Festival of New American Music Part II

Saturday Afternoon

 

Lara Downes (1973-  ), piano 

Florence Price (1887–1953):  Clouds

Stephanie Ann Boyd (b. 1990):  My Grandmother’s Garden(world premiere)

Mary Kouyoumdjian(b. 1983):Aghavni(2009)

Florence Price:  Meditation(1929)

Abbey Lincoln (1930–2010):  Caged Bird (with Magos Herrera, mezzo)

Marta Valdés (b. 1934):  ¿Hacia Dónde? (with Magos Herrera, mezzo)

Margaret Bonds (1913–1972): Tangamerican

Elena Ruehr(b. 1963): Quiet Streets.  This piece includes a small instrumental ensemble which remains invisible.

I read that Lara grew up in San Francisco near the beach.  She has a very distinctive style of playing which very much suits and brings alive these pieces, which are all by women.

Festival of New American Music

I am currently watching the 43rd Annual Festival of New American Music at Sac State.  Normally I would drive over the bridge and go inside, but this year it is a virtual festival.  Probably the artists aren't even in town.

Sunday

It began with a Gala Concert featuring Hub New Music, Lara Downes and Loadbang.  I think the way this festival works is a member of the faculty is assigned to organize it, and then the artists reflect that person's taste.  They are trying to feature female composers.

Monday

Monday an entire concert featured Hub New Music, an ensemble of Michael Avitabile, flute; Nicholas Brown, clarinet; Alyssa Wang, violin; and Jesse Christeson, cello. The flute doubles on piccolo, and the clarinet doubles on bass clarinet.   I liked this combination of instruments.

Kati Agócs (b. 1975):  Rogue Emoji (2019) 

Takuma Ito (b. 1984):  Wavelengths (2019) 

Hannah Lash (b. 1981):  The Nature of Breaking (2020) 

1. Refractions 
2. In remembrance of 
3. Time/place4.Hold nearly

 

Tuesday

 

Next loadbang reappeared.  This is a wind ensemble featureing Andy Kozar, trumpet; William Lang, trombone; Adrián Sandí, bass clarinet; and Jeffrey Gavett, baritone voice.  For me this ensemble is a little strange.  Maybe I'm just out of touch.  The baritone behaves like just another wind instrument and basically just makes sounds. 

Angélica Negrón (1981):  Dóabin (2016)

Heather Stebbins (1987):  Quiver (2014)

Chaya Czernowin (1957):  IRRATIONAL (2019)

Eve Beglarian (1958):  Island of the Sirens (2011)

Li Qi (1990):  Like a Dream (2018)

Paula Matthusen (1974):  old fires catch old buildings (2016)

You can see from the dates of the pieces listed that this music is indeed very new.  Perhaps it is too new for my old ears.  Loadbang appeared again on Wednesday afternoon to present a program of pieces by students at Sac State

Wednesday

Tony Arnold, soprano will perform this evening.  Her repertoire is not quite as exotic as the other performers.  There are men, and I've actually heard of these people.  I will report additional information after I've heard this.  No accompanist is listed, so we will see.  And what we see is her singing alone.

Carlos Sánchez-Gutiérrez (b. 1964):  ChanceForest Interludes(2015)  Short vocal pieces, each dramatized.  It's in English.  Each small piece has a literary quote to introduce it.

Chaya Czernowin(b. 1957):  Adiantum Capillus-Veneris I (2015)  Sounds.  No words.  Breathing sounds.

Luciano Berio (1925–2003):  Sequenza III(1966)  This has words though they are not understandable.  She calls herself Screamer, but when she screams her face turns red.

Kaija Saariaho(b. 1952):  Lonh(1996)  This is very much accompanied, both instrumentally and vocally.  The text is in English and is about love from a distance.  I'm going to guess that it is in anticipation of L'Amour de Loin, her opera which came 4 years later.  I'm enjoying this the most.  Saariaho is a wonderful composer.

This was all astoundingly amusing.

The Snow Queen

Conductor Cornelius Meister
Production Andreas Kriegenburg 

Gerda Barbara Hannigan
Kay Rachael Wilson
Kay Thomas Gräßle
Grandmother/Old Lady/Finn Woman Katarina Dalayman
Snow Queen/Reindeer/Clock Peter Rose
Princess Caroline Wettergreen
Prince Dean Power
Forest Crow Kevin Conners
Castle Crow Owen Wil
  
The Snow Queen by Hans Abrahamsen from Denmark was written for Barbara Hannigan.  This is her Fach.  It is more of a sound scape than an opera, though the singing, in English, is reasonably pleasant.  Hannigan can sing anything.  It is dated 2019 and premiered in Copenhagen.  Here it streamed live on Saturday from the Bayerische Staatsoper.

