Oberon's Grove

BOHEME at NYC Opera

Saturday September 29, 2007 - During the years I worked at Tower, several of my co-workers were aspiring singers, musicians, composers and writers. Taking a retail gig is often a necessity on the road to a successful career in the arts. And so I had the pleasure of working with people like  Melanie Bonnefoux (daughter of City Ballet's Patricia McBride and Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux) who has published two vampire novels at a very young age; composer Yazuru Sadashige who plays bass for the band CHANGING MODES; counter-tenor and monstre sacre Benjamin Marcantoni; beautiful blonde chanteuse Suzanne Carrico; composer Matt Fuerst who wrote the score for the Albert Evans ballet BROKEN PROMISE, and the extraordinary guitarist and composer Brian DuFord.

Dinyar Vania has been singing Rodolfo in BOHEME at New York City Opera this season and today was the last performance of the run. Dinyar worked very briefly at Tower and we all liked his big, outgoing personality; I was curious to see if he has the voice to match. I was also interested in the Musetta, Elizabeth Caballero, who sang a really superb Donna Elvira here a couple of seasons back. I had never seen this production which is set during the early months of World War I. It is a simple and convincing telling of the well-known story; I especially like the way the garret set receded as Act I drew to a close. The lovers step onto the bare stage and sing the end of the love duet as snow begins to fall. The women at Cafe Momus have a flapper look, and the third act is set at a railway terminus.

Ari Pelto, who led a really good TRAVIATA at NYCO a few seasons back, gave an passionate and tender reading of the score; he allowed the singers to linger on favorite notes and phrases but he also - at a few points - swamped them with a little too much orchestral volume. A note in praise of NYCO's fine children's chorus; the Met can never seem to find kids who can really sing but NYCO has a lively bunch of juvenile belters.

Dinyar is a big, robust guy. His voice is very clear and melodious; no trace of wobble, no pitch troubles. He never pushes the tone and he avoids the strangulated sound that besets many of our more prominent tenors today. Warmth and an Italianate glow to the sound are big assets as is Dinyar's sincerity of delivery. His singing has an emotional quality that stays within the framework of the music: no lacquered-on effects. His phrasing is generous, his top-C in "Che gelida manina" is the genuine article. Later he takes the gentleman's route with the end of the love duet, harmonizing with Mimi's top C to really lovely effect. Dinyar modulates the tone well and he used a particularly attractive piano effect on 'stagione dei fior' in Act III as the lovers are on the brink of parting.

The performance also featured a very impressive Marcello from Brian Mulligan. Brian strikes me as a very natural singer...he just opens his mouth and lets the voice out with great freedom and warmth. It is a beautiful sound and again the word generous comes to mind. Right from curtain-rise, Brian served notice of his easy tone production and deeply musical interpretation. His boyish face and open stage manner fit the vocal personality to a T and there was a sense that Musetta may have been the slightly older woman who introduced the young painter to the joys and tribulations of love (and sex). Great job, Brian!

Very fine performances of Colline (Young Bok Kim, remembered for his excellent Marquis de la Force in Juilliard's DIALOGUES OF THE CARMELITES) and Schaunard (Raymond Ayers in this important and sometimes under-valued role). In this production, Schaunard has joined up and appears in uniform in the final scene. Veterans Don Yule and William Ledbetter, both of whom have been singing at NYCO since I started going there in the mid-1960s, provided amusing vignettes as Benoit and Alcindoro respectively.

Inna Dukach was an attractive Mimi; her vibrato won't be to all tastes but she earns high marks for her astonishingly lovely and sustained rendering of the phrase "di primavere" in Mimi's act I narrative...the kind of note you never forget.  She scored again with a very impressive messa di voce on the penultimate note of "Addio senza rancor"; earlier in Act III she & Brian Mulligan really let their voices and emotions take flight in their duet. Ms. Caballero's Musetta was very broadly done and she seemed to be pushing her voice a little which was not necessary; her brilliant top-B at the end of the ensemble reprise of the Waltz was impressive. I did feel this expressive singer might be better able to show her stuff in Mimi's music, a role which is also in her repertoire.

