designer Tláloc López-Waterman, and Costume Designer Glenn Breed.  Director Kristen Barrett moved the characters around efficiently, maintaining the tension throughout the drama.  I have seen other performances focused more on the Duke’s insidousness, but this one kept the focus on Rigoletto’s love of Gilda, the misery created by his entanglement in corruption, and the love of Gilda for the Duke.

Assassin Sparafucile (Young Bok Kim) and his sister Maddalena (Megan Marino), the lastest pursuit of the Duke. Photo by Moonloop Photography; courtesy of Opera Baltimore.

Themes abound in Rigoletto: the corrupting influence of power; the corrupting influence of societal prejudice; the corrupting influence of deception and revenge; the inability of parents to completely protect their children from the world; the coexistence of good and evil in people; all as relevant today as in the 1500s.  A good production also results in a hangover for me the morning after viewing it.  This question kept fitfully bubbling up into my consciousness the morning after: how could I derive such pleasure from witnessing this tragedy and its display of evil?  That does bother me.  I blame it on Verdi.  His music and storytelling made me like it.  And on Opera Baltimore for such a fine performance.  What’s your excuse?

Rigoletto (Grant Youngblood) holds his dying daughter Gilda (Rachel Blaustein). The curse has been fulfilled. Photo by Moonloop Photography; courtesy of Opera Baltimore.

Want to know my favorite opera now? Me too; there are so many great ones.

The Fan Experience: Rigoletto was performed in Stephens Hall at Towson University on October 20 and 22.  The opera was sung in Italian with English surtitles.  The opera is about 3 hours, including two 15-minute intermissions placed between the acts.  This production was developed in cooperation with OperaDelaware and now moves to the Grand in Wilmington on October 27 and 29: tickets are available at this link. 

Opera Baltimore 2023/2024 season will continue in concert opera performances in the Engineers Club.  Next up is another of my favorite operas, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin to be performed on February 28 and March 1, 3; that’s one more performance than usual. 

Dr. Aaron Ziegel, OB’s scholar-in-residence and Associate Professor of Music History and Culture at Towson University provides excellent pre-opera talks an hour before performances.  He also oversees OB’s “Opera Insights” series, multiple lectures on each upcoming opera, providing a deep dive into the opera itself and insights into the elements of opera and opera history during the period in which the work was composed.  The lectures begin as Zoom calls.  These are archived and then made available for viewing to all, not just ticket holders.  Opera Baltimore has also posted Dr. Zieglel’s pre-opera talk from Towson on Opera Insights.

If you are interested in a deeper dive on how lighting affects the audience response to an opera, I strongly recommend Lecture #2 in the Rigoletto series which includes an interview with Lighting Designer Tláloc López-Waterman.  His is a very interesting story, and I gained a much better appreciation for the impact of lighting design for theater productions.

Virginia Opera's Siegfried: Pleasing Music, Singing, and Drama in a Puzzling Staging

Virginia Opera brought Siegfried to Fairfax Saturday night, after opening the week before in Norfolk.  I am a huge fan of Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle (Der Ring des Nibelungen), a tetralogy of operas that proceed in order The Rhinegold (Dad Rheingold), The Valkyrie (Die Walkũre), Siegfried (Siegfried), and The Twilight of the Gods (Götterdämmerung); I was greatly looking forward to episode three.  Wagner wrote the libretto, largely based on Nordic legends, starting from the ending to the beginning, as each new episode led him to write a prequel and then composed the music from the beginning to the end; the process took 28 years.  The Ring Cycle is a monumental, multilayered work that is an intriguing amalgam of political, social, moral, and philosophical issues encapsulated in stunning music, vocals, and storytelling.  As has been substantiated and widely written about, Wagner the person was odorously flawed, but his music and operas were watershed events for those genres in the latter half of the nineteenth century.

l to r: Kyle Albertson as Wotan, Alissa Anderson as Erda, and Cooper Nolan as Siegfried. Photo by Dave Pearson Photography; courtesy of Virginia Opera.

VO is presenting the Jonathan Dove and Graham Vick abridged versions of the Ring in four succeeding years, having begun in 2021 with The Rhinegold.  Siegfried is a hero in Norse mythology from the 12th century who did slay a dragon and later was impacted by the dragon’s blood and did fall in love with a beautiful woman, but in Wagner’s Siegfried, there is even more.  Siegfried is the only hope of Wotan, the leader of the gods, to alter the path to destruction of the gods that Wotan himself has set in motion through his own corrupt instincts.  The young Siegfried must first reforge a powerful sword to slay the dragon that possesses the magic gold ring which will allow its possessor to rule the world, then he discovers he must rescue Brünnhilde, Wotan’s disobedient daughter, whom he has placed asleep in the middle of a ring of fire; all of this is part of Wotan’s plot to accomplish what he cannot do himself.  Just a simple fairy tale about the beginning and the end of the world, and the fatal flaws that brought it all down.  I have read that Wagner was fascinated by Siegfried and meant this episode to be a comedy, at least in part.  Personally, while there are a few funny moments, I have never been able to see it as a comedy, more later.

Cooper Nolan as Siegfried reforging the sword Nothung, and Matthew Peña as an excited, frightened Mime. Photo by Dave Pearson Photography; courtesy of Virginia Opera.

Clearly, the major highlight of Saturday evening’s performance at the George Mason University for the Center for the Performing Arts was the talented cast of singers giving strong and enjoyable performances across the board.  The cast included tenor Cooper Nolan as Siegfried; tenor Matthew Peña as Mime, a Nibelung (a member of an underworld tribe) who reared Siegfried when his mother died; bass-baritone Kyle Albertson as Wotan, who he also played in the first two installments of VO’s Ring Cycle and in this version is disguised as the Wanderer; baritone Joshua Jeremiah as Alberich, the Nibelung who started it all by stealing the gold and fashioning the powerful ring; bass Ricardo Lugo as Fafner, the giant/dragon; contralto mezzo-soprano Alissa Anderson as Erda, Mother Earth and mother of Brünnhilde; soprano Alexandra Loutsion as Brünnhilde, a role she also portrayed in VO’s The Valkryie; and, soprano Alicia Russell Tagert as A Woodbird/robot, who sang warnings to Siegfried.  Mr. Nolan, Mr. Peña, Ms. Anderson, and Ms. Tagert were in their first roles for Virginia Opera. 

Kyle Albertson disguised as the Wanderer, standing, to quiz and warn Mime played by Matthew Peña, seated; the robot standing in the background holds Alicia Russell Tagert as A Woodbird. Photo by Dave Pearson Photography; courtesy of Virginia Opera.

