Moby Dick: Great American Novel Becomes a Worthy Opera

Having done well in a handful of productions since its world premiere, last night's offering on Great Performances will hopefully prove Jake Heggie's new opera, Moby Dick to be an instant American operatic classic.

Robert Brill's physical production, filmed live from the San Francisco Opera, features state-of-the-art technology (lighting, projections, etc.) to seamlessly move the opera's scenes deftly and, not infrequently, adding a little "awe" power for the audience. But the show is not about effects, but rather about epic storytelling through music and the effects and stage designs are simply the very elaborate platform for an overwhelming operatic treatment of one of our great, classic tales.

Heggie's score has moments that recall Britten (strongly) as well as other composers, yet, having heard most of his music to date, stands on its own offering a stamp of recognizable individuality. There were snippets and melodies of things that I "thought" I knew, but were (much like Humperdinck with his Hansel und Gretel) wholly original - yet undeniably familiar. That's a nice gift.

The individual performances are, to a one, exemplary and the commitment each singer brings to his or her role is commendable and clear. Jay Hunter Morris stepped into some big shoes (Ben Heppner was the celebrated, original Ahab) and does so admirably. With a brighter, more pointed sound and less sweetness of tone than Heppner, Morris presents a different Ahab, no less formidable and his madness is, at times, appropriately unnerving, though this seems to come more from seeing than hearing him.

Each of Ahab's crew members are immediately likable, each earning our sympathies, none, so much (for this viewer) as Stephen Costello's Greenhorn. Costello's attractive, tightly wound vibrato imbues Greenhorn with the innocent melancholy of an orphan . . . an outsider, his growing attachment to the "savage" Queequeg, and the friendship that ensues between this pair of loners is infinitely touching.

Greenhorn's "realization" aria following the rescue of Pip elevates this simple soul into another realm. His duet with Queequeg which opens Act 2, is one of the opera's emotional and musical highlights. As Queequeg, Jonathan Lemalus is non plus ultra and will surely be a tough act to follow for future singers of the role. Possessed of a Samoan/Polynesian island physicality, and elaborately tattooed from the face down, Lemalu's savage is truly noble, in many ways, the most thoughtful and honest of the Pequod's shipmates.

Talise Trevigne's clear, high flying soprano and impish size make her perfect as Pip the cabin boy (and she gets to fly) Morgan Smith's Starbuck is, likewise, just about perfect, his great aria closing Act 1 revealing his torturous moral dilemma of how to save his shipmates from Ahab the Mad. The "home" duet for Starbuck and Ahab is a grand one pulling each man in several directions, before driving the opera to its mighty conclusion. Heggie pulls out all the stops here, the music swaying between the sentimentality and the madness of Ahab's pursuit of the Great White.

Patrick Summers leads the San Francisco forces with assurance, driving the music furiously through its dramatic, stormy scenes while allowing his singers plenty of room for lyrical expansion - which Heggie, thankfully offers the men and boys of the Pequod, aplenty.

The DVD/BluRay set finds the opera - a bit more than was captured for PBS (including a curtain call, albeit abbreviated and rushed clumsily), onto a single disc, with a second, hour long DVD featuring interviews with the cast, Messrs Heggie, Summers and Scheer. It also has a breathtaking (literally), fascinating time-lapse video condensing a roughly 24 hour period of the War Memorial Stage as it transforms from Lohengrin, to Moby Dick, Lohengrin again, then Tosca.

I was happy to learn that after 5 or 6 productions so far, "Moby Dick" will be playing at even more companies in the upcoming years - a promising sign.

Menotti: The Saint of Bleeker Street

While I'm aware there's a good number of folk who despise the music of Gian Carlo Menotti, I'm going ahead with this post anyway.

I recently re-watched the old telecast of  The Saint of Bleeker Street from New York City Opera and found myself in a puddle of tears not only at the end, but at several other moments throughout. A well regarded critic - who's also close friend, once told me it was "too manipulative." I thought about that for a moment:  too manipulative?  Okay . . . perhaps, but cannot the same charge be leveled of not only many other operas, but of art and music generally?  The story is not presented as a series of unbiased facts but rather something told by a storyteller who invites us (and yes, manipulates) us into trying to see the tale as he or she does. I believe a willingness to be manipulated is part of the agreement we make whenever we enter an opera house, theatre . . . or even a museum.