As soon as two nurses appear, we know we are in a hospital of some kind.  There is snow everywhere, even inside.   To begin an older woman is reading to children about a queen bee in the snow.  Then the story shifts to people.  Gerda is trying to rescue her husband Kay.  The Snow Queen is a baritone.  Just go with it.

The star here is the orchestra who create a rather fascinating mixture of sounds that never settle into anything tonal.  It's very heavy on percussion.

We move into the forest where Gerda meets two crows, a Prince and a Princess.  They tell her they will help her, but she must rest.  This music is very pleasing.  Gerda is looking for Kay who lies quietly and stares.  Gerda and Kay have known one another since childhood.  This is communicated by showing younger people at different ages dressed in the same outfits.  One of the younger Kay characters sings but the adult Kay so far only stares.  Where did they find someone who could go so long without blinking?  There is an uncanny Barbara Hannigan look alike who says nothing.

Each character has multiple incarnations, but only one of each sings.  That means that most of the story telling comes from the production.  You could stage this completely differently.

Did I like it?  It's rather like a long tone poem.  I wouldn't need to do it again.  Barbara Hannigan was her usual magnificent self.

Akhnaten in HD

👍🏻
Conductor.................Karen Kamensek
Production................Phelim McDermott

Akhnaten................Anthony Roth Costanzo (countertenor)
Nefertiti, his wife.....J'Nai Bridges (contralto)
Queen Tye, his mother...Dísella Lárusdóttir (soprano)
Amenhotep III, ghost of his father....Zachary James (speaking)
Aye, Nefertiti's father............Richard Bernstein (bass)
High Priest of Amon............Aaron Blake (tenor)
General Horemhab........Will Liverman (baritone)

This performance of Akhnaten from the Metropolitan Opera is my seventh opera by Philip Glass, the others being Einstein on the Beach (live), Satyagraha (live), Appomattox (live), The Perfect American, Orphée (live), and Hydrogen Jukebox (live).  Surely this must make me something of an expert.  All around me were experiencing a Glass opera for the first time.

The story is told on three levels.

1. Captions appear on the screen describing what is going on in this scene.  "Coronation of Akhnaten" for example.  
2. There is an English speaking narrator who represents the spirit of Amenhotep III and quotes characters from the opera.  
3. Action by the singers and actors on the stage show the actions.

The narrative method of most operas is missing.  People in conversation telling their own emotions does not happen.  What does happen that I haven't seen before is juggling.  Everyone juggles.  Sometimes a juggler would drop his ball, and at the end they all do.  I was especially pleased to see an Egyptian tomb painting shown in the intermission of women juggling.  So does juggling belong in the list above?

Akhnaten was an idealist, obsessed with the sun, in love with his wife and wishing to separate himself from the politics of his era.  I felt that this music and theatrical presentation represented his life in a profound way that could not have been imagined, at least by me.

There was only one real aria for which text was provided:  The Hymn to the Sun by Akhnaten.  The singing was beautiful if completely abstract.  The costumes were gorgeous and represented the exalted nature of their status in Egypt.

As a Glass expert, I declare this to be his masterpiece.  Here is an excerpt from the "Hymn to the Sun."


 

Florencia en el Amazonas

Conductor: Christopher Allen
Stage Director: Nicholas Muni

Singers: Jennifer Schuler, Andrew René, Zoe Johnson, Matt Arnold, Jacob Wright, Karl Buttermann, Kathleen Felty. Lindsay Mecher, Cameron Jackson, Eric Powell

At last I have found a film of  Daniel Catán's opera Florencia en el Amazonas, 1996, from Stevens Center, Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  The strength of Daniel Catán's work is that he writes beautifully for the voice. This opera plays everywhere except somewhere near me.

She is going up river to visit the opera house at Manaus, the same house that Pavarotti visits in the film of the same name.  This part of the story is real.

Our Amazon is full of magical beings, people that disappear and things that go wrong.  And lots of big singing.  Florencia is a famous opera singer, and the boat she is traveling in is filled with fans who do not recognize her.  This includes Rosalba who hopes to interview her.  At the end of Act I there is a storm which eliminates some of the characters.

I would describe this opera as neo-verismo.  To make the best effect it requires first class singers.  These people are working too hard.  The set is dark throughout, and there were no subtitles. 

Breaking The Waves at West Edge

Conductor: Jonathan Khuner
Director: .. Mark Streshinsky

Bess McNeill:.....................  Sara LeMesh (soprano)
Jan Nyman: ......................... .Robert Wesley Mason  (baritone)
Dodo McNeill: . ....................Kindra Scharich  (mezzo-soprano)
Dr. Richardson:  ....................Alex Boyer  (tenor)
Mrs. McNeill, Sara's mother:  Kristin Clayton (soprano)
Terry: .................................... Brandon Bell (bass-baritone) 

Breaking The Waves (2016), music by Missy Mazzoli, libretto by Royce Vavrek, was presented by West Edge Opera at The Bridge Yard in Oakland on Saturday night.  We are in rural Calvinist Scotland in the 1970s.  I think we may assume this was around the time that oil was discovered in the North Sea.  They keep referring to "the rig" which we may assume is an oil rig off the shore.