There were three moments in their performances that I will long remember.  The first was soprano Taggert lifting the visor in her robot suit and singing the role of The Bird.  First, halfway through Siegfried, it was the first appearance of a female voice, and Ms. Tagert’s voice and singing was rapturous, a perfect fit, and a total delight.  The next moment I will highlight, and my favorite of the night, was the scene where Wotan calls upon Erda for advice.  The costumes and staging here were used to great effect, with bass-baritone Kyle Albertson being an excellent Wagnerian singer, and soprano Anderson matching his performance; I wish I could watch it again.  Kudos to Scene and Costume Designer Court Watson. Finally, and in the final scene, Siegfried passes through the ring of fire and encounters the sleeping Brünnhilde, his first sight of a woman; he experiences fear for the first time – chew on that one for a while, well played and sung by Mr. Nolan.  Then Ms. Loutsion as Brünnhilde awakens in a costume more befitting a lovely maiden than the warrior gear she had to wear in The Valkyrie.  She is also an excellent Wagnerian singer and animates the scene explosively.  Her thunderous welcoming of the sun woke me up and made me glad I was there. In general, the second act had less distraction and was beautifully done.

Cooper Nolan as Siegfried (foreground) slays the giant/dragon Fafner played by Richard Lugo. Photo by Dave Pearson Photography; courtesy of Virginia Opera.

The Virginia Symphony Opera and Conductor/Artistic Director Adam Turner are an outstanding combination.  The score for Mr. Dove’s version of Siegfried is paired from the original’s four hours to a little less than three hours, and the chamber-sized orchestra employs less than half the musicians called for in the original.  Conductor Turner says, however, that every note played was composed by Richard Wagner.  In the first act, I felt the music seemed a tad thin and not entirely in sync with and supportive of the singers.  However, that may be unfair; my response to the music was influenced by the difficulty I had with the staging in the first act, as I will next discuss.  The music in the second act more than met my expectations.  The intricate music was beautifully played and executed, another highlight of the opera for me.

Alissa Anderson as Erda and Kyle Albertson as Wotan. Photo by Dave Pearson Photography; courtesy of Virginia Opera.

Now let’s deal with the staging.  The Ring touches on many important issues and stage directors typically narrow the focus of a production to a main one or two.  Director Joachim Schamberger used a similar modernized symbolic approach to the staging of Siegfried that he employed for VO’s The Valkyrie about which I offered critical comments in my report on the distractions created by that staging.  I applaud creative and innovative staging in general, but these did not work well for me.  I listened as I always do to scholar in residence Joshua Borth’s “Let’s Talk Opera” episode online, this one covering Siegfried, and he admonished his audience to pay attention to what VO’s opera director was trying to accomplish.  This is good advice, and I tried.  I once defended Washington National Opera’s outstanding, modernized Ring Cycle in 2016 with this comment praising the innovations: “With Wagner, just get into the fantasy and leave the driving to the director.  The truth will not appear on the surface, but it will seep into your bones and heart; you will be mystified, maybe even spell bound, but changed”.  On the other hand, I recall disliking a Met Opera production of the Ring that was staged on a giant piano keyboard. Let me offer another reflection as part of my explanation for my discontent.  I am fond of trying to solve the NY Times daily puzzle called Connections where you try to arrange 16 words into four groups of words each related by a theme.  Recently, I tried to solve one of the groupings while watching a football game on television.  I am proud to say I solved the puzzle.  However, I was oblivious to the plays that led to a touchdown while I was working on the puzzle.  Trying to understand Director Schamberger’s staging – what was the purpose of the robot and what was the robot doing, for example – made me less attentive to the music and singing and the flow of the storytelling.  I welcome innovative stagings, but one hopes that all the elements of the opera will work together to enhance the audience’s experience of each element.

Cooper Nolan as Siegfried finds and awakens and falls in love with Brünnhilde portrayed by Alexandra Loutsion. Photo by Dave Pearson Photography; courtesy of Virginia Opera.

That said, the innovative approach to staging was interesting and did not prevent me from enjoying the opera, just made it more of a challenge than I wanted.  Remember I said I had difficulty experiencing Siegfried as a comedy.  The performance began with a large leaf (representing nature?) projected onto a large scrim that formed the backdrop for the stage.  A circle opened in the leaf with red and then black smoke or liquid filling the circle, reminiscent of blood and the dark forces.  Wotan appears in the circle breaking a limb from a tree, to fashion a spear – nature being violated to serve the interests of power and control.  Nothing funny here.  While I am critical of the staging, it should be said that Driscoll Otto’s work on the lighting and Mr. Schamberger’s projection work was excellent. The opening scene in Mime’s forge could be funny.  Siegfried is an unruly, impulsive teenager type who creates difficulty for his caretaker Mime.  However, Siegfried is portrayed as obnoxious and we know Mime is evil, using Siegfried as his tool to capture the ring for himself.  Remember the scene in the first Indiana Jones film where Harrison Ford was in the room with snakes?  That was funny because we liked him and knew he would survive the danger.  Nothing lighthearted to me about this early scene in Siegfried that appears to be a contemporary of the film “Deliverance”.  The air resistance bike seemed out of place; I guess that could be funny if this was cartoonish and so could the mini fridge with canned drinks, but this opera never seems to distinguish itself on this level.  It goes on like this all the while with images moving onto and around the scrim to remind us, I suppose, of how AI has seeped into our lives.  In the final scene, Brünnhilde has been placed in a high-tech chamber while she sleeps.  It didn’t seem so at the time but that could be viewed as funny, but magic doesn’t need high tech to work and there is serious business afoot – the gods have to be destroyed.

Alexandra Loutsion as Brünnhilde, now in love with Siegfried embraces her new life and purpose. Photo by Dave Pearson Photography; courtesy of Virginia Opera.

I hope it is clear that I support VO’s forward thinking and its approach of reaching out to all of its fans in its programing choices.  I also hope it is clear I recommend Virginia Opera’s Siegfried as an entertaining evening and a worthwhile artistic experience, despite my reservations with the staging, and I hope that my comments have piqued your interest and might be helpful to those readers who intend to take in a performance.

The Fan Experience – Siegfried was scheduled for performances in Norfolk on September 29, October 1; in Fairfax on October 7 and 8; and in Richmond October 13 and 15.  The opera is sung in German with supertitles in English shown on an overhead screen; the performance lasts for a little less than 3 hours plus a 20 minute intermission.  Tickets are available at this link.  Virginia Opera intends to finish its Ring with a production of the final episode, Gotterdammerung, next season.

