Oberon's Grove

IVESIANA

New York City Ballet's Anthony Huxley and Janie Taylor in Balanchine's IVESIANA. Photo by Paul Kolnik.

In the Studio with Amanda Selwyn

 

On Tuesday April 30th, photographer Matt Murphy and I dropped in at Amanda Selwyn's studio (housed in an art gallery!) on Leonard Street to watch a rehearsal for her newest work, IT'S A GAME. Click on the above image to enlarge.

Here is the performance information:

Dates: June 27th-29th, 2013 at 7:30 PM

Venue: New York Live Arts, 219 West 19th Street, NYC

Ticket information here.

This new evening-length dance-theatre piece brings elements of a chess game into play. Inspired by designer Alexander McQueen and by the magic of Harry Potter, the dancers create a fantasy world of power dynamics, competition and stratagems. Amanda's choreographic language shows both lyricism and athleticism, with some fresh explorations of the art of partnering.

Here are some of Matt's images from the rehearsal:

Amanda Selwyn

Sarah Buscaino

Emily Pacilio

Victor Larue

Jenny Gillan

Torrey McAnena, Victor Larue

Randall Smith, Victor Larue

Victor and Sarah

Sarah and Emily

Victor

Randall and Emily

In the past two seasons, Amanda Selwyn has produced two very enjoyable and well-crafted works: FIVE MINUTES in 2011, and DETOUR in 2012. So I'm very much looking forward to seeing IT'S A GAME when it debuts at NYLA in June.

Cedar Lake @ The Joyce

Above: Jon Bond in Kylian's Indigo Rose

Tuesday May 7th, 2013 - Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet's 2013 season at The Joyce has been on my calendar in huge red letters for weeks: some of Gotham's most glorious movers are members of this Company, and the repertory entices: Jiří Kylián's Indigo Rose, Crystal Pite's 2008 Cedar Lake hit Ten Duets on a Theme of Rescue, and a world premiere entitled Horizons by the Greek choreographer Andonis Foniadakis, the man who created one of my all-time super-favorite danceworks, his Rite of Spring which I saw twice at Joyce SoHo in 2008, danced by the breath-taking Ioanna Toumpakari.

The Joyce was packed for tonight's opening; there are some new dancers on the Cedar Lake roster and as the evening progressed we began to get a sense of them in terms of both movement and personality. Meanwhile the established favorites look hotter than ever.

Above: Ebony Williams and Joaquim de Santana in Indigo Rose; photo by Paula Lobo. Click on the image to enlarge.

Indigo Rose, Jiří Kylián's 1998 work currently having its Cedar Lake premiere this season, was an exciting opening work. The score reaches way back to JS Bach and Couperin and also to more recent 20th century works by Robert Ashley and John Cage. Brilliant lighting and abrupt shifts in pacing and mood keep interest high throughout. At one point a vast white curtain of parachute silk comes unfurling across the space on a diagonal. The dancers perform both in front of and behind this illuminated drape, with powerful lights projecting their shadows in various sizes. There were illusions of large vs small dancers...and the dancing was non-stop.

Billy Bell, a marvelous new addition to the Company, had the opening solo in Indigo Rose which he delivered with panache. Ebony Williams and Joaquim de Santana danced a sensual adagio, and Cedar Lake icons Jon Bond and Jason Kittelberger look perfect as always. Vania Doutel Vaz, Navarra Novy-Williams, Jin Young Won and Joseph Kudra are among the newer Company members, each giving the Kylián choreography a personal vitality.

As Indigo Rose nears its conclusion, the dancers freeze as black-and-white projections of some of them float in the air overhead. This rather quizzical ending seemed a bit at odds with what came before, but nevertheless the overall effect of the work was pleasing to both eye and ear.

