Aria Jukebox: The Wolf Trap Family Singers Strut Their Stuff

The Wolf Trap Opera Filene Young Artists - learn their names for the future.

Wolf Trap Opera Filene Young Artists 2016. Top row, left to right: J'Nai Bridges, Timothy Bruno, Ben Edquist, Mane Galoyan, Jonas Hacker, Summer Hassan, Alasdair Kent. Middle row: Sarah Larsen, Will Liverman, D'Ana Lombard, Clarissa Lyons, Richard Ollarsaba, Kerriann Otano.  Bottom row: Amy Owens, Shea Owens, Brenton Ryan, Reginald Smith, Jr., Kihun Yoon, Yongzhao Yu, Christian Zaremba. Photo courtesy of Wolf Trap Opera.

Wolf Trap Opera has several development programs to help young singers to further develop their careers.  WTO supports three types of young artists: Filene Young Artists, Studio Artists, and Fellows. The distinction among these categories is the point at which the young artists are in their careers.  There is also an Artist in Residence who is an alumnus/alumna of the company who returns during the summer season to mentor the young artists.  The term ‘resident artists’ get used for all these categories.  On Sunday, I chose to buy a ticket to attend the Wolf Trap Aria Jukebox Concert, performed by seventeen of the twenty Filene Young Artists.  The website says this about the FYAs: “They have recently finished graduate or professional degree programs from the top music schools in the country and have often participated in year-long young artist companies or summer apprenticeships. Many of them have already won prestigious awards and are on their way to significant careers. Approximately 15-20 singers are chosen annually from an initial pool of approximately 800 applicants.”  Most of the roles in WTO opera productions are played by members of this group.  Each singer for Sunday’s Jukebox had prepared four arias to sing and attendees voted prior to show time to decide which of the four would be sung.

Think of this like you might going to see an All Star sporting event; the FYAs are certainly among the ALL Stars at their level.  You want to see and enjoy the game, but you also want to see each player showcase their individual talents. For the major league baseball All-Star game, I want the National League to win, but I also want to see Bryce Harper hit a homerun.  I wanted to hear the arias on Sunday, but I also wanted to see who hit the ball the farthest.  It was truly delightful to be able to hear these young, but already accomplished, performers display their talents, both acting and singing, and sometimes, amusingly, their personalities.  And there were some home runs.

I now must run a risk to my reputation as someone who prefers sopranos.  After all, it was my newfound love of listening to great sopranos like Birgit Nilsson and Renata Scotto that drew me into opera some six years ago.  I’d also like to preface my comments about yesterday’s performances by reiterating that my likes or dislikes are those of an opera fan, not an opera expert.  I have an opinion and enjoy expressing it and encourage others to do the same, but it is just my opinion.  I should also say I did not take notes, preferring to just enjoy the performances, so I hope I don’t confuse any of the players.  Having listed all the caveats, here is the shocker, at least to me: I have to say that I was even more blown away by the guys than the gals on Sunday.  But to be fair, there were more guys than gals by 11-6.

Katherine Carter served as host and kept things moving at a good pace, staying in touch with and entertaining the audience with her comments, and WTO Director, Kim Witman, was impressive performing accompaniment on the piano for all of the arias.  When I heard the first aria, one from La Traviata , performed by Reginald Smith, Jr., who sings with a beautiful baritone, the impact of the emotion that he was expressing took me by surprise.  It is to be expected that the arias are sung in character, but the clear conveyance of the emotion without me knowing the words caught me off guard.  Mr. Smith will play Marcello in WTO's upcoming production of La Boheme.  Brenton Ryan, who played the Male Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia sang “The Aria of the Worm” with gusto and drama.  Among the other tenors, I thought Alastair Kent sang his aria with a voice that was unusually effective at conveying the emotion of the aria.  I am not sure such a sensitive voice will be able to fill the large opera houses with sound, but I feel strongly he could be a successful singer of popular ballads, along the lines of Andrea Bocelli or Enrique Inglesias.  Yongzhao Yu had a nicely resonating and attractive tenor voice, though I liked him much better singing Wagner in the encore.  He will play Rodolfo in the upcoming La Boheme.  I thought that perhaps Jonas Hacker had the strongest, most attractive tenor voice, and I expect a successful professional career in opera for him; and with the name Jonas he has a head start. 

My favorite among the male voices are the baritones.  I sort of agree with the sentiments of “I’m Glad I’m not a Tenor” performed by Shea Owens, who played Junius in The Rape of Lucretia.  His aria was the humorous highlight of the afternoon, and he was even joined for a few bars of Nessun Dorma interlude by a chorus of the FYAs sitting in the balcony.  He will play Schaunard in La Boheme.  Will Liverman who played Tarquinius in The Rape of Lucretia sang with dramatic conviction; I would like to hear him sing some softer numbers that allows us to hear the color of his voice.  Baritone Kihun Yoon has what is known in the opera world as a powerful instrument that will very likely power him to a successful singing career.  Richard Ollarsaba has tremendous stage presence and a clear, powerful bass-baritone voice; I feel he is destined for a successful career playing villains.  Christian Zaremba, who played Collatinus in The Rape of Lucretia, sang a very tender Russian song with such feeling that even this non-Russian was touched.  The last guy to mention is Timothy Bruno who would certainly be a finalist in any how low can you go competition.  His rendition of “Some Enchanted Evening” with that low bass voice was clearly an audience favorite.