VO’s next production this season will be The Barber of Seville in Norfolk on November 3, 4 and Fairfax on 11, 12 and Richmond on 17, 19. See this link for details.

I recommend the pre-opera talk on Siegfried, given by Joshua Borths, Virginia Opera’s scholar in residence, which starts 45 minutes before the beginning of the opera. Get there early to get a good seat. If you can’t make a performance but want to know more about the opera, Mr. Borths covers the same material and more in his “Let’s Talk Opera” lecture available on Youtube.com; in fact, I recommend both.  For a traditional audience attending an avant garde production, it might be helpful for Virginia Opera to go even further and point out with more detail in the program book what is going on with the symbolism in innovative productions, just a thought. I suspect that spending this much time thinking about the staging, I would enjoy it more if I saw it a second time.

Opera Philadelphia's Unholy Wars: Pretty Music and Pretty Singing with a Message

Unholy Wars is one of three operas included, with an array of concerts and recitals, in Opera Philadelphia’s two-week long Festival O23.  This work premiered at the Spoleto Festival in 2022 to great acclaim; the performers and creative staff are those from Spoleto.  This opera, or music drama if you will, was created by Lebanese-American Karim Sulayman; the work is a musical patiche of Italian songs and operatic selections from the 17th and 18th centuries with additional music inspired by Arabic folk idioms by Armenian-American composer Mary Kouyoumdjian.  The cohesive theme of Unholy Wars is the retelling of an historical event by those on the “other side” (creed or culture) to provide balance, and to improve understanding of each other as a path away from conflict and war.  Mr. Sulayman takes aim at refocusing European stereotypical depictions of middle eastern people in art and literature as exotic.  His production fits very well with the spirit of OP’s Festival O23, works that explore the boundaries of opera.

Dancer Coral Dolphin and Tenor Karim Sulayman. Photo by Ray Bailey; courtesy of Opera Philadelphia.

The historical focus of Unholy Wars is the Crusades of the 11th century, known in western culture as the “Holy War”, bloody battles fought to overthrow the Saracen/Muslim occupation of middle eastern land, especially Jerusalem.  The longest and central element of Unholy Wars is a dramatic acting out of Monteverdi’s Il combattimento di Tancrédi e Clorinda (1624) by three singers and a dancer.  In the opera, Tancrédi, a leader of the European forces fights hand to hand in bloody combat in full battle gear with the leader of the Muslim forces, neither knowing the identity of the other.  After slaying the Saracen leader, Tancrédi lifts his opponent’s visor to see the face of the leader.  He sees the face of Clorinda, his Muslim lover, and is overwhelmed by grief. 

l to r: Bass-baritone John Taylor as Tancrédi, tenor Karim Sulayman as narrator, soprano Raha Mirzadegan as Clorinda, and dancer Coral Dolphin. Photo by Ray Bailey; courtesy of Opera Philadelphia.

The story of Tancrédi and Clorinda as well as the entire production is played out with clever, evocative props and gestures against a large screen of images of middle eastern buildings, people, animals, and seas, sometimes being enveloped by fire or water.  The visual images, with frequent animations, by Kevork Mourad and projections by Michael Commendatore are beautifully artistic and enjoyable.  Sometimes travel log-ish and sometimes phantasmagorical, the projections were a major element in conveying “otherness” in this production.  They give the feeling that they are drawn from an art museum in the Middle East.  Director Kevin Newbury’s placements and movements of his actors provided effective story telling with only a few props such as buckets of sand and water to evoke images of deserts and the sands of time passing.  There were physical struggles, but mostly symbolic in nature.  It is the emotions of the performers that were the focus, the sense of love and then loss.  The talented dancer Coral Dolphin with choreography by Ebony Williams was a constant companion to the singers, moving as a ghostly companion trying to offer comfort and warnings to the players, adding another delightful artistic feature to the production.

Dancer Coral Dolphin, John Taylor Ward as Tancrédi, Karim Sulayman as narrator, and Raha Mirzadegan as Clorinda . Photo by Ray Bailey; courtesy of Opera Philadelphia.

A powerful element of the storytelling and a highly pleasing aspect of the performance was the music and its playing.  The performance began with “Gloria Patri” by composer Kouyoumdjian, a tenor duet, where with electronic help, both parts were sung by Mr. Sulayman.  Then came compositions by Monterverdi and Caccini, and in the latter section of the production, those of Kempis, Rossi, and d’India.  The last piece before Ms. Kouyoumdjian’s Outro was the well-known “Lascia ch’io pianga” from Handel’s Rinaldo, expressing the desire to weep over a cruel fate.  The small ensemble of musicians delivering these works included two theorbos, a violone, and a harpsichord, as well as violins, viola, and cello, adding to the authenticity of the baroque music.  Led by violinist Julie Andrijeski, this integration of works with connecting interludes by Ms. Kouyoumdjian were well played as seamlessly as possible, and well-coordinated with the singers on stage.

John Taylor Ward as Tancrédi, Raha Mirzadegan as Clorinda, Karim Sulayman as narrator, and dancer Coral Dolphin. Photo by Ray Bailey; courtesy of Opera Philadelphia.

I find late Renaissance, early baroque music to be among the most beautiful music ever written that couples so well with operatic voices; the music often possesses an innate spiritual quality.  The songs and arias were delivered by three very talented singers.  Tenor Sulayman, soprano Raha Mirzadegan, and bass-baritone John Taylor Ward had voices that were excellent choices for baroque music.  They sang with affecting emotion and delivered engaging acting performances.  This was a highly pleasing evening of baroque music and singing within an emotionally involving story line.

The cast of Unholy Wars in silhouette. Photo by Ray Bailey; courtesy of Opera Philadelphia.

I liked the premise behind Unholy Wars very much: reducing “otherness” through a war on stereotypes might reduce conflict and destruction and help us come to terms with a shared history of conflict.  Unquestionably, Unholy Wars had pretty music and pretty singing, and it was a rewarding artistic experience, but how did it do on reducing “otherness”?  It was gentle in its approach, not preachy or into blaming, other than stressing the needless destruction of wars.  Instead, it tugged at the human heart.  Anger was exposed, deriving from the conflict between a sense of honor and our human needs, but if Unholy Wars wounds, it also wraps you in a warm blanket of love for comfort.  Differences were presented but to me they didn’t seem so different.  Maybe that was the message.