The community, or the ones in charge at least, do not like outsiders.  Sara, a child of the community, has fallen in love with Jan, a worker on the rig who is from Norway.  Dodo is another outsider who was married to Sara's brother who died.  Dodo and Sara are close.  Jan and Sara marry and are happy at first.  Soon Jan must return to working on the rig.  People don't think these things through.

The atmosphere was well captured by the production, and atmosphere is almost all there is.  Church fathers hover over everything.  Sara is very religious and prays constantly.  Unexpectedly, God answers through her.  This is a really tough part.  Jan is injured and asks Sara to go out and have sexual experiences and report back to him.  Her personality gradually disintegrates.  This is a true tragedy.  Her casket is sent out to sea, the only reference to waves. 

The music is pleasing and was well performed.  The orchestration included a synthesizer and an electric guitar.  My favorite of the singers was Kindra Scharich, but I usually go for the mezzos.

The Bridge Yard is very hard to find and very close to the freeway.  Most of the time the sound from the freeway was not disturbing.  The acoustics were not favorable to light voices.

If I Were You

Jake Heggie coaching the two Brittomaras.  The pearl cast left, emerald right.

👍🏻
Conductor:  Nicole Paiement
Director:  Keturah Stickann

Brittomara (Mephistopheles): Brennan Blankenship
Fabian (Faust): Nicholas Huff
Diana (Gretchen): Anne-Marie MacIntosh
Selena: Elisa Sunshine
Putnam: Rafael Porto
Paul: Timothy Murray
David: Brandon Scott Russell
Rachel: Edith Grossman
Jonathan: Edward Laurenson

If I Were You by Jake Heggie, librettist Gene Scheer, was commissioned for and presented by this summer's Merola Opera Program at the San Francisco Opera. This is the first work commissioned by Merola, and this is its world premier.  The one requirement is that there must be a lot of roles.  The first four characters were double cast and ours was the emerald cast.  I'm going to try to explain this.

There are a few theatrical elements that need to be explained.  Brittomara appears various times throughout the opera in different outfits but always with red hair.  She is an ambulance attendant, an auto mechanic, a waitress, etc.  There are electrical flashes that seem to be entertaining but meaningless.  My friend and I discussed this at length and finally concluded that this was the device with two paddles that medical professionals use to revive someone whose heart has stopped.  Brittomara refuses to let Fabian die because she wants his soul.

We also argued over whether or not this was a Faust plot.  The final plot element that requires explaining is the major plot element.  Fabian falls for Diana, named for the goddess, whom he meets at the auto mechnic.  Initially she takes no notice of him.  He gives the devil his soul in order that he may become someone Diana would be interested in.  Most of the other characters are his reincarnations.  There are magic words and loud flashing sounds when the transfer takes place.

So "If I were you" followed by advice, advice, advice, isn't it at all.  It's if I were actually you and robbed you of your soul.  For me it almost worked.  I enjoyed the part after the intermission more than the earlier parts.  Our Diana, Anne-Marie MacIntosh, I enjoyed very much, but now that we've settled the argument, I'd like to see it again.

Moral of the story:  don't give away your soul.  It's the best thing you've got.

Bon Appétit!

Joyce Castle as Julia Child

👍🏻
Bon Appétit! by Lee Hoiby, the one act opera about Julia Child, streamed today from Des Moines Metro Opera.  It's presented with dinner.

Here is the official menu for the evening, provided by the chefs at the Iowa Culinary Institute:

Chilled Vichyssoise; Pissaladière; Asperges et Tomates en Vinaigrette; Suprêmes de Volaille aux Champignons; Boeuf Bourguignon; Salmon Choulibiac; Cheese Soufflé with essence of Truffle; Ratatouille; Rice Pilaf with Summer Vegetables; Le Gâteau au Chocolat ‘Eminence Brune’; Pain au Levain.

It may not be possible to describe this.  The accompaniment is on the piano.  The musical style can be described as modern recitative.  "If you have a self-cleaning kitchen like mine," she says.  This is because invisible gremlins scurry around and fix any problems.  In Julia's version we never saw them.

It is utterly charming, a bit more manic than Julia herself, but loads of fun.  She whips her egg whites into perfect peaks.  It runs 30 minutes like a real television show.  They're putting it on YouTube, so look for it.

I have recently begun to complain about the absence of American opera on streaming platforms, so take advantage of this rare opportunity.  It's coming to Opera Parallèle in the Bay Area in the new year.

_________________________________

Apparently Julia Child is relatively unknown outside the United States.  Besides being a television star, her main claim to fame was that she translated European recipes into the measuring systems used in the US.