The women were excellent; don’t misunderstand me.  Mezzo soprano Sarah Larsen, who played the nurse in The Rape of Lucretia has a voice of considerable color and warmth, well suited to her aria “Can’t help lovin’ dat man.”  Amy Owens who played the maid in The Rape of Lucretia sang a spirited "Zerbinetta’s Aria" by Strauss, which requires some difficult vocal gymnastics.  Summer Hassan who will sing Musetta in WTO’s upcoming performance of La Boheme sang a lovely version of Charpentier’s “Depuis le Jour,” one of my favorite arias.  Kerriann Otano who played the Female Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia sang Kurt Weill’s “The Saga of Jenny,” a good fit for her; I can certainly envision her singing that on Broadway in a revival of The Lady in the Dark.  The final two singers might have been my favorites of the sopranos.  Mane Galoyan has a lovely voice I’d like to hear more of, and Clarissa Lyons who sang an aria from Cosi Fan Tutte made me believe she would be excellent in that role and likely to play it sometime in the future in a major opera house.

In a fine finish to an afternoon of the WTO strutting its stuff, the concert was closed out with an encore performed by seven of the FYAs singing a selection from Richard Wagner’s Ring with WTO Artist in Residence, Alan Held.  Mr. Held played Wotan in the recent Washington National Opera’s production of the complete Ring. One was tempted to say, "Wow!".

Having now heard these young performers, I can follow their careers and look forward to hearing them again when they return to the mid-Atlantic region, as well as in upcoming WTO productions.  Let’s hope WTO does Aria Jukebox again next year. For this year: three cheers for the gals and the guys, but the guys earn a star!  And a big hoo rah for WTO!

Note to Readers

I have made a few tweaks to OperaGene.com in the last few days: 1) switched the homepage to the blog posts page, so that people who access operagene.com land on the blog page; 2) changed the font for the main text sections; and 3) changed the logo.  These changes are intended to make the site more appealing, user friendly, and helpful to the opera fan.  If you have suggestions on how to improve the website either in appearance or information or features provided, I would love to hear from you.

British Musicians and Singers Gather in Trafalgar Square Following BREXIT Vote to Play “Ode to Joy”

I was puzzled to read that a sizable group of individual British musicians and singers had gathered Thursday night in Trafalgar Square in London to play Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” in response to the historic British vote to leave the European Union.  This story was first reported on June 26 in the website Slippedisc.com and was described as a spontaneous response to the vote; you can view a video of the affair on the Slipped Disc website.  It’s quite moving and my first thought was to wonder why the musicians and singers were happy that BREXIT passed, especially because I had read prior to the vote that British musicians were largely in favor of remaining.  Like many of my first reactions, the thought that this event was expressing approval of BREXIT’s passage was impulsive and uninformed. 

“Ode to Joy,” is of course the familiar, final movement of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.  It is a surprising piece in that it involves choral music in a classical music symphony.  The words for the piece are taken slightly-modified from a poem by the German poet Frederich Schiller.  So, the musicians and singers were playing a piece of European music.  Most telling is that “Ode to Joy” is also the Anthem of the European Union.  One phrase in the poem translated from German and copied from the Wikipedia entry for “Ode to Joy” helps explain the sentiment:

Joy, beautiful spark of divinity,

Daughter from Elysium,

We enter, drunk with fire,

Heavenly, thy sanctuary!

Your magics join again

What custom strictly divided;

All people become brothers,

Where your gentle wing abides.

It speaks to the brotherhood of man.  The musicians were playing the EU Anthem as a show of solidarity with their musician brothers in the EU. 

Philip Barrett on mixcloud.com offered a report that mixes music and comments from the participants: https://www.mixcloud.com/philip-barrett/an-ode-to-joy-solidarity-with-europe/.  It is clear that this was a case of musicians and singers expressing their brotherhood with other musicians and singers.  In fact, British musicians/singers are worried about how this will affect funds available to hold concerts, to construct new music halls, and to easily cross borders in Europe as well as whether British musicians/singers will be able to work in the EU nations and EU musicians/singers able to work in Britain.

We will see what unfolds, but I was touched by this outpouring of emotion and display of brotherhood.