The Fan Experience: Unholy Wars was scheduled for performances on September 23, 27, 30, and October 1.  The opera is sung in Latin and Italian with English translations projected.  The opera is 70 minutes long without an intermission.  Information and tickets can be accessed at this link  

Opera Philadelphia has placed a helpful, short video on Youtube giving an overview of the opera and its history by scholar in residence, Lily Kass.  The video is eight minutes long and well worth viewing.

Festival O23 continues through October 1.  The two-week program, which also includes performances of Simon Boccanegra and 10 Days in a Madhouse as well as many concerts and recitals. can be viewed in its entirety at this link.  I might also add that Philadelphia remains one of my favorite places to visit, offering so much in history, culture, entertainment, and great food! 

Opera Philadelphia's 10 Days in a Madhouse: A World Premiere at Festival O23

Opera Philadelphia opened its Festival O23 the way you should, with a showpiece, and what better showpiece than a world premiere of a new work.  Such was the case in putting forward composer Rene Orth’s and librettist Hannah Moscovitch’s chamber opera, 10 Days in a Madhouse, the telling of investigative reporter Nellie Bly’s experience via an emotionally immersive musical drama.  Madhouse’s all-female creative team communicates the wrongful internment and cruel mistreatment of women in Blackwell’s Asylum in the 1880s, and the societal issues underpinning those misdeeds, with a plea to end the continuing saga; remnants remain today, even in current times.

Real life Elizabeth Jane Cochran, famously known later by the pen name Nellie Bly, was a female reporter who needed work, difficult to come by for female reporters back then.  She accepted a daring assignment no man could accomplish.  She feigned mental illness to get herself committed to Black’s asylum in 1887 to expose conditions there.  She wrote about it afterwards in articles and a book, from which the opera’s name is taken.  Her work on this assignment had a significant impact by increasing public awareness that led to improved conditions. 

A view of the set and orchestra placement for 10 Days in a Madhouse, with, l to r, Will Liverman as Dr. Blackwell, Kiera Duffy as Nellie Bly, and Lauren Pearl as the Nurse. Photo by Dominic M. Mercier; courtesy of Opera Philadelphia.

The opera begins in the asylum, known then as the Women’s Lunatic Asylum on New York’s Blackwell Island, now named Roosevelt Island; the stigmatizing name speaks to societal attitudes of that period.  It is day 10 of Nellie’s stay in the asylum.  She wants out of the asylum, but her pleas are ignored by Dr. Blackwell; he asks if she is still hearing voices.  Director Joanna Settle will take us back in time over the next 90 minutes, stopping in a few different days to see Nellie’s condition and the treatment of her fellow inmates.  Those stops offer views of a fellow inmate Nellie befriends, Lizzie, who is grieving over a lost daughter.  Lizzie is distraught with mourning but has been led to believe she is “mad”.  We learn but little of Dr. Blackwell; his wife has died, and he treats female patients with waltzes as therapy.  We meet other patients, some there due to mental illness, some misdiagnosed and some simply cast off and powerless.  We meet a nurse who shepherds the inmates, and we learn of the brutal treatment from the nurses and the lack of adequate heat and food.  The plot is loosely based on the real story; except for Nellie, the characters are creations of the composer and librettist.

Raehann Bryce-Davis as Lizzie and Kiera Duffy as Nellie Bly. Photo by Dominic M. Mercier; courtesy of Opera Philadelphia.

The story telling is enhanced by Andrew Lieberman’s set and lighting design.  We see only the stark exterior wall of a circular building and glimpses of a center door and hallway.  Costumes by Asta Hostetter and Avery Reed seemed appropriate for the date and setting.  The Wilma Theater is smallish which works well for such an intimate drama.  Director Settle kept the action moving as it drifted back in time.  This theatrical element of reversing time may have engaged the audience more, but such a powerful story would be effective either way. Sometimes the characterizations were a bit baffling, and some of the poignant interactions among the patients might have benefited by further development to develop more empathy for their characters, but the points overall were well made.

Lauren Pearl as the Nurse in the foreground controlling a group of patients. Photo by Dominic M. Mercier; courtesy of Opera Philadelphia.

The chamber-sized orchestra was seated atop the stage, which seemed logical though at times a bit distracting.  Composer Orth’s music included a mixture of genres, a style she is known for; in this case, chamber music represented reality and electronic represented insanity, entirely reasonable (both true and a joke).  It was a bit crazy-making to hear melodic themes appear and then be replaced or overridden by disturbing electronic music recordings.  The vocals were mostly intense, shrill really, and worked to convey the story.  Composer Orth’s music was performed well as led by Conductor Daniela Candillari, and it must have been a challenging assignment, given the nature of the music and the lack of line of sight to the singers.  I enjoyed the music as an integral part of the whole work, a work I liked and found affecting.  I’m not sure I’d want to sit down and listen to it with a glass of wine in the evening.  But maybe…I’ll give it a try if it becomes available.  I recommend it, though I’m not sure I want to see the opera again.  Ninety minutes in a madhouse is quite enough, thank you.

Will Liverman as Dr. Blackwell and Kiera Duffy as Nellie Bly. Photo by Dominic M. Mercier; courtesy of Opera Philadelphia.

As is often the case, Opera Philadelphia hedges its bets by casting their operas with top notch singers.  Frankly, if it is redone with soprano Kiera Duffy, mezzo-soprano Raehann Bryce-Davis, and baritone Will Liverman I might go see it again.  It was a treat to see Ms. Duffy perform with OP once more since she was so impressive in the premiere of Breaking the Waves a few years back.  Not only was her singing exceptional once again, but her acting was impressively controlled; she owned the stage, seeming a bit deranged by her experience at day 10 and appearing pleased with herself for fooling them on day one.  Mr. Liverman has become a hot ticket, winning many awards and appearing on the best opera stages.  His baritone voice and singing was enjoyable to hear again.  His Dr. Blackwell was likable, a seemingly sympathetic physician, but a bit creepy, one whose motives you would not trust.  A tender scene was provided by Ms. Bryce-Davis as Lizzie; her vocal fireworks and pathos over the loss of her daughter, her only child, ripped my heart out and will yours.  Soprano Lauren Pearl seemed an unsympathetic controlling nurse who also performed a dramatic dance number, contributing to the unsettling atmosphere. The principals were supported by a nine-member female chorus led by Chorus Master Elizabeth Braden.

Kiera Duffy as Nellie Bly reporting the results of her expose. Photo by Dominic M. Mercier; courtesy of Opera Philadelphia.

My one disappointment with the production was that I had hoped to have the opera be more about Nellie Bly.  I agree with composer Orth that this story of the madhouses needed to be told as an opera, but there is more to Bly’s story that could be artfully mined by opera.  Ms. Bly raised the bar for investigative reporting, and she seems to have been a remarkable person and a trailblazer for improving opportunities for women.. 