It's an OK Life

Conductor: Patrick Summers
Director: Leonard Foglia

Clara, Angel Second Class:  Kearstin Piper Brown
A Voice: Patti LuPone
Angels First Class: Sarah Cambidge, Ashley Dixon, Amitai Pati, Christian Pursell 
George Bailey: William Burden
Mr. Potter: Rod Gilfry
Uncle Billy Bailey: Keith Jameson
Mary Hatch: Andriana Chuchman
Harry Bailey: Joshua Hopkins

I saw Jake Heggie's It's a Wonderful Life yesterday.  We missed Golda Schultz as Clara.  Her replacement was often covered by the orchestra.  The picture above is Clara getting her Angel First Class wings.  Obviously this is an opera based on a movie.  Other such operas are Orphée by Philip Glass and The Exterminating Angel by Thomas Adès, which seemed to work better.

I wish I liked this, but I didn't.  There were too many words, words not clearly enunciated by all but William Burden.  This meant much staring at the subtitles which were slightly small for me.  Too much talk, not enough arias.  There were even long stretches of spoken dialog so more words could be fit in.  When Clara gets her wings, she needs an aria.  When George and Mary get married, they need a duet.  I could go on and on.  It ended well, but it was too long to wait for this.

I don't pan many things.  After all, I loved Moby Dick.  No thank you.  This seems to be strictly for people who love the movie.

Die sieben Todsünden

Die sieben Todsünden [Seven Deadly Sins], 1993, by Kurt Weill with text by Bertolt Brecht, directed by Peter Sellars, represents the intersection of two of my obsessions:  Weill and Sellars.  One will probably run out soon, but the other is forever.  This work is called a ballet with song.

Conductor:  Kent Nagano
Director: Peter Sellars
Choreographer:  Donald Byrd

Anna I     soprano, Teresa Stratas
Anna II dancer, Nora Kimball
Brother baritone, Frank Kelley
Mother bass, Peter Rose
Father first tenor, Howard Haskin
Brother second tenor, Herbert Perry

A:  Prolog  Anna I sings, she is from Louisiana.
1:  Sloth    Family sing.
2:  Pride (Memphis)   Anna I sings, Anna II dances.
3:  Anger (Los Angeles) Family sings, Anna I and II are arrested.
4:  Gluttony  (Philadelphia)  She writes her family.  One of the guys is wearing an As jacket.
5:  Lust  (Boston) They are hooking, Anna II has a pimp and gives him her money.  Strife.
6:  Avarice  (Baltimore) She's a celebrity?  Golf.  Family sing.
7:  Envy  (San Francisco)  Anna sings.  Wrath is kindled by injustice.  Definitely San Francisco.
Z:  Epilog  They're home, but they don't look happy.

This is fun, the music is nicely played and sung but one grows tired of the endless closeups which seem always too close.  One might wish to see it in a theater.  I get the impression this was originally performed as a ballet in Lyon 6 years earlier.  I might have preferred that.  Faces without context don't make a story.  I will need to see other versions.

#ad

George Benjamin's Lessons in Love and Violence

?, Mortimer, son, Isabel, daughter, ?

George Benjamin | Conductor, Composer
Martin Crimp | Libretto
Katie Mitchell | Stage director

Stéphane Degout: King
Barbara Hannigan: Isabel, King's wife
Gyula Orendt: Gaveston, King's lover/Stranger
Peter Hoare: Mortimer, a courtier
Samuel Boden: Boy/Young King
Jennifer France: Witness 1/Singer 1/Woman 1
Krisztina Szabó: Witness 2/Singer 2/Woman 2
Andri Björn Robertsson: Witness 3/Madman

This is a free live stream from the Royal Opera House in London of George Benjamin's Lessons in Love and Violence.  It's an historical plot about King Edward II (25 April 1284 – 21 September 1327) who was deposed in a manner similar to what is shown here.

Modern Operas, a list

This is my list of operas since 1976. I have seen the ones in bold.  Updated January 2019.