Met Opera HD in Cinema Encore Broadcasts Over the Summer

here’s the deal,

I am a little late reporting on this item, but on the theory that late is better than never, here goes.  Metropolitan Opera announced encore performances of four of its HD in Cinema series this summer:  http://www.metopera.org/Season/In-Cinemas/.  I covered the Met In Cinema Series in my blog post titled Affordable Opera, Part I.  The summer showings are not live; you will be watching a high quality recording – hence the use of the term ‘encore’.

detour to Philadelphia,

One surprise I received in doing some research on live opera being performed this summer in the mid-Atlantic region was an article in Philly.com (Philadelphia Inquirer’s website) by critic Peter Dobrin, titled “Classical Music In and Around Philly This Summer.”  For opera, he only listed the four Met HD in Cinema encore broadcasts.  I find it difficult to believe there is no live opera in Philadelphia this summer.  However, David Patrick Stearn, the Inquirer’s other classical music critic had a piece on Philly.com titled “Summer Preview: Classical Music Within a Day’s Drive,“ and there was no mention of live opera in Philadelphia this summer.  Too bad he only looked north of Philadelphia for his article; he is also associated with classical music station, WQXR in NYC, so maybe Philadelphia to New York is his area of focus. Regardless, I encourage Philadelphians to also venture south and west for some live opera this summer, and all of us to try live opera in different cities.  Opera fans in the DC area have Wolf Trap Opera and in Pittsburgh there is SummerFest 2016 (see Elizabeth Bloom’s recent article, “Opera Theater of Pittsburgh’s SummerFest Will Happen In Usual Places”).

back to the Met HD in Cinema Series,

To my chagrin, I must report that Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca was broadcast this past Wednesday and the cast with Patricia Racette and Robert Alagna looked terrific.  Ms. Racette starred in a Washington National Opera production of Tosca a few years ago and she was superb.  I have seen the final three encores in HD format and can recommend them all.  Tosca will be followed on June 29 by L’Elisir D’Amore (The Elixir of Love) by Gaetano Donizetti.  This is a fine production with power diva Anna Nebtrebko as Adina and Met Opera favorite Matthew Polenzani as Nemorino.  I think of this comedy as a slice of chiffon pie, something to be greatly enjoyed, though not too often.  I think Anna’s acting here is not commensurate with her singing but her singing is outstanding. 

Anna Netrebko as Adina and Matthew Polenzani as Nemorino in L'Elisir d'Amore.  Photo by Ken Howard; courtesy of Metropolitan Opera.

Next in the lineup is La Boheme by Puccini on July 13.  La Boheme is the most performed opera, and rightly so.  The story Is loaded with charm and pathos and the music is some of Puccini’s most beautiful.  This performance features a fine cast headed by Kristine Opolais as Mimi and Vittoria Grigolo as Rodolfo.  I tend to favor the sopranos but I must admit that Mr. Grigolo has a gorgeous voice.  In my opinion, it doesn’t have the gravitas of Pavaroti’s voice, but is more like a trumpet played beautifully.  I was anxious to hear Ms. Opolais because she has appeared in a number of recent Met productions and to very strong reviews.  Her performance in this opera was as a last minute fill-in for Anita Hartwig who came down with the flu.  Ms. Opolais starred in Madama Butterfly one night at the Met and the next morning was called upon to step in that night to play Mimi.  Wow!  I am so impressed she could do that.  She sang beautifully but was more effective at portraying a sickly woman than one enraptured by love.  If seeing this version of Boheme might prevent you from attending the Wolf Trap Opera production on August 5, by all means, put off seeing the HD version. 

Kristine Opolais as Mimi and Vittorio Grigolo as Rodolfo in La Boheme.  Photo by Marty Sohl; courtesy of Metropolitan Opera.

The final encore broadcast of the summer is the Mozart classic Cosi Fan Tutte, a comedy with a sexual edge, an edge I gather that Mr. Mozart liked to travel.  This production is especially fun because of a great cast.  It would be hard to pick a better current day one than Isabel Leonard, Daniel de Niese, Susanna Phillips, Rodion Pogossov, and Matthew Polenzani.  I will only comment on Susanna Philips: her star is rising, her smile is morning sunshine, and her voice is pure honey.  You can also catch her in Boheme above playing Musetta; her version of the aria Quando me'n vo is a show stopper. 

Matthew Polenzani as Ferrando, Susanna Phillips as Fiordiligi, Isabel Leonard as Dorabella, and Rodion Pogossov as Guglielmo in Cosi Fan Tutte.  Photo by Marty Sohl; courtesy of Metropolitan Opera.

however, consider this,

Ticket prices for these encore broadcasts are somewhat reduced compared to operas broadcast live. Nonetheless, you will still drop about $12-20 to see one, depending on the opera and theater.  That’s not bad given the price of movies these days, and you see it on a really big screen with great sound in a cloistered environment.  Plus, there is plenty of ticket availability compared to the live broadcasts.  There is another option to see these, however, if the timing or the setting doesn’t work for you.  You can rent any of these four operas by signing up for Met Opera on Demand.  You can sign up for the monthly or yearly plan, but you can also rent the operas individually for $4.99 each for a 48-hour period.  So, you can have your opera and cake (and eat it too).  Check out the Met Opera on Demand website for information on devices that can stream and play the videos.  http://www.metopera.org/Season/On-Demand/ 

And speaking of live opera this summer,

I noticed in the Washington Post Weekend Section these listings:

Beetovern’s Fidelio – June 25-26, Atlas Performing Arts Center (atlas arts.org), 202-399-7993

Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Medium – June 25, Bel Cantanti Opera (belcantanti.com), tickets online or at door

And speaking of live opera for the Fall season,

Ok, I was not speaking of that, but it is worth noting that single ticket sales for the Met's 2016-2017 season start on Sunday, June 26.  If you can get to the Met this year, do it!