The many problems associated with the diagnosis and health care of mental illness are being reported in the mainstream news now.  However, in addition to its value as an artistic work, 10 Days in a Madhouse, serves to remind us that these problems have gone on too long.  The closing scene has Nellie Bly giving a talk on her experiences and the conditions in the asylum.  She closes with “Make it stop…please”.

The Fan Experience: 10 Days in a Madhouse was scheduled for performances on September 21, 23, 26, 28, and 30.  The opera is sung in English with English translations projected on side monitors.  Information and tickets can be accessed at this link.    

Opera Philadelphia has placed a helpful, short video on Youtube giving an overview of the opera and its history by scholar in residence, Lily Kass.  Ms. Kass notes that in 19th century America, the people with the power to arbitrate sanity were almost exclusively men; one wonders what it is today. The video is less than eight minutes and well worth viewing.

Festival O23 continues through October 1.  The two-week program, which also includes performances of Simon Boccanegra and Unholy Wars as well as many concerts and recitals. can be viewed in its entirety at this link.  I might also add that Philadelphia remains one of my favorite places to visit, offering so much in history, culture, entertainment, and great food! 

Opera Philadelphia's Simon Boccanegra: A Good Opera, Who Knew?

Opera Philadelphia’s Festival O23 opened their new season by once again giving opera festivals a good name, full of freshness, innovation, fun, and quality.  I was able to take in their three headliner events that will run for two weeks, along with many concerts and recitals.  The headliner productions are the world premiere of 10 Days in Madhouse, a made fresh Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra (1881), and Unholy Wars, a different take on the crusades.  Before I comment on the Verdi opera, let me give a tip of the hat to Opera Philadelphia for continuing to serve the opera community so richly with their annual fall festival.

Boccanegra (Quinn Kelsey) and Amelia (Anna María Martínez) discover that they are father and daughter. Photo by Steven Pisano; courtesy of Opera Philadelphia.

My expectations for Boccanegra were low.  This Verdi opera from his middle period has been universally described as overly complicated, too sad, even unlovable, and it favors male voices as if that is a bad thing, supposedly an opera just for opera connoisseurs.  We should have faith in Corrado Rovaris, Opera Philadelphia’s Music Director and Conductor who spearheaded the drive to perform this opera in the Academy of Music.  We should also have faith in the ability of Opera Philadelphia to bring in top notch singers to bring these works to life.  Yes, the plot for Boccanegra is overly complex for even a three-hour opera and requires some effort on the part of attendees, but the reward for this effort is great.  This is a very good opera.  Unfortunately for Verdi, he is the standard by which his operas are measured; keep in mind that merely good by Verdi places it in the better group of all operas in the canon.  As performed by Opera Philadelphia on Friday night, it was a gem.

Boccanegra (Quinn Kelsey) has his ear bent by Paolo (Benjamin Taylor), the man who enabled his rise to DOGE. Photo by Steven Pisano; courtesy of Opera Philadelphia.

The plot, taken from a Spanish play by Antonio Garcia Gutiérrez of the same name, was first developed into an opera by Verdi with his long-time librettist Francesco Maria Piave.  They had many hits, such as Rigoletto and La Traviata, but this one did not find favor with Italian audiences in 1857.  Verdi himself played a strong role in developing the libretto and later concluded it was “too desolate, too sad”.  Some twenty years later, his publisher Giulio Ricordi convinced him to revise the work as an entry step to working with a new librettist/composer Arrigo Boito (they then worked together to create Otello and Falstaff).  Presumably, Verdi also agreed because he wanted to see wider distribution of his message supporting the Risorgimento, the unification of Italy.  The revisions were viewed favorably, though at the time Boito did not want his name associated with the opera.

Boccanegra (Quinn Kelsey) tries to settle differences with Fiesco (Christian Van Horn). Photo by Steven Pisano; courtesy of Opera Philadelphia.

The plot is too detailed to cover adequately here; see the Fan Experience section below for a suggestion.  I will mention several themes: the plebian (a commoner) Paolo, plots to have Simon Boccanegra, a corsair (a useful pirate), elected Doge of Genoa, so he can use him as a puppet to gain power and influence to pad his own pocket; it doesn’t work out so well for him as Boccanegra turns out to have an honorable streak, and Paolo plots his demise.  Boccanegra is in love with and has borne a child with Maria, daughter of the patrician (a rich guy) Fiesco, who has a reputation to think of and is now really angry with our hero.  Maria dies and the child, also named Maria, has been lost.  Fast forward twenty-five years…Fiesco has adopted Maria, not knowing it is his granddaughter, and named her Amelia.  He is also still plotting the overthrow of Boccanegra, now with Amelia’s great love, Adorno.  There are also conflicts going on within rival groups in Genoa and between Genoa and Venice that Boccanegra tries to soothe and get everyone working together (composer’s message to Italians at the time).  The complexity is interesting once you delve into it and likely would make a good mini-series.  The mixing does interrupt the flow of the individual stories, but the opera has many potent scenes, perhaps the most powerful is when Boccanegra and Amelia discover they are father and daughter; it will bring tears to your eyes.  I almost titled my report, “A Father’s Love is a Beautiful Thing”.

Adorno (Richard Trey Smagur) struggles with his feelings for Amelia. Photo by Steven Pisano; courtesy of Opera Philadelphia.

These powerful scenes are brought to life by an extraordinary cast of singers.  OP brought back the pairing from 2021 who starred in their production of Tosca, abbreviated, and performed outdoors due to pandemic regulations as The Drama of Tosca.  This was an inspired decision.  Baritone Quinn Kelsey was as likable as the conflicted Doge as he was scary as Scarpia.  Anna María Martínez was as compelling as Amelia/Maria as she was as Tosca.  Both sang beautifully in both productions and were magic together, especially in the scene of their reuniting as father and daughter.  They were well matched in the beauty of their voices, the precision and emotion of their singing, and believability of their characterizations by baritone Benjamin Taylor as Paolo, bass-baritone Christian Van Horn as Fiesco, tenor Richard Trey Smagur as Paolo, and base-baritone Cory McGee as Pietro, Paolo’s accomplice.  This outstanding team were supported by a very strong performance by the Opera Philadelphia Chorus, led by Chorus Master Elizabeth Braden.

l to r: Pietro (Cory McGee), Amelia (Anna María), and Paolo (Benjamin Taylor). Photos by Steven Pisano; courtesy of Opera Philadelphia.