Having been up til all hours the previous night celebrating Lisette's birthday I must say I had to drag myself to the theatre for this performance but I was determined to catch Dinyar in this run. I sat waiting for the show to start thinking 'another BOHEME...'  while wishing I had a diet Coke to keep me from dozing. But as soon as the curtain rose and Brian Mulligan started to sing I felt much better. The opera weaves its spell after hearing it hundred of times over the past 40+ years. It still makes me cry.

I said hello to Dinyar afterwards and he told me he will be singing at the Gala on Tuesday night  which is another good reason for me to be there.

NOZZE DI FIGARO Dress Rehearsal at the Met

Friday September 28, 2007 - Yesterday I got a breathless message from my friend Lisette Oropesa: "I'm singing the first two Susannas!  The dress rehearsal is tomorrow!
Can you come? I can get tickets! I have to go!"  Ever since she told me she had been tapped to cover the role of Susanna in NOZZE DI FIGARO at the Met I've been hoping she would get an opportunity to perform this role this season since it seems it would suit her voice and personality to a T. In terms of number of measures of music and stage time, Susanna is considered the longest role in the soprano repertoire. The scheduled singer, Isabel Bayrakdarian, had withdrawn from some of the performances earlier due to her pregnancy and has now relinquished the role completely for this year. So the opportunity arose for Lisette to step into this production - which is one of my favorites (sets by Peter Davison, originally directed by Jonathan Miller) - and to be singing alongside my beloved Hei-Kyung Hong (Contessa). The other three principals are singers I've not yet encountered onstage: Anke Vondung as Cherubino, Michele Pertusi as the Count, and Erwin Schrott as Figaro. Philippe Jordan  is on the podium.

I wouldn't judge a singer's vocal performance from a dress rehearsal; they have a tendency not to sing at full-tilt. But the way the dress rehearsal looks, feels and runs should provide a pretty fair preview of the opening night, which is Tuesday. I'll be going to the Saturday matinee on the 6th.

The production has altered quite a bit since it premiered; Jonathan Miller's original direction has been smeared and seems to have lost many attractive elements to a broader and more generalized approach. Maybe I am mistaken, but some of the costumes looked different to me as well. And, as with so many Met productions over the years, the lighting seems to have gone off.

Maestro Jordan takes a swift, light approach to NOZZE reminding us that the Almavivas are still a young couple and this is a story about youth and its turbulent desires. Once in a while the singers slipped a bit behind the quick pacing. Jordan eschewed some of the little lulls and rallentandi that can give the music  a gentle gracefulness; he tended to stay in tempo at certain points where we are used to hearing the brakes gently applied. But it seemed to work overall, and he had a wonderful cast of musicians whose nicely-integrated vocal textures and mercurial handling of the language blended into a very satisfying tapestry of sound.

I've been lucky over the years to have experienced many memorable Susannas, from classics like Graziella Sciutti and Judith Raskin to the highly individual and lovely Jeannette Pilou and NYCO's feisty and adorable Joy Clements. Lisette is already comfortably in the top echelon and she provides the added appeal of actually looking like a teenager. You would never guess that she was venturing onto these big sets with next-to-no stage rehearsal; she looked utterly at home. Musically impeccable, her silvery sound moves easily into the house. Her phrasing and use of dynamics  would indicate the savvy of someone who had sung the role dozens of times: so accomplished in every regard. In the magical "Deh vieni non tardar" Lisette clinched her success with remarkably poised vocalism. 

One of the musical highlights of the evening was the Letter Duet in which the Contessa and Susanna compose a letter to the Count while trading off the melody and then harmonizing as they re-read what they've written. Lisette's timbre found a vocal soulmate in Hei-Kyung Hong - I hesitate to say "the ravishing Hei-Kyung Hong" because she is so much more than ravishing - a blending that fell delightfully on the ear. Hong looks so elegant and her shimmeringly modulated and lightly embellished 'Dove sono' was the vocal apex her performance. Appearing like a vision at the end, Hei-Kyung's gentle forgiveness of her husband crowned the evening.

Anke Vondung seemed just a bit unsettled at first as Cherubino but her suave and beautifully controlled singing of 'Voi che sapete' put her in league with the best interpretations. Michele Pertusi looked handsome and loomed over Lisette's Susanna with a sort of refined lechery; the voice is mellow and the language flows gorgeously from his lips.