Elegy Written On An Opera Guide

Name the composer of these operas: La Finta Semplice; Mitridate; Lucio Silla; and La Clemenza Di Tito.  If you are seriously into opera, or even music broadly, you might know or guess the answer.  I’d wager the typical opera fan will be baffled, except that the language the names are in may help you rule out a few composers.  While waiting on an appointment recently, I began perusing The New Penguin Opera Guide edited by Amanda Holden, 2001.  At 1168 pages, the Guide is an encyclopedia of opera composers with a fairly complete listing and discussion of their operatic works.  Amazon’s description of the Guide says, “Over 100 distinguished contributors have written on more than 800 composers and examined 1500 operas in detail.”

The New Penguin Opera Guide, edited by Amanda Holden, 2001.  Photo by Author.

Think about that for a moment.  Eight hundred composers – how many can you name?  The Guide begins with the listing of Antonio Maria Abbatini and ends with Johann Rudolf Zumsteeg.  Ever hear of those composers?  Fifteen hundred operas – how many have you seen?  I’m guessing you have not seen the four Mozart operas listed above.  And I’m not picking on Mozart.  How many of these Verdi operas have you seen – Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio; Jerusalem; or Aroldo?  And so it goes, not all of the great composers’ works were hits.

Somehow perusing the Guide made me remember one of my favorite poems, Thomas Gray’s Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, which ponders how many of the parishioners lay in their graves with unrealized potential.  The Penguin Guide is in part a graveyard of forgotten composers who nevertheless had distinguished themselves while alive; yet, despite their ability and efforts, never achieved wide spread or lasting recognition.  Likely each one put their heart and soul into their work, but perhaps their operas just weren’t that good or maybe the composers gave up too quickly or maybe for some reason audiences overlooked them.  If one looks at the history of opera, many famous operas of famous composers were failures when first presented; sometimes fan appreciation grew with time and sometimes revisions made the works more accepted.  In many cases, lives and composing careers were cut short by untimely deaths due to accidents or disease. In Mozart’s case, the first three operas above were written early in his career.  Suppose his life had been cut even shorter – no Figaro, no Giovanni, no Cosi, and no Magic Flute.  What might some of these unknown composers have achieved with more time to develop their craft and operas? 

I also wonder if society settled on the hundred or so operas that get repeatedly performed too quickly.  Music professionals and audiences have winnowed the list over time, but if we started over and had a competition would some new ones emerge as favorites?  I’d guess not many, but I’d bet there would be some.  Some conductors/directors would find a way to stage them or singers would find a way to interpret their roles such that audiences would be won over and they would emerge from obscurity, or maybe we’d find that we had just overlooked a gem.  Operas are expensive experiments.  You don’t get that many times upon the stage to work it out or grow an audience.  And we must admit that we can only sustain interest in so many operas, with more than 1500 accumulated over time, and new ones coming along every year. 

Let me end this elegy by acknowledging not only the composers but all the librettists, singers, conductors, stage directors, managers, staff, critics, and financial benefactors that were necessary to establish and maintain this four-hundred-year enterprise. The genius, talent, dedication, and hard work that enabled the writing of Penguin Guide’s 1168 pages is a staggering testament to human creativity, ability, and teamwork.  It continues to the present day and will soon be playing at an opera house near you.  The reward is not only in the legacy which can be capricious, but is primarily in the moment when the music, the performers, and audience share the creative experience and musical connection that brings us together as human beings, those alive and those who went before us.

Back to Lucretia, the Barns, and Wolf Trap Opera

first, a little railing,

Here is the follow up to my initial discussion of Friday night’s performance of The Rape of Lucretia by Wolf Trap Opera at the Barns.  I am not the only one who found this production to have a powerful impact.  Washington Post critics, Philip Kennicott and Anne Midgette  posted a discussion of the performance on June 12 saying as much.  I noticed their article on June 14, and I was disappointed to see that after two days online there were no comments for a performance that is truly worth discussing.  I enjoy reading the comments to reviews as well as the reviews themselves.  I left a comment and as of the posting of this blog piece it remains the only comment.  I wonder what it means that the Washington area is blessed with two world-class classical music critics and they only attract one comment on an excellent local production.  I am also dismayed that such a fine production is not a complete sellout given the population of the DC area.  It is summer and there are many things vying for our attention, but I am concerned that the presentation of opera of this caliber by enthusiastic and talented young performers does not fill a small theater in a metropolitan locale. I think of attendance at music, drama, and arts events not only as entertainment but to be continuing education in citizenry.  I have been thinking about Lucretia since Friday, six days ago.  It has raised my awareness and made me think about our nature as a society of humans.  Right now I am pondering the meaning of a question that Collatinus asked his wife as he tried to comfort her and tell her the rape was not her fault.  He says, "I forgive you."  Huh?  For what?  If anyone is swayed, there is still one more performance of Lucretia on Saturday night.