OP’s Simon Boccanegra is a new production, premiered in 2022 by Opéra Royal de Wallonie Liége.  The set by designer Gary McCann was an impressive display of imposing geometric columns and walls placed on the stage floor’s rotating disc to move from scene to scene, clearly communicating the halls of power of the Doge and the isolated areas for intrigue.  The performance was also enhanced by the lighting effects of John Bishop and the period costumes of 14th century Genoa by designer Fernand Ruiz.  Director Laurence Dale used these elements well and kept the flow of the story moving, adding some especially dramatic staging with Boccanegra sitting alone, isolated at the top of a throne against a wind-swept landscape and the appearance of the original Maria’s ghost at the end.  It was sad, and at times it was desolate, but Opera Philadelphia’s Boccanegra was also affecting and touchingly bittersweet.

The final confrontation between Simon Boccanegra (Quinn Kelsey) and Fiesco (Christian Van Horn). Photo by Steven Pisano; courtesy of Opera Philadelphia.

Musicologists tell us that this version of Simon Boccanegra was the beginning of Verdi’s maturation in moving from formulaic operas to a more realistic style, less show stopping arias and more recitative storytelling using dramatic music and the full orchestra in accompaniment, closer in style to Otello than Traviata.  Kudos to Conductor Rovaris and the Opera Philadelphia Orchestra for the beautiful and highly dramatic music.  It was Verdi after all, and great Verdi, per usual!

If your initial thought was similar to mine: I’m not sure I want to go see Simon Boccanegra.  Be assured, this is a very good opera and this production of it is outstanding.  Different eras tend to favor different artistic works.  Maybe Simon Boccanegra’s time has come.  Kudos to Opera Philadelphia for using its Festival O23 to bring us something old that feels new and will be new to many of us, and something that is really, really good.

The Fan Experience: Simon Boccanegra was scheduled for performances on September 22, 24, 29, October 1.  The opera is sung in Italian with English translations projected overhead.  Information and tickets can be accessed at this link

Opera Philadelphia has placed two helpful, short videos on Youtube, one giving an overview of the opera and its history by scholar in residence, Lily Kass, and another that presents a detailed synopsis of the opera in a clever and artistic fashion.  These are less than nine minutes each and well worth a viewing.

Festival O23 continues through October 1.  The two-week program can be viewed in its entirety at this link.  I might also add that Philadelphia remains one of my favorite places to visit, offering so much in history, culture, entertainment, and great food! 

Look at Who's at the Door! The 2023-2024 Opera Season

Hey, over here!  Yes, I know that football season just got underway, that baseball is moving closer to the playoffs and the World Series, that the kids are back in school with all the schedule juggling, and that the sofa plus Netflix/Hulu/MAX beckons.  There are lots of options for any entertainment free time.  It’s exciting and compelling, but don’t forget about opera – take a quick look at the upcoming seasons for the four largest companies in the mid-Atlantic; these represent just part of the opera performances coming our way in 2023-2024 (see the larger list below).  Classic opera fans will again be well served by the new season and so will fans of newer works that address contemporary social issues.

Opera Philadelphia (M) - https://www.operaphila.org 

Festival O23: 10 Days in a Madhouse – Sep 21, 23, 26, 28, 30

Festival O23: Simon Boccanegra – Sept 22, 24, 29, Oct 1

Festival O23: Unholy Wars – 23, 27, 30, Oct 1

Festival O23: Afternoons at AVA – 23, 27, 30

Festival O23: Curtis Voices – 22, 29

Festival O23: Late Night Snacks – 21, 22, 23, 24, 27, 28, 29, 30, Oct 1

Apr 26, 28, May 3, 5 – Madame Butterfly 

Opera Philadelphia again begins their season with an opera festival, this one labeled Festival O23.  Among the highlights, O23 begins with an opera premiere: Composer Rene Orth and librettist Hannah Moscovitch tell us the story of investigative reporter Nellie Bly who, in the late 1880s, faked mental illness to get herself committed to Blackwell’s Asylum in order to reveal the treatment of women there and the larger implications for society; soprano Kiera Duffy and baritone Will Liverman return to OP for this production.  Simon Boccanegra, an opera from Verdi’s middle period, will feature baritone Quinn Kelsey and soprano Anna María Martínez in the Academy of Music with Conductor Corrado Rovaris.  Unholy Wars is a recent much acclaimed opera that examines Baroque views of the Crusades from an American Arab perspective.  A goal of OP’s festivals is to explore the boundaries of opera.  From September 21 through October 1, there will be daily performances of operas, recitals, and after-opera cabaret in various venues across the city, 33 performances in 11 days.  I have visited all the festivals since the inception of the program with O17, and each has been a highlight of the opera season for me.

Pittsburgh Opera (M) - https://www.pittsburghopera.org  

Oct 14, 17, 20, 22 – The Barber of Seville

Nov 11, 14, 17, 19 – The Flying Dutchman

Jan 20, 23, 26, 28 – Iphigénie En Tauride

Feb 17, 20, 23, 25 – Proving Up

Mar 16, 19, 22, 24 – La Traviata

Apr 27, 30, May 3, 5 – The Passion of Mary Cardwell Dawson

Classic opera fans will delight in Pittsburgh Opera’s new season with operas by Rossini, Wagner, Gluck, and Verdi.  Fans will enjoy visits from Figaro, the Dutchman, and Violetta in the grand opera house of the historic Benedum Center, and I also recommend scrambling for tickets to the performances in the smaller venues that feature Pittsburgh Opera’s highly talented Young Artists that frequently sell out.  These have been among my favorite PO productions.  PO ends its season with a recent opera, The Passion of Mary Cardwell Dawson, that will star mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves, and tells the story of the Pittsburgh native who in 1942 founded and directed the National Negro Opera Company, at a time when black singers were not allowed on the stages of mainstream opera houses, not even at the Metropolitan Opera in NYC.  She is credited with training hundreds of African American youths to sing.

Virginia Opera - (M) - https://vaopera.org  

Sep 29, Oct 1, 7, 8, 13, 15 – Siegfried

Nov 3, 4, 5, 11, 12, 17, 19 – The Barber of Seville

Jan 26, 28, Feb 3, 4, 9, 11 – Sanctuary Road

Mar 8, 9, 10, 16, 17, 22, 24 – Madama Butterfly

The newly adventurous Virginia Opera began its presentation of the four operas of Wagner’s Ring Cycle over four seasons by performing Rhinegold with an outdoor staging at Top Golf, that enabled the company to present the opera live and at the same time observe pandemic restrictions still in effect in 2021.  They lead off this season with the third episode, Siegfried, performed in opera houses in Norfolk, Fairfax, and Richmond.  In addition to three classic operas, VO will present a staged version of the oratorio, Sanctuary Road (2017) by composer Paul Moravec and librettist Mark Campbell.  This opera tells the story of William Still who helped hundreds of slaves flee to freedom via the Underground Railroad and recorded this history for posterity.  Virginia Opera will also present the ever pleasing The Barber of Seville and Madama Butterfly.

