Opera Season 2020-2021 in the mid-Atlantic: Phoenixes Taxiing for Takeoff

September 1 is the traditional start date for a new opera season.  So, what are the major players in the mid-Atlantic - the Pittsburgh Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Virginia Opera, and Washington National Opera - planning during this COVID-19 decimated year?  And what about the smaller opera companies in the mid-Atlantic region? 

A phoenix depicted in an 1806 book of legendary creatures by FJ Bertuch. Image in the public domain, accessed through Wikipedia.

Pittsburgh Opera surprised me with an ambitious 2020-2021 season announcement on Aug 3 that included live, before-an-audience opera scheduled as early as October; so I looked quickly across all opera companies in the mid-Atlantic to see if any other such live performances have been scheduled before the end of 2020.  The answer is no at this point, but it’s complicated, and the coronavirus has not revealed yet what it will permit even in 2021.  Let’s take a look at what appear to be the phoenixes rising from the ashes of COVID-19.

Earlier this year, the COVID-19 pandemic guidelines required all live, in-person opera productions to be shut down.  Opera companies held out as long as possible, but eventually, starting in March, productions were stopped mid-run, and slowly, production after production was postponed or cancelled until it was announced that opera houses would remain dark until the Fall, and finally, for many companies decisions were made in late Spring and Summer, to concede that there could be no performances before a live audience until 2021.  The devastating loss of ticket revenue caused companies to severely cut back their staffs, furlough many, as well as cancel contracts with performers who would have appeared in cancelled performances.  After coming to terms with the likelihood that the coronavirus would still be preventing large gatherings throughout 2020, almost all companies began looking to online streaming of existing opera videos or new, limited online concert performances to keep in touch with and entertain their audiences; most often these have been made freely available since most companies were not experienced in planning and managing online pay-for-view activities at that time.  Perhaps they were also reluctant to grow an online audience and infrastructure, hoping to get attendees back into the opera houses as soon as possible.  That may be changing as companies experiment with online events to raise revenue and maintain contact with their audiences; some mentioned below.

First, I will report on Pittsburgh Opera’s plans.  When the 2020-2021 season was first announced, PO had planned a full complement of six operas, a mix of grand and chamber operas, that included Rusalka, The Magic Flute, Emmeline, Soldier Songs, Aida, and Charlie Parker’s Yardbird.  As it currently stands, only Soldier Songs and Charlie Parker’s Yardbird remain in this season’s schedule; the others have been moved to future seasons and two new productions have been added for this season.  The 2020-2021 season operas will be performed under special circumstances to mitigate concerns with the coronavirus.

Pittsburgh Opera’s 2020-2021 season:

Così fan tutte by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Oct 17, 20, 23, 25, 27, 29

Soldier Songs by David T. Little – Dec 5, 8, 11, 13, 15, 17

Semele by George Frederic Handel – Feb 20, 23, 26, 28, Mar 2, 4

Charlie Parker’s Yardbird by Daniel Schnyder – April 10, 13, 16, 18, 20, 22

Pittsburgh Opera Director Christopher Hahn stated that PO was determined to maintain live opera for its audience, but this will require adjustments in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The four operas of the 2020-21 season will all receive six performances in the George R. White Opera Studio at Pittsburgh Opera’s headquarters in Pittsburgh’s Strip District in chamber opera fashion.  Enhanced safety protocols will be employed, such as conducting temperature checks for all patrons, artists, and staff; requiring patrons and staff to wear masks; professional cleaning of the Studio after every performance; strict and structured audience traffic flows; social distance seating so that only 52 of the 195 possible seats will be filled, and more.  

Performances will be staged with sets and costumes.  Casting is almost complete and will primarily utilize resident artists in training, rising professionals under two-year contracts, and some visiting artists; Charlie Parker’s Yardbird will include previously scheduled guest artists.  All performances except for Soldier Songs will be conducted by Music Director Antony Walker; ensemble orchestras up to around 17 musicians can be accommodated behind the stage.  Pittsburgh Opera is contacting their ticket holders to arrange for seating in the newly announced season or make other changes as needed; single ticket availability will not be known until requests from subscribers and donors have been accommodated.  One opera from each performance will be live streamed so that all Pittsburgh Opera fans will be able to see these productions.  PO will also be offering additional programming online during the season.  And of course, in this season of the COVID-19, all plans in the mid-Atlantic are subject to change to be compliant with changing public health guidelines and maintain the safety of patrons.

Opera Philadelphia’s season announcement in February listed three opera productions as part of OP’s season opening annual Fall festival.  Festival O20 was to have included Woman with Eyes Closed (a Jennifer Higdon world premiere), a new production of Macbeth, and El Cimarrón, as well as other opera related events; the second half of the season was to include Oedipus Rex and Tosca.  Most of these productions are now deferred to a later season.  OP will instead offer a digital season from October to April, envisioning keeping Tosca to be performed in the Academy of Music in the Spring.  The Digital 2020-2021 season will be delivered though the Opera Philadelphia Channel, which will be accessible world-wide; there will be single event prices, and a full season subscription price is currently available.   Once placed on the Opera Philadelphia Channel, it is planned that the videos will remain accessible at least through the end of the Channel’s first season, May 31, 2021.

Opera Philadelphia’s Digital 2020-2021 season:

La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi – October (video of 2015 production with Lisette Oropesa)

Cycles of My Being by Tyshawn Sorey – November (recital by Lawrence Brownlee)

Soldier Songs by David T. Little – December (filmed for the OP Channel)

Digital Commissions (four new digital operas) – December to April (filmed for the OP Channel)

El Cimarrón by Werner Henze – March (filmed for the OP Channel)

Opera Philadelphia’s In Person 2020-2021 season (tentative):

Tosca by Giacomo Puccini - April 30, May 2, 5, 7, 9

The Opera Philadelphia Channel will also offer a concert, “Lawrence Brownlee and Friends” in October 2020.  Over the summer OP has offered a Digital Festival O which included videos of previous festival productions, whose viewing ends on August 31.

In April, Virginia Opera announced plans for four operas for the 2020-2021 season around the theme “Love is a Battlefield”.  Scheduled operas had been Rigoletto, The Pirates of Penzance, Cold Mountain, and The Marriage of Figaro; each was to have been performed at venues in Norfolk, Fairfax, and Richmond, as is their usual practice.  With their hand forced by COVID-19, a revised 2020-2021 season schedule was announced at the end of June.  Performances of Rigoletto and Cold Mountain were cancelled; in March they had also been forced to postpone performances of Aida.  The Pirates of Penzance was moved from the Fall to the Spring, however, performances could not be scheduled in Fairfax for workable dates.  In filling out the schedule, a twin-bill of engaging chamber operas was added to lead off the season in February.

Virginia Opera’s 2020-2021 season:

La Voix Humaine by Francis Poulenc and Gianni Schicchi by Giacomo Puccini – (N) Feb 5, 7, 9; (F) Feb 13, 14; (R) Feb 19, 21

The Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – (N) Mar 12, 14, 16; (F) Mar 20, 21; (R) Mar 26, 28

The Pirates of Penzance by W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan – (N) Apr 16, 18, 20; (R) Apr 23, 25

Conductor and Artistic Director Adam Turner will lead the orchestras.  Performers and creative staff are listed on the VA Opera web pages for each production.

Washington National Opera’s 2020-2021 season announcement in January listed 6 operas: Fidelio (in honor of Beethoven’s 100th birthday), Nixon in China, Boris Godunov, Rigoletto, Cosí fan tutte, and La Bohème plus January’s American Opera Initiative premiering three new 20-minute operas.  In June, the Kennedy Center cancelled performances through 2020 which resulted in cancellations for Fidelio and Nixon in China.  Then in July, WNO announced a revised 2021 portion of the season, including the AOI operas and La Bohème and adding performances of Blue (which won the award for new operas in 2020), which was to have received its DC premiere this past March.  Also cancelled back in March were mid-performance runs of Samson and Delilah and Don Giovanni; the May performances of Porgy and Bess were also cancelled.

Washington National Opera’s 2020-2021 season:

Three New 20- Minute Operas, American Opera Initiative – Jan 16

La Bohème by Giacomo Puccini – 8, 9, 10, 14, 16, 19, 21, 22

Blue by Jeanine Tesori - Jul 3, 5, 7, 9, 11

Well, what about the smaller companies?  I am starting to work on that right now.

The Fan Experience: Additional changes may prove necessary.  Sign up for company email updates.

As I have navigated web sites, I find them somewhat unfamiliar and complicated, and even found some expired web pages still running.  But during this period, we have to be patient and be careful.  As you can imagine, all the cancellations and changes have added complexity to each situation and created havoc for web managers and ticket offices of the different companies. 

Companies have been working hard to contact subscribers and ticket holders to refund, exchange, or accept donations of existing tickets and subscriptions.  Best advice is to examine opera company websites carefully and contact representatives when needed.  Also, be patient since we are all having difficulty dealing with disruptions to our schedules.

It is possible that more changes will be required before all this is over.  I recommend signing up to receive email updates from all the companies within your region of interest.  You will get the most up-to-date info, and you will also learn about all the online offerings currently available (operas, concerts, recitals, lectures, discussions), as well as, ticket availability and special discounts being offered by the companies. 

How to sign up for newsletters and email updates:

Pittsburgh Opera – the bottom of each web page on the PO website has a footer with a link to sign up for “E-UPDATES”; simply add your email address to the box provided and click Go.

Opera Philadelphia – the bottom of each web page on the OP website has footer with a link to sign up titled “Hear from us”; simply add your email address to the box  provided and click SIGN UP.

Virginia Opera – When you first access the Virginia Opera website, a popup box will appear titled STAY IN THE KNOW (it only appears the first time you access the website on a given day).  You only are required to fill in your email address although there are slots to also give your name and city and area of interest in Virginia if you wish.  You can also send an email directly to info@vaopera.org requesting to be added to their email list.

Washington National Opera – Send an email to info@kennedy-center.org with a request to be placed on the Kennedy Center email list.  You will receive updates about all Kennedy Center activities, including the Washington National Opera.

Denyce Graves Provides a Learning Activity for Opera Fans: The Master Class

Superstar mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves. Photo courtesy of Wolf Trap.

Wolf Trap Opera has one of the most successful programs in the country at sending emerging professional singers into successful professional careers as opera soloists. Each summer they hold a master class for their trainees, led by the Filene Artist in Residence, a well-known alumni of their program. This year’s class was led by superstar mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves, and mainly for that reason, I decided to listen to the first thirty minutes or so, just to see what it was like when first broadcast on July 22. The class, held with four WTO young Studio Artists, lasted just under two hours. I was glued to my computer screen the entire time. Yes, the class was for singers, but WTO recognizes its value for fans as well and makes it open to the public; it is currently available for viewing online.

First, let’s be clear: opera singers are made, not born. A play appeared on Broadway in 1995 written by Terence McNally titled “Master Class”; playwright McNally is also known as a librettist, most notably for Dead Man Walking by composer Jake Heggie. Sadly, Mr. McNally died earlier this year from complications due to the coronavirus. The plot for the play revolves around soprano Maria Callas holding a master class in which she relates stories of her life to the class. The play won the Tony Award for best drama and had a two-year successful run (if anybody wants to put that play on, I will attend, especially if you turn it into an opera). In a master class, established opera professionals listen to and critique singers in early to mid-stage career development; other singers and fans also benefit from viewing the instruction. This passing down of hard-won expertise is crucial to the development of the next generation of opera singers and maintaining opera’s high artistic standards; fans, when the classes are open to the public, get an improved understanding of the technique and art of singing opera. Music schools and opera company training programs make these classes an integral part of their curriculum.

Mezzo-soprano Alexis Peart, first student performing in the master class; all students accompanied by pianist William Woodard. Photo courtesy of Wolf Trap.

Singing opera well is challenging, more difficult than most people recognize; singing opera professionally requires reaching yet another level. Take renowned contralto Marian Anderson for example. She was born a singer, but it was years and years of dedicated training and study that enabled her to become the first black soloist to sing at the Met. Ms. Callas, who was so admired as a singer she was given the tag “La Divina”, was reportedly a dedicated student who worked with a tutor early in her career to change her tessitura (vocal range) from contralto to dramatic soprano and develop that talent. Similar stories can be said for the vast majority of today’s opera singers. The perfection of their craft takes years of intense study, practice, and tutoring and tends to be a life-long commitment. When you are experienced singing at the professional level, you are a master and are prepared to teach master classes for those singers who have not yet achieved your level of mastery.

Class instructor Denyce Graves provides student feedback. Photo courtesy of Wolf Trap.

Well, let’s look at the professorial qualifications for Denyce Graves. During the twenty-year period starting around 1990, she was a rock star in the opera world; today she is a revered diva. She made her Met debut in Carmen in 1995; hers was considered the definitive Carmen, and she played that role in over twenty Met productions. She has performed leading roles in most of the major opera houses in Europe and the US, and still performs today, most recently in Porgy and Bess at the Met and would have played the same role at the Kennedy Center if the production had not been shut down by the pandemic (much to my chagrin). She has hosted her own network television special, and as a popular recitalist and recording star, she has often been called on to sing at major events. I could go on and on about her awards and impressive accomplishments, but I will just add one more that I really like. Tim Page, a highly regarded and tough critic for the Washington Post in the 1990s, said of her, “She is almost too good to be true -- a vital artist, a beautiful woman, and a regal presence.” Hers is an amazing story. She grew up in one of the tougher sections of Southwest DC and later almost had her career ended before it began by a medical problem affecting her voice (an interesting CBS Sixty Minutes segment from 1996 describes her rise to stardom and early beginnings). She currently resides in Leesburg, Virginia. Ms. Graves has given many master classes at different venues; several can be found on YouTube. In her WTO master class, she was focused, interactive, informative, and looked spectacular, as a diva should.

Soprano Brittany Logan next up to perform and be critiqued. Photo courtesy of Wolf Trap.

Watching the four WTO Studio Artists stepping up to perform in the master class was like watching a spring bouquet appear one flower at a time. Studio Artists, rather than the more experienced Filene Artists, are usually chosen as students for the master classes, as WTO tries to meet the particular needs of their trainees, pair them appropriately with specific trainers, and spread the opportunities among all their trainees over the summer. I won’t comment further on the young artists other than to say that each was delightful and highly talented; they were responsive to the suggestions from Ms. Graves, and it was a pleasure to hear them perform. The singers and their arias for this class are listed below; accompaniment was provided on the electronic keyboard by pianist William Woodard, who is also a WTO Coaching Fellow this summer:

Alexis Peart, mezzo-soprano - Venti turbini, Rinaldo
Brittany Logan, soprano - Porgi amor, Le Nozze di Figaro
Justin Burgess, baritone - Count's Aria, Le Nozze di Figaro
Emily Triegle, mezzo-soprano - Simple Child, Grapes of Wrath

Baritone Justin Burgess third up for a performance and a critique. Photo courtesy of Wolf Trap.

I’ve watched segments of a few other master classes online, and the ones I’ve watched seemed to concentrate mostly on the voice being used (chest voice, throat voice, etc.) and breathing techniques. Ms. Graves took a more holistic approach, encouraging each singer to get more in touch with the character they were playing and to be careful how their voices and body movements correctly portray their characters as they see them, in order to forge and maintain a strong connection with the audience. The number of things an opera singer has to think about and control at one time is amazing. Ms. Graves’ approach highlights an important feature of opera: the arias are the same for every performer, but each performer brings a bit of themselves to the roles, and thus each performance is fresh. Ms. Graves was very supportive and positive in her instructional approach. It was easy to see how this class would be valuable to the performing students and those in the audience. I couldn’t help but wonder when the class was over if Ms. Graves might have any ambition to direct opera; she’d be good. I recommend you tune in to enjoy her performance as teacher and meet these young performers for yourself.

Mezzo-soprano Emily Treigle is the last student in the master class to perform and have her performance critiqued by Ms. Graves. Photo courtesy of Wolf Trap.

I wanted to delve deeper into the use of master classes and contacted staff at Wolf Trap Opera. In response to my questions, I was told:

“In some ways master classes are as much a part of the training as voice lessons are. To work with an experienced singing artist and master teacher who has so much professional experience to share is another way in which our singers glean information about their voices. It's often helpful in a few specific ways:
• Getting advice about how their voices might sound (or how they might need to be tooled) to work successfully in the large spaces that the established singers perform in frequently (the perspective from singing in a 2000-seat house with a 70-person orchestra several times a week for years is invaluable to a singer who has performed mostly with piano, or in smaller houses.).
• Bridging the artistic gap between school and profession; most of the best master classes are about breaking through the rigidity that come from intense academic study. There's a time when every artist needs to take ownership of their artistry; at the very best, these classes offer a glimpse into how to do that.
• Connection: making a connection with a professional singer of renown is an incredibly valuable resource and opportunity for these young people.
The public aspect of many of these classes helps just to get the adrenaline up for the performer! But these classes happen without public participation, too - it's not just for the public, but it's an easy way to bring a curious public in to view the process work.”

And you can relax; there is not a quiz afterwards.

Well, it’s a pandemic. Your activities are very likely restricted. Watching Ms. Graves interact with these young singers is both entertaining reality video and a learning experience, and good preparation for watching upcoming Wolf Trap Opera online offerings - see below for some suggestions. I think for the next singing performances I watch I will be more aware of how the singers are portraying their characters and will appreciate it all the more when they are successful at drawing me in. So, I recommend you give this master class a watch, say, for just thirty minutes. I bet you watch more.