Crystal Pite's Ten Duets on a Theme of Rescue is something of a Cedar Lake signature work. Set in a semi-circle of spotlights which give Rescue a sort of prison-yard feeling, this series of dark duets flow seamlessly on a score by Cliff Martinez culled from the film Solaris. An outstanding quintet of Cedar Lake dancers are featured: superstars Ebony Williams, Nickemil Conception and Jon Bond are joined by newcomers Ida Saki and Guillaume Queau. It was wonderful to experience this work again, so perfectly executed; I'm always grateful when Cedar Lake dip into their treasury of repertoire and revive pieces from time to time, keeping them fresh.

On that subject, might I take this opportunity to request the Company delve into the archives and bring us back their Veggetti and Celis works?

Since seeing his Rite in 2008, I have been waiting to experience more of Andonis Foniadakis' work here in New York City while in the meantime keeping tabs on his European successes via the Internet. Horizons as it turns out was well worth the wait: choreographer and dancers felt like a perfect match as the ballet unfolded to a Julien Tarride score. 

Above: from Horizons; photo by Paula Lolo. Click on the image to enlarge.

In Horizons, Andonis shows us the restless energy of contemporary urban life; the detached voice of a narrator gives advice and instructions to the community. Agitated ensemble movement freezes from time to time giving us pause to contemplate the kinetic rush of our daily experiences. The dancers, in grey with maroon accents, move with flair thru this cityscape: relationships form and disperse, complex partnering motifs are tossed off with compelling surety.

Following a series of brightly lit, theatrical duets, Clifton Taylor's lighting turns to burnished gold as the dancers appear in silhouette; out of the huddled masses a tall and mysterious couple loom up: Jin Young Won and Guillaume Queau. In soft cream-coloured garments, these two entrancing artists perform a luminously intimate final duet as rain begins to fall. As a counter-point to the earlier turbulent energy, this duet finds the couple expressing a connection with nature and with each other, removed from the choas of urbanity.

The audience went wild for the dancers at the end; it was an extremely satisfying programme and my only regret was that Acacia Schachte danced only in the Foniadakis, and that Ana-Maria Lucaciu and Matthew Rich weren't dancing tonight. Among the audience: Janet Eilber, Ethan Stiefel, Gillian Murphy, Josh Beamish, Kyle Abraham, John Zullo and Manuel Vignoulle.

The RING Unseen - Part V

Monday May 6th, 2013 - The final performance of my series of RING operas heard from The Met's score desks. Upon learning that the next planned RING Cycles at the Met - set for 2016 - have been dropped from the repertory, I felt the distinct possibility that I might be experiencing these operas live for the last time.

This evening's WALKURE was a male-dominated affair vocally, for aside from the lively and well-sung octet of Valkyries (Mlles. Mayer, Fillmore, Harmer, Phillips, Johnson Cano, McCormick, Gigliotti and Ringle) the women in the cast had problems while the men flourished and provided some serious vocal thrills.

Martina Serafin has a pleasing mid- and lower range and very nice instincts with words and colours, but her top was desperate and wild; she also had an ever-so-slight tendency to sharpness much of the evening. Could we not have had Ms. Harmer or Heidi Melton in this role?  Stephanie Blythe's huge, flattish and blunt singing bordered on vulgarity, and sadly Deborah Voigt (spelt "Voight" in the Playbill) has hardly anything to recommend her as Brunnhilde at this point in time. And so all evening the scenes where the female characters hold forth tended to be aurally unpleasant.

But the men - thank goodness - were a whole 'nother story. Simon O'Neill, back on the gold standard after allergies beset him at the season prima of this opera, ranks with the finest Siegmunds I have heard. His singing was generous, colourful, heroic or tender by turns. The way Simon sustained the famous cries of "Walse! Walse" in Act I was simply uncanny. From first note to last, he gave a wonderful performance.

And the same can be said for Greer Grimsley's marvelous Wotan: the dark, powerful voice penetrated the orchestral wall to striking effect; from highest to lowest notes, and throughout the dynamic range, his singing was even and vivid. His long monolog, detailing the god's insecurities and his sense of foreboding, was an expressive as well as a vocal highlight of the evening. Mr. Grimsley was superb in the emotion-drenched pages of the opera's final scene where the flood gates of anguish and paternal love opened thrillingly in his rich and colourful singing.