Insider tip: Check out the excellent one-hour “Let’s Talk Opera” lectures by VO’s scholar in residence Joshua Borths.  These are given via Zoom sessions on Facebook, Youtube, and LinkedIn prior to the opening of each Virginia production; they have invariably provided background and insights into the operas that increased my understanding and enjoyment of them.  The Zoom sessions are announced a few weeks before each opera, and once broadcasted, remain online for viewing anytime.

Washington National Opera (M) - https://www.kennedy-center.org/wno/home/ 

Oct 28, Nov 1, 3, 5, 11, 13 – Grounded

Nov 4, 6, 10, 12, 15, 17, 18 – Romeo and Juliet

Dec 8, 9 (2), 10 – The Lion, the Unicorn, and Me

Jan 19 (2) – AOI: Three One-Act Operas

Mar 9, 11, 15, 17, 20, 23 – Songbird

May 11, 13, 17, 19, 22, 24, 25 – Turandot

Washington National Opera opens a strong season with the premiere of a new opera, this from composer Jeanine Tesori, titled Grounded, explores the personal consequences of drone warfare.  WNO says, “In a first for opera stages, massive LED-screen technology will immerse audiences in the psychological and social implications of virtual warfare, suggesting that “distance” from war through technology is no distance at all”.  A month later, Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet is a must for me. Why? My first chance to hear soprano Rosa Feola live.  Tesori’s family opera (bring the kids) is featured in the holiday season, then an equally strong second half in 2024, American Opera Initiative’s annual premieres of new short operas, Washington favorite, Isabel Leonard, starring in Songbird, and adaptation of Offenbach’s La Périchole (jazz meets operetta), and finishing with an exciting young cast giving new life to the opera that has defied cancel culture, Turandot.  This looks to me to be one of WNO’s best seasons.

The mid-Atlantic region is also rich with smaller, often niche, opera companies that serve local fan bases.  The season listings for both large and small companies is maintained on OperaGene’s Seasons List page with links to the companies.  These lists go back to the 2015-2016 season when OperaGene began.  These companies are all included in the Seasonal Lists Page:

Academy of Vocal Arts 

Annapolis Opera

Opera Baltimore (formerly Baltimore Concert Opera)

Bel Cantanti Opera 

Charlottesville Opera  

Curtis Opera Theatre 

INSeries

Maryland Lyric Opera 

Maryland Opera

Opera Delaware  

Opera in Williamsburg 

Opera Lafayette  

Opera on the James 

Opera Philadelphia  

Opera Roanoke

Pittsburgh Festival Opera 

Pittsburgh Opera   

Princeton Festival

Shakespeare Opera Theater

Urban Arias

Victory Hall Opera 

Virginia Opera   

Washington Concert Opera 

Washington National Opera  

Washington Opera Society 

Wolf Trap Opera   

Audiences are yet to fully return to pre-COVID levels.  The ‘do it from home’ restrictions of the pandemic have caused some societal shifts, but live opera you cannot do at home, and opera live is as good as it gets.  Support your local opera companies, and they will sing you a song and tell you a story that reconnects you with your humanity.  Abandon the sofa and head to your local opera house.  Go, enjoy, and be enriched!

Wolf Trap Opera's Faust: Michelin Star Opera

There are two things that make summers in DC bearable, Wolf Trap Opera and air conditioning, and when attending opera performances in The Barns at Wolf Trap, you get both.  That’s not all, with their current showing of Charles Gounod’s Faust (1859), you get one of WTO’s best ever.  If Wolf Trap Opera was a restaurant, Faust would earn them a Michelin star, maybe two.  Even The Bear might be envious.

The treats begin before the performance starts.  To bring the storyline closer to American audiences, Director Alison Moritz has cleverly set WTO’s Faust early in the 20th century in New Orleans (in an American story with dark undertones, where else?); I remember Ms. Moritz for her creatively staged Così fan tutte in 2022 for Washington National Opera.  The character Marguerite has been modeled on Marie Catherine Laveau, a Voodoo Queen “known within her community for her contribution to women’s causes, acts of service to prisoners, and care for the sick”.  The stage has been transformed into a stylish, French Quarter residence in New Orleans with a runway that juts out into the center of the audience, fun for those with tickets but cutting down a bit on attendance; the runway also goes over the orchestra pit at the mid-point, adding to the challenge for Conductor Geoffrey McDonald, a WTO veteran, who had to stand to the right side of the pit, a bit more difficult for line of sight to the singers and half the orchestra.  However, the traffic of performers on this inlet accentuates a special benefit of attending opera in The Barns.  The Barns is smallish, cozy, and intimate and for Faust has singers trafficking down the middle of the audience; it’s quite an experience hearing the soprano singing her aria practically in your lap; you are not going to get that at the Met.  Kudos to Scenic Designer Lawrence E. Moten III for an attractive, thematic set, and bringing us even closer to the action.

The elderly Dr. Faust (Eric Taylor) contemplating his demise. Photo by Scott Suchman; courtesy of Wolf Trap Opera.

As the music begins and the lights come up, an old Dr. Faust is seated at his desk, drinking and contemplating suicide, morose that pleasures of youth are gone; he is alone and questioning his life, cursing God, seeing nothing ahead except an empty road to death.  Satan, never one to miss an opportunity, appears in his room to make Faust an offer he can’t refuse.  Well, he could but Mephistopheles conjures a vision of the beautiful Marguerite and promises him the youth to win her; just sign away his soul on the dotted line.  Warning: don’t try this at home; this is always a bad, bad, bad bargain.  Faust is to receive help from Satan above and serve his bidding below.  Faust succeeds in seducing Marguerite, impregnates her, abandons her, and with Mephistopheles’ magic, kills her brother Valentin, who dies cursing his sister.  Satan tries to banish Marguerite to hell.  She resists, goes insane, and kills her baby for which she goes to prison.  Again, Satan tries to take her down, but she resists, prays to God, dies, and Angels announce she is accepted into heaven.  Faust realizes his destruction of Marguerite, for whom he had genuine feelings of love, or maybe only she did for him.  The Devil had to resign himself to only getting one out of two.  Through Marguerite, faith and goodness triumphed.  This is a big opera being performed in a small space and Director Moritz does an outstanding job moving the players around and the story along.  The ending might have been made a little clearer for those unfamiliar with the story.  At the end, Faust is distraught on the stage, left to go to hell with the knowledge he has ruined Marguerite’s life, but you might also wonder, the way it is played, if perhaps Marguerite’s love for him, expressed again when he visits her in prison, has allowed him to escape the worst of his fate.  Also, the penultimate scene that showed Faust being serviced in a demonic bordello, Big Easy style, made hell more appealing than I was expecting, a little late in the opera; surely this was meant to explain why he abandoned Marguerite.  Overall, the libretto offers up one of those stories that doesn’t hold up to scrutiny, but it is excellent theater and fun opera.  Its sins are forgivable because the plot is held together and made to work by Gounod’s beautiful, lyrical melodies, one after another.

