Oberon's Grove

2008: My TRISTAN Year

From a musical point of view, 2008 is going to go down in my opera diary as the year I finally had my TRISTAN UND ISOLDE revelation. (Above, Lilli Lehmann as Isolde)

TRISTAN was always a problematic opera for me. The first time I saw it performed was a monumental experience: the opening night of a new production at the Met in 1971 with Birgit Nilsson and Jess Thomas in the title roles, conducted by Erich Leinsdorf.  After that I developed a mental block about the opera; I found it impossible to listen to it on broadcasts (even if singers I loved like Jon Vickers, Hildegard Behrens, Tatiana Troyanos or Dame Gwyneth Jones were involved) and I was never able to concentrate on a recording of it, try as I might.

In March 2008 I decided I really needed to get this elusive opera into its rightful place in my repertoire. Attending a performance which was not altogether perfect (but which featured an especially strong male cast and James Levine's excellent conducting) gave me the needed impetus and also solved the riddle of my Tristan-phobia: it has to be experienced in the theatre.

So TRISTAN was at the top of my list of things to see this season and I greatly enjoyed Daniel Barenboim's reading of the score and (again) the impressive male singers in early December. Then the surprise announcement that Waltraud Meier would sing her first Met Isolde prompted me to go back for a second very satisfying performance - with thanks to Dmitry for getting the tickets and also for standing thru it with me.

Now I feel confident I will always be prepared to see TRISTAN whenever it is offered; I hope it won't be long before the Met performs it again.   

Above: Germaine Lubin, one of history's great Isoldes and one of opera's most tragically ill-fated singers. It is her recording of the Liebestod - in French - that I want played at my funeral.

It was not Germaine Lubin's fault that Adolf Hitler had become infatuated with her; but her activities during the German occupation of Paris put her under suspicion of collaboration with the Nazis, and after the Liberation in 1944 she was arrested and imprisoned. At her trial in 1946, she was acquitted of the accusations after a number of testimonials were produced from people she had helped during the war. Nevertheless she was sentenced to "dégradation nationale" for life (subsequently reduced to five years), confiscation of property, and "interdiction de séjour" (a form of exile). She found refuge with friends in Italy.

For her part, Lubin denied all ties to Nazi Germany, and grew deeply bitter over her treatment at the hands of the French government. She once said:

"I have suffered an enormous injustice. They curtailed my career by ten years — my own people! The fact is that I knew some of the Germans when they came to Paris during the occupation. This gave my enemies the chance to satisfy their envy … If I saw the Germans in Paris —and they had been more than kind to me— it was to save my compatriots. It was my way of serving my country at that particular moment. Nobody knows how many prisoners I had released … When I spent three years in prison, they confiscated my château at Tours and my possessions. Did anyone bother to ask me why I did not accept Winifred Wagner’s invitations to sing in Germany during the occupation? But my trial was a complete vindication: I was completely cleared. Yes, they gave back most of what they had taken …" {The scandal haunted her for the rest of her life, and in 1953 her son committed suicide.}

Watching Ted Kivitt

I was visiting my friend James today and he showed me a film clip of Ted Kivitt, reminding me of this dancer who I saw quite frequently when I was first going to the ballet. Kivitt danced the DON QUIXOTE pas de deux with Eleanor D'Antuono at my very first ABT performance and he danced the CORSAIRE pas de deux with Gelsey Kirkland at my second ABT performance. He was Franz to Gelsey's Swanhilda in a memorable COPPELIA, and he and Cynthia Gregory danced a grand GISELLE together.

There's a Black Swan pas de deux with Gregory and Kivitt on YouTube; very murky visually but you'll get the idea.

During those first couple of seasons of my ballet-going when TJ and I shuttled between ABT and NYCB, we thought Ted Kivitt and Peter Martins were just about the most exciting male dancers around.

RONDINE Dress Rehearsal @ The Met

Monday December 29, 2008 - Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna (above in a photo from Playbill) have the leading roles and Lisette Oropesa and Marius Brenciu are Lisette and Prunier in the Met's production of Puccini's LA RONDINE which opens on New Year's Eve. Marco Armiliato conducts. Today I attended the dress rehearsal. It's been a long time since I have been so thoroughly bored at the opera.

The production, updated to the Art Deco era, is a visual delight. The four leading singers were all very well-suited to their roles vocally and they looked well onstage too. The orchestra played beautifully under Maestro Armiliato's ardent baton.

But the opera itself falls flat, in my estimation. The score is a rich Puccini concoction laced with generous helpings of the Master's usual melodic and harmonic ingredients. But the characters are not interesting and the heroine's 'crisis' is one of her own making: the former courtesan Magda, in a fit of guilt over her checkered past, leaves the despondent Ruggero even though he says that he loves her and doesn't really care about what she did before he met her. The whole opera has a much ado about nothing feeling; the current production seems to try to provide some kind of impetus for Madga's decision by having her old 'keeper', Rambaldo, re-appear at the end; but I do not think this is a feature of the original libretto. Another oddity was Magda's final sustained high note; I believe it's supposed to be sung offstage as she leaves Ruggero alone. Here, Ms. Gheorghiu walked to the center of the stage and sang the note as the curtain fell.

