Dialogues des Carmélites in HD

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Conductor...............Yannick-Nézet-Séguin
Production..............John Dexter

Blanche de la Force.....Isabel Leonard
Madame de Croissy.....Karita Mattila
Madame Lidoine........Adrianne Pieczonka
Mother Marie.............Karen Cargill
Sister Constance........Erin Morley

Dialogues des Carmélites by Francis Poulenc brings the 2018-19 HD season to an end.  When I saw this opera in San Francisco long ago, it was in this same production, only in English.  This is my first time in French.  Poulenc, who lived before supertitles, wanted the opera performed in the language of the audience.  The production follows the historical context of the French Revolution while creating a context through abstractions.  The giant white cross will stay in memory forever.

The opera begins in the home of Blanche de la Force with her father and brother.  Her brother worries that she is always afraid while her father dismisses just about everything she says.  But when she tells him she wishes to join the Carmelite convent, he doesn't refuse.

The convent of Carmelite nuns is changing.  There are two novices, Blanche and Constance, and the mother superior is dying.  Isabel and Erin are charming in their relationship throughout the opera.  Karita Mattila plays her death scene to the ultimate extreme.  It is frightening to watch.  The opera is about death, so I suppose this is one extreme.

After she dies, a new mother superior is sent in from outside:  Madame Lidoine.  Adrianne Pieczonka played her very low key.

Blanche provides the story.  She loves the private life and prayer, but news of the outside world seeps into the seclusion of the convent.  The nuns agree to commit to becoming martyrs.  Even Constance agrees.  All but Blanche agree.

Her brother comes to warn her she is in danger.  The priest is removed from his position and tries to escape.  Finally they are all arrested and forced to give up their nun clothing for "normal" clothes.  At this point Blanche escapes and finds her brother.  She learns that her father has gone to the guillotine.  She rejoins them right at the end.  We hear the sound of the guillotine falling.

Isabel is such a spectacular performer.  She gives us beauty, emotional connection, great singing and her own personal magnetism.  She keeps the stream of emotion going.

This opera is deeper than opera usually is.  Altogether it was a great performance with emotional and musical intensity and exceptional theatrical clarity.

Sacramento State Faculty, Alumni, and Friends Gala

This concert is part of the New Millennium Concert Series.  All the publicity photos have been of flutist Laurel Zucker.  However, the Faculty Gala concert at Sacramento State began with a group by Percussionist Daniel Kennedy.

The stage was littered with instruments and stands much as shown in the picture above.  He is said to be dedicated to the performance of contemporary percussion repertoire.  I only know about the traditional kind.  He played:

• Five by five, an improvisation on an instrument called a solo riq.  It looked a bit like a tambourine.

• To the Earth, by Frederic Rzewsky, played on ceramic pots such as you might plant flowers in.  There was also talking, but his voice was unamplified and not loud enough for me to understand.  He struck a gong to announce the end of the piece.

• Poly Patterns, an improvisation played on caxisis, small objects held in each hand.

• Shradanjali, by John Bergamo.  Daniel played the tabla and was assisted by Nariman Assadi on the tombak.

This was a new experience for me.

Next Laurel Zucker and John Cozza performed Sonata for Flute and Piano by Francis Poulenc in three movements.  Poulenc has long been a personal favorite.

The final group featured The Peregrine Trio (George Hayes, violin, Burke Schuchmann, cello, Miles Graber, piano) playing Piano Trio No. 2 in C Major, Opus 87 by Johannes Brahms.  Like all of Brahms this is a very traditional piece.  They sounded well together.  I especially liked the beautiful playing of the cellist.  I love Brahms.  This program was designed for me.

La Voix humaine

Anna Caterina Antonacci and her accompanist Donald Sulzen presented a program of French vocal music at the Taube Atrium Theater in the Veterans Building.  The first half of the program was a selection of French songs done in the traditional recital way with the addition of projected translations:

BERLIOZ: La mort d’Ophélie, Op. 18, No. 2
    This is familiar to me from Cecilia Bartoli's recording.