J'Nai Bridges as Lucretia, Brenton Ryan as Male Chorus, Will Liverman as Tarquinius, and Kerriann Otano as Female Chorus.  Photo by Scott Suchman and courtesy of Wolf Trap Opera.

J'Nai Bridges as Lucretia, Christian Zaremba as Collatinus, Shea Owens as Junius, Sarah Larsen as Bianca, Amy Owens as Lucia, Brenton Ryan as Male Chorus, and Kerriann Otano as Female Chorus.  Photo by Scott Suchman and courtesy of Wolf Trap Opera.

more about Lucretia,

No question that The Rape of Lucretia performed by Wolf Trap Opera is in sum an elegant and emotionally powerful and intellectually engaging production.  But let me add a few minor criticisms as a fan.  For example, why are stage directors today replacing Roman soldiers with WWII GI’s to update settings?  The story of Lucretia is just as powerful in its original setting I would think and having three GI’s named Collatinus, Junius, and Tarquinius sitting around drinking Jack Black and yet talking about the merits of wine seems a little unusual.  And some aspects still have me wondering – the presence of an unnamed and unexplained child and the male chorus donning the clerical collar to bring Christianity into the the scene some 500 years before it appeared on the scene.  I got the feeling that perhaps Lucretia might have been a sacrificial lamb to ensnare the audience in Christianity; I’m just not sure if the libretto was pro or con.  And why was the female chorus dressed like the young woman you hope your daughter will not hang out with, even if she does have a good heart.  These are mostly small matters that passed by quickly in the viewing, but linger on reflection.

J'Nai Bridges as Lucretia (holding River Rogers as Child).  Photo by Scott Suchman and courtesy of Wolf Trap Opera.

I loved the young voices.  Sometimes they sounded like not completely tamed broncos showing their spirit, but they managed to add color to an opera that could become blandly didactic.  I also like the use of the male and female choruses to place the action in a larger context forward and backward in time.  I thought Brenton Ryan who played the male chorus was particularly effective maintaining drama throughout the evening. Perhaps he had the most engaging lines; Kerriann Otano as the female chorus also sang well.  Sarah Larsen and Amy Owens, who played nurse/maids for Lucretia had strong voices, with considerable color, enough to maintain the balance among the eight players.  The same can be said for Christian Zaremba and Shea Owens who played Collatinus and Junius.  Will Liverman who played Tarquinius, the rapist, was threatening and yet in a simple, beautiful aria as he looked upon the sleeping Lucretia displayed a rather beautiful voice; he is worth hearing more of I think.  J’Nai Bridges had one of the strongest voices; I would like to hear her with more opportunity to show it off.  I think there should be a website somewhere where every opera singer has to post one song every year so we can follow their development.  I think the energy of the young singers helped to glue this performance into the unified whole that it was. 

The opera was written for twelve soloist musicians.  There was relatively little playing together to produce an orchestral sound.  I am not a musician, but I was surprised at how well the individual instruments supported the players and the story.  Kudos to the conductor and musicians.

All of the singers in Lucretia are Young Filene Artists.  I found it interesting to peruse their brief bio sketches in the outstanding WTO program guide.  You can also find info on the artists on the WTO website.  I was impressed that most are pursuing advanced degrees in music, are affiliated with other opera house training programs, and have several opera performances already under their belts.  These folks are worth following.  WTO has a strong record of its graduates going on to successful opera careers.

comments on the Barns,

I have mixed feelings about the Barns as an opera venue.  It is cozy and does have charm. The theater is not large with maybe 20-30 rows of about 20 seats across each on the floor level and a small balcony.  One advantage is you are close to the action on stage almost regardless where you sit and the acoustics seem fine to me. One disadvantage of the seating is that it is not tiered.  If you have a tall person in front of you, you will spend time moving side to side to see the performers on stage.  The Barns does have a rustic barn look.  It may conflict somewhat with the more formal nature of opera, but if it encourages more casual dress, I’m for it.  The restaurant serves light fare and drinks.  Ask the price of the glass of wine you are considering.  We found out after we had ordered that two glasses of pinot grigio were $26.  On the other hand, parking is plentiful and free.  Getting out after a performance is fairly quick since the theater is small.