Menotti's so-called "simple story" is, in truth, no such thing; From the beginning its layers peel back like the proberbial onion, each one revealing more and more. 

We are confronted with myiad components; it is at once a tale of fanaticism, the quest and questions for a spiritual journey, the interactions of a displaced community, the story of an abiding friendship, misunderstanding, loyalty, jealousy, murder, poverty, and . . . ultimately, hope. All of this hits us full force, without apologies, without excuses and yet, by the end, Menotti has left us even more room for thought as its many questions are left unresolved to all, except for Annina - the Saint herself, who, of course, cannot tell us.

I find Menotti's score to be the most beautiful of h is operas, and will go so far as to say, that musically it's one of the finest of all of the mid-20th century operas,  Even so, it gets frequently dismissed as "warmed over Puccini," though nothing could be further from the truth. As with most composers, there are noticeable influences throughout, and I'd go so far to say that Menotti puts as much Alban Berg and Mussorgsky into his score as Puccini.  Ultimately, however, he speaks here in a voice that, is distinguished and very much his own. We hear that turgid - angular chugging found in most of his scores for strings and winds that propel the story forward, He understands - and relishes - the relationship between dissonance and consonance and yes, when needed, is ever unafraid to tug at our heartstrings for those who, like myself, welcome having them so tugged. It is obvious he is writing from love and passion as well as skill.

His writing for strings rivals, and shares similarities here with Sibelius and Tchaikovsky. The tension of the string movements in the opening recalling a certain, more celebrated work by his friend, Mr. Barber. While giving us much to ponder, the long-phrased melodies for both orchestra and singers, can go directly to the heart - which is what I often want from an opera composer - and cause me both to think and feel . . . . simultaneously. Music allows us the unique ability to overpower more than one sense at a time, as happens with the gentle intermezzo before the final scene.

The writing for chorus in this opera is majestic and powerful. Ingeniously, Menotti's libretto never places this cathedral-like music in a vaulted church setting, but rather in a cold water flat, adding yet another dimension of thought . . . another layer of palpable emotion. I often think of Boris Godunov or even Porgy and Bess at times.

Saint is also packed with some marvelous arias, beginning with Annina's Stigmata aria. Brother Michele's I know that you all hate me has become one of those Menotti arias that finds its way into auditions and recitals for young tenors.  Desideria's big scene raises  the dramatic stakes to a boiling point.  There is  Don Marco's short aria with its postlude that becomes an intermezzo between the two halves of Act 1, and so many other ensembles.

The scenes of loyalty and friendship, between Annina and Carmela go straight to the heart.  Manipulated that way? Yeah . . . and beautifully. 

I know all the reasons it is not, yet personally still find it difficult to comprehend why this opera is so seldom performed. 

 How fortunate I was to attend several performances at Washington Opera back in the 80's, in a stunning performance directed by the composer himself, a production mounted in honor of his 80th birthday. Remarkable.

City Opera was fortunate to have Catherine Malfitano and Diana Soviero, as Annina and Carmela; each giving a performance nothing short of amazing. Malfitano, while a bit strained at some moments handles the music skillfully and theatrically . . . well, she is devastating. Soviero, in what can be perceived as a secondary role, turns it into a virtual tour-de-force; caressing each note with tenderness and emotion. As Annina's protective best friend, Soviero seems the one person who best understands Annina's desires. Even when wordless, kneeling beside her friend's chair - Soviero's face radiates an ecstasy that transcends words, mirroring the mystical Annina's faith as she embraces, and welcomes death. We watch her, cradling with love, her friend's lifeless body, suppressing her sobs as she lifts Annina's arm to accept the ring of faith. At this moment, Carmela's situation is more heartbreaking than her friend's death because we identify immediately with her grief. This is great opera. This is great theatre.


So, after this performance, then what?  More Menotti.  After drying my eyes, I put on the Piano Concerto in a sparkling, scintillating performance by Earl Wilde. The Concerto belongs alongside Prokofiev, Barber and Poulenc in wonderful 20th century concerti. With its Scarlatti and Bach like polyphony, it requires both bravura and charm, and would offer a nimble fingered pianist - something unusual and rarely played. And yet, like his operas, the Concerto gets very little recognition.  Lord knows, I'd prefer hearing it once in a while as an alternative to yet another performance of Brahms or Rachmaninoff.