Wildly handsome and sexy, Erwin Schrott 's Figaro is a highly individual portrayal. Normally a singer who uses lots of semi-parlando, sotto voce asides, vocal smirks and throaty whispers would annoy me to no end. But Schrott has the courage of his convictions and his personal allure spins all of these elements into a Figaro of great vivacity and charm, all underpinned by sheer sexual confidence. Schrott smooched Lisette at every possible opportunity and also kissed, embraced, tickled and gently molested various people onstage throughout the evening with seemingly spontaneous bravado. And when sheer voice was needed, Schrott delivered.

Maurizio Muraro was the bemused Bartolo, not overdoing the buffo stuff, and veterans Ann Murray, Robin Leggate and Bernard Fitch kept their characters well-profiled in ensemble. Kathleen Kim's tiny and vocally strong Barbarina and Patrick Carfizzi as the smelly, drunken Antonio completed the Almaviva household.

After the performance as we waited for Lisette I saw our soon-to-be Cherubino Kate Lindsey and also had a chance to meet Hei-Kyung again. Lisette told me what a wonderful and generous colleague Hei-Kyung is, which is easy to believe...she's a great lady. Then we went out to toast Lisette's birthday on the stroke of midnight. Rob asked her how she planned to celebrate and Lisette replied: "Rehearsing!"

MARIA DE BUENOS AIRES Photo Gallery

Here are some photos from the Gotham Chamber Opera's production of Astor Piazzolla's tango-operita MARIA DE BUENOS AIRES which is reviewed below. The photo at left shows baritone Ricardo Herrera and mezzo-soprano Nicole Piccolomini who sang the principal roles of Porteno and Maria. I'm finding that their singing is lingering strongly in my mind today, as are many images from the production. I'm extremely grateful to Michelle Brandon of Gotham Chamber Opera for sending me these photos by Richard Termine which really capture the atmosphere if the piece. In the additional pictures from left to right below we see the two incarnations of Maria - dancer Malvina Sardou (seated) and Nicole. Next, actor Diego Arciniegas looks down on Parsons Dancer Miguel Quinones {in the air} as Billy Smith lifts Mayte Natalio. Third photo: standing are Diego, Nicole, Ricardo & Malvina with Miguel and Kevin Ferguson kneeling. Finally, the dancers with Nicole at a transforming moment.  I wish I had a photo of Tommy Scrivens who embodied the fatal allure of the tango as Bandoneon. You can check out his Company bio here. 

Opening Night: MARIA DE BUENOS AIRES

Wednesday September 26, 2007 - Astor Piazzolla's tango-opera MARIA DE BUENOS AIRES has opened at the Skirball Center.  I've been really looking forward to this, not just because my friend Nicole Piccolomini has the title role but also because David Parsons and Pablo Pugliese are co-choreographers and the dancers of David's company, Parsons Dance, are onstage. After attending a rehearsal a few weeks ago and getting a rush from the music, the passionate singing of Nicole and Ricardo Herrera {Stephanie Berger photo, left} and the energy and sexual tension of the dancers it was exciting to see all the elements come together in this provocative production presented by Gotham Chamber Opera. It will be given again on September 28th and 29th.

Nicole and Ricardo were both on extremely powerful vocal form for the opening performance. People around me commented at the end about the deep, seductive quality of Nicole's voice. Her iconic presence as Maria, "Madonna and whore", made her the centerpiece of the evening as the fervor of the tango and the feeling of incipient violence swirled around her. She exchanges the simple housedress in which she arrives in Buenos Aires for a sexy burgundy number, slit 'up to there' with garter belts and hooker shoes. After her violent death, a transfigured Maria appears draped in deep blue like the Virgin Mary; she gives birth, but not to a Christ child: her daughter will be the next Maria de Buenos Aires. Ricardo sounded great, his voice powerful and warm in this highly melodic role. Actor Diego Arciniegas spoke his lines in beautifully flowing Spanish with an undercurrent of menace.

The Parsons Dancers were great but I do wish the lighting had shown them off just a bit more; I know it's a dark work and needs a underworldly quality, but some of the best dancing was in heavily shadowed settings where a clearer highlighting would have benefited the dancers and their excellent work. Arriving in the auditorium, we see an eerily ghostlike tango couple moving in pale, flickering light against the drop curtain. Later, projections show us the locales in suggested rather than detailed visuals. The superb musicians of the tango orchestra under Neal Goren played a major role in the evening's success. A small chorus speaks rather than sings.