The pre performance talks are held in a lecture room in a building next door to the theater one hour before the show and there is usually plenty of seating for all who attend.  I most definitely recommend these!  They will enrich your experience.

comments on Wolf Trap Opera,

I think Wolf Trap Opera is a treasure.  It’s director, performers and staff, and productions reek of quality and a commitment to excellence and to its community.  Young singers around the country compete to be part of this program and the development opportunity it provides them, and the program is designed to take full advantage of their individual talents to provide an optimal cultural and entertainment package for local patrons.  WTO is a pretty safe bet for investing your entertainment dollar.  Check out the recital performances as well as the operas themselves.

Opera in Barcelona

the setting,

My wife arranged the travel for our recent family vacation to Spain so that the best was saved for last, a visit to Barcelona.  At least that was the theory, though in fact each place we visited - Lisbon, Tangier, Seville, Granada, and Madrid - had attractions and charms their own that made them not to be missed.  Still, Barcelona with its art and architecture, its food and charm, and laid back lifestyle in a sea side setting on the Mediterranean certainly qualifies as a highlight.  My wife enriched the experience even more by arranging tickets for us to attend the opera there. 

One of the first things we learned was that Barcelona is in Catalonia, an autonomous, though not independent region of Spain.  It occupies the northeast corner of Spain and is similar in shape to South Carolina, though less than half its size in square miles, but having more than twice its population, largely concentrated in Barcelona.  The region has its own language, Catalan, in addition to Spanish, and there is currently a push by many in the province and in the Catalan parliament to secede from Spain due to a feeling that Catalans pay more in taxes than they receive in services from the central government.  Not surprisingly, the central Spanish government in Madrid is opposing the breakaway.  A new referendum appears likely in the coming months and Catalans seem to be struggling with this decision and how it might affect them. 

One practical result for the opera goer in Barcelona is that, while the operas are performed in their native language, the supertitles above the stage are in Catalan, while the subtitles appearing on the backs of seats can be selected in Catalan, Spanish, or English.  The name of the opera house itself is listed in Catalan as Gran Teatre del Liceu or in Spanish as Gran Teatro del Liceo ; the switching of ending e and o is a main distinguishing feature of the two languages.  The opera house was built in the mid nineteenth century, but was decimated by a fire in 1994.  It was renovated into the beautiful building and interior it is today, situated on La Rambla, a central street in old Barcelona and a favorite shopping stroll for locals and tourists alike.

In my travels in Europe in the last 10-15 years I have developed the impression that opera is more basic or central to cultural life there.  The opera house seems to be a natural part of the landscape for a town of any size.  My impression of the audience in Barcelona was that they were younger on average than I most often see in the US and somewhat less formal, though there were still lots of coats and ties and evening gowns in the audience.  During the intermission, the hallways were lined with attendees eating baguette sandwiches of Iberian ham and cheese with their beverage of choice, quite often Cava.  The theater was close to full seating, and the audience responded enthusiastically to the performance.  There are two choices for taxis after the performance.  Hail one on the same side of La Rambla as the theater and have the taxi take you on a long ride to get back to your hotel, or try in vain for the next half hour or so to get an empty taxi on the opposite side of the street headed in the direction of the hotels.  Your choice. (Photos by author; immediately below is a gallery you can scroll by clicking)

the opera,

One surprise for us was that, even though American opera star Joyce DiDonato was billed as the star performer, in fact, the lead roles were rotated among the performances by two sets of singers.  The disappointment was that we did not get to see Ms. DiDonato; I failed to follow my own admonition to readers to check carefully the performers listed for the day you wish to attend, though in fairness to myself, I had assumed that a star of Ms. DiDonato’s fame would not be rotated.  The upside was that we got to hear an outstanding mezzo soprano, Silvia Tro Santafe, instead; she sang beautifully and her acting was spot on.  Perhaps in Europe her fame is equal to Ms. DiDonato’s?

The opera we attended was Vicenzo Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi.  This is his and librettist Felice Romani’s version of Romeo and Juliet. It seems to have been a bit of a star-crossed opera.  The deadline for the commission was short.  Romani modified a libretto intended for another opera and Bellini used much music he had composed for a failed opera for this one, though the appropriated text and music were greatly re-worked.  Yet, the opera seems to be less often performed than I think justified by the beautiful music; perhaps it suffers from competition with Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet.  They did not use Shakespeare’s play as its basis but used original sources, so that the enmity in this version is not just between families, but between two political parties, the Guelphs and the Ghiberllines.  Politics in those days was to the death.  I will not comment on the direction our own are headed.

Some of the details are different, but the basics of the story remain the same.  A boy and a girl from opposing groups fall in love, and a sympathetic figure intervenes with a potion that causes a death like sleep and a plan for them to escape together; confusion intervenes and leads to both the boy and girl offing themselves to always be with the other.  There was one little wrinkle in this Romeo and Juliet that caused me difficulty.  Romeo was played by a mezzo soprano.  Here is what the program stated, “This is one of Bellini’s earlier operas and it has more in common with Rossini-style bel canto than romantic opera, the genre in which he excelled.  Thus a mezzo soprano is given the role of Romeo and the opera comprises an uninterrupted succession of recitative and arias that is still in the bel canto tradition.”  Okay, who am I to argue with their dramaturg.  I am confused, however, in calling this an early Bellini opera and with the implication that tenors don’t sing bel canto.  Nonetheless, this is the way the opera is typically presented and so called "pants" roles are not all that uncommon in opera.  I tried to accept Ms. Santafe’s Romeo as a guy.  I really did. However, for me she did not sound like a guy and she did not look like a guy, though I grant her acting movements portrayed masculinity quite effectively.  As the evening wore on, her love for Guiietta became convincing and the question of gender identity faded into the background.