While I also have enormous respect for  . . . and a similar reaction to The Consul, it is easy for me to say that of all Menotti's operas, I find The Saint of Bleecker Street the most deserving of being brought back and could imagine a terrific production somewhere in Lincoln Center.  Even though it was conceived for The Broadway Theatre (where it ran for 92 performances), it's a grand work and deserving of the first rate treatment . . . and an HD performance.  I already have a cast in mind! So let's do it!

Heggie's "Three Decembers" with Frederica von Stade

I don't know what I was expecting, but the reviews were almost uniformly horrible for Heggie’s latest opera – horrible in nearly way: staging, music, libretto, etc. I became somewhat suspicious, however, when I read how Heggie was writing "ungrateful" music that lies "awkwardly" for the voice; and how his score while "threatening to break into melody - never really does." Funny, what I listened to this past Saturday was the complete opposite; vocal writing that was gracious and filled with melody with words sung nearly as naturally as speech. It’s a bit of a “fluffy” score (“fluffy” in a positive way) score - more Broadway musical (think "The Light in the Piazza" or "A Little Night Music") than “standard” operatic. Even more so, it also reminded me (enormously so) of Menotti's early hits - "The Telephone", "The Old Maid and the Thief" and "Amelia Goes to the Ball." In fact, though I don’t recall reading this in a single review of the piece, I felt Menotti's presence throughout the work . Audience response was positive, and strong with audible laughter in all the right places and a hearty applause after each of the "numbers."

Honestly, the score bursts with beautiful melodies that almost belie the sparseness of the orchestration. Composed for 11 instruments – a string quintet, some wind players doubling on instruments, percussion and two pianos (played by conductor, Patrick Summers and composer, Mr. Heggie himself), the show could easily (with the right talent) be mounted virtually anywhere.

So frequently today's composers of operas are criticized for always tackling BIG subjects, yet when a composer tackles a "lighter" (even if only deceptively so) subject such as Heggie’s work on Terrence McNally’s intimate family drama of both laughter and tears, the subject matter is dismissed as "trite" or "sentimental."

The tale it takes place over three Decembers: 1986, 1996 and 2006, and centers around Madeline ("Maddy") an aging actress (von Stade) and the uncomfortable relationship she enjoys with two adult children. There is Charlie, her son, gay and whose lover is dying of complications from AIDS; and daughter Bea, married to a very successful businessman who cheats on her - something Maddy relates to. In '86 the kids meet Maddy as she's in rehearsals for her first Broadway musical. The kids do rattle on a bit much feeling sorry for themselves about how Maddy was an "absentee mom" always on the road. Maddy's defense was she was a young widow and only did what she could to assure there was food on the table and shoes on their feet. She's also keeping a dark secret about the kids' father's death (the children were 7 and 5 at his passing) - whom they always sing well of.

In the second act, the siblings go after mama with such a vengeance that Maddy is practically broadsided by their efforts. Bea, in particular, neither disguises nor let’s up her hostility, provoking her mother to blurt out the ugly truth about their late father, a man they have until now revered as a near saint. Maddy’s coming clean with the truth elicits only anger from both children, each inferring how different their lives would be if Maddy had given them the truth.

Her defense is heartrending “How could I look in your eyes and tell you . . . I had to find a version of life that we could all live with. I did it to protect you.” Von Stade simply shines here and one sees – if only through her own eyes – how she viewed her actions as selfless – as a sacrifice.

In fact, Frederica von Stade sounded absolutely stunning from start to finish. The voice no longer possesses that crisp, gossamer, reedy tone so many of us fell under the spell of decades ago, but nonetheless uniquely stamped with von Stade’s individual stamp. The youthfulness has been replaced by a richness and maturity (without once sounding “old”) that only age – and its wisdom can bring out in a singer. It’s a voice with decidedly more cream than muscle and quite honestly hearing of her desire to do The Marschallin, all I cab say is “go for it, Flicka!” Quite simply, von Stade’s was a tour de force performance, hilarious, touching, vain - it was clearly tailor made for her (but should transfer well) and she did not disappoint.