The three women next to me were very annoyed that supertitles were not provided. If they had read the programme notes which explained why titles were not being used (and which provided a concise synopsis) instead of blabbing about nothing until the curtain rose, they would have been prepared. It seems we have come to a point where we have to be spoon-fed. Titles would have been a distraction and anyway it is more the flavor of the language rather than the precise words that create the atmosphere. I loved just listening to the flow of Spanish, sensing the mood without having to be nursed thru it.

The audience seemed captivated by the music and the integration of song, dance and spoken word. The singers, dancers, actors and musicians were warmly cheered and the evening ended as they all began embracing one another on the open stage.

All day today I've been thinking about Nicole; I was remembering the first time I saw her in a staged performance. It was in March 1999 when I was going to every opera, recital and liederabend on offer at Juilliard because of my friendship with Makiko Narumi. Makiko had a role in the Chabrier opera-bouffe L'ETOILE at Juilliard and Nicole was in the chorus. At one point Nic served the drinks at a court function; her stage presence jumped right out at me - I even mentioned it in my diary. At the after-party I met Nicole for the first time and was very taken with her physical attractiveness and her self-confidence. At the time she was a soprano and I couldn't help thinking, '...but she has a mezzo personality!'  Oddly prophetic thought, and it came to pass - Nicole made the vocal switch with genuine success, went on to AVA, sang RUSSIAN SEASONS for NYC Ballet at Saratoga, and landed her Berlin Deutsche Oper contract. Tonight as Maria I was actually hearing her 'live' as a mezzo for the first time, incredibly enough. 

Passion and Betrayal: MARIA DE BUENOS AIRES

Julie Blume of Parsons Dance and actor Diego Arciniegas in a Stephanie Berger photo for the upcoming Gotham Chamber Opera production of Astor Piazzolla's MARIA DE BUENOS AIRES which opens tomorrow, September 26, at the Skirball Center with further performances on the 28th & 29th. I was down at the Skirball last week (on Washington Square South); it's a new venue for dance, opera & theatre - and the Piazzolla opera has elements of all three. It seems I've been waiting forever to see this tango-opera and now - finally - it's here. Nicole Piccolomini and Ricardo Herrera are the principal singers; David Parsons and Pablo Pugliese have choreographed and staged the work and Neal Goren conducts.      

A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE

We watched this David Cronenberg film over the weekend; it was not your typical local-hero story. The incident which puts Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen) in the limelight opens up a can of worms for the quiet, hard-working coffee shop owner when TV news stories about his defensive slaying of two small-time thugs in his restaurant are seen by some Philadelphia gangsters. Ed Harris  (Fogarty) and his goons materialize to menace Tom and his family; in an apparent case of mistaken identity, Fogarty believes that Stall is actually Joey Cusack, a Philadelphia hit-man who once dealt Fogarty a horrific eye injury.

When Stall suddenly shoots Fogarty and mangles his two bodyguards in a fit of violent rage, his wife {gorgeously played by Maria Bello} realizes that this man who could inflict injuries with such swiftness  and accuracy is not the Tom Stall she married. There is a moment of revelation just before Tom's son finishes Fogarty off with a shotgun.

Then what happens? You must watch it to find out. Cronenberg's cast is just about perfect: Mortensen and Harris are such contrasted but impressive actors. And Maria Bello's role is so wide-ranging: a patient mom, a wife still eager to please her husband sexually; but when she thinks she's been deceived, Bello turns tough and edgy. Two sex scenes between Bello and Mortensen, one playful and one rape-like, show us the altered course of their marriage. Bello's response to her husband's dark side is revelatory.

As in MUSIC BOX where Jessica Lange's character finds she does not really know her own father, Bello's in HISTORY OF VIOLENCE discovers that her husband is not what he seems. I suppose that unless you marry your high-school sweetheart or someone from the small town where you grew up together, you are in a position of having to believe what people tell you about themselves and their past as you enter into relationships.