Overall, I thought the singers were quite good.  Giulietta was portrayed by soprano Ekaterina Siurina, who has a pretty voice and sang well, though sometimes she seemed strained to hit the more powerful notes and her pleasure at having successfully navigated some of the more difficult passages was palpable.  The guys were adequate but, as a fan, none stood out to me.  The orchestra played well, but the sound seemed a little thin.  I would like to hear the Met orchestra give the score a try.

My feelings about the set and staging ranged from this is clever and creative in an artsy way to this is has moved into absurdity.  The set was minimalist and reasonably effective for some scenes, baffling for others such as having everyone walking up and down what seemed to be high school gym bleacher seats while face offs took place.  Most unnerving was a scene where Giulietta, to exhibit how distraught she was I suppose, climbed up upon a lavatory attached only to a wall; she then stood up and appeared for several minutes to be trying to scale the wall as she moved around on the lavatory and sang her aria.  Great aria, but one slip and we could have been dealing with a real tragedy.

Despite my critical comments, this evening spent at the Liceu/Liceu was great fun.  I only wish I could have gone back the next night to see whether Joyce DiDonato could have made me believe she was a guy.

Wolf Trap Opera’s The Rape of Lucretia

Wolf Trap Opera’s performance of The Rape of Lucretia Friday night at the Barns was what art aspires to be, thought provoking by forcing us to confront ourselves.  In that regard, it achieved a goal or at least a prediction set forth by Kim Witman, WTO’s director, in her pre-performance talk.  By weaving together elements of personal tragedy with sexual violence, war, politics, lust for power, evil, and religion, the story draws us in or perhaps more accurately forces us in.  I felt like I found myself locked in a roller coaster headed for the dark tunnel where the crash would occur and I could not get out.  Evil was headed my way and it could not be avoided.  The sick feeling in the pit of my stomach was my connection to my fellow humans in the audience, the world, and mankind from the beginning of our time.  Are we left to avoid, hide, only to be trapped by evil and plead for God’s protection and deliverance from its destruction, when love cannot save us?  And when the worst has happened and our dignity has been torn from us, can we go on?  How?  Why?

The impact of Benjamin Britten and Ronald Duncan’s opera is such that commenting on the elements of the production somehow seem irrelevant, unimportant.  And perhaps that fact is praise enough for the performers, musicians, and staff who were responsible for this elegant production, where the telling of the story, the singing, the music, and the delivery worked in unison.  Maybe I will comment more, another time, when I have sufficiently recovered.

Pittsburgh's SummerFest 2016: Opera to the People

Pittsburgh Opera’s 2015-2016 season wound down recently with their last production, Igor Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress; the libretto was written by W. H. Auden and the sets, now the property of Pittsburgh Opera, were designed by artist David Hockney.  It appears to have been a big hit; see Robert Croan’s review in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for background on the opera and critical comments on the performance.  Only my attendance at the Washington National Opera’s American Ring kept me from attending Rake.  I hope it is repeated before too many years pass.

I reported on Pittsburgh Opera’s upcoming season in my blog post of April 5, which will include a world premiere of the opera, The Summer King by Daniel Sonenberg.  But the 2016-2017 season does not kick off until October.  What will keep the Pittsburgh opera fires stoked until then?

It turns out that not only will the fires be stoked, but the dishes being served are seasoned and offered in venues to make them more accessible to the community.  I sent an email to Elizabeth Bloom, classical music critic for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, telling her that in the Washington area we have Wolf Trap Opera to make our summers more fun and asking her what folks in Pittsburgh do.  She was kind enough to send the follow information:

"Opera Theater of Pittsburgh is a small company started by Mildred Miller Posvar, a former Met singer, almost four decades ago.  It prides itself on making opera accessible to everyone - via operas sung only in English, new work about contemporary issues, performances in bars and so on.  The productions are staged only over the summer, hence the (somewhat) recently added name "SummerFest"."

Take a look at their website, otsummerfest.org, and the ambitious and entertaining program for SummerFest 2016 here.  OT describes its program thusly:

SummerFest logo, courtesy of SummerFest

“SummerFest 2016 is five weeks of operas and musicals sung in English, a children's opera, vocal recitals, and more! The season begins June 22nd with performances of Carmen the Gypsy in unique and intimate venues in Oakland, West End, and Sewickley, and then continues in the newly-renovated Falk Auditorium on the campus of Winchester Thurston School in Shadyside from July 7–24.”