The Fan Experience: The video can be accessed at this website; after you click to begin the video (you may have to click twice), be patient because it takes about a minute for the Wolf Trap Opera screen to disappear and the action to begin. The recording is certainly watchable, but I also have to report that the video and audio quality is not as good as it would be if the class had been held in the training center. I assume the master class was held in the open air Wolf Trap Ovations pavilion to maximize airflow as a safety precaution for dealing with the coronavirus. The audio includes some wind noise buffeting the microphones from time to time and one can detect the occasional airplane passing overhead, but not bad, and the singing and conversations come through clearly. I like listening with Air Pods, which have excellent sound . The video is somewhat lightly washed by the strong sunlight in the background, and the social distancing measures give the camera person a good workout switching from singers to Ms. Graves. Ms. Graves had to give encouragement without hugs for this one. Sympathies and gratitude to accompanist Mr. Woodard who had to keep his mask on for the entire class, as did the young artists in attendance.

Wolf Trap Opera’s “Untrapped Online” is providing a smorgasbord of online opera viewing options over the summer with some very attractive new ones coming up in August:

As part one of a program titled “Love: Surrender”, two operas that WTO would have presented this summer in person will have “stripped down” performances by this year’s trainees streamed online.

August 9 - La boheme
August 16 – Eugene Onegin

On August 23, WTO will begin streaming the “Orpheus Project”, that “weaves together three settings of the [Orpheus] myth ranging from 1607-2020 reflecting the traditional themes of the Greek original and the evolution of the myth in response to society as we seek to comprehend mysteries and passions that elude us.”

On Demand Partying: BCO’s Thirsty Thursdays at Home Thru Aug 2

Think of it as opera take out, delivered safely to the internet connected device of your choice, including some fun trimmings.  Baltimore Concert Opera’s Thirsty Thursdays, a cocktail party with opera singers held several times each season, was moved online due to the pandemic.  How you might ask? We’ll get to that in a moment.  A “Thirsty Thursdays Opera at Home” production, shown originally in June by BCO is available now, streaming for free for an entire week until Sunday, Aug 2.  After the concert/party scheduled for May had to be cancelled, the performers agreed to a shift to a digital performance, and their contracts were fully paid; they also agreed to limited repeat showings of the program.  There are three segments or sets, each led off with a suggested beverage; sets 2 and 3 lead off with recipes.  At only about 45 minutes, it will leave you yearning for more, but being online you can pause it to try one of the cocktail recipes and then watch your favored performances again – until Sunday. 

Julia Cooke, Artistic Director and General Director of the Baltimore Concert Opera demonstrates how to make her own concoction. Iris the cow is in the background and off camera was her dog Kevin Bacon and her husband Brendan. Image courtesy of Baltimore Concert Opera.

The video begins with introductory comments made by BCO Artistic Director and General Manager Julia Cooke from her backyard and by Courtney Kalbacker, BCO’s Director of Community Engagement and Education, who also made the first beverage recommendation; the informality of the opening remarks set the tone for the entire program.  As preparation, several Zoom meetings were held to settle the musical issues; then, the performances of singers and pianist were recorded separately and woven together by Nicole Steinberg, BCO’s Director of Operations and Media.  Considering the technical challenges, it is amazing how good the performances sound, especially in the case of duets!  I like very much that BCO chose to use a split screen showing the piano accompaniment as well as the singers.  The broadcast is additionally enhanced by pop up bubbles containing comments, sometimes informative and sometimes just humorous as the performances are ongoing, a nicely put together package.  I might only have wished for smoother transitions between the performers, maybe an introduction before a new singer appeared the first time, though the performers do introduce themselves.

Mezzo-soprano Mariya Kaganskaya sings accompanied on piano by Joy Schreier, while Eddie-the-dog chills, obviously not concerned about that particular lyric in the aria. Image courtesy of Baltimore Concert Opera.

A cast of four talented singers with pleasing voices sing multiple songs and arias selected to please.  Soprano Makeda Hampton, mezzo-soprano Mariya Kaganskaya, tenor Brian Wallin, baritone Trevor Scheunemann, and pianist Joy Schreier provide the arias, songs, and music and some personal comments.  They also provide even more, a visit to their homes where they performed, and provided a glimpse of a family member or two.  First up is Ms. Kaganskaya from her sofa in NYC, who dons a pair of pants (off camera) to sing a delightful pants role aria from Johann Strauss’ Die Fledermaus. The white bobble in her left ear is not an earring, but an Air Pod playing the piano accompaniment recorded by Ms. Schreier in Maryland.  Her dog Eddie took it all in stride, but he likely hears her sing on a daily basis.  The switch to Ms. Hampton in Delaware seemed a bit abrupt with no introduction, but I was quickly charmed by her singing of the popular aria “Chacun le sait” from Donezetti’s La Fille du Régiment.  The guys, Mr. Wallin in Minneapolis and Mr. Scheunemann in Columbia, Maryland, come in singing the famous tenor baritone duet from Bizet’s Les Pécheurs de Perles.  This is one of my favorite two or three duets in all of opera, and they more than do it justice, especially considering they are not in the same room with each other, nor with Ms. Schreier.  A slight bit of reverberation can be detected from Mr. Wallin’s room, but the beauty of his voice comes through clearly.  (He tries to disguise the fact he is a tenor by sporting a full beard; but come on, if you are a pretty boy tenor, you gotta own it - just joking!!!).  Mr. Scheunemann’s solid, stately baritone clearly anchors the performance; he eschews fashion, preferring a wired ear bud to hear Ms. Schreier.  And can we talk about Ms. Schreier?  I’ve had the pleasure of hearing her perform several times now and each time I’ve remarked on how much I’ve enjoyed her performance.  Her beautiful playing supports the performers without being obtrusive.  In fact, one could do a lot worse than spending an entire evening of cocktails listening to her splendid playing.  Overall, this was a very strong cast. Thank you, BCO.

Soprano Makeda Hampton in Delaware accompanied on piano by Joy Schreier in Delaware. She sings a song she says helped launch her on a career in opera. Image courtesy of Baltimore Concert Opera.

I’ve only covered the highlights of the first set, but the pleasure continues in set 2 with more arias and with songs in set 3; we also get to see a couple of kids and another dog, and maybe a cat.  No, there wasn’t a cat, was there?  Ms. Cooke leads off set 2 with a drink recipe and all the singers return.  I suggest that Ms. Cooke has an on-screen presence that might allow her to follow in the footsteps of another famous Julia, only with a cocktail focus; you also meet Iris and Kevin Bacon, though not who you might be expecting.  Have I convinced you it’s a party atmosphere?  Sets 2 and 3 are as much fun as number 1.  Enjoy the singing, the playing, the atmosphere, and maybe imbibe a little, all done safely in the place you choose.

Tenor Brian Wallin on left in Minnesota and baritone Trevor Scheunemann in Maryland sing a duet, accompanied on piano by Joy Schreier in the frame above them, in another area of Maryland. Image courtesy of Baltimore Concert Opera.

The downside to watching this encore video is that I know what it would be like to hear these performers in person.  It would be like being there in their homes with them.  Only we’d all be in the Engineers Club together and the drinks would be served.  Sigh.

We don’t often think about the meaning of what we are doing, but sometimes I ask myself what is opera all about?  Well, how about art, singing, music, acting, entertainment, careers…all true.  Anything else that brings us back time and again to the opera house and leads performers and staff to dedicate their lives to this pursuit?  How about human connection, that feeling that we are part of something together, something good and nourishing to our souls?  BCO’s Thirsty Thursdays is about all those things, but this At Home performance is centered on connection, a reminder that BCO is still there for us, and none of us can wait until we are back together again in person.

The Fan Experience: The premiere of this “Encore” broadcast occurred this past Sunday, and the streaming will continue until Sunday, Aug 2.  You can pick up the feed from BCO’s web page or directly from YouTube. Subtitles in English for arias in other languages are shown at the bottom of the screen.

Recipes for the two cocktails can be accessed through the BCO Thirsty Thursdays webpage, then click on the “Music and Drink Menu” link..  I tried the recipe presented by Ian Clark, Bar Supervisor at the Topside in Hotel Revival at the beginning of the third set; it’s called Kill the Wabbitt and it’s a worthy addition to my repertoire (even though I had to substitute tequila for the mezcal).

Also at the bottom of the screen throughout the concert is a texting number (202-858-1233) to use for making donations to Baltimore Concert Opera.  Think of it as tipping the streamer for your delivery; the money you give returns to you via the performances and performers that it allows BCO to bring to you, and with no ticket revenue coming in for over half a year, the need has never been greater.

Autobiography of Marian Anderson: Nice to Meet You, Ms. Anderson

Marian Anderson, 1920; image in public domain from Wikipedia.

My son, the book lover, bought a first edition copy of Marion Anderson’s “My Lord, What a Morning: an Autobiography” for my Father’s Day present this year; I was quite pleased, having wanted to learn more about Marian Anderson for a long time.  After reading it, I feel like I know her.  Her autobiography is not about all the things she accomplished, though her accomplishments are stunning, nor is it a tell all about the famous people she knew, though she met Arturo Toscanini and was friends with Eleanor Roosevelt.  Let me further make the distinction clear.  I don’t feel that I just know things about her now; presumptuous, yes, but I feel I know her, know the human nature of this surprisingly modest, yet gifted human being.  I think that was her intention in writing the book, and she succeeded.  She explained herself the way she saw herself and believed that whatever prejudices you have about her because of the color of her skin would melt away once you knew her.

Her book proved to be a very easy read.  It is conversational in tone and style, much like a visiting aunt talking to you about her upbringing and her travels and adventures, though Ms. Anderson goes deeper, revealing her thoughts and gently, her feelings about these things.  Some of her anecdotes end with punchlines that were most amusing because they usually caught me off guard, a departure from her reserved, understated style.  An example is her discussion with the head of her talent agency at the time, Arthur Judson, about her desire to seek additional training in Europe.  Mr. Judson told her that if she went to Europe it was only to satisfy her vanity.  She responded, “I will go then, for that purpose.”  She also resisted Mr. Judson’s attempts to turn her into a mezzo-soprano, which she felt was not her natural vocal range, which was contralto, and would shorten her career.  Throughout the book, it is obvious that she knew her own mind; neither pushy nor a pushover, she was assertive when she needed to be.  She also offered praise to Mr. Judson for his help, and frequently expressed gratitude for the many people to whom she felt indebted.

The autobiography was published in 1956 when she was age 59; my comments about her primarily reflect my knowledge of her from her book, though she continued to perform until 1965 and lived to be age 96.  From prior knowledge, I only knew that Marian Anderson was a revered black opera singer who performed in the mid-1900s and was the first black opera singer to appear at the Met.  Even at that I was only partially right.  More precisely, she was the first black “soloist” to sing at the Met, the only fully staged opera production in which she was to appear.  As the book ends, she was considering whether to sing other roles, but she did not feel comfortable with acting, preferring to keep her focus on the delivery of the song.  In fact, she was primarily known as a classically trained concert artist, a contralto gifted with an extraordinary voice, specializing in spirituals and European art songs; Mr. Toscanini said that hers was a voice that came along only once a century.  Through hard work, dedication to her craft, perseverance, and good fortune, she gradually rose to fame as a touring singer, at one point reportedly the number three box office draw in America, and though not a role she sought, events selected her to become a worldwide icon of the American civil rights movement, and she graciously rose to the challenge.  That is a good word to describe Ms. Anderson; she was imbued with grace.

Above is a Youtube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPGEiWAPm1M) of Marian Anderson singing “Casta Diva” from Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma. Listening to this recording I cannot help but feel regret (too mild a word, but keeping with the tone Ms. Anderson sets) that she had not been allowed to appear in opera earlier in her career. A slide show of photos of Ms. Anderson changes as the aria progresses. Remarkable also in that this is a contralto singing one of the most famous arias for sopranos.

Her grace was part of her nature, but it was nourished by a strong family and church support system she received growing up in Philadelphia.  She was singing in the Union Baptist Church choir by the time she was six years old, moving to the adult choir when she was thirteen.  Her talent and determination to sing was in evidence early; she learned and could sing the soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, and baritone roles.  She said, “…my heart filled when I sang,” and she loved singing in front of others, sharing her gift.  She was extraordinarily dedicated and hard working in developing her gift, but often ran into roadblocks.  Her church, the Union Baptist, took up a collection to buy her voice lessons that her family could not afford.  Her mom worked and her two sisters helped support the family; her father died when she was a child.  In her early twenties she dearly wanted to attend a school of music, not just for the training, but also for the experience of developing alongside other striving young singers.  She sat in the waiting room of a music school in Philadelphia waiting to be called to turn in her application.  After all the others had been called, she went up to the window and was told, “We don’t take colored.”  She stated that, “It was as if a cold horrifying hand had been laid on me.”  Grace you say, she did not mention the name of the school in her book, though she said it no longer existed.  Even after all her success, she states in her autobiography that she regretted not having had the opportunity to attend a school of music.

She managed to get lessons from private teachers, with the help of her family, friends, and individuals she met who wanted to help her develop her talent. Why did they want to help?  Read this quote from her book, as she was reporting on hearing another singer being tutored before her: “I could hear how perfectly the singer was enunciating the German, making the words so completely a part of the music that they might have been born together.  If I ever reached a point where I could sing a song like that in that way, I thought, I would be the happiest person in the world.”  She recognized that there was no shortcut to get to where she wanted to be.  Ms. Anderson did go to Europe, more than once, and developed her language skills and a substantial following there.  Those trips were part of a slow, steady rise from the Baptist Union church choir to the top of the concert world, eventually landing her a spot in a Met Opera production of Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera; she was given a standing ovation before she began to sing.  Money was always a problem in the early years. As she became wealthy, she wanted to give her mom gifts, even a new home.  Her mom, however, was quite happy with the family home, having her sisters in the same neighborhood.  She did finally convince her mom to make a trip to Europe with her.

Newsreel of Marian Anderson performing on Easter Sunday, 1939. Video on Youtube at link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAONYTMf2pk&list=PL04C392435D545140&index=2.

A seminal event occurred in 1939 that would make her a household name.  At the time, Ms. Anderson had been signed with famed impresario Sol Hurok’s agency for about five years. Slowly, she was moving up in terms of being able to command the stage of the larger, more prestigious concert halls.  The agency tried to book her in DC’s foremost concert venue at the time, Constitution Hall, but the owners of the hall, the Daughters of the American Revolution would not give her a date; it was later revealed there was a clause in Constitution Hall contracts barring colored performers.  Famously, Eleanor Roosevelt resigned from the D.A.R. over the affair.  Ms. Anderson would have preferred to avoid the “unpleasantness”, but it became national news.  She was used to being pushed aside; most often when traveling to concerts, she stayed with friends or supporters homes rather than confront the prejudice she encountered in hotels.  However, in this case there was an outpouring of support for Ms. Anderson and against the D.A.R.  A group of Washington elites set her up to do a concert from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday.  As she states, “I had become, whether I liked it or not, a symbol representing my people. I had to appear.”  A crowd of over 75,000 showed up, largely filling the space between the Memorial and the Washington Monument, and the performance was broadcast nationally over radio.  Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes presided along with many other DC dignitaries; among whom was seated her mother.  She was so nervous she felt that she was choking, but her hard-won professionalism surfaced, and she sang.  It was a concert talked about for years, and many black performers who came after Ms. Anderson credited her with breaking down barriers for them. She also later performed at Constitution Hall.

A 1943 mural by Mitchell Jamieson on a wall inside the Department of the Interior Building in Washington DC that depicts the scene of Ms. Anderson’s Easter Concert. Image in public domain; source is Wikipedia.

Ms. Anderson had an impressive strength of character.  She was valued by her mother and sisters.  She cherished her religion and found comfort and support there.  She had learned “…how to share a home with others, how to understand their ways and respect their rights” while the family lived for awhile with their grandmother who took in “scads of children”. Perhaps that socialization and those pillars of steadfast support allowed her rise above the anger she had every right to feel and express.  Instead she says she was saddened by those who displayed prejudice against her, explaining that she thought their behavior was mainly due to ignorance…only rarely combined with meanness.  She sought to live a life of dignity, above reproach, so that those who met her would be won over by her character.  In one of her stories she talks of advising a high school teacher to guide one of her female students who wanted to know more about blacks.  Her suggestion was to have her correspond with a black female student in another school.  Reading Marian Anderson’s biography confirmed one of my own prejudices.  While integration of our schools was a much needed advance, it was guaranteed 66 years ago; true equality will only be achieved when we have integrated our friendships.

A 1934 photo that served as the basis for the Albert Stark painting and the stamp made from the painting in 2005 commemorating Ms. Anderson for her positive impact on justice in America. Image taken from a Smithsonian article on the history of the stamp at https://postalmuseum.si.edu/marian-anderson-a-voice-of-a-lifetime. The stamp can be purchased at Amazon and other online vendors today.

I do recommend her autobiography, both for the stories and it’s humanizing quality.  I have tried to give you a taste of the book.  It contains many more stories – such as, an early failure, winning an important contest, her attempt to swim, her acceptance in Europe, her travels in Russia, her marriage and a decision on children, and her strong feeling of being an American, and more…filled with optimism and good will, ending with “…I have a great belief in the future of my people and my country.”  I wish she had written a sequel.  She went on to accomplish much more and receive numerous accolades and honors.  Perhaps, I will read a biography covering her entire life, but I know her now, and I wish I could hear more of her stories from her. I am grateful to my son for the introduction.