One of the greatest attractions of these RING performances has been the singing of Hans-Peter König (above, as Hunding in a Ken Howard photo). Mr. König took on the great roles of Fafner, Hunding and Hagen, singing with stunning tonal amplitude. Tonight he scored yet again as the menacing Hunding, winning a vast wave of cheers at his bow after Act I.

Fabio Luisi tonight impressed me with his rather fast-paced but emotionally satisfying rendering of this matchless score. Only some momentary covering of the voices prevented me from a full endorsement of the conductor's work tonight, but compared to most of his earlier performances that I've experienced at The Met his current RHEINGOLD and WALKURE are truly pleasing to experience. 

Ms. Blythe hobbled out for a bow, using a cane and supported by Mr. O'Neill; a knee injury had kept her out of Saturday's RHEINGOLD but since in this production the WALKURE Fricka is seated throughout her time onstage, she was able to perform tonight. The situation somewhat de-fused the potential excitement of a big ovation for the tenor, since he had to stand there while the mezzo milked her applause.

And so, who knows when the RING operas will be back at The Met? The Machine (now reportedly frequently 'assisted' by stagehands to accomplish its job) would seem to preclude free-standing performances of WALKURE. Rumors that the previous production is mothballed somewhere continue to circulate, but would a revival of that be an admission of failure for Gelb/Lepage? Whatever the case, I sincerely hope to be able to experience the RING operas live again in my lifetime.

Nicole in Leipzig

My friend Nicole Piccolomini has been singing Erda in Wagner's DAS RHEINGOLD at Leipzig. Watch a trailer from the production here; Nicole appears at 3:55 in this film, singing Erda's Warning. She reports an eleven-minute ovation at the conclusion of the opening performance.

Nicole recently sang Ulrica in Verdi's UN BALLO IN MASCHERA at Catania, and made her Chicago Lyric Opera debut as Maddalena in RIGOLETTO. In June she will appear in the La Scala production of DIE WALKURE conducted by Daniel Barenboim. She will reprise her Erda in the Leipzig production next season, and sing the First Norn in GOTTERDAMMERUNG at Amsterdam in November 2013.

JANUSPHERE @ City Center Studios

Sunday May 5th, 2013 - JANUSPHERE DANCE COMPANY (photo above by Rachel Neville; the dancers are Darion Smith and Milan Misko) presented a studio showing of choreographic works by Darion Smith, the Company's artistic director, this evening at City Center's Ballet Arts studio. 

Last August, Janusphere performed Darion's Heart on a Dirty Platform, a real New York story, at Baruch College. This made me curious to see what the Company have been working on since.

The showing tonight opened with part of A Dancer's Life, a work-in-progress in which the diverse group of Janusphere dancers first appear in practice clothes, doing classroom pliés and tendus, and working on partnering. In an audition scene, the dancers vie fiercely for available work...and then comes the anguish of waiting for a callback. When all but one dancer - Marie Zvosec - are called, there's relief and rejoicing. Marie breaks into a tempestuous solo, her own private mad scene, protesting her dismissal.

In sleek pale blue body body tights, four dancers - So Young An, Misei Daimaru, Michael Fernandez and Matt Van - performed Darion's ethereal 2011 ballet Core. To a score by Jonathan Melville Pratt the dancers move thru the lyrical duets as their shadows are cast on the white wall. Misei has a sustained and expressive solo performed mostly on the floor. This abstract work, with its suggestions of tenderness, longing and evasion, made a dreamlike impression.