DEBUSSY: Chansons de Bilitis (a group of 3 songs)

POULENC: La fraîcheur et le feu  (a group of seven songs)

These were all pleasing if not very exciting.  I think I liked best the Debussy.

After the intermission they performed the POULENC: La Voix humaine.   I would describe it as fully staged.  We can tell from the projection shown above that we are in Paris.

This opera is based on a play by Jean Cocteau.  The liner notes say that Ms Antonacci based her interpretation on a film starring Ingrid Bergman. This woman is complicated and desperate.  She begins with lies, pretends to have been away visiting a friend.  Then she admits that she has been to the hospital after attempting suicide.  The only thing hard to grasp is why he is calling her.

He is lying too, pretending to be at home when he is out at a club, probably with his new girl friend.  Anna Catarina is a wonderful singing actress.  Grazie mille. This was a marvelous tour de force.

Chat Noir

I recently attended a recital with Carrie Hennessey and John Cozza at the Crocker Art Museum celebrating a current exhibit about Toulouse-Lautrec.   The song selections were marvelous:  Satie, Poulenc, Schoenberg and Gustave Charpentier.  All had something to do with night club singing.  The Charpentier was the aria from Louise.

The Schoenberg group included a song "Arie aus dem Spiegel" on a text by Emanuel Schikaneder, the librettist for the Magic Flute.  Carrie thought it sounded like something Papageno would sing.  It is necessary at this point to remember that Schikaneder was the original Papageno and not just the librettist of Magic Flute.

Blogging

Nowadays I follow along on Facebook and Twitter to find out the singers' perspectives on the performance, and was surprised to see that a tray of cupcakes provided backstage at Dialogues of the Carmelites came with severed Barbie heads, here demonstrated by Meredith Arwady.  It took me rather too long to get this joke.

While I was away Peter Gelb cancelled the simulcast of The Death of Klinghoffer.  I feel that any comments I might make about this would probably be in bad taste.  The only acceptable excuse would be that donors threatened to withhold their donations, but I have not heard that this was the case.  When I saw this opera at its premier in San Francisco, I found it not nearly shocking enough.  It bothered me how matter-of-factly Mr. Klinghoffer was sent to his doom.  I haven't felt any desire to see it again, but thought I would because Szot was in it.  Here's what I said about this subject years ago:

"Next came Death of Klinghoffer which I saw in San Francisco. Is there even a prayer of making this live? The Klinghoffers would have to come alive for us, and they don’t. How can they? He was killed because he was Jewish and existed only as a symbol to the people who killed him. The symbol must become a person. Theater cannot be a newsreel—it cannot acquire its significance from outside sources. Because it meant something to us when we watched it on television doesn’t mean it will mean something as an opera. All the meaning must come from inside the work. Did I say that clearly enough? All the meaning must come from inside the work."

I try to remember to keep my mind open and receive each new performance as an entirely new experience.

Dialogues of the Carmelites

Conductor:  Ward Stare

The Marquis de la Force:  Troy Cook
Blanche, his daughter:  Kelly Kaduce
The Chevalier, his son:  Michael Porter
Madame de Croissy, Prioress of the Carmelites:  Meredith Arwady
Madame Lidoine, the new Prioress:  Christine Brewer
Mother Marie of the Incarnation, Assistant Prioress:  Daveda Karanas
Sister Constance of St.Denis, a very young nun:  Ashley Emerson
Mother Jeanne of the Child Jesus, Dean of the Community:  Sofia Selowsky
Sister Mathilde:  Stephanie Sanchez
Father Confessor of the Convent:  Kyle Erdos-Knapp

While in Saint Louis I also saw Francis Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites. At Poulenc's specific request this opera is always done in the language of the audience.  In this performance they have used the translation by Joseph Machlis created for the original American performance of the opera in 1957 at the San Francisco Opera.

It isn't just a story.  A real group of nuns were killed in the French Revolution just 10 days before the end of the terror.  The story is that they went to their deaths singing parts of the liturgy while the usually noisy crowd stood silent.  It is a message of grace.  Basically each says I die in the place of others.  Perhaps they were right.  It is not unbelievable that their deaths caused the terror to end.