The Fan Experience: “My Lord, What a Morning: an Autobiography” is still available from most book sellers. My copy is by The Viking Press, New York, MCMXVI, 312 pp.

An advantage of technology is that we can in some measure visit the past, and with the streaming services operating now, visit at will.  While I was reading her book, I began to listen to recordings of Ms. Anderson.  Her deep voice – a contralto in pitch is between a mezzo-soprano and a tenor – is quite beautiful and highly distinctive.  I have always enjoyed hearing a spiritual every now and then, but she has made me a fan of the genre; when she sings a spiritual, it is her voice that is telling the story more than the words.  At one point in her book, she states, “There are things in the heart that must enrich the songs I sing.” Honestly, I have not been a fan of art songs, but she imbues German lieder with the same emotionalism as her spirituals, making me realize that classical music is also soul music, at least it is for me.  I might even give art songs another try.

WTO’s Aria Jukebox Live and Online: Vote for Your Favorite Arias Soon

Wolf Trap Opera’s Aria Jukebox, where the audience gets to choose the arias to be sung, is being held live this year. - online.  In past years, a social with refreshments was held immediately prior to the concert to allow attendees the opportunity to vote for which arias the singers would perform; the social also provided the opportunity to meet the young artists who would be performing.  Tickets sold out weeks in advance.  This year, tickets are not required but you will have to provide your own refreshments since, sadly, pandemic restrictions won’t let us gather to party together. However, WTO is maintaining the party atmosphere by adding a raffle with some very nifty prizes, as part of the event.  For, example, would you like a recording by one of their Filene Artists singing Happy Birthday to you or a loved one?

This year’s performances will still emanate live from the stage and/or the floor of The Barns with piano accompaniment, but the proceedings can only be viewed online.  However, you can still vote for which arias you want to hear by making a donation to Wolf Trap Opera, for as little as $10 or as much as you can afford.  Every dollar you donate adds to your chances at winning one of the raffle prizes.  Don’t delay in voting; the voting deadline is July 14, and the concert is July 18.  Fifteen talented and accomplished young singers drawn from this year’s group of Filene Artists will be singing the arias of our choice.  As an aside, one of the advantages of Aria Jukebox being online is that we can also party online using Twitter or Facebook accounts, commenting in real time as it proceeds, such as, “Yippee, my choice won!” or show a little ego, “Well, of course my choice won.”

Photos courtesy of Wolf Trap Opera from a previous Aria Jukebox production in The Barns. On July 18, there will only be the singers and required personnel. The Filene Artists will perform individually with piano accompaniment, and WTO will manage placements and traffic flow so that social distancing is maintained.

Below is the list of scheduled singers and possible arias/songs.  Grant Loehnig, WTO’s head of Music, will accompany the singers on piano, and Morgan Brophy, Assistant Director of Artistic Administration, will host.  I inquired of Wolf Trap Opera how the arias to be voted on were picked and was told, “The song selections come from the artists themselves, in collaboration with Grant Loehnig. They often choose one or two standard things from the arias that they know, and then they’ll add in things that are a little more off the beaten path. Art songs, folks songs, crowd-favorites – these are often the ones that they really want to share with an audience, things that they don’t get to take out very often that come from the heart. If you’re torn between hearing another “Habanera” or exploring a Spanish song you’ve never heard of, go for the Spanish song every time and you won’t regret the result.”  These are great arias and songs, and choosing will be tough, but don’t wait too long and miss your chance.

Christopher Bozeka, tenor
Povero Ernesto, Don Pasquale, Donizetti
A te, o cara, I Puritani, Bellini
La donna è mobile, Rigoletto, Verdi
Dies Bildnis, Die Zauberflöte, Mozart

Jonathan Bryan, baritone
Silvio's Aria, Pagliacci, Leoncavallo
Votre Toast, Carmen, Bizet
The Impossible Dream, Man of La Mancha, Leigh
Rojo Tango, Ziegler/Mora

Chanae Curtis, soprano
Chi il bel sogno, La rondine, Puccini
Depuis le jour, Louise, Charpentier
Musetta's Waltz, La bohème, Puccini
Give Me Jesus, arr. Hogan

Thomas Glass, baritone
Largo al factotum, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Rossini
È sogno? o realtà?, Falstaff, Verdi
Rodrigo's Death Scene, Don Carlo, Verdi
Black Max, Bolcom

Mackenzie Gotcher, tenor
Ch'ella mi creda libero, La fanciulla del West, Puccini
Cielo pietoso, rendila, Simon Boccanegra, Verdi
Durch die Wälder, Die Freischütz, Weber
Ombra di nube, Refice

Megan Esther Grey, mezzo-soprano
Mon coeur s'ouvre a ta voix, Samson et Dalila, Saint-Saëns
Iris, hence away, Semele, Handel
Stride la vampa, Il Trovatore, Verdi
Sanglots, Poulenc

Shannon Jennings, soprano
Stridono lassù, Pagliacci, Leoncavallo
Vissi d'arte, Tosca, Puccini
I Want Magic, A Streetcar Named Desire, Previn
María la O, Lecuona

Gretchen Krupp, mezzo-soprano
Joan of Arc's Aria, The Maid of Orleans, Tchaikovsky
O mio Fernando, La Favorita, Donizetti
Witch's Aria, Hänsel und Gretel, Humperdinck
Le temps des lilas, Chausson

Yunuet Laguna, soprano
Je dis, Carmen, Bizet
Marietta's Lied, Die tote Stadt, Korngold
Chi il bel sogno, La rondine, Puccini
Intima, Nacho

Leia Lensing, mezzo-soprano
Where Shall I Fly, Hercules, Handel
Che faro, Orfeo ed Euridice, Glück
Addio Roma, L'incoronazione di Poppea, Monteverdi
King David, Howells

Conor McDonald, baritone
Look! through the port, Billy Budd, Britten
Papageno's Suicide Aria, Die Zauberflöte, Mozart
Possente spirto, L'orfeo, Monteverdi
Catalogue de Fleurs, Milhaud

Brian Michael Moore, tenor
Kuda, kuda, Eugene Onegin, Tchaikovsky
The Song of Kleinzach, Les contes d'Hoffmann, Offenbach
E lucevan le stele, Tosca, Puccini
O sole mio, di Capua

Nicholas Newton, bass-baritone
Aleko's Cavatina, Aleko, Rachmaninoff
Sancho Panza's Aria, Don Quichotte, Massenet
Vecchia zimarra, La bohème, Puccini
Life and Death, Coleridge-Taylor

Alexandra Nowakowski, soprano
Doll Aria, Les contes d'Hoffmann, Offenbach
Zerbinetta's Aria, Ariadne auf Naxos, Strauss
O luce di quest'anima, Linda di Chamounix, Donizetti
Przasniczka, Moniuszki

Wm. Clay Thompson, bass
Sancho Panza's Aria, Don Quichotte, Massenet
Madamina, Don Giovanni, Mozart
Ecco il mondo, Mefistofele, Boito
The New Suit (Zipper Fly), Blitzstein

If you follow Wolf Trap Opera, you will recognize many names on this list as returnees to WTO after previous stints for training as either Filene Artists and/or Studio Artists.   For example, you might recall baritone Conor McDonald’s campy Merlin in WTO’s hilarious production of Merlin’s Island last season, or MacKenzie Gotcher’s beautiful tenor voice as Cavaradossi in WTO’s 2017 Tosca.  You may even have seen soprano Alexandra Nowakowski’s charming portrayal as Papagena in last year’s Washington National Opera’s production of The Magic Flute, in addition to her WTO roles.  While I’m name dropping, might I also point out that quite a few current opera stars did early training with WTO, like Lawrence Brownlee, Christine Goerke, Kate Lindsey, Ryan McKinny, Ailyn Perez, Eric Owens, and J’nai Bridges to name a few.  As always, this year’s singers are a highly talented and accomplished group of early career artists who had to win a competition for these sought-after slots.  You can find brief bios for all the artists at this link.  Just imagine you win the raffle prize for the Happy Birthday song, and years in the future, it turns out to have been sung by the next Christine Goerke or Lawrence Brownlee?  Now, how many chances is that worth?

This is a blog, so I can take certain liberties, and I am tempted to use this report to lobby readers to vote for the arias I’d most like to hear, but I won’t.  Well, allow me one.  I just finished reading Marian Anderson’s autobiography (I’ll be reporting on that soon), and if you vote for soprano Chanae Curtis to sing “Give Me Jesus”, I will be eternally grateful; I’ll even do you the favor of not singing Happy Birthday.  However, Ms. Anderson has made me a new fan of spirituals.  Some of those off the beaten path selections might open up new vistas for you.

It’s tough on us to be denied a live, in person Aria Jukebox this summer, and it is even tougher on Wolf Trap Opera and these young singers who are having their training options curtailed and their performance careers put on hold.  Kudos to Wolf Trap Opera for managing to keep the training alive this summer and having our backs, giving us the opportunity to enjoy the talents that will be on display on July 18, singing our favorite arias.  Hey, I’d be happy to sit and listen to them sing any one of these arias or every one of them.

The Fan Experience: All the relevant info is on the Aria Jukebox web page.  The voting deadline is this coming Tuesday, July 14.  The concert will be the following Saturday, July 18 at 7 pm.  To access the concert, click on the Wolf Trap Opera Aria Jukebox web page or the WTO Facebook page immediately prior to 7 pm. [Addendum 7-13-2020: WTO reports that Aria Jukebox will be available for streaming as part of Wolf Trap Opera Untrapped following the live performance].

To vote: Go to the Aria Juke Box web page and click the Vote Now button.  When you fill out the form and click on the Donate Now button, you will be taken to a web page with a unique link to vote for your favorite arias.  You will have four votes for each candidate to vote for the arias of that candidate.  The form keeps score for you and you will have a chance to review your votes and edit them at the end.  The minimum donation is $10, but the more you donate, the greater the weight that will be assigned to your votes.

Your donation enters you into the raffle with a chance to win one of the four prizes, with every dollar you donate giving you another chance.  Raffle prizes include a WTO swag bag filled with WTO goodies; a backstage Barns tour and a picnic lunch with WTO Directo Lee Anne Myslewski in the Spring of 2021; a pair of free tickets to any summer WTO opera of your choice in 2021 plus $50 at concessions; and the Artist of your choice will sing and record Happy Birthday for you or a loved one.  Those are pretty neat prizes!  If you are a raffle winner, you will have to watch the live broadcast to claim your prize.

Wolf Trap Opera's Streaming Schedule: Keep It in Your Hip Pocket and Refer Often

Why would you want to watch opera online?  Well, what else are you going to do for the next six months?  I’ve been watching a few videos of operas every now and again when I get desperate, and I find that most are better than your average TV fare and can offer their own unique pleasures.  So on Saturday afternoon, with yet again no baseball and no live summer Wolf Trap Opera opera, I dialed up Wolf Trap Opera’s 2017 production of The Juniper Tree, which I had mostly forgotten and which brings me to my first reason for watching Wolf Trap Opera streaming – it’s enjoyable to remind yourself of the many marvelous productions by WTO that you’ve seen in the summers of years gone by, many revived by WTO that you wouldn’t likely have seen elsewhere.  Each year a new cadre of tremendously talented artists-in-training perform, filled with energy and an eagerness to please, making opera fun again summer after summer.  “Untrapped” is the title WTO has given their streaming program, which will also include other events as the summer of the pandemic progresses.  The last few seasons, WTO has had a program of holding Wolf Trap performances at venues off campus, also titled “Untrapped”, which highlights another reason for watching online…the off-campus venue for “Untrapped” streaming is anywhere you want it to be, that has an internet connection, of course.

Wolf Trap Opera’s The Juniper Tree in 2017: Madison Leonard as Daughter, Ben Edquist as Father, and Annie Rosen as Stepmother. Photo by Scott Suchman; courtesy of Wolf Trap Opera. Hint: when this scene appears is one of the switch points in the music from Glass to Moran as composer - I think.

My Juniper Tree re-visit gave me several more reasons to watch the WTO productions that are currently being streamed and those planned for later this summer.  First, it is a really good opera, and I found that while I rated it highly when I saw it in person in 2017, some aspects were even better than I gave it credit for on that occasion, especially the music by composers Philip Glass and Robert Moran; each composer wrote the music for half of the six scenes, alternating between them.  WTO performed the opera as one seamless production; see if you can detect the changes in music style throughout.  All the young artists performed well, especially two I will single out.  I have heard soprano Summer Hassan (the mother) and mezzo-soprano Annie Rosen (the stepmother) sing several times, and for this performance, they were at the top of their game; don’t miss them.  I even listened to the music again a few more times after viewing just to enjoy the music and singing. Kudos to Conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya and her small ensemble for the vibrant music that merges perfectly with the story on stage.  Watching online also reminded me again of how well the abstract, surrealist staging of this Brothers Grimm fairy tale worked.  Kudos to Director R. B. Schlather for staging the two act opera as a single act, which maintains the tension for the entire opera; this is a chamber opera that is only an hour and fifteen minutes overall.  The Juniper Tree is not only fine opera, it is terrific theater. 

left photo: Soprano Summer Hassan; source. right photo: mezzo-soprano Annie Rosen; Simon Pauly Photography, 2016; source. Ms. Summer played Mother and Ms. Rosen played Stepmother. Both have gone on to successful careers as opera soloists; it’s a little heartbreaking, for them and us, to see all the cancellations for scheduled performances on their websites due to the pandemic. They are exemplary of Wolf Trap Opera’s gifted young artists who come for added training each year.

One final word specifically about The Juniper Tree; the Arthur Yorinks’ libretto (synopsis) is based on one of the Brothers Grimm darker fairy tales, and the opera is very intense; it is not recommended for young children.  As part of a series of events, a jealous stepmom makes a stew of her stepson who reminds her of the late wife of her husband and then feeds the stew to her husband.  Their daughter buries the bones under the Juniper Tree, and the son is reborn as a bird that offs the stepmom and reunites the family.  So, everyone lives happily ever after, except of course for the PTSD.

There are some other advantages to viewing opera on videotape.  One is close ups.  The Barns is a relatively small music hall, but still, unless you are sitting in the first few rows, you don’t really get a good look at faces; you do online.  Those close ups can add to the dramatic impact if a singer is also a good actor and detract if they are not.  You also get a close look at other features that may have escaped your notice.  As an example from The Juniper Tree, check out the son’s exposed genitalia when reborn to his previous size in a natural state; this must have been a hoot for mezzo-soprano Megan Mikailovna Samarin who played and sang the tender role beautifully.  Another advantage of watching opera online is that you control the sound volume.  No, it isn’t as impactful as being there and hearing it live, but being able to adjust the controls is still an advantage.  Lastly, you have complete control of viewing – rewind to hear something over if you were daydreaming at some point; hit the pause button for a snack or bathroom break when you want; and view it as many times as you want whenever you want.

I’d like to end by making a suggestion for whenever we watch opera/concerts online for free.  When I have groceries or take-out food delivered to my home, I always tip the driver.  Why not do that when you watch opera online, if you can afford to?  While closed due to the pandemic, opera companies have no income coming in from performances; so, donations matter more now than ever.  For those of us who can afford it, let’s “tip the streamer”.  I think they will be happy to get even small donations as a show of appreciation, and of course, if you can afford to donate more generously, they would be very happy to receive even more support.  Wolf Trap Opera has a new program called the “Music Moves Us” fund for donations to help WTO progress during the pandemic; find the web page at this link to donate by mail or online.

The Fan Experience: Here is the link to WTO streaming: “Untrapped”. Keep it in your hip pocket and refer to it often. WTO will be adding a new opera every two weeks and an additional array of online offerings will become available over time; so check back for updated links and info. Each web page for a streamed opera includes cast and staff lists as well as other information about the opera.  Each video accessed on the web pages begins with a short introduction and the opera follows. English subtitles can be toggled on or off using the video’s settings button. The Juniper Tree is streaming on demand now until December 1.  Recent Wolf Trap Opera productions of Rossini’s The Touchstone and Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos are also currently streaming.  WTO expects to add more events of different types over the summer.  The WTO offerings also appear on the Wolf Trap calender which includes all programs being streamed by all of Wolf Trap.

As an aside, I will also mention you can purchase Wolf Trap memberships and designate that your support goes to WTO. Even at the lowest level, you get invited to the season announcing lecture each year, which includes some of that year’s soloists, a fun event itself.

There are many ways to watch online from smart phones to smart TVs, but give some consideration to sound quality.  I have good speakers connected to my large screen TV, but I often prefer to listen using my Air Pods.  Try it different ways and see which sound works best for you.  Also thankfully, the video image resolution for these videotapes is excellent, and they display clearly on my large screen as well as smaller devices.

Operavision’s Free Online Summer Gala: Stellar Performances in an Opera Homecoming

Recommendation - Sometime in the next month, preferably in the evening, with a bottle of champagne chilling, a good bottle, put on your tuxedo or evening gown, just joking, pajamas are fine, but your good ones; you are about to enter the presence of beauty.  Then, pour your glasses, sit back and dial up Operavision’s Summer Gala, which will be available on demand for free until 7/21/2020.  Begin your journey to eight grand opera houses of Europe where outstanding opera stars will provide the nourishment you need.  They call it a “gala”, but what it really feels like is a “homecoming”, a homecoming for the beauty that is opera.  Enmesh yourself and feel it. Let go of the last four months.  The European opera community is offering you a preview of what is to come, of what we still have to look forward to.  You can hit the pause button and clap as long as you like after every performance.

The Summer Gala trailer video (Youtube).