From the title KinderPlatz (Children's Place) I was expecting a juvenile ballet, with romping choreography and comic vignettes; but this work-in-progress is quite the opposite. A darkish, at times ominous score by Adyo and Deepbass sets the dancers, clad in soft creamy outfits, in a series of ensembles and duets. The dancers from Core are joined by Grace Song and Jason Jordan. A triple pas de deux is particularly fine, with a sculptural quality. The dancers later run, slide and halt across the space, or stand still waving their arms in unison windmill patterns; in these motifs the illusions of children's games are expresssed, but the mood remains distinctly serious. Perhaps these adults are remembering their playground days in a wistful daydream. 

This summer at the IATI Theater, Janusphere will participate in the multidisciplinary festival PAM (Performing Arts Marathon). The festival runs from July 17 – August 11, 2013; the specific details and Janusphere's performance dates will be forthcoming.

The RING Unseen - Part IV

Saturday May 4th, 2013 - Tonight's performance of DAS RHEINGOLD at The Met proved to be - along with my earlier CLEMENZA DI TITO and the dress rehearsal of PARSIFAL - the most satisfying and musically stimulating operatic experience of the current season. From my score desk, without the distractions of the infernal Machine, the opera made a splendid effect.

My evening started oddly: I arrived at the opera house at 7:40 PM for an 8:30 PM curtain and was surprised to see that people were already being allowed into the theater. I went in and found that the auditorium was already open, something that usually happens 30 minutes before curtain time. The ushers were telling people 'there's no intermission...the performance will end around 10:30'....really, a 2-hour RHEINGOLD? Then I looked at the Playbill which listed the start time as 8:00 PM. I showed the usher my ticket, clearly stamped 8:30 PM. She was baffled. People who know me know that I like to spend the full pre-curtain half-hour in my seat, listening to the musicians warm up and letting daily cares evaporate so I can concentrate on the music. As it turned out, the performance was so enjoyable from note one that I soon forgot about the mix-up.

Much credit for the evening's success must go to Fabio Luisi; having been pretty much unimpressed by his Met performances to date, this season he's been gaining ground in my estimation and tonight's RHEINGOLD was a solid success...a triumph, really. Luisi's pacing was on the fast side, though he managed also to convey the proper weightiness of certain passages. The journey to Nibelheim was particularly brilliant, and the scene where Alberich's slaves bring up the golden treasure was simply thrilling. The conductor was able - for the most part - to steer clear of a tendency to cover the voices, resisiting the temptation to unleash too much orchestral sound. The orchestra played grandly, with some outstanding featured passages from individual players. Momentary traces of end-of-season fatigue were swept away on the waves of Wagnerian splendour.

The singing was glorious all evening and there wasn't a weak link anywhere in the cast. The opening trios of the Rhinemaidens - the last music Wagner played on the piano at the Palazzo Vendramin the night before he died - were very prettily sung by Disella Larusdottir, Jennifer Johnson Cano and Renee Tatum. Richard Paul Fink's sneering and crafty Alberich was a major force in the evening culminating with a horrific cry of anguish as Wotan wrested the Ring from his finger. Like all the best Alberichs, Mr. Fink manages to gain our sympathies in a way: a thief who is robbed in turn.  

Robert Brubaker's sizeable character-tenor sound took on a eerie quality as he described the making of the Tarnhelm. Hearing Wendy Bryn Harmer's voluminous voice as Freia yet again made me crave her Sieglinde and Ariadne; her brothers Froh and Donner were excellently sung by Richard Cox and Dwayne Croft respectively; Mr. Croft delivered a vocal thrill with his cries of "Heda! Hedo!" as Donner conjures up the magical thunderstorm to clear the air for the opera's finale. Meredith Arwady was a grave-toned Erda, making me wish the role was longer.

The giants were marvelous: Franz-Josef Selig as the tender and sentimental Fasolt sang gloriously and was wonderfully expressive while his murderous brother Fafner was the dark-toned Hans-Peter Konig. In their dealings with Wotan these two bass voices crackled with dramatic vitality.

