Sunday November 4, 2007 matinee - Samuel Barber's VANESSA is treated to a new production at New York City Opera {Ken Howard photo, left}. The opera has not been staged by either of NY's major companies since 1965 when Mary Costa sang a revival of it at the Met. Eleanor Steber had created the title role after it was reportedly turned down by Maria Callas and Sena Jurinac. Steber was incredible and made the role her own, as the RCA original cast recording amply demonstrates. Brenda Lewis and Mary Costa were the only other Met Vanessas to date. There was a major revival at Spoleto USA in 1978 with a superbly sophisticated Johanna Meier in the title role which I fortunately have on videotape. Lauren Flanigan portrays Vanessa in the current City Opera production.
Flanigan's last venture on the NYCO stage was one of the most fascinating and memorable operatic portrayals I ever experienced: as Christine in Marvin David Levy's MOURNING BECOMES ELECTRA (my choice for 'the Great American Opera' award) Flanigan {Carol Rosegg photo, left} totally vanquished the many reservations I had held about her as a singer with a searing and vocally astounding performance. She nearly matched that success with her excellent Vanessa today: the character is vain and self-dramatizing but Flanigan brought out her vulnerability. Her voice is certainly one of the strangest I have encountered over the many years I've been listening to singers. Someone once said of Callas that she seemed to have built her voice on sheer will-power and I get that feeling with Flanigan as well.
She underlined the character's neuroses with her timbre which is both oddly fragile and yet capable of great metallic thrust. The top notes were shining, the lower voice strongly projected. In the middle she could be a shade flat at times but she swept away any doubts with the conviction and uncanny 'rightness' of her vocalism. Clarity of diction was another great benefit of Flanigan's performance, especially in the Act I monolog 'Do Not Utter a Word' where Vanessa tells of her desperate attempt to prevent the passage of time.
Katherine Goeldner has been a fetching Carmen at NYCO in the past and she had a great success today as Erika, Vanessa's niece - or possibly her daughter? Goeldner's voice seemed a bit subdued today but the warmth of tone was ample and she made 'Must the Winter Come So Soon?" truly beautiful in the simplicity of her expression. The character is complex: she wants Anatol but on her own terms. She knows him for what he is but is unable to break Vanessa's heart by telling her the truth. So she lets him go and lets Vanessa continue her illusions which - it would seem - are doomed to be crushed. Goeldner was especially vivid in the climactic moments of Act II when she rips the draping from Vanessa's portrait and rejects Anatol's feeble offer of marriage.
Rosalind Elias created the role of Erika at the world premiere and she makes a tremendous impression in the RCA recording with her warm, sensuous timbre. Elias has returned to the stage for the City Opera production in the role of Vanessa's mother, the unforgiving Old Baroness. Elias looked striking with her long grey hair and dressed in severe black. The voice has a rather ghostly quality now but retains the tonal core in the lower middle where she is able to make the most of her phrases aligned to her clear diction. We never really know why the Old Baroness has stopped talking to Vanessa and to the Doctor, but she abandons Erika when the girl tells her that her child has been aborted. In the end, Erika is utterly alone.
Ryan MacPherson was just about perfect as Anatol, the heartless opportunist who makes love to Erika but marries Vanessa for her fortune. MacPherson's vocal clarity and assurance were especially appreciated in the big duet with Vanessa - I hesitate to call it a love duet because it paints a very cynical picture of love - and in the narrative of his discovery of Erika's nearly-dead body by the path to the lake. He sang so well.
As the Old Doctor, veteran Richard Stilwell - a beloved Pelleas and Billy Budd - finds a very congenial role. He has a considerable amount of voice at his disposal after many years of singing and impressed me with the power of his upper notes, his excellent diction and slender, easy stage presence. The doctor is a sentimental old man, dredging up the old song 'Under the Willow Tree' for an impromptu dance, but he touches the heart as he watches Vanessa - whose life he has been part of since he delivered her as a baby - prepare to leave forever. In his monolog, 'For Every Love There is a Last Farewell', Stilwell beautifully expressed his memories of the little girl who is now departing. Ironically, she does not pay any attention to his words.
The production was traditional and attractive, with a front scrim showing the bleak forest that surrounds Vanessa's mansion. The careful stage directions in the score were generally followed although Erika did not sing 'Must The Winter Come So Soon?' while looking out the window. The only major gaffe was the under-attended ball; a mere three couple arrived followed by a few dancers for the entertainment. Surely NYCO could have found some old costumes and thrown together a more substantial fete.
Anne Manson conducted and was a hit with the audience. The score is often keenly orchestrated and with subtle rhythmic pulses. The haunting prelude to Act IV made a particularly fine effect. I do think, however, that the second intermission after the ball scene could have been avoided; its elimination would have made the opera more cohesive. And what of the Skating Aria? It was omitted. All things considered, it was great to finally see VANESSA; if we have to wait 40 years for another revival this may have been my singular opportunity.
Barber and Menotti themselves cut the skating aria fairly early in Vanessa's career. Their rationale was that it was not consistant with the character of the rest of Vanessa's music. When the opera was revived at the MET with Mary Costa, it was in the revised version that the creators had made. She could probably have sung the Skating Aria without much if any trouble but they did not elect to bring it back.
Posted by: Will | November 07, 2007 at 10:34 PM