The Summer Gala, streamed live on Sunday, June 21 was a celebration of World Music Day.  Kasper Holten, CEO of the Royal Danish Theater and the evening’s MC, led off by explaining that eight companies across Europe came together to open their doors, most for the first time in months, to give audiences a mid-summer concert, perhaps a way of announcing that the re-opening of music in Europe lies just ahead, or at least ahead.  The concert bears added interest for the glimpses of the grand opera halls, seen without fans and with social distancing measures observed by the performers.  It is a tribute to Operavision that each venue and performance felt connected, as though they were different scenes in a larger whole.  Each venue seems to be saying, “Look, this is opera; we miss you too!”

The participating venues -

Rome, Teatro dell’Opera

Sussex, Glyndebourne

Paris, Opéra-Comique

Warsaw, Polish National Opera

Berlin, Komische Oper

Amsterdam, Dutch National Opera

Madrid, Teatro Real

Stockholm, Royal Swedish Opera

I will only highlight a few of the performances, but so hungry for live opera was I that I lapped up each and every performance with relish (for the full list of performers, go to the Summer Gala web page and scroll down).  Most performances were straight forward concert presentations with singers and piano accompaniment, but Berlin threw in some fun and Amsterdam even gave us a bit of drama, while wedding bells could be heard in the distance in Warsaw before Stockholm provided the big finish.  Each new venue and group of performers were introduced by Mr. Holten.

The first performance was from Italy, appropriate as the birthplace of opera, where baritone Roberto Frontali gave an impassioned aria from Andrea Chenier and soprano Rosa Feola sang the famous “Caro Nome” from Rigoletto with accompaniment by pianist Enrica Ruggiero.  The scene then shifted to Glyndebourne in Sussex and the mood got lighter when the soprano with the big beautiful, infectious smile and gorgeous voice, Danielle de Niese, joined the concert.  It is not only the great music and arias that make opera so enjoyable, it is also the different vocal timbres, singing and acting abilities, and personal intangibles that different singers bring to a role.

The traditional concert formats were working fine, but then at the Komische Oper in Berlin, Artistic Director and pianist Barrie Kosky gave us something different and quite a treat.  He accompanied soprano Alma Sadé on the piano while they performed songs from Yiddish operettas.  That was followed up by another highlight in Amsterdam from the Dutch National Opera.  Soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek, baritone Oliemans, pianist Ernst Munneke, and violinist and concert master Vadim Tsibulevsky gave a suave one-act romantic scene in presenting their arias, very cool (I hope by that time you still have champagne to give them a toast)! 

After a marvelous stop-over with the Teatro Real in Madrid, we headed to the big finish in Stockholm with the Swedish National Opera where international diva, Nina Stemme, gave us two arias with piano accompaniment by Inese Klotina and then the evening’s climax with an ensemble of about 20 players from the Royal Swedish Orchestra.  The orchestra members may have been six feet apart, but remember this is Sweden which has followed a different set of guidelines for containment of COVID-19.  Regardless, Ms. Stemme was tremendous and ended the concert singing the Liebestod beautifully. 

Curtain down.  All that’s left is to pour yourself an evening-closing measure of cognac.

The Fan Experience: The Summer Gala, at a little over two hours, will be available for free viewing on Operavision’s website until noon, CET on 7/21/2020; it is also available on YouTube.  Subtitles in different languages can be turned on or off as desired.  Subtitles were not available during the live broadcast, and frankly, I found it more enjoyable without them.  I suggest you watch first without the subtitles to soak in the beauty without thinking, and then, return to view the concert with subtitles turned on if you wish to know the arias better.

I recommend getting to know Operavision’s website, even signing up for their newsletter. The cooperative mainly offers operas performed in Europe, streamed for free on demand (for a limited period of time), in a substantial collection.  It is a collective effort of the European Union involving 29 companies from 17 countries.  I have watched some of these.  They are most often recently-staged and of high quality, in excellent video recordings, and the productions often display wildly creative approaches to both traditional and modern operas.  And it is all free.

The Met Opera’s Agrippina: Sex, Lies, and Streaming Videotape

Agrippina early on says, “Blessed are those who use deceit to rule,” and it’s wink-of-the-eye funny. Met Opera’s Agrippina is opera’s version of Stanley Kubrick’s “Dr. Strangelove”.

Joyve DiDonato as Agrippina. Photo by Paola Kudacki; courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera.

Ok, got your attention?  Most modernized versions of operas advertise themselves as having themes still relevant to modern day.  Agrippina, composed by George Frederic Handel in 1709, practically grabs you by the throat with its power games, sexual politics, and unbridled ambitions…just like today, except the opera, a drama per musica, is comedic; the Messiah’s composer was obviously a complicated man.  Mainly because I love listening to mezzo-sopranos Joyce DiDonato and Kate Lindsey, I watched the Met Opera video recording of its 2020 production, and I watched it cold; I did not know the plot, nor had I heard the music previously.  I knew from my mostly forgotten Roman history that the characters in the opera are actual historical figures, and so, I was rather expecting a tragedy.  The story line is fictional, and the opera is cleverly staged.  The ending caught me completely by surprise.  The music is sublime, but it helps if you like baroque opera, at least a little; Agrippina gives you over three hours’ worth.  This is the oldest opera presented by the Met.  In days of old, to help you get through three to four hours of opera, you could eat, drink, and chat with friends during the performance, but humorless composers (I’m talking to you, Richard Wagner) finally did away with those options; happily, streaming opera returns those advantages.

PBS is playing the Met’s Agrippina in its Great Performances at the Met series – in DC, you can see a broadcast on WETA on Sunday, June 21 at 2:30 pm; I also discuss other ways to see it in The Fan Experience section below.  My advice is to stop reading now and enjoy the opera’s plot freshly unfold.  Then, return here afterwards to compare your thoughts to mine.

Agrippina cast photo. Photo by Marty Sohl; courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera.

Although the characters are historical figures from mid first century AD Rome, the satire was designed to take potshots at Venetian leaders of its day.  The librettist and developer of the plot, Cardinal Vincenzo Grimani, was not only a priest, he also was a theater impresario and a viceroy of Naples.  He gave Handel one of the best librettos he would ever have to orchestrate, and at only 24 years of age, he was up to the task.  Agrippina was the German-born Handel’s second and last opera composed during his stay in Italy, and it premiered in Venice; it was an immediate success, Handel’s first opera success.  His next opera, Rinaldo (1711), was also a success and premiered in London where Handel relocated for the remainder of his life.  In addition to orchestral works and oratorios, he composed over forty operas, all with Italian librettos.  Interestingly, Handel’s operas fell out of favor for over 200 years; Agrippina was in hiatus from 1719 until 1943.  His operas reentered the repertoire in the second half of the 20th century and are currently enjoying a rebirth of interest in the US and Europe.

A moment of motherly love between Nerone (Kate Lindsey) and Agrippina (Joyce DiDonato). Photo by Marty Sohl; courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera.

Agrippina the Younger was a Roman empress known for being ambitious and ruthless.  Grimani’s story revolves around Agrippina’s attempts to have her son Nerone (Nero; Handel uses the Italian version of the Roman names) placed in line to ascend to the throne when her husband Emperor Claudio dies.  She enlists military man Pallante and politician Narciso in her deadly plots, and when initially Claudio intends to give the throne to his rescuer Ottone, she ensnares Ottone’s lover Poppea in her plan to block that move, which then set off a series of darkly comedic counterplots.  In the end, everyone gets what they want for a happy ending, except we know the unhappy history of what came after.  Thus, the opera’s surprise is that the joke is on us. 

Agrippina (Joyce DiDonato) ensnares Poppea (Brenda Rae) in her plot. Photo by Marty Zohl; courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera.

Several aspects of this production, which got rave reviews when performed, stand out.  First, the plot is brought to modern day with carefully thought-out cleverness by director Sir David McVicar.  He felt that the story is timeless and fits especially well with what is going on in seats of power around the world currently.  He wanted to keep the audience firmly rooted in present day.  Next, he used cartoon style characters and simple staging to focus on emotions and the motivations of the different characters.  He first produced this staging in Europe twenty years ago.  One of his interesting updates to that production is changing Poppea to be more assertive, another impact in response to #MeToo.  In staging, each character has a statue base with their name on it used as props throughout.  He uses a nightclub scene where Bradley Brookshire delivers some fine  harpsichord playing on stage and also an apartment scene with two closets; who is behind door number one?  Door number two?  And a mobile stairway leading up to a golden throne.  Suggestive, no?  This is the graphic novel version of Agrippina, and it works to both add comedic effects and engage us in the darker undercurrents.  Honestly, at first, I thought the cartoonishness was silly, but then, I found myself becoming absorbed in the drama and realized Mr. McVicar knew what he was doing, and more was afoot than entertainment.

Iestyn Davies as Ottone. Photo by Marty Sohl; courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera.

To handle the music, the Met brought in a baroque music expert, Harry Bicket, to conduct a Met Orchestra ensemble, from the harpsichord no less.  The music is excellent.  Concerns that baroque opera was too intimate for cavernous opera houses the size of the Met were ill founded, and watching by videotape, you can adjust the sound to your liking.  Baroque operas allow for creativity in staging since the stories are mainly set to allow each singer to have the stage for themselves a few times to show off their voices and singing ability.  Handel filled Agrippina with beautiful arias; he even included some of his best from earlier works.  There is also dancing to keep your interest from wavering.

left photo: Agrippina (Joyce DiDonato ensnares Pallante (Duncan Rock) into her plot. right photo: Agrippina (Joyce DiDonato ensnares Narcisco (Nicholas Tamagna) in her plot. Photos by Marty Sohl; courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera.

Speaking of arias, Joyce DiDonato plays the role of Agrippina with devilish charm and sexuality.  At one point, she places her hand in Nabiso’s crotch while he is seated beside her with official papers covering up said action; he agrees to give her what she wants.  Her acumen for baroque singing has been praised before and is amply displayed here.  Her second act aria, “Pensieri voi me tormenta” where she sings of her determination to make her son emperor even though events have gone against her is a show stopper.  If narcissists experience torment, this aria could be their anthem, and the close-ups allowed by videotaping let us enjoy Ms. DiDonato’s expressions missed by attending in person.  She radiates will and determination.

Poppea (Brenda Rae) ensnares Nerone (Kate Lindsey) in her own plot. Photo by Marty Sohl; courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera.

Agrippina also serves as a showpiece for the enormously talented Kate Lindsey who plays Nerone as a young, scary, tattooed narcissist, barely in control of himself.  I have had the opportunity to see Ms. Lindsey perform twice in DC (WNO’s Dead Man Walking and WCO’s Sapho).  In the first instance, I did not think she quite lived up to her billing, but in the second she owned the stage.  I recently saw her performance in the Met’s Les Contes d’Hoffman on video and saw her talent as an actress come into focus.  In Agrippina, she is difficult to take your eyes from, turning in a beautiful singing performance as well as an amazing physical performance; at one point she sings while doing a full arm extended side plank!  This is a performance you will remember.

Nerone (Kate Lindsey), the wanna be emperor in a photo op, stands atop his plinth handing out food to the poor, of course wearing gloves so that he doesn’t actually have to touch them. Photo by Marty Sohl; courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera.

As if that wasn’t enough, soprano Brenda Rae plays Poppea, a more assertive, awoke Poppea, who is also a schemer.  Her beautiful coloratura adds a different layer of enjoyment to this performance, and her comedic acting stands up to that of Ms. DiDonato and Ms. Lindsey, especially in the bar scene.  This was Ms. Rae’s first appearance at the Met; I previously saw her in 2018 as Lucia in Opera Philadelphia’s Lucia di Lammermoor.  This is a powerful female triumvirate.

Agrippina (Joyce DiDonato) watches husband Claudio (Matthew Rose) practice golf; what other modern leaders that we know play golf? Photo by Marty Sohl; courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera.

Countertenor Iestyn Davies as Ottone, countertenor Nicholas Tamagna as Narciso, baritone Duncan Rock as Pallante, and bass Matthew Rose as Claudio all gave enjoyable comedic and vocal performances.  I will only single out Mr. Davies for comment. Mr. Davies plays Ottone with restraint, emphasizing Ottone’s sincerity, making him easily manipulated, but in fact that makes him the perfect foil for the remainder of the cast who are schemers.  He also delivers several heart touching arias beautifully.

Agrippina and Sir McVicker’s staging, something old enlivened by something new, are a marriage made in heaven, or at least in the Lincoln Center, the opera equivalent of heaven.  While many programs on TV and the movies portray dystopian futures, Agrippina gives us a view of our dystopian past, while Mr. McVicker reveals it to be very much like our dystopian present.

The Fan Experience: Agrippina played at the Met earlier this year before it was closed by the pandemic.  Public Television is playing Agrippina as part of its Great Performances at the Met series. In some areas, it has already played. In the Washington DC area, it will be broadcast on WETA TV on Sunday, June 21 at 2:30 pm.  It’s Father’s Day; you might want to set it to record or just watch it with Dad.  The opera is in Italian with English subtitles.

Agrippina is also part of Met Opera’s On Demand collection.  “Met Opera On Demand” can be accessed by subscription; a seven-day free trial is offered.  The operas can be played on computers and mobile devices and on smart TVs using Apple TV, Roku, and other such devices.  The speakers I have attached to my TV are good ones, but I prefer linking my AirPods to Apple TV and listening that way.

Heartbeat Opera’s Lady M Virtual Soirée: We had a beautiful time

Heartbeat Opera’s Lady M is planned as a modern, adapted, shorter version of Verdi’s Macbeth told from Lady Macbeth’s point of view and was to have premiered this Spring; it’s the sort of thing Heartbeat Opera does, changing operas and creating new ones to better communicate with today’s audiences.  Then, the pandemic closed all theaters.  The company’s leadership could simply have postponed or folded their new production.  Instead, they marshaled their spirits and their creative energies to remain engaged with their artists and to offer something new to their audiences.  Voila, an online Lady M Soirée, or a fantasia as Director and Adaptor Ethan Heard calls it.  It is a virtual drawing room party devoted to introducing the concept behind Lady M and giving us a sampling, but also ncludes us as part of that process.  It’s something new and fresh, and we need that!

A Zoom room snapshot of the creative staff and performers for Lady M; photo courtesy of Heartbeat Opera.

The Lady M Soirée was born out of need, theirs and ours.  Let’s let Merle Haggard provide the context before I discuss details.  (I have finally started watching the Ken Burn’s series “Country Music” that I recorded on PBS some time ago; this somehow started me listening to Merle Haggard).  Mr. Haggard always seems to have the right song to articulate emotional longings; country music has been described as three chords and the truth. For the Lady M Soirée, I offer his song “I’ve Had a Beautiful Time” (with my annotations):

We met downtown in the barroom (substitute Zoom room)
Both of us needing a friend (true I think)
And you brought me home to your doorstep (all was recorded or live-cast in performers homes)
And it was there you invited me in (I got to see the Movement Director’s vacuum cleaner)

And more (no annotations needed) -

We talked about what we been needin'
Discussin' our ups and our downs

And I've had a beautiful time
Holding your heart next to mine

And finally (which will require a little discussion) -

And I can't say I found any answers
But you listened while I rattled on

The Soirée offered a mix of intros among the staff and attendees; a behind the scenes video discussion of artistic issues with the creation of Lady M and the technological issues in pulling together the virtual Soirée; a few aria performances (one live, one I’m not sure, and one recorded); finishing with the group splitting into chat rooms to mingle with the staff and artists for a Q&A. 

A sampling of current offices/performance venues for Heartbeat Opera; photos courtesy of Heartbeat Opera.

Highlights for me: I think it was real; it seemed real.  I was in a Zoom room with twenty to thirty other homo sapiens or that appeared to be homo sapiens, including artists, staff, and audience members. That was kinda cool.  Some of the presentations were recorded, and the mix was not always entirely clear to me.  I’m always harping on how much better live performances attended in person are; the Soirée inched somewhere in between recorded and in person (I might also note that my twenty-something son tells me that hearing performances in person isn’t nearly as preferred by him as me; worries for opera’s future?.

Soprano Felicia Moore as Lady M and mezzo-soprano Sishel Claverie as a Weird Sister; photos courtesy of Heartbeat Opera.

The whole affair maintained my interest, but it was the excellent singers that doled out the afternoon’s desserts.  Soprano Felicia Moore as Lady Macbeth has a captivating voice, powerful and rich with color.  Her early Lady M aria sung in her childhood bedroom, and the video of the sleepwalking scene (Maledetta) were excellent, giving her the chance to fully display the colors, texture, and emotionality of her voice. Wow.  It was interesting in the Q&A that Ms. Moore said that perhaps the most difficult part of her bedroom performance was singing with accompaniment that was recorded. Mezzo-soprano Sishel Claverie appeared live where she lip-synced part of the Witches chorus, transformed in Lady M to the three Weird Sisters, all solo sopranos.  The weird sisters look like they are going to bring the fun in the staged production.  Ms. Claverie brings infectious energy and excitement to the role.  The other singers appeared for a few seconds in the different video clips. In the short time allotted, there was a brief appearance of Beauty led by the singing. 

Screenshots showing some visual effects in the Sleepwalking video; photos courtesy of Heartbeat Opera.

The music arranged by Music Director and Co-Translator Jacob Ashworth with new arrangements by Daniel Schlosberg was played by a six-piece ensemble and had to be sewn together from audio/video files. The music in Maledetta added to the eerie mood and shifts in the scene and had me wanting to hear more of the new arrangements.