Sounds appealing, doesn’t it, reaching out to the community?  One of the first offerings is a touring production of Carmen the Gypsy, a new adaptation of Georges Bizet’s Carmen, scaled back and more intimate, but from the looks of the attached photo from SummerFest, retaining all the passion. 

Carmen the Gypsy photo by Patti Brahim.  Kara Cornell as Carmen and James Flora as Don Jose.  Photo courtesy of SummerFest.

Parents take note - one of the offerings is a children’s opera, Little Red Riding Hood.  Handel’s

Little Red Riding Hood; Valerie Hosler as Red Riding Hood and Jesse Davis as the Wolf/Huntsman.  Photo by Mark Ambramowitz.  Photo courtesy of SummerFest.

Julius Caesar is another of the offerings, a relatively rare chance to see a baroque opera. Also being produced is A Silent Woman by Richard Strauss; this is a comic opera, but has a dramatic back story involving Hitler and the Nazi's that deserves delving further into at some point.  This is the third opera of Strauss performed at Summerfest over the last three years and a fourth is planned for next year.  

These performances have been added to the sidebar on the right.  SummerFest also offers a number of concerts around town, some free.  They also produce an annual voice competition in the fall.  Note that a number of venues around Pittsburgh are used in an attempt to bring opera to the community.  Please check with the SummerFest website to confirm dates and venues and to purchase tickets; you can also call the box office at 412-326-9687 for assistance.  Ticket prices range from $25 to $75 with discounts available for subscription purchases.

Summer is a great time to take a vacation in Pittsburgh, and if you are thinking of going to try some new restaurants, visit the museums, enjoy the scenery, and take in the Pittsburgh Pirates, also take a look at the fresh opera offerings from SummerFest.

Addendum:  Also a reminder for fans in the Washington DC area - Wolf Trap Opera kicks off its summer season on Friday with the first of four performances of The Rape of Lucretia at the Barns - see link in the sidebar.

Spain: Two Transcendent Experiences

My family and I just returned from a two-and-a-half-week vacation traveling in Portugal, Morocco, and Spain, hence the break between OperaGene blog posts.  We learned a lot of history, experienced different cultures, ate some great food, viewed some world-class art, and heard some thrilling music.  Two experiences achieved the “transcendent” level for me.  My use of the word transcendent means that the sum of the elements contributing to the experience provided a deeply satisfying, uplifting experience greater than the sum of the parts.  For me, these experiences are very personal and spiritual in nature.  We attended a traditional Flamenco Dance demonstration, which was excellent, but for me was not transcendent.  Sometimes opera rises to this level for me, but it was not opera this time, though we attended the opera in Barcelona.

The first case occurred on our visit to the Basilica of Sagrada Familia, a temple in Barcelona begun over a hundred years ago and due to be finished in about ten years.  The outside of the temple is an immense Gothic structure built largely under the direction of the great Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi; the target date for completion is 2016, the centenary year of Gaudi's death.  The outside is striking in terms of both art and architecture.  It was, however, when we stepped inside that its true magnificence was revealed: the design of the ceiling, the interplay of the light coming through the stained glass windows of different colors, and the numerous columns rising up, up, up to heaven, branching along the way upward like trees supporting a canopy.  For me, it was stunning, as though I had wandered into a spiritual forest.

Front of the Basilica Sagrada Familia.  Photo courtesy of Debra Rogers.

View inside of the Basilica.  Photo courtesy of Ethan Rogers

The second experience involved singing and came on a visit to Montserrat, a multi-peak mountain, about 30 miles outside Barcelona.  The highest peak is about 4000 feet, but the rock formations surrounding the religious structures built into the mountain side provide a dramatic backdrop.  Beyond hiking the terrain, the highlight of Montserrat is the Benedictine abbey, Santa Maria de Montserrat.  Through much of its history, a legend of the miraculous appearance of a black Madonna has sustained religious and tourist interest.  The abbey supports a boys’ choir of 50 boys ages 8-14 who live at the abbey during the week and spend weekends with their parents.  They are known internationally as the L'Escolania Choir.  They perform two songs in the chapel for visitors at one pm each day, except Saturday,  Performances are packed.  I love choirs and was very much looking forward to hearing this one.  As they began the first selection, I was enchanted by the beauty of their voices, but about thirty seconds into the performance, the different voices merged to produce a sound of such purity and power, I felt myself enveloped and bathed in spiritual beauty.  Thrilling is not too strong a word.

View from the visitor's center on Montserrat looking towards Barcelona.  Author's photo.

Approaching the Chapel.  Author's photo.

Partial photo of the choir.  An oft visited replica of the Black Madonna is center overhead.  Photo courtesy of Debra Rogers.

View coming out of the Chapel.  Photo courtesy of Debra Rogers.

I will report in a future post on our visit to the Teatro Del Liceo in Barcelona to see Bellini’s i Capuleti e i Montecchi.  It was excellent if not transcendent and English subtitles were an option.