The historical rape of Lucretia is an event that may or may not have happened in Rome in 509 BC; at that remove it’s not clear how much is fact and how much is legend. What is clear is that many authors over the centuries, including Ovid in 8 AD and Shakespeare in 1594, have made use of the legend. The story has it that the son of an Etruscan general raped the wife of an associate of the Roman king. The rape of Lucretia and her subsequent suicide precipitated a revolution that expelled the Etruscans and established the first Roman republic.
Benjamin Britten based his opera on a 1931 play by André Obey, Le Viol de Lucrèce, which in turn relies heavily on Shakespeare. By the technical definition of “chamber music,” which means that there is only one player per part, Britten’s opera is chamber music. The orchestra consists of 12 players, or 13 if you include the conductor who accompanies the recitatives on the piano. The “male chorus” and “female chorus” consist of one singer each.
For his setting of this production, the director chose to tie the events of the opera to modern scandals of sexual impropriety in today’s military by having those events occur in a military tribunal. To the left and right of the stage were simple steel chairs, arranged on a series of broad steps. In the middle there were two metal folding tables. The three male principals sat in the chairs to the right, dressed as generals; the three female principals (Lucretia, her old nurse, and a maid) sat in the chairs to the left. The male and female chorus sat in the middle as though they were officials of the court. The violence of the rape of Lucretia by Tarquinius near the beginning of the second act was depicted by having Tarquinius throw various court papers around and overturn tables and chairs.
Our cast:
Lucretia: Kate Allen
Bianca: Katie Hannigan
Lucia: Alisa Jordheim
Collatinus: David Weigel
Tarquinius: Chris Carr
Junius: Efrain Solis
Male chorus: Robert Watson
Female chorus: Linda Barnett
Conductor: Mark Morash
Director: Peter Kazaras
Of these, the most impressive was David Weigel in the role of Lucretia’s husband Collatinus. He’s the one I’d like to watch, but I won’t be able to see him again this summer. At the other end of the scale, Alisa Jordheim sang with a squeaky little-girl voice that didn’t work for me. She will be on stage again this summer as Barbarina in The Marriage of Figaro. Overall, the first act was a bit of a drag (full disclosure: this was my first Lucretia; often opinions improve on a second and third hearing), but by the second act the singers seem to have found the groove. Somewhere between a gamma and a beta.
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Monday, July 8, 2013
The Gospel of Mary Magdalene, San Francisco Opera, July 7 2013
Four performances of The Gospel of Mary Magdalene? Well, that’s the way it worked out for me, and I think I got a little bit more out of it each time. (See the dress rehearsal for a description of the sets, and the premiere performance for comments on the singing.)
My appreciation of Act 1 was dimmed considerably by a lack of sleep the night before, my ORD-to-SFO flight having been delayed five hours by the crash landing of Asiana flight 214 at SFO. I know that I completely missed the scene in which Yeshua persuades Peter and the other disciples to kneel before Mary, and several times I recovered from a drooping head. I was somewhat embarrassed to stand up at intermission and see the composer seated just two rows behind me, and add to that the fact that my head sticks up rather higher than those of others around me. But intermission refreshments rejuvenated me, and I was able to pay full attention to Act 2.
All of my prior comments about the singing continued to apply. What struck me more this time than previously was the beauty of the soloists-plus-chorus number at the beginning of Act 2, where the singers proclaim that the only law is love, and discourse on the Golden Rule, though it’s not named as such. The music is sinking in enough that I can almost remember how it goes in this scene. But overall, the opera continues to lack theatricality and emotional range, and still sounds pretty much the same from beginning to end. I have yet to hear whether any other opera company has scheduled it for production. It remains a smidgen better than a gamma.
My appreciation of Act 1 was dimmed considerably by a lack of sleep the night before, my ORD-to-SFO flight having been delayed five hours by the crash landing of Asiana flight 214 at SFO. I know that I completely missed the scene in which Yeshua persuades Peter and the other disciples to kneel before Mary, and several times I recovered from a drooping head. I was somewhat embarrassed to stand up at intermission and see the composer seated just two rows behind me, and add to that the fact that my head sticks up rather higher than those of others around me. But intermission refreshments rejuvenated me, and I was able to pay full attention to Act 2.
All of my prior comments about the singing continued to apply. What struck me more this time than previously was the beauty of the soloists-plus-chorus number at the beginning of Act 2, where the singers proclaim that the only law is love, and discourse on the Golden Rule, though it’s not named as such. The music is sinking in enough that I can almost remember how it goes in this scene. But overall, the opera continues to lack theatricality and emotional range, and still sounds pretty much the same from beginning to end. I have yet to hear whether any other opera company has scheduled it for production. It remains a smidgen better than a gamma.