Performances, live and recorded, were done in interesting ways; visuals were usually engaging if sometimes baffling.  Movement Director Emma Jaster, who owns an excellent vacuum cleaner, along with Ethan Heard and Jacob Ashworth did a twenty-minute Zoom tour of each of the performer’s homes to help the singers deal with moving and performing in their individual circumstances.  The visuals in Maledetta were eerie and appropriately disturbing for Lady M’s nightmare, though for me, had more of a collage than flowing effect. 

My only disappointment with the virtual Soirée is that, at an hour, it was all to brief.

When I think about what distinguishes opera, it is Beauty.  Opera has the ability, more so for me than other art forms, to achieve Beauty and when it does, a wormhole in the universe opens up connecting the audience to each other and to the universe itself with the feeling that we are all part of a larger truth.  But opera companies are also in the entertainment business.  I have the feeling from this brief introduction to Lady M that it will be entertaining when staged.  I was certainly happy to drink from the Soirée’s cup.  The question in my mind is will it attain transcendence through Beauty.

Most opera companies are striving to remain connected to their audiences via offering concerts and operas via streaming, but Heartbeat Opera stands out for injecting creativity into an online performance, using the medium to not just sustain their audience, but to draw them closer with fresh, personally engaging experiences.  It turns out that Merle Haggard’s friend in the song was not his wife.  Were we sort of cheating on live and in person opera, In the spirit of if you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you are with?  One risk with cheating is that sometimes those relationships blossom; then what?  We don’t have answers, but for the future, one can envision a complementarity for virtual soirées and staged performances.  I think technology is moving into staged performances as well.  Pittsburgh Opera is now providing interactive experiences using smart phones during their staged performances which I like, but as a separate experience from traditional viewing.  Classical opera performances aren’t going away, but new, perhaps younger fans may well be gravitating towards technology-enhanced experiences.

Heartbeat Opera is planning to move ahead with staged performances of Lady M next Spring.  After the introduction to her in the Soirée, I want to see Lady M, and I wonder how these virtual experiences might lead Heartbeat Opera to adjust what is finally presented.

The Fan Experience: There are 12 remaining online Soirée performances scheduled, May 28-June 6, sometimes two evening performances or a matinee and an evening performance; the run was extended due to its popularity.  As an interactive opera experience, each Soirée will likely be slightly different. You need to have a computer and a good internet connection sufficient for streaming audio and video, and you must download the Zoom app if you haven’t already. Heartbeat Opera sends you all the instruction you need.  If you are uncomfortable being part of a group, you can participate with your video feed and/or microphone turned off.  It will cost you $30 for a one-time entrance to the Soirée, but the whole family can watch.  Not bad for possibly a glimpse of opera’s future.  There were a couple of technology clunkers, but no harm done.  At the end, there was an appeal for much needed support for Heartbeat Opera’s Tomorrow Fund. 

National Philharmonic at Strathmore’s Inspirational Tribute

Composer Aaron Copland, 1962; photo in Public Domain, wikipedia.

National Philharmonic at Strathmore has released a virtual performance of composer Aaron Copland’s classic “Fanfare for the Common Man” that is both heartfelt and a gem among music videos.  I found it to be a touching, emotional tribute to hospital workers and common Americans on the frontlines dealing with the coronavirus pandemic crisis.  Copland gave his work its name because he was inspired by a speech given in 1942, the year his work was to premiere, by Vice-President Henry Wallace.  The speech came to be known as the “Century of the Common Man”.  It was given shortly after America’s entrance into WWII.  Wallace gave tribute to the common men and women of America, everyday people, who would carry the burden of that great war and be essential to our victory and who he felt should reap the benefits of victory.  Earlier, President Roosevelt had presented the nation with his Four Freedoms; one was the Freedom from Fear.  We are again in a battle for freedom from fear.  Kyle Schick, Director of Artistic Operations, had the idea for a virtual performance of the Fanfare and then realized the relationship to the medical care workers in today’s struggle against the coronavirus pandemic.  He pitched his idea for a video to leadership at the National Philharmonic at Strathmore, an orchestra that has served its community for over three decades, and now, like all orchestras today, has lost access to the performance stage.

Henry A. Wallace’s 1942 speech proclaimed the “Century of the Common Man”; photo in Public Domain, source - wikipedia.

Arts performance groups very much want to stay in touch with their audiences and make contributions in these constraining times, yet they are unable to give public performances.  Director Schick correctly noted that we all are feeling scared, all experiencing fear and needing uplifting messages, messages of hope and connection, looking to see the good in our society.  We can all agree that those on the frontlines dealing directly with individuals who have or might have contracted the disease are putting themselves at risk on our behalf and thereby, exemplify Americans at our best, sacrificing for others.  This is also a unique and strange time for musicians who can’t be on stage together.  They continue to develop music and art, but any recording done presently must be made at home, by individuals.  The NP leadership felt that a virtual performance on video by the National Philharmonic honoring our frontline workers would be welcomed by music fans as an effort to overcome adversity, and that the tribute to common American heroes would be embraced by music fans and appreciated by the frontline workers. 

NP video, YouTube: The performers in the video are Peter Gajewski (conducting), Michael Hall (french horn), Chris Gekker (trumpet), David Sciannella (trombone), Willie Clark (tuba), and Tom Maloy (percussion, timpani).

There are many artistic and technological challenges in making a virtual performance.  One can find many examples of virtual orchestral performances on YouTube.  Most of these use multiple frames highlighting different performers at the same time who are playing in isolation and recording their parts in isolation and later have their audio tracks merged.  Getting all the performers together on the same tempo and pitch is an immediate challenge.  Director Schick has a background in audio editing and knew he could use a click track (audio files with a metronomic pace added) to enable the performers to play their parts with the correct tempo before mixing.  There are also some advantages to this process; Schick knew he could use this technology to be able to present Copland’s fanfare with just five performers with the same performers playing more than one part, simplifying the task.  As the tempo for the piece changes, slowing down, using the click track file becomes problematic.  To assist the performers in overcoming this challenge, NP Founder and Conductor Piotr Gajewski filmed himself conducting the piece.  Schick combined the trumpet/percussion pieces with Gajewski’s video and gave it to the other performers to address both tempo and pitch issues.  Each performer recorded their parts in their homes using iPhones.  Final mixing was overseen by Schick and Patron Services Manager, Quinton Braswell.

To make NP’s tribute more effective artistically, they decided to employ photographs of hospital workers who are on the frontlines.  The photos are outstanding! They were taken by professional photographer Sinna Nasseri, whose work is known for revealing human emotion in his photographs (you can see more examples of his photos in this NYTimes article, which includes some of the photos used by NP), and also friends and donors to NP who shared their work.  Director Schick and the NP team have blended these into a highly effective presentation, beautifully coupled to the music, and this unique element greatly enhances the emotional appeal of the performance.

A fanfare is a short, lively, loud piece of music by brass and percussion instruments used to introduce something to come, a musical work or even a person, such as a king.  It can also be included as part of a larger work.  Copland later used the Common Man Fanfare in the final movement of his Symphony No. 3.  However, it was written for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra at the request of conductor Eugene Goossens.  Along with Copland’s Billy the Kid ballet and the Grand Canyon Suite, the Fanfare is among his most popular works.  Aaron Copland is one of America’s greatest and most influential composers.  The National Philharmonic at Strathmore has put together a fine virtual performance that honors both Mr. Copland and the common Americans serving us during the coronavirus pandemic.  It also serves as a reminder that Copland wrote the Fanfare to honor the common men and women serving us in WWII. Finally, It is an enjoyable short, piece of music. 

If there were a classical music TV network, like MTV for rock, I think the NP video would be on their hits list.  Personally, I’d like to see more virtual performances of classical music and opera where the opportunities for creative visual expression are explored; this is certainly being done with lighting and video effects in live stage performances.

The Fan Experience: The video is about four minutes in length. There is a short opening statement of purpose on the screen followed by a quick start to the music. The sound is bold and crystal clear; I recommend doing a sound level check on your device before listening.  The orchestra plays at the Music Center at Strathmore, but has not announced their 2020-2021 season as yet. One item of interest I found on their website is that young people ages 7-17 may attend any of their concerts at Strathmore for free, a very good deal for families. 

Maryland Lyric Opera: A Regional Hometown Opera Company Gives Back

Let me start with a list of organizations who have recently received donations of surgical face masks from Maryland Lyric Opera (list provided by Marianna Gray, Director of Marketing and Communications):

Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore

St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore

Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring

Holy Cross Germantown Hospital

Shady Grove Adventist Hospital

Adventist Healthcare Germantown Emergency Center

Montgomery County Coalition for the Homeless, Rockville, MD

The ARC of Montgomery County

The ARC of Prince Georges County

AFSCME Maryland

INOVA Fairfax Hospital

George Washington University Hospital

BayWoods of Annapolis Retirement Community

The Kensington in Falls Church, VA

Interfaith Works Women’s Shelter in Rockville, MD

Cobbdale Assisted Living in VA

Medstar Montgomery Hospital National Center for Children and Families Men’s Homeless Shelter on Taft Court, Rockville, MD

Bronx Lebanon Hospital

NYC Nassau University Medical Center, NY

The list is not exhaustive at this point.  My communication from Ms. Gray stated that over 300,000 masks had been provided and another 200,000 were on hand for distribution.

Members of the Maryland Lyric Opera team delivering their donations of surgical masks; courtesy of Maryland Lyric Opera.

All of the arts, including opera, are going through a potentially disastrous period.  The second half of the opera season had to be cancelled to meet social distancing guidelines, and frankly, we still don’t know when performances can begin anew.  Singers and musicians are greatly limited in even their ability to practice and hone their crafts.  Careers are paused and the future is uncertain.  Companies, performers, and staffs do not have income coming in from performances; they must survive on the generosity of donors.  You might think opera professionals would be closing up shop entirely or simply hunkering down in their basements.  In reality, most companies are working hard to offer online streaming of concerts and opera performances, both recorded and live in the limited ways they can, and trying to maintain contact with their devotees through social media.  Check out Maryland Lyric Opera on Facebook to get timely postings of upcoming opera performances across the globe that can be accessed online.  Such efforts are much needed and greatly appreciated by their fans. 

Maryland Lyric Opera also deserves a shout out for a special effort they are making.  We’ve all read about the shortages of PPE’s (personal protective equipment) since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. Doctors, nurses, hospital staff, and other medical personnel have been having to perform their jobs without adequate supplies of PPE’s.  During the early days of pandemic, the US Coronavirus Task Force downplayed the importance of masks for the general public, instead emphasizing that the in demand, start-of-the-art N95 masks should be reserved exclusively for medical personnel and other at risk workers.  On April 3, the CDC announced a new policy recommending that cloth face masks be worn by the general public.  The supplies of secondary-defense surgical masks made of cloth had already begun to dry up. 

Brad Clark, Founder and Artistic Director of Maryland Lyric Opera; photo courtesy of Maryland Lyric Opera.

Maryland Lyric Opera decided to do something about this, extending their reach as far into Maryland and the DC area as possible.  At the beginning of last season, Founder and Artistic Director Brad Clark made a generous donation to MDLO’s Student Initiative “Hello Opera” which allowed Maryland Lyric Opera to offer students tickets to its performances at nominal cost.  When the remainder of the MDLO performance season had to be cancelled due to this pandemic, Director Clark and the MDLO team decided to re-purpose those funds to provide surgical three-ply cloth masks to medical facilities and facilities with at risk populations in the area; they were able to use their world-wide opera connections to acquire masks.

For this important work, they have been acknowledged in articles in Bethesda Magazine and in the Baltimore Sun newspaper.  In the Bethesda Magazine article, I am impressed by a statement from Susie Sinclair-Smith, CEO for the Montgomery County Coalition for the Homeless, who said that they were struggling to find PPEs for a men’s homeless shelter in Rockville. She reports that the situation turned around on April 9 with support coming in from surrounding communities; the first donation they received that day was 4000 surgical masks from Maryland Lyric Opera.   INOVA Health Systems gave MDLO this praise: “We are incredibly grateful for their support in providing face masks for our #InovaHeroes!” Their efforts have also been written about in Operawire.

Maryland Lyric Opera describes itself as a regional opera company. I think of it as a hometown opera company.  Here are the opening lines from OperaGene’s blog report on MDLO’s performance last September of Il Tabarro and Cavalleria Rusticana: “Suburban Maryland now has a hometown opera company (I’m talking to you Bethesda, College Park, Kensington, Rockville, Silver Spring, and Wheaton).  And folks, the hometown opera company can bring it!”.  I noticed in their list above that their masks donations even made it to Northern Virginia and DC facilities. Okay, it’s a regional opera company that feels like a hometown company in bringing high quality opera to local communities.  They see themselves as serving a regional community. Lucky community.

The Fan Experience: Looking back, I see over ten entries during the last two years in OperaGene on Maryland Lyric Opera, a still-young opera company.  A main activity of the company is providing world-class training and enhancing the professional develop of young artists.  I am always impressed with the quality of their young artists and their superb orchestra led by Conductor and Music Director Louis Salemno. Some of their performances have been season highlights for me.  Their 2020-2021 season is scheduled to start on September 23, but has not yet been posted on their website, so I suggest you get on their email list to receive notices of their concerts and opera performances. 

Connecting to Opera’s Beauty, Connecting to Each Other

I enjoy most genres of music, but for the last seven or eight years, opera has been my go-to genre.  Why do I connect so much more strongly to opera now, what is different about opera?  The answer I keep returning to is opera’s beauty.  When I was a young boy, watching the 1933 movie “King Kong” on television made quite an impression on me.  I have never forgotten the closing lines.  The airplanes had just killed King Kong, shooting the creature down from the top of the Empire State Building where he was trying escape having captured the object of fascination, the beautiful actress Ann Darrow.  I felt such sadness for the beast; I felt like taking a swat at the airplanes myself.  Having observed the action, a police lieutenant says to the movie producer Carl Denham, who was responsible for bringing the captured beast to NYC for display, “Well, Denham, the airplanes got him.”  Denham answers back, “Oh no, it wasn’t the airplanes. It was beauty killed the beast.” 

Beauty may not be an irresistible force, but it is a powerful one.  I also think that opera has a unique type of beauty, a beauty that stops you in your tracks, lifts you up, connects us to each other as humans to something larger than ourselves.  Perhaps you know the scene in “The Shawshank Redemption” where a rogue inmate plays an opera duet over the loudspeaker in a prison.  The inmates stop in their tracks and listen, momentarily transfixed by the beauty of the sound.  Had a pop song been played instead, the inmates would have grinned, maybe swayed or danced to the music, and enjoyed, even shared in the experience.  But Mozart’s aria provided the inmates with a transcendent experience.  I think that perhaps without knowing it that this is opera’s goal, to use the human voice and music enhanced by a story and staging to share with its audience a transcendent experience that connects us to each other and to something greater than ourselves.

During my journey with opera, I find there are a few recordings of arias and duets that I go to for comfort that consistently draw me into opera’s spell and the beauty washes over me like warm, soothing water.  I’d like to share two of these, both duets, one by the ladies and one by the gentlemen.  I find the blending of voices in duets can be especially beautiful.

The first is the Flower Duet from Léo Delibes’ opera Lakmé.  I ran across this duet searching opera arias on YouTube early in my love affair with opera.  I have not seen Lakmé and am only vaguely aware of its plot.  I have listened to the duet being performed by several different sets of performers, but I have never felt the desire to look up the libretto or to find out what the song is about.  The music and the voices speak to me very clearly what the aria is about, though I can’t put the meaning into words, reminiscent of Morgan Freeman’s voice over during the opera scene in “The Shawshank Redemption” when he says that he doesn’t know what the ladies were singing about, but liked to think it was about something too beautiful to be put into words.  Here is a performance of the Flower Duet sung by coloratura soprano Sabine Devieilhe and mezzo-soprano Marianne Crebassa that I especially enjoy:

The second is a duet from Georges Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers for tenor and baritone, performed in this case by the world famous singers, tenor Jonas Kaufman and baritone Dmitri Hvorovstosky.  I heard this duet first while watching a video of the opera, and in fact, felt there was a disconnect between the music and the words.  I think it’s best heard like the Flower Duet, without knowing what it is about.  Let these extraordinary voices and Bizet’s extraordinary music tell you what it means to you.  This is an overt example of how opera brings us together – a German tenor and a Russian baritone sing a duet written in French – as the audience add your own nationality. 

Met Opera’s Les Contes d’Hoffman on video: Fun, Almost Bacon

Analogy: Watching opera on screens is to viewing live opera as eating veggie bacon is to eating real bacon.  As someone limited to veggie bacon for health reasons and currently limited to opera on screens for health reasons, I know whereof I speak.  That said, I am nonetheless grateful for the alternatives, and the best videos are the ones that make me so wish that I had seen it in person.  Met Opera’s 2009 Les Contes d’Hoffman (The Tales of Hoffman) by Jacques Offenbach is in that category and will be available for feasting for free on Wednesday, April 22, starting at 7:30 pm and running on demand from the Met Opera website for the following 23 hours.   

From Met Opera video of Les Contes d’Hoffman: Joseph Calleja as Hoffman and Anna Netrebko as Stella. Photo by Ken Howard; courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera.