Keith Phares was touching as Charlie, and his singing at the end of Act I - (with the fog rolling in around them on the Golden Gate Bridge) was particularly beautiful. Kristin Clayton's Bea was lovely, though the character is a difficult one to warm up do: a joyless alcoholic, she finds anyone to blame for life’s one I have a tough time feeling complete sympathy for. That said, she sang with great emotion and entirely believable.

It isn't Elektra. It isn't Butterfly. It sure ain't Norma - but what I heard was a charming, thoughtful work I'd love the chance to see and hear in the theatre. It really is a lovely piece.

p.
http://sharkonarts.blogspot.com/

Willie Stark Arrives on DVD . . . Finally!

I just finished watching a rather remarkable DVD (put out by Newport Classics and purchased through Amazon.com) of a performance of Carlisle Floyd's magnificent American classic, "Willie Stark" presented by the Louisiana State University Opera Department. The performance is not perfect, but definitely one of those performances where one can say the total adds up to far more than the sum of its parts.

Let's get the negatives out of the way. The HD picture is often overly bright, frequently washing out facial features in group shots, though in close ups the lighting tends to be softer. I hate nit picking, but in a "filmed" version with today's technological advances on hand, particularly at a State university capable of making its own HD films, it is a distraction from the overall enjoyment. Much praise has gone to the LSU Opera Orchestra, and indeed, they produce some wonderful effects with this remarkable score, yet there are too many moments where they sound at sea, with a sour sound that can mar the intended effect. Fortunately, (or not) these usually seem to occur in the score's louder moments.

A more major problem is some of these roles are for voices one would expect to have more maturity, roles that, in fact, cry out for that maturity and experience - but again, I'm nit picking a performance by college students, and truth be told, once I settled in I felt even these performances to be heartfelt and performed with great emotion and that is something that matters enormously in a story like this.

Now the good parts. First and foremost is the performance of Dennis Jesse in the title role. This is an amazing performance, one to cherish. Jesse captures perfectly the difficult duplicity of Willie - your at once repelled, yet charmed by him. I found myself loving this character, every side of him from the corrupt egotist to the common man of the people, inspiring hope in the hopeless and downtrodden. The possessor of a voice of truly great beauty, diction is never sacrificed in his delivery - every syllable clear and passionately uttered. It is a remarkable - tour de force performance. His greatest moment in an evening filled with them is his visit to his home town and the first time we hear that marvelous "Come back, Willie" theme that will appear several more times, most incredibly when the chorus picks up the theme at the opera's end. I had tears in my eyes at the beauty of tone, the impassioned and introspective manner in which he made this come alive. This is a performance that absolutely crackles with life and electricity.

The second standout performance comes from young tenor, Adam Holcomb, as Willie's aide and rival in love, Jack Burden. Burden shows a huge amount of promise and terrific top notes. He captures nearly perfectly all of Jack's passion and heartbreak. His final scene with his father Judge Burden, is almost painful to watch. Also up to the challenge as the Judge is Noel Bouley - outstanding.

As Anne, Katheryn Drake shows a lovely soprano with gleaming high notes, but at times the role threatens to get away from her. I can only imagine that she will grow into this - and more mainstream roles with ease.

The chorus work here is at that same level as Jesse's performance. It is a beautiful sound they produce and their youthful faces capture all of the emotion of Willie's friends and constituents.

The production makes effective use of a unit set - a set of distressed stone steps arranged in a semicircle at the rear of the stage - evoking the steps of an ancient Greek ampitheatre. They are split unevenly with large gaps between. Three square stone-like arches are arranged on these steps, adding to the ancient feel, but each with a modern wooden door. This leaves a rather intimate playing area where most of the opera is played out, with various props and set dressings (e.g., desks and chairs, picket fence, old fashioned radio console, etc.) to suggest the location of each scene. Dugg McDonough's direction is about as good as one could want here, and his cast responds beautifully.

So, despite any reservations I may have had, the overall performance is fairly wonderful, and I must tip my cap to all involved in this enormous project and offer both hearty congratulations and gratitude for bringing Mr. Floyd's wonderful American opera back to the public.p.