Otello, Festival Opera, June 28 2013
West Bay Opera and Festival Opera joined forces to produce Giuseppe Verdi’s late masterwork, Otello. West Bay Opera was first, with four performances; Festival Opera followed nearly a month later with two performances using the same principal singers and sets, but with its own conductor, orchestra, and chorus. The result? A convincing demonstration that two small opera companies, working together, can meet the challenge of presenting a “big” opera.
Act 1 began with one of the most powerful storm scenes in all of opera, with the citizens of Cyprus anxiously watching Otello’s ship approaching through the storm. From the looks of the set, it would appear that the West Bay Opera’s stage is smaller than Festival Opera’s: on both sides of the stage, there were stone walls, with a rough bas-relief sculpture of a human figure. The center of the stage was taken up by a stone platform, which served as the dock onto which Otello could alight after his ship had managed to dock. To the left and right were two tall structures bearing various accoutrements, including a firebox whose light a chorus member would periodically obscure and then reveal, perhaps a 17th-century version of Morse code.
In Act 2, the stone platform remained, as did the walls to the left and right. The scene was completed by several stone pillars, each about 1½ feet wide and only a few inches thick, with small arches connecting them. Otello and Iago each had their own stand-up desk, Otello on the right, Iago on the left. Pretty much the same set was used for Act 3, with the addition of a solid backdrop to convey even more of an impression of “inside” and the removal of the desks. The Act 4 set was dominated by Desdemona’s bed, on a platform surrounded by three steps, and backed with a very tall headboard supporting beautiful blue-green draped fabric.
Our cast:
Otello: David Gustafson
Iago: Philip Skinner
Desdemona: Cynthia Clayton
Cassio: Nadav Hart
Roderigo: Adam Flowers
Conductor: Michael Morgan
Director: Daniel Helfgot
Some might think that an opera of the size and scope of Otello might be beyond the reach of a small opera company, but Festival Opera proved otherwise. The star of the show was Philip Skinner as Iago. Skinner is a regular in minor roles at San Francisco Opera, and he brought his years of experience and a superb baritone voice to his role. David Gustafson (lacking “Moorish” makeup) made a fine Otello, and Cynthia Clayton (former Opera San Jose resident artist) was particularly impressive in her confrontation scene in Act 3. The orchestra sounded a bit underpowered in the initial storm music, but in general served the production well. It would have been worth a repeat visit, had my schedule allowed—a strong beta.
Act 1 began with one of the most powerful storm scenes in all of opera, with the citizens of Cyprus anxiously watching Otello’s ship approaching through the storm. From the looks of the set, it would appear that the West Bay Opera’s stage is smaller than Festival Opera’s: on both sides of the stage, there were stone walls, with a rough bas-relief sculpture of a human figure. The center of the stage was taken up by a stone platform, which served as the dock onto which Otello could alight after his ship had managed to dock. To the left and right were two tall structures bearing various accoutrements, including a firebox whose light a chorus member would periodically obscure and then reveal, perhaps a 17th-century version of Morse code.
In Act 2, the stone platform remained, as did the walls to the left and right. The scene was completed by several stone pillars, each about 1½ feet wide and only a few inches thick, with small arches connecting them. Otello and Iago each had their own stand-up desk, Otello on the right, Iago on the left. Pretty much the same set was used for Act 3, with the addition of a solid backdrop to convey even more of an impression of “inside” and the removal of the desks. The Act 4 set was dominated by Desdemona’s bed, on a platform surrounded by three steps, and backed with a very tall headboard supporting beautiful blue-green draped fabric.
Our cast:
Otello: David Gustafson
Iago: Philip Skinner
Desdemona: Cynthia Clayton
Cassio: Nadav Hart
Roderigo: Adam Flowers
Conductor: Michael Morgan
Director: Daniel Helfgot
Some might think that an opera of the size and scope of Otello might be beyond the reach of a small opera company, but Festival Opera proved otherwise. The star of the show was Philip Skinner as Iago. Skinner is a regular in minor roles at San Francisco Opera, and he brought his years of experience and a superb baritone voice to his role. David Gustafson (lacking “Moorish” makeup) made a fine Otello, and Cynthia Clayton (former Opera San Jose resident artist) was particularly impressive in her confrontation scene in Act 3. The orchestra sounded a bit underpowered in the initial storm music, but in general served the production well. It would have been worth a repeat visit, had my schedule allowed—a strong beta.
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