The libretto written by Jules Barbier is based on stories by German author E.T.A. Hoffman, which may have been somewhat autobiographical.  In the opera, a poet named Hoffman recounts his three love affairs to friends in a tavern next to the opera house.  He is advised by his muse, the goddess of poetry, and thwarted by a different demon in each scene.  His paramours are a robot named Olympia, a sick opera singer Antonia, and the Venetian courtesan Giulietta.  The muse is trying to direct him away from his current infatuation, the opera singer Stella, staring next door, so that the muse can keep the poet focused on his writing. The opera brings in a prologue, three acts, and an epilogue at slightly under three hours.  Offenbach died while the opera was in rehearsal; the music and orchestration had been completed, but some details for acts III and the epilogue needed finishing.  This situation has led to constant controversy over Hoffman’s intentions, leading to different versions over the years.  The Met’s music director and conductor James Levine chose the 2009 assemblage, giving the muse a greater part and a soft landing at the end.  Offenbach’s largest body of work was light-hearted, often satirical operettas and operas.  However, Les Contes d’Hoffman though fun, is a serious work of art exploring important themes in both a dramatic and entertaining manner.  It begins with the opening lines: “I am wine. I am beer.  We are man’s best friends,” and closes with a sad, but wiser refrain, very well done, I think.

There are three productions of Les Contes d’Hoffman in the “Met Opera On Demand” catalog, productions from 1988, 2009, and 2015.  So, the question comes to mind why the Met is choosing to stream the 2009 video? The casts in all these productions are excellent, but 2009 has perhaps the world’s reigning diva, soprano Anna Netrebko who plays Stella and Antonia.  She was originally going to sing the roles of Olympia and Giuletta as well, which would have been highly interesting, but instead we are treated to coloratura soprano Kathleen Kim as Olympia and mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Gubanova as Giuletta.  I might have claimed that each of these ladies stole the show; Kim nails the role and the singing; Netrebko demonstrates the beauty of her voice in sultry style; and Gubanova gives us a dazzling, though heartless courtesan.  However, the stealing-the-show honor goes to the fabulous mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey who’s acting and singing are spectacular as both the muse and Hoffman’s friend Nicklausse!  Originally Rolando Villazón was to have played the role of Hoffman, but had to withdraw for medical reaons, allowing tenor Joseph Calleja to step into his first performance at the Met, and he does very well in a demanding role.  Base-baritone Alan Held completes this stellar cast in fine style, playing all four demon roles.  These singers are certainly one of the major reasons to watch.

The 2009 production is also famed Director Bartlett Sher’s premiere staging of Hoffman; the 2015 production with a largely different cast, led by Vittorio Grigolo while retaining Ms. Lindsey, uses Sher’s staging as well.  Offenbach’s opera is dreamlike in nature, a fairytale for adults; so, directors can be as fanciful as they wish.  The opera is French, so there is also much dancing throughout.  Mr. Sher’s staging is highly creative; colorful, varied costumes, and lighting as well as numerous professional theatrical touches rarely give the eye a chance to get bored.  Several minor performers have moments to shine as well .  Mr. Shear’s staging is another reason to watch.

The last reason to watch is Offenbach’s music.  You will recognize the melodies from some of the arias even if you haven’t seen Les Contes d’Hoffman before.  Offenbach was a serious classical composer but was also a showman.  The music supports the story and on-stage action marvelously.  The Met Orchestra under Conductor James Levine plays beautifully, and the Met Chorus is terrific as always.

With any work or production, one can nitpick, but I enjoyed this performance of Les Contes d’Hoffman too much to go there.  Treat yourself to this one.  It’s not quite bacon, but still manages to be moving and to a substantial degree satisfying. And if you have the chance to see it live, even better!

The Fan Experience: Met Opera is offering a nightly free viewing of selected opera videos during the coronavirus pandemic (Nightly Met Opera Streams).  The web page for week 6, April 20-26, has links to pages for the origincal Playbills for each of the operas as well as articles about them. All of these operas are available on “Met Opera On Demand” and can be accessed by subscription; a seven-day free trial is offered.  The operas can be played on computers and mobile devices and on smart TVs using Apple TV, Roku, and other such devices.  The speakers I have attached to my TV are good ones, but I prefer linking my AirPods to Apple TV and listening that way.

Viewing on your screens does have advantages: you can pause the action anytime you want; you can even back up or play scenes over if you think you missed something. Another advantage of screen viewing are the closeups that video directors provide, closer than if you were sitting in the front row. In Les Contes d’Hoffman, you will see a tear roll down Anna Netrebko’s cheek.

La Rondine Video Preview: For Love…or Money?

This week, the coronavirus-inspired “Nightly Met Opera Streams” will be showing Giacomo Puccini’s La Rondine (The Swallow) for free on Met Opera’s website.  This two-hour opera will be available on demand starting at 7:30 pm, Wednesday, April 15, until 6:30 pm the following day. 

Scene from Met Video of La Rondine with Roberto Alagna as Ruggero and Angela Gheorghiu as Magda. Photo by Ken Howard; courtesy of Metropolitan Opera.

In a normal year, I might recommend this broadcast to help you forget the pain of just having filed your income taxes; of course, in a normal year, it would not be free.  This year I recommend it primarily for two reasons: first, it is a Puccini you have probably not seen (I had not), and the maestro’s music makes it worthwhile; and it features a delightful early performance by soprano Lisette Oropesa in a supporting role. 

Puccini’s music for La Rondine is very pleasant, melodious throughout.  It has a standout aria, “Che un bel sogno di Doretta”, that will be familiar; it was featured in the movie, Room with a View.  Also popular is an ensemble number “Bevo al tuo fresco sorriso” in act II.  As I went back through some selections from the opera after watching it once, I found the music very enjoyable to return to, to the point that my opinion of the opera moved up quite a lot.  While it is Puccini, and you will note strains that remind you of some of his other operas, it never has the drama of his other operas, nor should it for this lighter venture.  La Rondine is also a different Puccini, allowing Puccini to dabble in a sophisticated Broadway style.  Conductor Marco Armiliato and the Met Opera Orchestra does a fine job.

I might also add that the opera’s stars, spouses at the time, soprano Angela Gheorghiu and tenor Roberto Alagna, give polished performances as the lovers Magda and Ruggero.  They had performed this opera several times previously in different venues, and their EMI recording won Gramophone’s Record of the Year in 1997.  I was quite taken with the secondary stars.  Ms. Oropesa as the cheeky maid, Lisette, is quite fun.  More mature now, she won last year’s Richard Tucker Award.  I have seen her in live performances recently in Pittsburgh Opera’s Don Pasquale and Washington Concert Opera’s Hamlet, and she has played lead roles at the Met this year.  The role of her paramour, Prunier, is played by tenor Marius Brenciu who has a lovely voice and sings beautifully, one of the opera’s treats.  Famous American bass Samuel Ramey, then late in his career, sings the role of Rambaldo; his singing seems labored, but his stature fills the role well.

Here is the story in a nutshell: the scene is Paris of the 1830s, similar to La Boheme, but in a salon for the wealthy, not a tenement for starving artists.  Our focus is Magda who is maintained in a lavish house by her, shall we say benefactor, Rambaldo (this gets my vote for the best name ever for someone in this type of role).  A kept woman, she sneaks out in a rudimentary disguise to have a free night at a local café/dance hall.  There she meets and is smitten by Ruggero, a young man who has arrived from a small town in the south of France wanting to experience the big city; he is the son of a friend of Rambaldo, and he does not recognize Magda from an earlier encounter at the salon; she gives her name now as Paulette.  He is also smitten.  Their love blossoms in the festive scene at the cafe, and they run off to Nice to live for love while their debts pile up (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 him and their chances for happiness (no, she does not have consumption and yes, Verdi got there first).  Warning: the remainder of my report contains spoilers about the ending.

In truth though, the story of La Rondine is pleasant enough but is not all that engaging and founders at the finish line.  This opera was past its time before its very first performance.  It might have worked for the belle epoque (1871-1914), but it premiered in 1917 amid WWI and was perhaps too debonair for such perilous times, offering neither belly laughs for escape nor deep felt cathartic weeping.  Still, in the search for something new while live performances are today halted, its relative obscurity makes it worthy of viewing now. 

The opera may have been doomed from the beginning because it was supposed to have been an operetta.  What!  Puccini wrote an operetta?  Not exactly, though that was the original offer by the Karltheater in Vienna.  Puccini perhaps tried to have his cake and eat it too.  He accepted the commission from the theater which wanted him to write a frivolous operetta in the style popular in Vienna at the time.  He accepted, but instead, proposed to write a comic opera along the lines of Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier, and in Italian, not German, and without spoken dialog.  The theater supplied a libretto by Alfred Maria Willner and Heinz Reichert.  Puccini had it translated into Italian and adapted by his librettist Giuseppe Adami.  The war threats in Vienna prevented staging there.  Puccini eventually obtained the rights, with the Karltheater still getting half the purse, and had the work premiere in neutral Monte Carlo.  Puccini later revised it a couple of times trying to improve the ending and its success, but the work has received only sporadic play.  The last Met Opera production of La Rondine before this 2009 production was in 1936.

I think the ambiguity of La Rondine’s ending spoils whatever chance the opera had of being successful; if only Magda had committed suicide or if only the plot led to a comedy where it turns out mom had also been kept by Mr. Rambaldo, but that didn’t happen.  The enjoyable side story of her friend the poet, Prunier, and her maid, Lisette, winds up more detracting from the story than adding to it; in fact, that romance might have been the better story for a comic opera.  I still feel there is deeper potential to this story, as I have thought more about it.  Prunier makes a foreshadowing comment in act I expressing his fear that the desire for money may be gaining hold on Magda.  How much was her choice at the end an honorable one to protect Ruggero and how much did wanting the finer things in life that Rambaldo provided play into it?  A more profound exploration of that theme might have been interesting.  As it is, the dramedy doesn’t work for me because the ending isn’t resolved in a way I can feel deeply about either Magda or Ruggero.  Frankly, I’d rather have seen more of Lisette and Prunier. Finally, it’s a Puccini opera. You gonna pass that up?

The Fan Experience: Met Opera is offering a nightly free viewing of selected opera videos during the coronavirus pandemic (Nightly Met Opera Streams).  All of these operas are available on Met Opera On Demand and can be accessed by subscription; a seven-day free trial is offered.  The operas can be played on computers and mobile devices and on smart TVs using Apple TV, Roku, and other such devices.  it’s not likely that videos of operas, many companies now streaming them across the globe, will replace your yearn for live opera, but they do have interest and can help pass the time until the lights go on again, none to soon!

Oh, The Things Met Opera Videos Can Do: Parsifal 1 and Parsifal 2

First, you should know that Wagnerian operas are opera’s answer to baseball.  Don’t get me wrong, I love baseball, and I love Wagnerian opera, but let’s be honest.  There are worthwhile rewards, but both are really slow-moving; the pace can be awfully deliberate between the crests of tension and excitement.  Now for baseball, you have hot dogs, peanuts, beer, the team mascot, and the seventh inning stretch to fill in the troughs.  With Richard Wagner’s operas, all you got is the music.  Fortunately, the music is what makes it worth it.  Wagner’s music paints the stage; it can hang in the air like a cloud or turn the color of emotion in high resolution; it can be the play-by-play announcer telling you what is happening or the runner on second base signaling you which pitch is coming next.  And, if Wagnerian opera is like baseball, Parsifal goes deep into extra innings, five hours’ worth. 

I had wanted to see Parsifal for some time, but no company in the mid-Atlantic has performed it in the last several years, if ever, and for god’s sake, it’s a five hour long video.  However, we are now on coronavirus time, and with all the opera houses closed, I’m sheltering in place with time on my hands.  Now, it happens that Met Opera on Demand has two video recordings of the opera available for streaming, one from 2013 and one from way back in 1992, which I will call Parsifal 1 and Parsifal 2.  I only intended to watch one, but which one?  Parsifal 1 is a modern telling of the story with excellent sound quality, and with performers that I know, while Parsifal 2 is a traditional, costumed production but with not such great sound quality.  So, I chose Parsifal 1, but then…...I kept wondering if I’d like the more traditional version better; so, I watched Parsifal 2 as well: ten hours of Parsifal.  It helped that I really liked the opera.

Parsifal is a name that means “pure fool”.  The opera was Wagner’s last, even though its planning began 25 years before its premiere in 1882.  Wagner wrote the libretto for his three-act opera based on Wolfram von Eschenbach’s poem “Parzifal”, a tale of an Arthurian knight and the Holy Grail.  The composer intended Parsifal to be a “festival play for the consecration of the stage”, the stage being his own opera house, Bayreuth in Germany; there was a mercenary element to the decision as the family held the rights to it and the proceeds for thirty years.  Not all countries were signatories to such rights, and the first Metropolitan Opera performance was in 1903, but mostly even the famous and mighty had to visit Bayreuth in order to see Parsifal for 30 years.

A quick plot intro: On one side of Monsalvat in Spain is the great hall of the knights who are keepers of the Holy Grail and on the other is the magic castle of Klingsor, a man who wanted to be a knight, but he was denied because of his impure thoughts and turned to the dark arts.  Klingsor has conjured up a platoon of beautiful maidens to lure knights entering his area away from their vows of chastity.  The knights are led by their beleaguered king, Amfortas, who was seduced by Klingsor’s agent, Kundry, provding Klingsor with the chance to wound Amfortas with his own Holy Spear.  Klingsor also captured the spear and escaped, hoping to eventually capture the Grail itself.  Amfortas, having defiled himself, suffers a wound that will not heal, leaving him in shame and misery and his troup without leadership.  However, he was told by angels to await a redeemer, a pure fool made wise by compassion, who would heal his wound and provide redemption.  The opera opens with the lead knight, Gurnemanz telling the story as Parsifal arrives on the scene, unknowingly the chosen one, a young man who does not even know his own name.  The rest of the tale is about his quest and ascension to become the redeemer, offering salvation to all.

A scene from Parsifal 1: Parsifal (Jonas Kaufmann) dips the Holy Spear into the Holy Grail held by Kundry (Katerina Dalayman) while Gurnemanz (Rene Papé) looks on while standing. Photo by Ken Howard; courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera.

Parsifal 2 is a classical production with mountain scenery and knights in costume.  Parsifal 1 is a modern production with spare costumes, a bleak landscape, and intriguing symbolism.  Both productions have a stream that runs through the middle of the stage carrying water and then blood.  The Metropolitan Orchestra and Chorus provides music of shimmering beauty under both conductors.  Both productions have extraordinary casts. 

Credits below for Parsifal 1 (2013) and Parsifal 2 (1992):

Parsifal –         Jonas Kaufmann…………..Siegfried Jerusalem

Gurnemanz – Rene Papé…………………….Kurt Moll

Kundry –         Katerina Dalayman……….Waltraud Meier

Amfortas –     Peter Mattei…………………Bernd Weikl

Klingsor –       Evgeny Nikitin……………….Franz Mazura

Director –       Barbara Willis Sweete…..Phebe Berkowitz

Production –  François Girard……………..Otto Schenk

Set Design –   Michael Levine………………Günther Schneider-Siemssen

Conductor –   Daniele Gatti…………………James Levine

Lets return to the baseball analogy for a moment and compare the teams position by position for the main players. 

Parsifal (tenor) – I give the nod to Kaufmann, while he is not that convincing as a fool, when he turns on the power as his character matures, his gravitas is impressive. Jerusalem is very good, but never seems to have suffered that much or rise to the level of redeemer. Advantage: Parsifal 1.

Gurnemanz (bass) – Gurnemanz, the senior knight, is effectively the narrator and the reasoned, caring anchor for the story.  Moll is good, but Papé is outstanding, able to command the stage a little more, and I never get tired of hearing that voice.  Advantage: Parsifal 1.

Kundry (soprano) – Kundry is a wild woman who laughed at Christ on the cross and was cursed never to die; she has been trapped by both Klingsor’s curse and service to the knights, a complex role. Dalayman gives a solid performance, which emphasizes the mother aspect and most effectively portrays a tortured soul.  Meier’s acting turned me off a bit in act I; she sometimes appeared more displeased than tortured. However, she has an especially beautiful voice and her performance in act II as the seductress wins out with me, and she is also strong in act III.  After seeing her in act II, I want to find a dvd of her playing Isolde.  Advantage: Parsifal 2.

Amfortas (baritone) – Weikel is good with a lovely voice, but Mattei stepped it up in this one.  His powerful characterization of the defeated, longing for death king is much stronger. Advantage: Parsifal 1.

Klingsor (bass) – Nitikin does the relatively short role of the evil one much better than Mazura. Advantage: Parsifal 1.

The minor players on both teams all did credible jobs.  Clearly, my preferences for the cast is weighted strongly towards Parsifal 1.  However, for this comparison the staging also plays a strong role in the overall impact.

For me, the traditional staging of Parsifal 2 was fine, but it didn’t really offer much more than an appropriate backdrop.  Well, Klingsor throwing the spear at Parsifal and Parsifal catching it in the air was a neat trick.  Some scenes I liked better in 1 and some in 2.  I liked the maiden seduction scene in act II better in Parsifal 1, but Waltraud Meier in that scene is not to be missed in Parsifal 2.  At first, I was inclined not to like Parsifal 1 because of its bleak modern staging but it won me over.  In fact for this allegory where “time becomes space”, the medieval setting is not so important; it is all about the message. The symbolism with the apocalyptic landscape,  the arrangement of men and women, and visuals in the background of clouds and planets and closeups of human skin were intriguing.  In the opening scene, the performers are seated on stage in opera-going attire, then, men come forward taking off their coats and ties and watches and all turn around and slowly go to work presenting the story.  They are we, and it is our story.  And it is Wagner’s glorious music in both videos.