The Martyrdom of saint Magnus 1976 Davies
Einstein on the Beach 1976 Glass
We Come to the River 1976 Henze
The Voyage of Edgar Allen Poe 1976 Argento
The Women in the Garden 1977 Fine*
Le Grand Macabre 1977 Ligeti
Lear 1978 Reimann
The Red Line 1978 Sallinen
The Lighthouse 1979 Davies
King Harald's Saga 1979 Weir
The Village Singer 1979 Paulus
Sweeney Todd 1979 Sondheim
Donnerstag aus Licht 1980 Stockhausen
Satyagraha 1981 Glass
The Postman Always Rings Twice 1982 Paulus
The English Cat 1983 Henze
The Juniper Tree 1985 Glass and Moran
Thomas 1985 Rautavaara
Akhnaten 1983 Glass
Saint Francois d'Assise 1983 Messiaen
Un re in ascolto 1984 Berio
The Mask Of Orpheus 1984 Birtwhistle
Samstag aus Licht 1984 Stockhausen
The man who mistook his wife for a hat 1986 Nyman
Nixon in China 1987 Adams
Europeras 1 & 2 1987 John Cage
A Night at the Chinese opera 1987 Weir
The Aspern Papers 1987  Argento
Into the Woods 1987 Sondheim
Montag aus Licht 1988 Stockhausen
Greek 1988 Turnage
Hydrogen Jukebox 1990 Glass
The death of Klinghoffer 1991 Adams
Gawain 1991 Birtwhistle
The ghosts of Versailles 1991 Corigliano
Dienstag aus Licht 1991 Stockhausen
Mary of Egypt 1991 Taverner
Life with an idiot 1992 Schnittke
McTeague 1992 Bolcom
Orphée 1993 Glass
Blond Eckbert 1994 Weir
La Belle et la Bête 1994 Glass
The Dangerous Liaisons 1994 Susa
Harvey Milk 1995 Wallace
Powder Her Face 1995 Ades
Florencia en el Amazonas 1996 Catán
Der Koenig Kandaules 1996 Zemlinski
Rent 1996 Larson
Regina 1997 Blitzstein
Venus and Adonis 1997 Henze
A Streetcar Named Desire 1998 Previn
Little Women 1998 Adamo
A View from the Bridge 1999 Bolcom
Flight 1999 Dove
The Great gatsby 1999 Harbison
L'Amour de Loin 2000 Saariaho
Dead Man Walking 2000 Heggie
El Niño 2000 Adams
Princess Magogo kaDinuzulu 2002 Mzilikazi Khumalo
Sophie's Choice 2002 Maw
Tea, a Mirror of Soul 2002 Dun
Galileo Galilei 2002 Glass
A Christmas Carol 2003 Menken
The Little Prince 2003 Portman
L'Upupa Und Der Triumph Der Sohnesliebe 2003 Henze
Welfare: the opera 2004 Picket
Doctor Atomic 2005 Adams
The Tempest 2005 Ades
Margaret Garner 2005 Danielpour
Grendel 2005 Goldenthal
An America Tragedy 2005 Picker
Ainadamar 2005 Golijov
The Passenger  2006  Weinberg
The First Emperor 2006 Dun
Adriana Mater 2006 Saariaho
Appomattox 2007 Glass
Phaedra 2007 Henze
Glory Denied 2007 Cipullo
The End of the Affair 2007 Heggie
The Minotaur 2008 Birtwistle
The Bonesetter’s Daughter 2008 Wallace
The Letter 2009 Moravec
Il Postino 2010  Catán
Moby Dick 2010 Heggie
Heart of a Soldier 2011 Theofanidis
Anna Nicole 2011 Turnage
Kommilitonen 2011 Davies
Death and the Powers 2011 Machover
Silent Night 2011 Puts
Two Boys 2011 Muhly
The Gospel According to the Other Mary 2012 Adams
Written on Skin 2012 Benjamin
The Secret Garden 2013 Gasser
The Perfect American 2013 Glass
Spuren der Verirrten 2013 Glass
The Gospel of Mary Magdalene 2013 Adamo
Dolores Claiborne 2013 Picker
The Trial 2014 Glass
Bonjour, M. Gaugin 2013 Carlone
Brokeback Mountain 2014 Wuorinen
27  2014 Gordon
Anya17   2014 Gorb
As One 2014 Kaminsky
Paul's Case 2014 Spears
Usher House 2014 Getty
Great Scott 2014 Heggie
Cold Mountain 2015 Higdon
La Ciociara 2015 Tutino
Bel Canto 2015 Lopez
Charlie Parker's Yardbird 2015 Schnyder
Autumn Sonata 2016 Fagerlund
Breaking the Waves 2016 Mazzoli
Sister Carrie 2016 Aldridge
Dream of the Red Chamber 2016 Sheng
Cinderella 2016 Deutscher
The Exterminating Angel 2016 Adès
Girls of the Golden West 2017 Adams
Marnie 2017 Muhly
(R)Evolution of Steve Jobs 2017 Bates
Hamlet. 2017 Brett Dean
It’s A Wonderful Life 2017 Heggie
Hadrian 2018 Wainwright
The Skating Rink! 2018 Sawer
Harriet's Spirit 2018 Shelby
Lessons in Love and Violence  2018 Benjamin
Ice 2019 Kuusisto
The Hours 2022 Puts

If I were You 2019 Heggie

Bon Appetit 2019 Hoiby

I won't comment on the ones I haven't seen. Of the ones I have seen, I would put them into these categories:

Great works: Saint Francis, L'Amour, Moby Dick, Ainadamar

Excellent operas: Nixon, Le Grand Macabre, Satyagraha, Dead Man, Ghosts, Orphée, Florencia

Ok, I guess: Little Women, Lighthouse, Atomic, Liaisons

Boring: Streetcar, Lear, Klinghoffer

AAAAh!: Sweeney Todd

I have promoted Atomic to ok. After all, if you closed your eyes and imagined you were at the symphony, it was very nice. I should look into Schnittke and Stockhausen. Akhnaten actually sounds interesting. With a Glass opera it helps if you are on drugs. With Satyagraha you must view the opera in a meditative trance state. Don't fight it.