Elizabeth Bishop replaced Stephanie Blythe as Fricka and I for one was very glad of the cast change. Ms. Bishop had spent the afternoon singing Mere Marie in Poulenc's CARMELITES; her double-header recalled a similar Saturday in 1965 when Gabriella Tucci sang both Mimi and Marguerite in a single day. Ms. Bishop, whose 'saving the day' duties recently have brought us her excellent Iphigenie and Dido, made a vibrant and urgently expressive Fricka; her voice, though less rotund than Ms. Blythe's, is far more colorful and her diction more vivid and incisive. In her little exchange with Loge about the benefits she might reap from having the gold in her husband's treasury, Ms. Bishop's Fricka created an especially savorable moment. A beautiful Fricka!

Many types of tenors have tackled Loge over the years: heldentenors, ample-toned character tenors, lyric tenors with pointed diction. Stefan Margita's shining timbre and the vein of sweetness in his sound were put at the service of his imaginative and subtle way with the text, making for a strikingly individual interpretation of this music.

At the heart of the opera, Greer Grimsley's bass-oriented sound created a darkly majestic impression as Wotan. His muscular vocalism and his skill at word-colouring and dramatic nuance gave the performance its core; and it was because of him that I felt some regret at not having a view of the stage, since I know from his Telramund a few seasons back that he is a fascinating singer to watch. Nonetheless, on vocal terms alone, his performance was deeply satisfying.

In the enthusiastic ovation at the end, I was surprised to find myself giving Maestro Luisi a 'bravo' or two...but he really deserved it. Now I have one WALKURE still to come and I'm hoping for some cast changes to end my 2013 RING experience with a bang.          

Metropolitan Opera House
May 4, 2012

DAS RHEINGOLD
Der Ring des Nibelungen
Richard Wagner

Wotan...................Greer Grimsley
Fricka..................Elizabeth Bishop
Alberich................Richard Paul Fink
Loge....................Stefan Margita
Erda....................Meredith Arwady
Fasolt..................Franz-Josef Selig
Fafner..................Hans-Peter König
Freia...................Wendy Bryn Harmer
Froh....................Richard Cox
Donner..................Dwayne Croft
Mime....................Robert Brubaker
Woglinde................Dísella Làrusdóttir
Wellgunde...............Jennifer Johnson Cano
Flosshilde..............Renée Tatum

Conductor...............Fabio Luisi 

MADboots @ Duo Multicultural Arts Center

Above: MADboots rehearsal photo by Nir Arieli; click on the image to enlarge.

Friday May 3, 2013 - MADboots, buoyed by a space/creative grant from the Duo Multicutural Arts Center, presented two works this evening in the Center's whimsically baroque theater. The juxtaposition of these sexy, savvy boys dancing on a stage where Marie Antoinette might have comfortably presented her courtly petites divertissements was only one aspect of this unique and entirely captivating evening.

In terms of presentation, the MADboyz did everything right: they showed two works - each of perfect duration, each to a collage score - which were ideally lit and provocatively costumed. Having made use of social media to raise both money and awareness, they offered tickets at a price even destitute fellow dancers could afford, selling out the house and guaranteeing an attentive and involved crowd of viewers. They could have danced all night as far as I'm concerned.

The boys - Jonathan Campbell and Austin Diaz, joined after the intermission by Eli Bauer - are beautiful. There's no avoiding their sheer physical appeal, especially in this intimate venue. Their physical allure and sexual mystique are part of a dance-world phenomenon that reaches back to Nijinsky's faun, to Nureyev in his white tights, to Martha Graham's men clad in fanciful variations on the dance belt. There's no getting around it: these boys are iconically sexy.

The MADboys use their sex appeal but it's merely a springboard for their creative process: their works are articulate, rich in imagery, emotionally vivid, and full of real dance. Though at times seemingly improvisational, their dancing is in fact thoroughly mapped out and finessed down to the smallest detail.