The Fan Experience: Parsifal 1 will be available for free streaming on the Met Opera website (metopera.org) on Thursday night, April 9, and for 24 hours.  Met Opera is offering nightly free viewings of selected opera videos during the coronavirus pandemic (Nightly Met Opera Streams).  Videos and sound recordings in Met Opera on Demand are available for unlimited viewing through a monthly or yearly subscription; they also offer a seven-day free trial.  The operas can be played on mobile devices and on smart TVs using Apple TV, Roku, and other such devices.  And of course, when watching a video at home you can even add your own popcorn and beer, and not only get up to stretch, but hit the pause button to have an intermission any time you want.

Opera in the Mid-Atlantic: Safety First Cancellations/Postponements

Cancelling large meetings is the rule of the day now for our best effort in “flattening the curve”, limiting the spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus) so that our health care system does not get overwhelmed.  Opera companies in the mid-Atlantic are necessary participants in this effort, as is the case for symphonies and chamber music companies as well.  I think seeing the list below covering just the mid-Atlantic region reveals the enormity of  the sacrifices being made.

CDC chart showing why we need to use “social distancing”: making it take longer for COVID-19 to work its way through our population will keep our hospitals and critical care facilities from being overwhelmed and thereby lower the number of deaths among those who contract the infection.

As of March 14, 2020, the following opera companies in the mid-Atlantic have made changes to their near-term schedules:

Annapolis Opera - Susannah postponed until June 20, 21

Update on 3-27-20: Academy of Vocal Arts - Un ballo in maschera and the Graduation Recital have been cancelled.

Baltimore Concert Opera – Performances of L’Incoronazione di Poppea cancelled.

Opera Delaware – Spring Festival 2020, including performances of The Coronation of Poppea and The Tales of Hoffman, cancelled until further notice

Maryland Lyric Opera – Performances of Il Tabarro and Gianni Schicchi are postponed indefinitely

Metropolitan Opera – All performances, including HD in Cinemas performances, cancelled through March 31. Update on 3-20-20: Remainder of the Met’s 2019-2020 is cancelled.

Update 3-27-20: Opera Lafayette has postponed performances of Le Maréchal terrant (The Blacksmith) until the 2020-2021 season.

Opera on the James – Performances of The Barber of Seville are cancelled

Opera Philadelphia – Opera (Madama Butterfly) returns on April 24. Update on 3/24/20: Madama Butterfly is postponed until Spring 2022.

Pittsburgh Opera – Performances (including Carmen) canceled through April 5. Update 3/24/20: All public events, including performances of Norma, cancelled though May 3.

Update 3-19-20: Washington Concert Opera has post-poned Simon Boccanegra from April 5 to September 13.

Washington National Opera – All performances, including Don Giovanni, Samson and Delilah, and Blue, cancelled through March 31. Update on 3/17/20: All Kennedy Center performances cancelled through May 10.

Updated 4/8/20: Victory Hall Opera - The June performances of No Daughter of Mine are postponed to 2021.

Virginia Opera – Performances of Aida are postponed indefinitely. Update on 3/20/20: Norfolk presentation of Scalia/Ginsburg on April 4 cancelled, to be rescheduled for the Fall.

Updated 4/22/20 - Wolf Trap Opera - All 2020 performances cancelled. A concert of arias with the National Symphony Orchestra is planned for August 7.

This is not only a disappointment to opera fans in the region, but a huge disappointment and financial blow to opera companies and performers as well.  It is also not clear that these limited cancellations and postponements won’t need to be extended.  My heart goes out to all involved, and my heartfelt thanks goes out to these companies that are so important to our cultural life for putting the health of their fans first.

Washington National Opera’s Samson and Delilah: A Bible Story Grand Opera Style

Take a Bible story many of us learned in Sunday school, a couple of star performers, and a talented, creative staff in charge of the set, staging, and modern twenty-first century lighting and projection technology and you might get a Hollywood blockbuster of a movie, or if you use Camille Saint-Saéns’ grand opera, Samson and Delilah, you’d come pretty close to the same thing on stage, and while I’m thinking along those lines, Washington National Opera’s headliners, Bridges and Aronica, would make a pretty good Hedy Lamarr and Victor Mature.*  So, the bottom line is that WNO’s production is a darn good show that’s as fun as popcorn and candy and a little more filling, but not a lot.  And while I’m digressing, it is too bad that WNO doesn’t broadcast some of its operas into theaters like the Met does; this one would really be good with popcorn and candy.

The Old Hebrew (Peter Volpe) warns Samson (Roberto Aronica) to avoid Delilah (J’Nai Bridges), who is listening in the background. Photo by Scott Suchman; courtesy of Washington National Opera.

The story is taken from the tale of Samson in the Old Testament’s Book of Judges but focuses on Chapter 16, his seduction and destruction by Dalilah.  The opera does not provide much background on Samson, except that he is the champion and inspirational leader of the Israelites, who are being ruled and oppressed by the Philistines in ancient Canaan.  We know little about Delilah, except that she follows the god Dagon and sides with the Philistines.  She feigns love for Samson, whom in reality she despises, and uses his love/lust for her to learn the secret of the extraordinary strength that God has given him in return for his vows of service – the secret is his uncut hair.  She clips his hair, and the Philistine soldiers are able to subdue and blind him.  In the end, Samson repents; God restores his strength, and, in this telling, God brings the Temple roof down killing all the Philistines inside.  Like with most Bible stories, we are to look at the central messages of the story and not look too closely at the details.  Questions that modern audiences might want to know more about, such as what turned Dalilah into the woman she was or is it really okay to kill all the Philistines in the Temple, are not explored.  Eat your popcorn and enjoy the movie; this is artistic entertainment with a message, not a class in ethics.

Roberto Aronica as Samson and J’Nai Bridges as Delilah. Photos by Scott Suchman; courtesy of Washington National Opera.

Composer Camille Saint-Saëns was a musical prodigy along the lines of Mozart and though the body of his work that is played today is considerably less, his works are highly regarded.  Of his dozen operas, only Samson and Delilah (1877) is performed today.  But I suppose that is like saying that as a baseball pitcher you only pitched one no-hitter in the major leagues; it is still impressive.  It is generally regarded that he was outstanding at music but not great at picking and handling subject matter.  He hooked up with librettist Ferdinand Lemaire to write an oratorio on the Samson story, and Lemaire convinced Saint-Saëns to make it an opera; it nevertheless retains aspects of oratorios such as the substantial use of a substantial choir.  The Paris Opera was not accepting operas based on biblical subjects at the time, but his friend Franz Liszt, who wanted to support and encourage Saint-Saëns, premiered the opera in Weimar, Germany.  It was 1892 before the Paris Opera was willing to produce it, and in the 1890s, the opera became a substantial success in other cities.  I think the music is terrific; it is sung without dialog or recitative and has several very strong arias.  It is a grand opera in the Paris tradition – grand themes of freedom and patriotism important to the French people, lots of people on stage, dancing, a colorful spectacle.

Samson (Roberto Aronica) resists telling Delilah (J’Nai Bridges) the secret of his power. Photo by Scott Suchman; courtesy of Washington National Opera.

Samson and Delilah also serves as a star vehicle for a tenor and a mezzo-soprano, and WNO provided two who fit the roles beautifully.  Rising young star, J’Nai Bridges, made a stunning and entirely believable Delilah.  Her voice has a beautiful tone, especially in her low range, and she sang with impressive control in her important arias, such as “Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix” in Act II, which becomes a duet with Aronica near the end.  I expected as much, but what surprised me about her performance was the impressive way she moved on stage and the confidence she displayed; every move and expression on her face seemed perfectly choreographed to reflect the charm of a seductress, even occasionally moving with the professional dancers.  I was not familiar with tenor Roberto Aronica who played Samson, but he gave an outstanding performance both acting and singing.  I’ve always wondered why Saint-Saëns chose a tenor for this role, but Aronica’s power in his mid-range seemed to fit the role very well.  The supporting singers were also impressive, including baritone Noel Bouley as the High Priest of Dagon who colludes with Delilah to learn the secret of Samson’s power, and bass-baritone Tómas Tómasson as Abimélech, in a brief appearance as a Philistine leader.  Bass Peter Volpe played the role of the Old Hebrew who warns Samson not to give in to his temptation.  He also is playing the role of the Commendatore in WNO’s Don Giovanni, running concurrently; I thought his bass voice was good in that role, but as the Old Hebrew I realized that it is something special.

left photo: The High Priest of Dagon (Noel Bouley) appeals to Delilah (J’Nai Bridges) for help. right photo: Philistine Govenor Ambimélech (Tómas Tómasson). Photos by Scott Suchman; courtesy of Washington National Opera.

The set, designed by Erhard Rom, was essentially the same as that used for Don Giovanni, however, this did not prove too much of a distraction given the way it was adorned.  The staging of the story by Director Peter Kazaras is very well done; I found the end of Act II that works itself into a frenzy and reaches a crescendo with the cutting of Samson’s hair to be thrilling.  I suppose the ending with the implosion of the Temple done using lighting and media effects is okay, but gosh darn, the little boy in me really wanted to see Samson push those pillars aside and the ceiling come crashing down; I need to go back and re-watch the movie. 

Samson (Roberto Aronica) appeals to God to return his strength. Photo by Scott Suchman; courtesy of Washington National Opera.

Certainly, special kudos go Lighting Designer S. Katy Tucker and Projection Designer Ken Weiss.  The special effects were artistic, sometimes spectacular, and worked to help set scenes and create moods, especially using the back wall to project abstract swirls and images of the desert sun and moon that somehow benefit the telling of the tale.  And there were those eerie ghost like images on the scrim when Samson was being tortured.  Also, kudos to Costume Designers Michael Scott and Tim Burrow.  The costumes worked to convey the time period and especially the colorful nature of the Philistines, and give us at least a somewhat sexy frenetic bacchanal scene.  Speaking of which, there was a great deal of movement during most of the opera which helped to carry the story along, and the dancers and dancing were most enjoyable; kudos to Choreographer Erick Sean Fogel.  In short, the production was a feast for the eyes, a straightforward telling of the story, artistically well done. I had the feeling that this cast and crew knew what they were doing and were at the top of their game.

It was also a feast for the ears.  The Washington National Orchestra under the direction of Conductor John Fiore delivered Saint-Saéns score in fine fashion.  Occasionally, I couldn’t help focusing on the music alone and enjoying just that.  A large chorus led by Chorus Master Steven Gathman was also a pleasure to hear; if Saint-Saéns had made Samson and Delilah an oratorio, I would still be interested in attending. 

So, like I said, WNO’s Samson and Delilah is a good show with some great players and a lot of professinal polish and new stage technology.  If you are among the devout, you should be able to enjoy it as a religious experience, but for most people, I think it will simply be entertainment, a good Saturday afternoon popcorn movie.  I wish I could say it was coming soon to Netflix. 

*Note:  In case you are not a septuagenarian, I should add that Hedy Lamar and Victor Mature were the movie stars in Cecile B. DeMille’s movie version of “Samson and Delilah”.  Mr. DeMille was known for Hollywood blockbusters in his day.

The Fan Experience: Samson and Delilah plays again in the Kennedy Center Opera House on March 7, 13, 16, and 21. See the Samson and Delilah webpage for information on pre-opera talks and artist Q&As.  

Baltimore Concert Opera’s Anna Bolena: Bel Canto in the Afternoon

On Sunday afternoon, seven handsome-voiced young singers provided an excellent concert performance of composer Gaetano Donizetti’s tragedy Anna Bolena.  Enjoying a performance, however, is only part of the experience of attending a Baltimore Concert Opera production.  Part is the casual and friendly atmosphere created in the gorgeous ballroom of the Engineers Club.  Part is the coziness of the space placing you in close proximity to professional opera singers who are practically singing in your ear.  Part is also the judgement that goes into selecting the operas to be presented.  With that in mind, I asked BCO Artistic and General Director Julia Cooke – why Anna Bolena? 

Her response:

“I have been wanting to program Anna Bolena and Donizetti's other two queens (Maria Stuarda and Roberto Devereux) for many years and am so thrilled that we have officially begun the cycle!  We make great efforts in our artistic planning to present a varied selection of repertoire each season, giving our curious audiences a balance of classic (Madama Butterfly) and innovative (Anna Bolena, The Consul) programming. Our large subscriber base and consistent sellouts have given us confidence to keep that vibrant balance going -- our audience trusts BCO to give them a great experience every time. We have established a consistent record of great singing paired with our signature welcoming experience, and that trust between company and audience enables BCO to keep growing and thriving.”

left to right: Noragh Devlin as Smeton, Peter Tomaszewski as Lord Rochefort, Meghan Kasanders as Anna, Hans Tashijan as Enrico, Derrek Stark as Percy, and Hannah Ludwig as Giovanna. Photo by Britt Olsen-Ecker; courtesy of Baltimore Concert Opera.

Director Cooke refers to Donizetti’s Tudor queen trilogy.  Anna Bolena was first of the three to be composed; though already the composer of over thirty operas, this was his first international success, one that established his reputation beyond Italy.  Musicologists consider this opera as representing the maturation point of his own bel canto style; he along with Rossini and Bellini are know as the bel canto masters.  In the next ten years, among many others, L’elisir d’amore, Maria Stuarda, Lucia di Lammermoor, Roberto Devereux, and La fille du regiment flowed from his pen, establishing him as one of the major figures in the development of Italian opera, and more were to come.  At the time of his death, he had composed sixty-five operas, and one in every four operas being performed in Italy was his.

Derrek Stark as Percy and Meghan Kasanders as Anna. Photo by Britt Olsen-Ecker; courtesy of Baltimore Concert Opera.

He himself led somewhat of a tragic life.  None of his three children survived longer than a few days and his wife died of cholera at the age of 29.  Almost certainly these experiences contributed to his ability to express the depth of emotion conveyed in his operas, and to even bring such a sensational case as the beheading of Anne Boleyn down to a deeply human level.  History tells us that her husband Henry VIII was a larger than life figure who took being a king seriously.  In a reign of biblical proportions, he readily used and expanded his powers to get what he wanted; he even pushed the doctrine of the divine right of kings.  He initiated the English Reformation by separating the Church of England from the Catholic Church, apparently because the Papacy refused to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, his first wife; she had not given him the heir he wanted.  He had an attraction to Anne Boleyn, one of Catherine’s ladies in waiting, but reports are she resisted his advances and held out for marriage.  She became queen and his second wife, but she also failed to produce a son; so, soon Henry was taking up with one of her ladies in waiting, Jane Seymour, while still married to Boleyn.  Anne was found guilty of what were likely trumped up charges and beheaded.  King Henry acquired three more wives with their own stories, with one more being beheaded, but wives no. 2 and 3 serve as the basis of the story that Felice Romani used for the libretto of Anna Bolena.  While the sensational event of her demise is the focus of their fictional story, it is the personalities of the characters involved and their relationships as created by Donizetti and Romani that are both compelling and heart rendering.

Hannah Ludwig as Giovanna and Hans Tashijan as Enrico. Photo by Britt Olsen-Ecker; courtesy of Baltimore Concert Opera.

(Switching to the Italian names in the opera) Anna Bolena is worried she has a rival in her marriage to Enrico VIII.  She has reason to be.  Enrico is pursuing Giovanna Seymour, wishing to marry her and make her his queen.  Giovanna has been seduced by his love and her desire for fame, though she is later overcome with guilt and begs forgiveness from Anna.  Enrico plots to bring Anna together with Percy with whom she was previously romantically involved, then accuse her of adultery to exit his marraige.  Her brother Lord Rochefort and Smeton, a court musician who has fallen in love with Anna, become unwitting accomplices in Enrico’s scheme which ultimately succeeds; they both later beg forgiveness from Anna.  Anna, innocent of wrongdoing, refuses to save her life by admitting her guilt.  She forgives all to allow her soul entrance into heaven.  Chop.

left photo: Noragh Devlin as Smeton. right photo: Derrek Stark as Percy, Hans Tashijan as Enrico, and Peter Tomaszewski as Lord Rochefort. Photos by Britt Olsen-Ecker; courtesy of Baltimore Concert Opera.

BCO put together an exciting young cast to deliver what turned out to be a highly enjoyable afternoon of bel canto singing that got an enthusiastic standing ovation when it concluded.  The role of Anna was sung by soprano Meghan Kasanders, who has a voice with a lovely tone, and she delivers precise singing.  Ms. Kasanders was a 2019 Grand Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and won both the First Prize and Audience Choice Winner in the 2019 Dallas Opera Guild Vocal Competition.  Mezzo-soprano Hannah Ludwig delivered a convincing, strong portrayal of the conflicted Giovanna.  She sang beautifully, her specialty being bel canto roles.  I had to smile when tenor Derrek Stark began singing the role of Percy; for a brief moment an image of Pavarotti came to mind.  Perhaps he doesn’t quite yet have the golden tones of the great one, but he has a beautiful tenor voice, and seemed a natural in an Italian bel canto role.  I’d love to hear him in a return engagement.  Bass-baritone Hans Tashijan, a BCO veteran, gave a solid, if a somewhat stoic, performance as Enrico; he sang well.  When mezzo-soprano Noragh Devlin, in a pants role as Smeton, started to sing, I sat up and took notice; this was a distinctive voice.  She sang well, and I wanted to hear more…brava!  In their supporting roles, tenor Orin Strunk as Sir Hervey and bass-baritone Peter Tomaszewski as Lord Rochefort did fine jobs.  BCO continued with their recent change in having performances partly staged, in this case, by simply having the singers move about the stage and react to each other in character, ending with Ms. Kasanders pushing her throat forward for the denouement.  And no, we didn’t get to witness the chop.

left photo: Conductor Rachelle Jonck. right photo: Pianist Joy Schreier. Photos by Britt Olsen-Ecker; courtesy of Baltimore Concert Opera.