Marguerite (Brittany Logan) in a time of innocence. Photo by Scott Suchman; courtesy of Wolf Trap Opera.

The cast for Faust was outstanding as a group.  All the roles with one exception were played by Wolf Trap Opera Filene Artists, a talented group of emerging artists who already have accumulated professional experience and accolades; they were selected for additional training in competitions across the U.S; then, WTO’s operas are selected to match the talents of each year’s selectees.  Although Gounod’s opera is loosely based on Part I of Goethe’s immortal poem and play of the same name, the opera is mainly derived from librettist Michel Carre’s play, Faust et Marguérite; Jules Barbier was co-librettist for the opera.

Two views of Mephistopheles (Wm. Clay Thompson), as the dapper bargain-maker for human souls on earth and as the leader of his demon lair below. Photos by Scott Suchman; courtesy of Wolf Trap Opera.

Before moving on to offer accolades for the excellent cast and performances, let me hand a couple out for Costume Design and Wig & Makeup Design to Lynly Saunders and Priscilla Bruce, respectively.  Not only did they help established the time and period, they embellished the storytelling and were a visual treat in their own right.  This aspect might have gotten WTO over the hump in getting that Michelin star.  Also maintaining the edge of quality for all aspects of this performance was the lighting design by Colin K. Bills, showcasing aspects of heaven and hell as well as life on earth.

Photo 1: Siébel (Mary Beth Nelson) sings of her love for Marguerite. Photo 2: Valentin (Kyle White) duels with a youthful Faust (Eric Taylor) as Mephistopheles (Wm. Clay Thompson) looks on. Photos by Scott Suchman; courtesy of Wolf Trap Opera.

The role of Dr. Faust was played by versatile tenor Eric Taylor who had two roles to play, Faust as an old man and Faust as a young man.  He acted and sang well in moments of both passion and despair.  He will soon appear as Pinkerton with Detroit Opera and Houston Grand Opera.  Marguerite is a central character in Faust the opera, and her tussle with Satan is its central element.  That assessment was strongly bolstered by the outstanding performance of soprano Brittany Logan in that role.  With the audience so close, acting becomes almost as important as singing in The Barns, and Ms. Logan was pitch perfect in both; her range from low to high notes had pinpoint control with impressive fluidity, and her acting was superb as a shy, young beauty, a budding coquette charmed by jewels, and a fallen woman in despair.  Ms. Logan was a Lindemann Young Artist with the Metropolitan Opera and will make her debut at the Met this Fall as Anna in Nabucco.  Mephistopheles was played by bass Wm. Clay Thompson who has trained at the Ryan Opera Center of the Lyric Opera of Chicago.  Dressed in angelic white, he was impressive singing and acting devilishly, whether entreating his victims or showing explosive rage.  This trio of emerging artists were outstanding, whether singing in solo arias or in ensemble numbers.

Costumes, costumes, costumes as Marthe (Kathleen Felty, center) joins the ensemble in a dance. Photo by Scott Suchman; courtesy of Wolf Trap Opera.

The supporting cast was also excellent. Mezzo-soprano Mary Beth Nelson in a pants-role played Siébel, a young man hopelessly in love with Marguerite.  She sang beautifully especially in a touching aria collecting a bouquet for her love.  This performance was quite a contrast to her recent role as Rosina for Opera Baltimore’s and Opera Delaware’s The Barber of Seville, where she was also a delight.  Tenor Kyle White sang the role of Valentin convincingly, exhibiting a warmth and beauty in his voice that made both myself and my wife wanting to hear more.  We had previously seen his performance in Virginia Opera’s The Pirates of Penzance.  For another contrasting performance, I offer up mezzo-soprano Katherine Felty who impressed in June as the Prince, a pants-role in WTO’s Semele; in Faust, she was a charming Marthe, a married friend of Marguerite’s who flirted with the devil.  The soloist cast was completed by Studio Artist tenor Maria Manzo who was engaging as soldier Wagner.  Additional WTO Studio Artists filled in as the chorus and supernumeraries.

Wagner (Mario Manzo) leads the ensemble in a song. Photo by Scott Suchman; courtesy of Wolf Trap Opera.

Of necessity, the score for WTO’s Faust was adjusted for a chamber-sized orchestra.  That said, I thought Conductor McDonald and the Wolf Trap Orchestra played marvelously.  Time and again when I noticed I found them in sync with the action on stage and providing Guonod’s embellishments beautifully.  The WTO Chorus sang well on and off stage under the direction of Chorus Master William Woodard. Faust is a hits list of arias, and the orchestra delivered them with the full charm of Gounod’s lyricism.  Bravi!

Mephistopheles (Wm. Clay Thompson) accosts Marguerite (Brittany Logan) in church, failing to banish her to hell. Photo by Scott Suchman; courtesy of Wolf Trap Opera.

Wolf Trap Opera has taken their productions to another level.  I found WTO’s Faust to be filled with excellence at all levels from beginning to end.  The singers, orchestra, and creative staff were all at the top of their game.  It has been said that good opera intoxicates all the senses.  Wolf Trap Opera’s Faust did that at the highest level.  Yes, two stars, such quality deserves two stars.  To get three stars, I think you would have to bring back Pavarotti.

The Fan Experience: Now the bad news – Performances of Faust were scheduled for July 21, 23, 27, and 29; the two remaining performances are sold out.  You might try dropping by the box office to see if there have been any returns or checking Craig’s List online to see if anyone wants to sell their tickets.  The opera is sung in French with supertitles in English shown overhead; with one intermission, run time was about 3 hours.  WTO’s next fully staged production will be Don Giovanni in the Filene Center, on Friday, August 11; tickets remain for that performance.