The evening opened with ALL GOOD SONS; in this series of 'snapshots' the dancers, Jonathan and Austin, appear as rather grubby adolescents: boys on the brink of sexual awareness. Often dancing in sync, they joke and rough-house, challenge each other, leap about in frisky competiton, get violent; they explore the space and - inevitably - one another. Denial, wonderment, tenderness, antagonism, protectiveness: all these elements come into play in this work which evokes memories of that awkward and marvelously confusing time of life when the heart and the body align themselves for the future. Engrossing in its physicality and rich in emotional texture, wit and passion, ALL GOOD SONS is a complellingly personal dancework both for the dancers and those of us watching it unfold. 

As choreographers, Jonathan and Austin have mastered the art of floorwork. So often these days we see works in which long passages are given over to the dancers rolling about on the floor; it can become a pointless and tedious exercise, but the the MADboys have it figured out and thus they are as compelling when earthbound as they are when airborne.   

Above: Austin Diaz in the evening's second work, blue. Loosely inspired by the art of Pablo Picasso and Joan Miró, the MADboys have strewn the stage with flowers, lending an inevitable element of romance and poetry to the evening. 

Above: Jonathan Campbell in blue. In this work, theatricality and athleticism are wed; the flowers enhance an expressive language of courting, apology, hope or regret. The faces and bodies of the dancers at close range are intriguing in the expression of candid emotion: we are so close that even their sweating and breathing take on an intense intimacy.

Above: Eli Bauer in blue. Eli is a self-taught dancer, and the MADstyle fits him like a glove. The hints of a menage a trois in blue are subtly set forth: intimacy can vanish in a burst of energy, and Eli ends the piece running endless laps around the stage, perhaps seeking an escape from the hothouse atmosphere. Shay Bares designed the costumes for this work, enhancing the long, luscious legs of the three dancers. 

""Blue is the sky, the sea, a god’s eye, a devil’s tail, a birth, a strangulation, a virgin’s cloak, a monkey’s ass. It’s a butterfly, a bird, a spicy joke, the saddest song, the brightest day."

~ Christopher Moore, Sacré Bleu

The MADboys' blue raises as many questions as it answers, and in the end this is the allure of MADboots: an air of mystery, a provocative glimpse at an intimate relationship, a dance style that is at once nakedly exposed and yet curiously wrapped in an enigma.     

Rehearsal photos by Nir Arieli.

Carlos Lopez to Guest with Lydia Johnson Dance

Carlos Lopez (above, photo by Jade Young) will appear as a guest artist with Lydia Johnson Dance this June. The performances will take place June 6th thru 8th, 2013, at Ailey Citigroup Theater, with a repertory of works set to music by Bach, Golijov, Gorecki, and Schubert. Ticket information here.

A former ABT soloist, Carlos Lopez's guest-artist credits in recent seasons have included the Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami, the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company and Avi Scher & Dancers, as well as performing the Prince in NUTCRACKER with Inoue Ballet of Japan, Evansville Ballet, Wausau Dance Theatre and Ballet Concierto de Puerto Rico. In March of 2012 he performed in SLEEPING BEAUTY with The Ballet Etudes of Connecticut.

Carlos also participated at the International Ballet Festival of Havana 2012 with Ballet Concierto of Puerto Rico and at Jose Manuel Carreno's Stars Gala. In March 2013, he performed in Los Angeles with Melissa Barak's Barak Ballet at a performance launching that new Company. Following the Lydia Jonson Dance performances, Carlos will be teaching at the ABT Summer Intensive, and then performing with Ballet Concierto of Puerto Rico again before joining Craig Salstein's new ballet Company, INTERMEZZO, for their debut performances at the 92nd Street Y in October 2013.

Visit Carlos' website here.

The RING Unseen - Part III

Above: Waltraute seeks out the banished Brunnhilde

Thursday May 2, 2013 - This evening's performance of GOTTERDAMMERUNG at The Met proved distressing in one regard: Katarina Dalayman as Brunnhilde showed a marked decline in her upper register since her February 2012 performance of this same opera which was so thrilling. A steady diet of the heaviest Wagnerian roles - the Brunnhildes, Isolde and Kundry - is bound to affect any voice and tonight the soprano's discomfort above the staff was sadly evident.