The Tempest has received very good reviews. This is a major area of interest for me. I am maintaining this list as I go along, adding any new operas.

Girls of the Golden West

Hye Jung Lee, Julia Bullock, J'Nai Bridges 

Here are our Girls of the Golden West, a new opera by John Adams on a libretto assembled by Peter Sellars.  I say assembled because there is no evidence he wrote any of these words himself.  The characters of the opera represent real people whose words are used.  Some of the words are from a speech by Frederick Douglas and were sung by Davóne Tines.  An opera about California should start in California at the San Francisco Opera.

Conductor Grant Gershon *
Director Peter Sellars

Clarence (bass-baritone) Ryan McKinny *
Dame Shirley (soprano) Julia Bullock *
Ned Peters, fugitive slave (bass-baritone) Davóne Tines *
Joe Cannon (tenor) Paul Appleby
Ah Sing (soprano) Hye Jung Lee
Ramón (baritone) Elliot Madore
Josefa Segovia (mezzo-soprano) J'Nai Bridges
Lola Montez (dancer) Lorena Feijóo
Fayette, Dame Shirley's husband (silent) Kai Brothers

Up by the proscenium were what appeared to be speakers. Toward the end of the opera I experienced pain in my ears which I attribute to these.

There are many many stories and little continuity.  Joe Cannon is abandoned by his girl friend in Missouri and takes up with Ah Sing, a prostitute.  Joe secretly marries Ah Sing who thinks she has it made.  Joe and the crowd then turn on her and drive her off.

Dame Shirley portrays Lady Macbeth along with her narrator role.  Her husband Fayette is seen, but she spends most of her time with Ned.

I have seen Peter Sellars' work as a director of other people's works in his original Da Ponte/Mozart trio of operas, in Vivaldi's Griselda at Santa Fe, in The Death of Klinghoffer in San Francisco, in Theodora from Glyndebourne, in the Bach St. Matthew Passion from Berlin and in last summer's La Clemenza di Tito from Salzburg.  I didn't wildly hate any of these though Griselda seemed beyond anyone.  In contrast I wildly loved the Bach and Clemenza di Tito.  This was a great surprise for me.  Theodora was also excellent.

The list of his text assemblages that I have seen consists of El Nino, Doctor Atomic, and his newest Girls.  El Nino was rather like an oratorio and might have worked if I had seen it live or in a split screen filming.  Other people liked Doctor Atomic better than I did.  But assembling fragments of only roughly unrelated texts into something that only approximates a story doesn't work for me.

Sellars seems to be seeking to transform the genre into something representing truth.  Real words are closer to truth than made up ones, I guess.  He hasn't yet sold me.

I don't want to leave this subject before mentioning how much I loved Julia Bullock whom I have never heard before.  Every note, every word was a diamond.  She raised her character to greatness.  J'Nai Bridges was also beautiful.  Adams' music was generally good but sometimes excruciatingly loud.  There were occasional scenes of greatness.

The guitar and the accordion did not make it into the program.

The Exterminating Angel

Conductor...............Thomas Adès
Production..............Tom Cairns

Edmundo De Nobile, host.......Joseph Kaiser
Lucía De Nobile, hostess......Amanda Echalaz

Guests
Leticia Maynar, guest of honor... Audrey Luna
Leonora Palma, flirts with Doctor Conde.....Alice Coote
Silvia De Ávila, sister of Francisco.........Sally Matthews
Francisco De Ávila, countertenor, brother of Silvia......Iestyn Davies
Blanca Delgado, pianist......Christine Rice
Alberto Roc, conductor.............Rod Gilfry
Beatriz, engaged to Eduardo..........Sophie Bevan
Eduardo, engaged to Beatriz..........David Portillo
Raúl Yebenes, explorer............Frédéric Antoun
Colonel Álvaro Gómez, Lucia's lover....David Adam Moore
Señor Russell...........Kevin Burdette
Doctor Carlos Conde.....John Tomlinson

Servants
Julio, stays behind.....Christian Van Horn
Lucas...................John Irvin
Enrique.................Ian Koziara
Pablo...................Paul Corona
Meni....................Mary Dunleavy
Camila..................Catherine Cook
Servant.................Andrea Coleman
Servant.................Marc Persing

Padre Sansón............Jeff Mattsey
Yoli, child.................Lucas Mann

The Metropolitan Opera live streamed The Exterminating Angel by Thomas Adès. The opera is based on the 1962 film by Luis Buñuel which I have never seen.  In the 60s there was a global movement in art movies of which this is a representative.