The excellent pianist, Joy Schreier, did a marvelous job in providing the accompaniment.  The chorus, described in BCO’s fun and informal way as local peasants and party-goers, added effectively to the performance under the direction of Conductor Rachelle Jonck.  BCO performances are partly serious concerts and partly partying.  It keeps me coming back.

The Fan Experience: The two performances of Anna Bolena are past, but coming up on April 17 and 19 will be Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea.  BCO is now typically playing to sold out crowds, so get your tickets soon! 

There is no longer valet parking on Sundays, but here is a link to parking options in the area.  I continue to be successful at finding one of the limited open spaces on the streets, though this trip I almost missed the small sign on the meter indicating it was reserved for handicapped parking on Sundays in the first free space I found; be sure to read all the signs where you park!

Washington National Opera’s Don Giovanni: We Are Listening Now

WNO’s Artistic Director Francesca Zambello always puts on a good show.  By good, I mean something different, interesting and entertaining in the way that an opera is presented, and WNO productions usually work for me.  Halfway through Saturday night’s performance of Don Giovanni (1787), I wasn’t sure.  The characters in marvelous period costumes moved about a stage of walls and beams in geometric designs with screens and lighting effects, only a few props or scene clues.  From the standpoint of artistic craftsmanship and eye appeal, the abstract set was impressive; if it had been a modern art show, I would have given set designer Erhard Rom very high marks.  It’s all quite worth seeing as an artistic light show.  The floating question in my mind was whether Director E. Loren Meeker was able to present an engaging story-line with this set as backdrop.

Don Giovanni (Ryan McKinny) with images of his past in the frames. Photo by Scott Suchman; courtesy of Washington National Opera.

Frankly, I was also confused by the initial scene.  Don Giovanni is based on the Spanish Don Juan myth of the early 17th century.  Mozart’s Don uses his charm and the force of his wealth and power as a nobleman to make sexual conquests, over two thousand as the story begins, with the extent of his use of physical force left ambiguous in the opera.  The opening scene has Giovanni sexually assaulting Donna Anna; when he tries to escape after she calls for help, she tries to restrain him.  As presented, it was not clear in this opening scene that this was the action afoot.  Then, her aging father, the Commendatore, rushes out to defend his daughter and is killed by Giovanni in a sword fight.  Donna Anna extracts a vow of revenge from her fiancé Don Ottavio.  Over the next day or so, Giovanni, traveling with his enabling mercenary Leporello, comes upon a previous conquest, Donna Elvira, whom he abandoned and who is now pursuing him for revenge, but in truth wants him back (he later seduces her maid ); he then encounters a young country girl, Zerlina, who he tries to seduce on her wedding day and later physically assaults her fiancé, Masetto.  As his character degenerates, Giovanni comes face to face with a graveyard statue that talks (the Commendatore, miraculously constructed in less that 24 hours) and whom Giovanni invites to dinner.  The dinner goes badly, and the Don is escorted to Hell all the while refusing to repent.  The funny thing about Don Giovanni, the opera, is that it is also a comedy.  Librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte labeled it a “dramma giocoso” or “jocular play”; Mozart called it an opera buffa. It’s actually quite funny, except for when it isn’t.  In the end, it is God who takes revenge on Giovanni.

left: Vanessa Vasquez as Donna Anna; right: Keri Alkema as Donna Elvira. Photos by Scott Suchman; courtesy of Washington National Opera.

The orchestra under the direction of WNO Conductor Evan Rogister did a fine job of playing Mozart’s score, delivering some of Mozart’s greatest music, and seemed to me mostly in time with the singers.  Overall, the cast of singers was marvelous.  Even tenor Alek Shrader, who seemed to be holding back on his own, sang lovely harmony with soprano Vanessa Vasquez in duets.  Ms. Vasquez was brilliant, with a beautiful tone, the best Donna Anna I have heard (please come back).  Bass-baritone Ryan Mckinny was an excellent Giovanni, his actions and singing, smooth, refined, and polished.  In an excellent cast, bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen who sang the role of Leporello was a standout.  His voice commanded the stage and his comic touches punctuated the entire evening.  Soprano Keri Alkema’s acting and singing gave us a Donna Elvira who amused us and then softened our hearts; I remember her Tosca fondly from this past WNO season.  Soprano Vanessa Becerra delighted our ears as a youthful Zerlina and showed both feminine strength with Masetto and feminine vulnerability with Giovanni.  Baritone Norman Garrett was a convincing Masetto.  Bass Peter Volpe was an effective, ineffectual defender of his daughter’s honor, and a fierce and foreboding ghost.  Many of these singers were veterans of previous WNO productions.  One of the benefits of Mozart’s operas is the incomparable ensemble numbers for two to six singers that he composed. The contributions of the chorus were also effective and pleasing under the direction of Steven Gathman.

left: Norman Garrett as Masetto and Vanessa Becerra as Zerlina; right: Alek Shrader as Don Ottavio, Norman Garrett as Masetto, and Kyle Ketelsen as Leporello. Photos by Scott Suchman; courtesy of Washington National Opera.

Getting back to the set and staging: at first, despite the visual appeal of the set, the placement of period costumes against the large, abstract set was simply confusing.  The huge set of abstract lines, angles, and projection-created designs dwarfed the singers, and the contrast with the period costumes kept my focus from the singing and music.  The set reminded me somewhat of a set used for Santa Fe Opera’s Cosi fan tutte this past summer; their set was composed of plain, even blank walls and flooring with exit doors, but the costumes were similarly non-suggestive.  The elements of the story were presented almost devoid of time and place which made the story concentrated and timeless.  I suggested it was a new form of opera that should be called “primal”.  Perhaps this version of Don Giovanni might work better with non-descript costumes. After all, the story-line hasn’t really changed in over two hundred years.

Party scene with Don Giovanni (Ryan McKinny) seated while Leporello (Kyle Ketelsen) dances with the ladies. Photos by Scott Suchman; courtesy of Washington National Opera.

My feelings about the staging started to change with the party scene where the stage was more elaborately filled with party goers and a table and settings, a chandelier, and implied stairs and balcony with a large artwork in the background.  This came close to the traditional staging with traditional costumes and anchored the story.  However, we were soon back to the bare abstract set with location little designated.  This, for me, was where Meeker’s presentation excelled over previous versions I’ve seen.  I have always felt the opera drags a bit at this point moving around almost aimlessly.  But by use of an abstract set here, the focus and emphasis is not on time and place, but on the music and singing; by that time I had accepted the costumes.  I very much enjoyed this section of the opera, significantly more than in other productions I’ve seen.  Ms. Meeker even showcased each of the major soloists with time on stage alone, with the abstract walls closed to place the singer in front of a partly textured wall of gray.  This was very effective in highlighting arias, and each soloist took full advantage to please our ears and touch our hearts.  Another highlight of the staging was director’s use of women, clothed in white gowns and period undergarments, intended as a tally of misdeeds that followed Giovanni as he moved through the opera, finally encircling him and closing in as he was consumed by Hell.  In the end, I had mixed feelings about the set and staging that I have expressed, but overall, it worked for me, especially the second half, and I enthusiastically recommend it. 

Don Ottavio (Alek Shrader), Donna Anna (Vanessa Vasquez), and Donna Elvira (Keri Alkema) disguised in their attempt to find and take revenge on Don Giovanni. Photo by Scott Suchman; courtesy of Washington National Opera.

Don Giovanni is one of the repertoire’s greatest operas, perhaps the greatest.  But it is now old and worn.  The great music is worthy of continued play.  Making the opera fresh compels stage directors to experiment with different ways to present the story to keep it entertaining.  WNO has done a good job.  Right now, though, the sex and power issues addressed in Giovanni are keeping it fresh.  WNO has keyed on this with the use of the white-clad women.  The message for today is clear, even without the opera’s final scene where the survivors sing that Giovanni’s was the end coming to those that do evil.  As was pointed out in the program booklet by Dramaturg Kelley Rourke and attributed to author Rebecca Solnit, “…#MeToo was not the beginning of women speaking up, but of people listening.”

The Fan Experience: Don Giovanni continues at the Kennedy Center on March 6, 8, 11, 14, 19, and 22. See the Don Giovanni webpage for information on pre-opera talks and artist Q&As.

WNO plans to capitalize on some upcoming productions to build on the awareness of issues raised through a Let’s Go There series of conversations.  WNO has scheduled a conversation including Director Meeker, Anne Midgette, Linda Holmes, and Carina Chicano on March 14 in the Skylight Pavillon to explore “how Don Giovanni is a springboard into a larger cultural dialogue about the glamorization of the villain in opera and pop culture.”

Opera Lafayette’s Leonore: Beethoven, Authentic and Imagined

The star of Wednesday night’s performance of Leonore (1805) for most of the audience was Opera Lafayette celebrating its 25th anniversary and its conclusion of the Leonore Project, but for me, the real star was Beethoven reminding us why after 250 years we still are celebrating his birthday.  Yes, the story of Leonore was told in an interesting way and the singing was great, but it was Beethoven’s music that I got lost in.  That itself is a tribute to Opera Lafayette.  And the performance got off to an auspicious beginning; workman had to repair the podium in the pit that creaked every time Maestro Ryan Brown, OL’s Founder and Artistic Director moved, and as he noted, he moves a lot while conducting.  Small matter, I found myself being moved once the conducting started.

Married love and courage has triumphed over injustice as Floristan (Jean-Michel Richer) and Leonore (Nathalie Paulin) are reunited. Photo by Louis Forget; courtesy of Opera Lafayette.

If you know the story of Leonore, you probably know it from Beethoven’s Fidelio.  A woman Leonore in the post French Revolution period disguises herself as a man, Fidelio, to gain access as a prison worker to the facility where her husband, Floristan, has been unjustly imprisoned for his political activism.  Time grows short as the Governor who imprisoned Floristan plans his imminent death, while the situation grows complicated as the jailer’s daughter, Marzelline, has fallen in love with Fidelio, believing her to be a man.  Why did such a story appeal to Beethoven?

The love triangle: left, Marzelline (Pascal Beaudin) spurns her suitor, Jaquino (Keven Geddes), while right, she adores her new man (?), Fidelio (Nathalie Paulin). Photos by Louis Forget; courtesy of Opera Lafayette.

These were turbulent years; the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror were still in the rearview mirror and Napoleon’s armies were marching across Europe while Beethoven worked on the score.  A number of successful “rescue operas” were created in this period where spouses attempt to free their mates who have been unjustly incarcerated.  This theme resonated with Beethoven when he saw the libretto written by Jean-Nicholas Bouilly for composer Pierre Gaveaux’s highly successful French opera, Léonore, ou l’amour conjugal (1798).  The Maestro decided to take a try at it himself, not realizing the journey he was beginning.  Examining the relationship between Beethoven’s and Gaveaux’s Leonores was an important element of the OL’s Leonore Project; refer also to the blog report on my discussion with Ryan Brown.

left: Rocco (Stephen Hegedus) advises Jaquino (Kevin Geddes); right: Matthew Scolin as the evil prison governor,Pizarro. Photos by Louis Forget; courtesy of Opera Lafayette.

In about a year, Beethoven and his librettist, Joseph Sonnleithner, turned out Leonore, which premiered in Vienna in 1805.  It was a flop.  Napoleon’s army had just occupied Vienna and wealthy patrons had departed the city for their country retreats.  Many operas at the time were playing to half empty opera houses, and Leonore proved not to be an exception.  Furthermore, many opera-going patrons were unfamiliar with the German language and many felt the opera too long.  Beethoven was convinced to pair it down, make some changes, and the new version was presented in 1806, a modest success.  He revised it once more for an 1814 premiere that we now acclaim as his only opera, Fidelio.  So, ten years past, and the versions changed as the pressures on Beethoven changed and Beethoven as a composer changed.  There were some additions, deletions with the major changes being the number of acts trimmed from three to two, new overtures for each version, and a modified ending.  Interestingly, Beethoven wrote a fourth overture that was to be presented in an 1808 revival that never came off.  Fidelio is the version that has entrenched itself in today’s opera repertoire.  All three versions of the opera are known as Beethoven, Opus 72.

In the Leonore Project, OL did a great deal of research to understand Leonore in the context of its historical and musical landscape, a defining characteristic of Opera Lafayette in its mission to present modern premieres of works no longer presented today.  OL went so far as to present Gaveaux’s opera about Leonore back in 2017 and have turned that performance into a DVD available for purchase through Naxos.  OL also plays each of its performances using period instruments to present the music as authentically as possible.

Authentic, fine; where does the imagined part come in?  Often working from scores of operas from hundreds of years ago means working with a few surviving copies of handwritten scores; some interpreting is required.  In Leonore (1805)’s case, there was a missing section to Floristan’s Act III aria remembering his time with his wife.  Mr. Brown convinced his friend and colleague, musicologist and conductor Will Crutchfield to attempt a reconstruction of the missing piece, which he did using all available relevant materials.  I thought it worked.  It was beautiful and added emotional depth and continuity to the aria.

Rocco (Stephen Hegedus) and Leonore (Nathalie Paulin) find the secret prisoner, Floristan (Jean-Michel Richer) on the floor of the dungeon. Photo by Louis Forget; courtesy of Opera Lafayette.

The Stage Director, Oriol Tomas, and several members of the cast from 2017’s performance of Gaveaux’s opera were in the same roles, including tenor Jean-Michel Richer as Floristan, soprano Pascal Beaudin as Marzelline, tenor Kevin Geddes as Jacquino, Marzelline’s jilted admirer, and bass Alexandre Sylvestre as Don Fernando, the king’s minister to the province - one big difference was that they were singing in German, not French this time.  The stage set was also from the previous opera, a minimalist construct of beams and ropes suggesting a separation of space; additionally, there were period costumes, and a few props. In fact, for Leonore/Fidelio, little is needed for staging, a jailer’s quarters, a prison courtyard, and a dungeon, all grayish and grim.

The singers all performed well in their roles.  In addition to the singers named above, soprano Nathalie Paulin was Leonore; bass-baritone Stephen Hegedus sang the role of the jailer Rocco; and, bass-baritone Matthew Scollin played Pizzaro, the evil governor of the prison.  Ms. Paulin played Leonore with restraint, a demeanor one might expect of a cautious impostor; her lovely soprano voice, also restrained, served the role well.  Pascal Beaudin displayed an enjoyable flirtatious charm as Marzelline and sang with a light lilting soprano voice as well.  Keven Geddes as Jacquino displayed a lovely tenor voice and lovable charm. I enjoyed Mr. Hegedus’ voice and singing, though his acting could have used a bit more gravitas.  Mr. Scollin is an excellent bass-baritone and made an excellent villain, but I had a problem with his appearance as Hitler-like, breaking with the time period of the 18th century.  Tenor Jean-Michel Richer was a good choice for Floristan in appearance and voice.  The sound of the chorus was beautiful, but in their main aria in the courtyard, my preference would have been to have more voices in the men’s chorus; it’s an impressive aria whose impact would have been greater with more volume.

The king’s minister Don Fernando has arrived, freeing the political prisoners and saving Floristan (Jean-Michel Richer) and Leonore (Nathalie Paulin). Photo by Louis Forget; courtesy of Opera Lafayette.

In my view, the staging did not overcome two obstacles.  First, for me, Beethoven’s ending is too protracted; I also thought so of Fidelio’s; I was ready for it to be over before it was over.  Secondly, in the crucial scene where Leonore reveals her true identity to all in the dungeon, there were titters of laughter as each player registered their surprise.  I actually think both of these are the result of the difference between today’s and early nineteenth century audiences.  The wounds of the excesses of the French Revolution and Napoleon’s reign were fresh in audiences of the early nineteenth century, and Beethoven was providing the catharsis they needed.  Not so deeply felt today. It is interesting that the ending of Leonore exalts more the triumph of courage and love, while the ten-year later Fidelio ending emphasizes more freedom and the triumph of God’s will. The processing of the wounds was still ongoing in the early nineteenth century.

I have saved the best for last, Mr. Ryan and his 44-piece orchestra gave me a musical experience I shall long remember.  My seat was in the front row; I felt like I was seated in the orchestra.  I can’t say that it always sounded perfect, but the sound was marvelous.  Mr. Beethoven’s score is rich and so attuned to the action of the stage.  In fact, Beethoven’s score is fascinating and filled with motion and beauty as the different instruments and pairings come in and out with engaging melodies and counterpoint.  And I knew I was getting an experience of Beethoven as authentic as possible in the 21st century.  Some listeners might prefer the 1814 version and some might prefer the 1805 version.  I prefer both; I don’t want to miss any of Beethoven’s only opera.  Thank you, Opera Lafayette!

Fan Experience: Leonore (1805) was a one-off performance by Opera Lafayette.  There will be two more performances in New York City on March 2 and 4. 

Opera Lafayette’s next production will be Le Maréchal ferrant (The Blacksmith) in DC on May 11 and in NYC on May 14.

DC audiences will have an opportunity to see Beethoven’s Fidelio performed by Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center on October 24, 30, November 1, 4, 7, and 9.

NYC audiences will have an opportunity to see Fidelio performed by the Metropolitan Opera from November 30 to December 23.