It is interesting to see Les mamelles de Tirésias and Dialogues so close in succession. One is entirely frivolous and the other deeply serious. Poulenc made studious choices in writing this very serious opera which consists of a lot of very wordy recitative that only occasionally rises to aria, plus choral singing in Latin of catholic liturgical texts.  For the style of the recitative he thanks Monteverdi.

The set is shown in the picture above.  It turns to different angles in the 3/4 round stage and adds tables and chairs when needed.  It seemed strange but effective until the final death scene.  This could have been staged for more impact.  The 2 novices, Blanche and Constance, can be seen in white behind Christine Brewer, a sympathetic new Prioress. 

Most memorable was the performance as the old Prioress of Meredith Arwady.  She dies in a most intense manner.  It was a pleasure to see this.  It was my first time with supertitles which most enhance the operatic experience in works with lots of text.  The message of death as grace was successfully communicated.

Les mamelles de Tirésias

actor	Songspiel	Tiresias
Thomas Glenn, tenor	Charlie	Lacouf, Journalist, The son
Daniel Cilli, baritone	Billy	The director, Presto
Gabriel Preisser, light baritone	Bobby	Thérèse's husband
Aleksey Bogdanov, bass	Jimmy	Bearded man
Rachel Schutz, soprano	Jessie	Thérèse/Tirésias, fortune teller
Renee Rapier, mezzo	Bessie	Newspaper vendor
Hadleigh Adams, baritone		constable
Amber Marsh		The big lady
Suzanne Riven, mezzo		The lady
Joseph Hernandez		dancer
Vanessa Thiessen		dancer
Nicole Paiement		conductor

Friday night I attended a strange mash-up of Poulenc's Les mamelles de Tirésias (The breasts of Tiresias, 1947, sung in French) and songs from Weill's Mahagonny Songspiel (Little Mahagonny, 1927, sung in German and English) presented by Opera Parallèle in San Francisco.  I'm not sure it's possible to explain this, but I'll have a go.

Both of these classic twentieth century works are intensely political, but the politics is hard to translate to our time.  Each has a significant librettist as well.

The French poet Guillaume Apollinaire wrote a play called Les mamelles de Tirésias which forms the basis for the opera.  The play was written in 1903 and first performed in 1917.  After wars it is common to start political campaigns to encourage having children, especially after WWI where so many young men died. (Strauss' Die Frau ohne Schatten (1917) is also such an opera.)  The opera was first performed after WWII.

The play concerns a young woman named Thérèse who wishes to have the free life of a man.  Our heroine appears attired in high red boots and a giant red bra with huge breasts made of balloons which she removes and lets float into the air.  She strips down, takes off her red boots, grows a beard and changes her name to Tirésias.  As a man she achieves a number of high offices in the country.

Her left behind husband decides he still wants to have children, and clad in the same red boots and red bra by sheer force of will produces over 40,000 of them.   It becomes politically correct to make babies so Tirésias turns back into Thérèse and her husband takes her back.  "But you're flat as a board!"  This was all charming.  Rachel Schutz was excellent, and I rather liked the gender bending husband played by Gabriel Preisser, too.

Surrounding this work were the songs from Mahagonny Songspiel, usually in German with the hit song "Moon of Alabama" sung in English by Jessie and Bessie.  The significant librettist for Mahagonny Songspiel was Bertolt Brecht, a notorious leftist who got Weill in trouble with the rising Nazi movement, resulting in Weill emigrating to America.  So he writes this significantly anti-American piece called Mahagonny and then he emigrates to America.  Huh!  [Badly written, uninformed paragraph.  Weill was Jewish and didn't need additional reasons to leave Germany and eventually the rest of Europe.]

In our mash-up we are somehow in a waterless future.  There is no water to float the boat so it is wheeled about the stage.  The men's roles appeared to be a lot of work pushing the boat around the stage and climbing in and out of it.  Thomas Glenn shaved his head for this.

Did it work?  I couldn't connect them, but enjoyed each individually.  They didn't quite get the correct style for Weill, but Poulenc was fabulous.  So no.