I didn't prepare for this opera, and that turned out to be fortuitous.  When the ending came, I was pleasingly surprised.  Many of the cast were in the premiere at Salzburg in 2016.

Some guests have been to a performance of Lucia di Lammermoor and are invited to an after party.  One of the guests, Leticia, performed Lucia in the opera.  Right away the servants begin to flee.  No explanation is offered.  Then after the dinner the guests find they cannot leave.  Again no explanation is offered.

Apparently Adès has been obsessed with this subject for some years and finally received permission.  He is a composer in the modernist style with screeching sopranos and jumpy melodic lines.  I don't find it particularly attractive.  I did enjoy seeing and hearing the Ondes Martenot which was shown in closeup being played.  There was a lot of drumming.  At times it seemed like a comedy.  It wasn't as grotesque as I had imagined.

Over the course of the opera Russell and Beatriz die.  The guests dig a hole in the floor and water comes up.  The brother and sister seem to be romantically attracted to each other.  An unknown amount of time passes.  There were live sheep at the beginning which were eaten when everyone was starving.  There was someone hovering in the air above one of the women who might have been the exterminating angel himself.

For no apparent reason everyone decided to repeat exactly what they did when they arrived, and this seemed to break the spell.  They could then leave as though nothing had happened.

This is supposed to be a great opera but there are far too many characters.  It did make me curious to see the movie.  Alice Coote thought it was a parable on life which is also entirely without explanation.  We are here.  We cannot leave.  We don't know why.  Forgive me if I have misquoted her intentions.

I am not likely to ever be a fan of Thomas Adès.  For me opera is about singing which never became interesting.  People admire his orchestration and that is both the virtue and the fault of this piece.  Instead of composing for singers, he has simply orchestrated them.  At least in The Tempest there was the charming music for Ariel, but I heard nothing here that I would wish to ever hear again.  I would advise any high soprano to refuse any offers to sing this.  It can't possibly be good for your voice.
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Autumn Sonata

Autumn Sonata was a 1978 Swedish film by Ingmar Bergman, and now it is a Swedish opera by Sebastian Fagerlund with libretto in Swedish by Gunilla Hemming. It is being presented by the Finnish National Opera and streamed over Operavision.

Conductor: John Storgårds
Director: Stéphane Braunschweig

Charlotte Andergast, concert pianist: Anne Sofie von Otter
Eva, daughter of Charlotte:  Erika Sunnegårdh
Viktor, husband of Eva: Tommi Hakala
Helena, daughter of Charlotte: Helena Juntunen
Leonardo, dead cellist, Charlotte's lover: Nicholas Söderlund
Chorus

The family is introduced in modernist music, and then we shift to a recital.  The audience ask one another if they have heard her versions of Beethoven's Pathetique or Hammerklavier Sonatas.  She doesn't play, but the audience remains.  Mother Charlotte is returning to see her children after 7 years on tour.  The family live in the country where it is autumn.

Charlotte tells her daughter that she bought her pantsuit in Zurich on Bahnhof Strasse.  I picture this, having been to Zurich a number of times.  Both Charlotte and Eva hold their hands over the keyboard but neither plays.  Anne Sofie von Otter is herself a great lady and easily creates the aura of a famous person.  The audience stays on stage throughout the first scene, but eventually a curtain descends blocking them.

In the years that Charlotte has been away Eva has taken Helena, who is mentally disabled, out of the institution where Charlotte left her and is keeping her at home.  This adds an element of madness.  Also in those years Eva and Viktor had a son Erik who has since died.

There is a scene, sort of an aria, where Charlotte gets ready for bed.  She takes drugs and reads the Frankfurter Allgemeine--Germany's most distinguished newspaper--among other things, every night before sleep.  She does her bookkeeping.  Then she lies down with her sleeping mask and the chorus reappears.  They seem more a Greek chorus than an audience.  I rather like this part.

Helena wakes up and begins wailing loudly, waking Eva and Charlotte.  They get into a loud argument.  I've never seen the movie.  Is it about families whining?  They talk at each other simultaneously, one complaining about adolescent worries and the other about career problems.  Is it always like this?  My son as an adult tells me about things he didn't like as a child.  As a child, he said nothing.

Our Charlotte explains that through music she could express her own emotions.  Yes.  I remember saying once that parts of me existed only when singing.  Each is damaged by their own parents and cannot see that they, too, are damaged.