Her performance was marked by beauty of tone and expressiveness in the middle and lower ranges, but everything above G was managed by sheer will-power. This made for a nerve-wracking listening experience and in fact I was tempted to leave after Act II but was resolved to hear this great opera to the end, especially in view of the fact that we have no assurance of hearing the RING again at The Met in the immediate future.

This season's RING operas at The Met are shared by two Brunnhildes with unreliable upper ranges. It's not that high notes are everything, it's simply a case of so much of the vocal writing finding its appeal in soaring upward thrusts. Neither Ms. Dalayman nor Ms. Voigt now have the desired security to do the music full justice. Meanwhile, possible viable Brunnhilde-candidates like Christine Goerke and Lise Lindstrom seem to be having success in the roles elsewhere; as is so often the case, The Met lags behind in casting. 

The evening's Siegfried, Jay Hunter Morris, did his best singing in the opera's final act. The crowd loves his appearance and stage presence in ths role; at my score desk, without the visual element, he makes a good effort and manages the role well enough but vocal will-power seems a factor here as well. By Act III he seemed at his best. Siegfrieds are even harder to come by than Brunnhildes, and Mr. Morris surely is a viable choice.

The most authentic Wagner singing tonight came from Hans-Peter Konig as Hagen; from a vocal standpoint, he has been the crowning glory of the RING operas at The Met this season. His cries of "Hoi! Ho!" were thrilling. Wendy Bryn Harmer (Gutrune) and Iain Paterson (Gunther) make a strong Gibichung pair - and at the curtain calls, Wendy looks quite glamorous. Hopefully we'll have her Sieglinde some day.

For me, the unexpected pleasure in this season's RING performance has been the conducting of Fabio Luisi. Either he is 'improving' or I am subconsciously more open to his interpretations. Tonight he and mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill gave a particularly impressive reading of Waltraute's long narrative: the whole scene was crafted in gradations of piano/pianissimo singing with the maestro providing chamber-music intimacy from the pit. It was really intriguing. 

Eric Owens was a very subtle Alberich, with ghostly, whispered queries as he addressed his sleeping son. In this scene - with Mr. Konig - the conductor again was keenly supportive of the dramatic elements in the singing.

The evening started off with a superb reading of the Norn scene, always a favorite passage in the RING for me. Elizabeth DeShong, Michaela Martens and Heidi Melton all sang impressively, conveying the mystery of the scene with its paradoxical atmosphere of doom and urgency. In Act III, Disella Larusdottir, Jennifer Johnson Cano and Renee Tatum sang with playful lyricism as the Rhinemaidens; when their words turn darker, Siegfried's jesting dismissal of their warning sets the finale of the opera in motion.

Empty seats at a RING Cycle? This was once unheard-of, but the cumbersome and ultimately not-very-stimulating production does not lure repeat viewers nor make opera-lovers want to travel to Gotham from Europe or Japan. Also I feel that The Met is now making itself too readily accessible in movie theaters and via Sirius, and increasing numbers of people get their operatic experiences away from the opera house. But nothing compares with being there.

Metropolitan Opera House
May 2, 2013

GOTTERDAMMERUNG
Der Ring des Nibelungen
Richard Wagner

Brunnhilde..............Katarina Dalayman
Siegfried...............Jay Hunter Morris
Gunther.................Iain Paterson
Gutrune.................Wendy Bryn Harmer
Hagen...................Hans-Peter Konig
Waltraute...............Karen Cargill
Alberich................Eric Owens
First Norn..............Elizabeth DeShong
Second Norn.............Michaela Martens
Third Norn..............Heidi Melton
Woglinde................DísellaLàrusdóttir                                    Wellgunde...............Jennifer Johnson Cano
Flosshilde..............Renee Tatum