This group is wonderfully imaginative and a lot of fun.  We still think they could do Ainadamar over and over.  Whatever they choose to do next, I can't wait to find out.

Twitter suggests this film with Francis Poulenc at the piano and Denise Duval.



It's all so French.

Ten French Operas

This is a response to the recent list in Opera News. My list will be limited to French operas I have seen performed which is a list of only about 33 operas.

Operas that stay in the repertoire:

• Camille Saint-Saëns Samson et Dalila
• Jacques Offenbach Les contes d'Hoffmann
• Georges Bizet Carmen

All three of these operas are completely French and enormously popular. It is surprising that this particular list is so short. One of the reasons for their popularity is that two out of the three are mezzo-soprano vehicles, a rare commodity in any repertoire. For each of these three composers this is their only work in the running. I know many people love Bizet’s Les pêcheurs de perles, but it just misses. These three operas are wonderful operas, full of beautiful music and marvelous theatrical situations.

Other completely French operas that drift in and out of standard repertoire:

• Charles Gounod Roméo et Juliette
• Charles Gounod Faust

Let’s discuss these for a while. In the early years of the twentieth century Roméo et Juliette was enormously popular and then faded. Until very recently Faust was a mainstay. Now in the twenty-first century the two are changing places. Roméo et Juliette is rising in popularity, while Faust is fading. True love is always popular, and the music of Gounod starts to sound refreshing after a century of modernism.

But we now begin to understand why the Germans always call Faust Marguerite, and why this is not at all the story Goethe was trying to tell. The familiar melodies begin to feel too familiar and the characters implausible. Marguerite is not a modern girl while Juliette is immortal. Both are great operas in the French tradition, but does Gounod rate two entries?

• Jules Massenet Manon

Massenet is currently in ascendance, as at least in my own life are the French generally. I have seen a number of operas by Massenet, but Manon is his masterpiece. In the twenty-first century we are happier with a heroine who is capable of true love, but is easily distracted. The situations are delicious and the music adorable. I don’t really think he deserves more than one opera.

I think in previous eras it would have been Werther that appeared here as the Massenet opera. Werther is another great opera with a mezzo-soprano heroine, and should not be forgotten. Do we prefer someone who does what she is supposed to do over the bad girl?  I think the answer is no.

• Hector Berlioz The Damnation of Faust

The great Frenchman deserves to be listed. He lacked a true understanding of the theater, cared nothing for continuity of plot, but still wrote some wonderful music. Les Troyens is too big and The Damnation of Faust too fragmented, but I have seen Faust staged twice now, and it almost works. At least he understands what the story is about, and there needs to be a great Faust opera in the repertoire.

• Claude Debussy Pelléas et Mélisande

Now some people think this is the most boring opera ever written, and I used to be one of them. All that’s required is to see Frederica von Stade sing it, and your eyes will be opened. I’m sorry to say I do not find a film of this. There is a version with Natalie Dessay and her husband I should try. Perhaps a great French orchestra and conductor would also help. They do seem to have a better grasp of their own music.

• Christoph Willibald Gluck Iphigénie en Tauride

Gluck is an Austrian who achieved his greatest success in Paris. Now we are mad for Iphigénie en Tauride, another French opera with a mezzo heroine, especially now that the fabulous Susan Graham is making the rounds with it. Unlike Damnation of Faust in which Susan also appeared, it is a genuine vehicle. I think I preferred Gluck's Alceste overall, especially in the theatrical viability category, but a great singer would need to grasp it and make a success of it.

• Gioachino Rossini William Tell

The great Italian ended his operatic career in Paris by writing a grand opera with a big melodramatic orchestra. He hated it, but I don’t really think we do. I could see this opera more. In fact I think I could see more grand opera period.

• Francis Poulenc Dialogues of the Carmelites

A modern opera needs to be included in this list. I love Poulenc, but I might have preferred:

• György Ligeti Le Grand Macabre

Or

• Olivier Messiaen Saint-François d'Assise

There is a long list of great French operas, such as Mignon, another mezzo heroine, that I have never seen.  This isn’t exactly the same list but may be closer than I would have preferred.  Make your own list.