HISTORY OF VIOLENCE has another story to tell, one to which I could clearly relate. The Stalls' son, Jack (Ashton Holmes) is gay and is struggling to survive in high school where he is an outcast, horribly uncomfortable on the sports field, and harassed by the jocks (led by the swaggering Bobby played by Kyle Schmid whose beautiful face masks a bullying nature). Jack goes thru all the things I went through, and even though I was never physically assaulted I was degraded and taunted on a daily basis; my fear of gym class literally became crippling. Like me at the time, Jack has a few friends, offbeat types like Judy, played by Sumela Kay, but basically he's on his own in a pitiless world...a world from which, at the time, there seems to be no hope of escaping. Where our stories diverge is the point where Jack has the pleasure of beating the crap out of Bobby when Bobby pushes him once too often. How many times I wished I could have done something like that! I felt so uncomfortable watching these young actors because it hit perilously close to home for me.

Sometimes I think about that period of my life which seems so long ago but which left such deep impressions. I wonder if there are kids in my small town high-school today who are going thru the same things I went thru. Because I don't honestly think things have changed all that much at that level. Maybe in urban areas there is more understanding and acceptance at an early age, but it's unlikely that it has filtered down to middle-America. Possibly some gay kids are able to connect on the internet and get support resources there, but you'd run the risk of your parents finding out. For me, back in the 60s, there was no such avenue: I was literally alone. The film brought back to me that unhappy period of my life; sometimes I don't know how I survived. The 'other' gay boy in town didn't: he shot himself.

Interesting Update: In Googling some links for this story I found an item about Viggo Mortensen being offered the main role in the upcoming film based on Cormac McCarthy's novel THE ROAD. I just finished reading this bleak, superbly written story after Dmitry introduced me to McCarthy's writing in BORDER TRILOGY. Mortensen is the man for that role, that's for sure; it will be a fascinating and mortally depressing film.

Family Feud

The latest story about the continuing power-struggle at the Bayreuth Festival here.  Nicole, wasn't Katharina Wagner your upstairs neighbor in Berlin last season?

And now for an Oberon's Grove milestone: the blog has had its 60,000th visitor. Thanks, everyone!

UPDATE: The Met season has opened and someone asked me if I was going to comment on the performance. I heard the third act only at the Met's website. No comment.

UPDATE #2: But I did find this story about the Met's opening which pretty much coincides with my impressions. The writer does not seem to have been tortured, as I was, by Giordani's pitch vagaries (nor his missing a line at the very end) and I liked John Relyea while this writer did not. Otherwise, Vilaine Fille has pretty much summed it up.   

MORPHOSES Slide Show

While Googling around I came upon this great slide show of Christopher Wheeldon's MORPHOSES in rehearsal. Lots of people we love in these pictures, and they look terrific. Will October 17 ever get here?

Beloved Mount Keumkang

One of the items on this CD that I really love is the Korean song BELOVED MOUNT KEUMKANG. At the end of the 1995 Seoul concert preserved on this disc, Hei-Kyung Hong introduces the song to the enthusiastic response of her compatriots. When Placido Domingo begins to sing - in Korean - the audience goes totally berserk. The disc seems to be out-of-print though you can find it offered at Amazon. Today while I was checking out Hei-Kyung's listings at YouTube, I found this version of her singing the song (with piano) from a 1995 recital in her native land.

Melodically, the song has that kind of heart-tugging simplicity that makes a direct connection to the listener despite not knowing exactly what words are being sung. BELOVED MOUNT KEUMKANG has such a feeling of 'sehnsucht', that elusive German word which indicates both nostalgia and longing. Its status as an unofficial Korean national anthem stems from the hearts of those who live in that divided land; "...it gives hope to all who live separated from loved ones because of distance, duty or borders."

I'm really looking forward to seeing Hei-Kyung at the Met this Fall, and listening to this song again and watching the clip reminded me of all the things I love about her.

Tango Stiletto

Kevin Ferguson of Parsons Dance in a Stephanie Berger photo from the upcoming Gotham Chamber Opera production of Astor Piazzolla's tango-opera MARIA DE BUENOS AIRES which plays at the Skirball Center {on Washington Square South, NYC} on September 26/28/29, 2007. The girls of Parsons Dance were rehearsing in these shoes the day I sat in. Muy caliente...