The chorus leaves and the sun comes up.  Helena gets out of bed and walks into the other room.  She sings about a visit from Leonardo and seems quite sensible.  We still hear the chorus which is back to being an audience.  Charlotte changes her mind and calls her manager to book her a concert.

It works rather beyond ones expectations. The atmosphere builds as it goes along to a pleasing intensity enhanced by the imaginative use of chorus.

Wozzeck from Salzburg

Vladimir Jurowski | Conductor 
William Kentridge | Stage director

Matthias Goerne | Wozzeck
John Daszak | Drum Major
Mauro Peter | Andres
Gerhard Siegel | Captain
Jens Larsen | Doctor
Tobias Schabel | First Apprentice
Huw Montague Rendall | Second Apprentice
Heinz Göhrig | Madman
Asmik Grigorian | Marie
Frances Pappas | Margret

This is the live stream of Berg's Wozzeck from the Salzburg Festival.  There are puppets. There is Matthias Goerne.  This is a great role for him.  Dark and weird is probably just the right production for this opera.  I still don't like Wozzeck.  The production overwhelms the action.

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Pointillism

The topic of pointillism came up in a conversation in Facebook, so I thought I would do a blog post.

Pointillism started out as an art term and refers to what Georges Seurat was doing with little dots.  Each dot seems to have nothing to do with those around it.  When you stand back from the painting, there is a picture.

Music adopted this word to mean that in twentieth century music each individual note seems to have nothing to do with those around it.  Emphasis is on the word "seems."   In the Schoenberg school Klangfarbenmelodie [tone color melody] is said to represent this.  It looks very strange on an orchestral score, but when played, sounds like a tune with a lot of different instrumental colors.

I'm only familiar with the term applied to melodic lines designed for opera singers.  Traditionally a melody is constructed from notes similar in pitch.  A pointillistic melody jumps around to different far apart pitches, sometimes in different octaves and was a significant feature of modernist opera.

This aria from Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre is the best example I could find.  It features the great Barbara Hannigan.



John Adams jettisoned most of modernism for Nixon in China, but he kept the jumping around in pitch.  This example is minimalism.



Do these examples still have melodies?  Decide for yourself.  As you were.

Tartuffe

Conductor:  Brian O'Donnell
Director:  Omari Tau

Orgon:  Justin Ramm-Damron, bass
Madame Pernelle, his mother:  Paige Kelly, mezzo-soprano
Elmire, his wife: Nicole James, soprano
Damis, his son:  Jordan Krack, baritone
Mariane, his daughter:  Tatiana Grabciuc, soprano
Valere, Mariane's fiance:  Robert Vann, tenor
Dorine, maid:  Gia Battista, soprano
Flipote, maid:  Juanita Iniguez
Tartuffe:  Walter Aldrich, baritone

CSUS opera workshop presented Kirke Mechem's Tartuffe.  Wikipedia says this opera premiered on May 27, 1980, at the San Francisco Opera, though there is no mention of it in the archive and I was a season ticket holder at the time.  My memory consultant says this would have been Spring Opera, a second tier company that existed at the time.  It is a number opera with arias and ensembles, and makes an excellent opera for an opera workshop because many of the roles have musical substance.  Our performance was accompanied by a full orchestra from VITA Academy conducted by Brian O'Donnell.  The theater department provided the production, as was always the case in my day.

The picture above looks a lot like our Tartuffe except ours had much thinner legs.  This was fully staged and not semi-staged as advertised.  Dorine is a distinctively Despina-like character who gives advice and noses in on pretty much everything.

The opera is after the play by Molière which is subtitled "The hypocrite."  He pretends virtue while conning people out of their wives and goods.  It was censored by Louis XIV to please his archbishop. 

Orgon is fascinated by the very virtuous Tartuffe whom he sees at mass.  Then he invites him to live in his house.  Everyone in Orgon's family hates Tartuffe.  Orgon announces that Mariane will marry Tartuffe which brings the action to a head.  It has a happy ending.

It would have benefited from some improved diction but was fun.  The composer was clearly interested in writing music for operatic singers, something that is not all that common in the post-Puccini world.

Flight

Conductor:  Nicole Paiement
Director:  Brian Staufenbiel

Refugee (countertenor).... Tai Oney
Controller (soprano) .........Nikki Einfeld
Bill (tenor) ........................Chaz'men.Williams-Ali
Tina, Bill's wife (soprano). Amina Edris
Stewardess (mezzo-soprano) Maya Yahav Gour
Older Woman (contralto) ...Catherine Cook
Steward (baritone) ............Hadleigh Adams
Minskman (baritone) ...........Eugene Brancoveanu
Minskwoman (mezzo-soprano) ...Renée Rapier
Immigration Officer (bass-baritone) ..Philip Skinner

More Lulu

This is the amazing Barbara Hannigan on her experience with singing Lulu. Lulu may possibly be the most complex role in opera. She grows as ones familiarity with her grows.