Apparently there is an alternate ending in which Madga is so overcome with shame that she walks into the sea and drowns herself. By the time RONDINE dragged to its conclusion, I was feeling mildly suicidal myself.

Above: Lisette Oropesa, Marius Brenciu, Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu in a Sara Krulwich photo from the NY TIMES.

Allegra Kent's ONCE A DANCER

TJ and I were at one of my very first New York City Ballet performances back in the mid-1970s. It was intermission and we were sitting on the floor up in standing room; I was running down the list of principals and soloists, asking him about dancers I hadn't seen yet.

"Allegra Kent?"

"She never dances."

"Why not?"

"That's the question everyone is asking."

Allegra Kent's book, ONCE A DANCER, offers an explanation. After reading it I felt that, considering all she was going thru in her personal life during her career years, it's a wonder she performed at all. The book tells of her gypsyish childhood; her unusual relationship with her mother and with Christian Science; her erratic ballet training (she skipped the beginner level altogether and started as an intermediate at her mother's bidding - she admits never learning the basics); her peculiar and sometimes frightening marriage; her quirky relationship with Mr. B and her spotty performing record; her later attempts to stay involved in the dance world...and to date, as a woman of a certain age with three children. It all has to be true: you couldn't make this stuff up.

Above, the Playbill from one of the very few times I saw Allegra Kent dance.

Above, not the only time this happened: Kent is replaced (here, by Karin) on very short notice.

The book is written in a breezy, eclectic style that makes it fun to read even when the things Kent writes about are pretty serious and even a bit scary. You feel like you are sitting opposite her, sharing a pot of tea with her as she confides in you. Sometimes when I grab a few minutes to read in the middle of the day, I'll be thinking: "I'll just read 5 or 6 pages," but with Kent's book, I couldn't put it down. I devoured it. It's such a human story. 

Recently I found myself seated in front of Ms. Kent at the ballet; although I'm extremely shy, I felt a great urge to swivel around and start chatting with her. But then, what would I have said? I saw her dance so rarely. If it'd been Kay Mazzo or Patricia McBride, I could have babbled on and on about all their performances I'd seen. I was wishing there was still a sidewalk flower stand across from Lincoln Center (there used to be) so I could have run out at intermission and bought her a big bouquet.

If anyone has personal recollections of seeing Allegra Kent onstage, please use the Comments section below. I'd love to read first-hand accounts.

[Top portrait by Shonna Valeska].

The Lady

 
 
The lady she had a silver tongue
 For to sing she said,
 And maybe that's all.
 Wait for the dawn and we will have that song.
 When it ends it will seem
 That we hear silence fall.

 The lady she had a golden heart
 For to love she said,
 And she did not lie.
 Wait for the dawn and we'll watch for the sun.
 As we turn it will seem
 To arise in the sky.

 We heard that song while watching the skies...
 Oh, the sound it rang
 So clear through the cold.
 Then silence fell and the sun did arise
 On a beautiful morning of silver and gold.

       - Sandy Denny (1947 - 1978)

Varnay/Rysanek/Fischer/Hotter: ELEKTRA

Since attending the NY Philharmonic's concert performance of ELEKTRA earlier this month, I cannot get this opera out of my mind.

I owned the 1953 mono recording (released/1954) conducted by Richard Kraus and featuring Astrid Varnay, Leonie Rysanek, Res Fischer and Hans Hotter for years on the Gala label. It is one of the few recorded performances by Astrid Varnay that I really love. But in one of my sell-off phases, I let it go. Then I regretted not having it. So I was glad to find a copy among a box of abandoned promotional discs which my boss offered me just before Tower closed.

This is Varnay at her greatest. I have sometimes found her singing a little matronly and a bit stodgy in moving the voice around. But here she is just fantastic; the sound is huge and rich and the top notes are struck off with gleaming precision. She also tries a few nice piano effects and there is a great sense of nobility under the world-weariness of the character. 

Leonie Rysanek is one of the few sopranos to have sung all three major roles in this opera (is she, in fact, the only one?). I believe this recording was made just before she began singing Chrysothemis onstage and the voice has a fresh, youthful gleam and tons of the Rysanek borderline-hysteria. It's a recording that almost captures the thrill that her high notes created in the house. [She later made a film of the title role, and then became a superb Klytemnestra - the role of her very last stage appearance shortly before her untimely death]. This recording is a wonderful souvenir of a great prima donna just at the dawn of her international career.

Res Fischer is a singer I knew little - or rather, nothing - about before hearing her on this recording; she has a splendid, contralto-based voice and she really sings the music of Klytemnestra without a lot of extraneous effects. She can be very subtle and overall she makes the character almost sympathetic. 

Hans Hotter sounds a little mature for Orestes but his vocalism and the keen dramatic shading of the words make him impressive. The other roles are well done; some people find the opening scene of the maids in ELEKTRA tedious but I love it because you really get a sense of their nastiness and of the nightmarish atmosphere of life in the house of Atreus.

The conducting of Richard Kraus is surely not the most exciting I've ever heard for this opera (Bohm, Solti, Levine, Ozawa are among my top ELEKTRA maestros) but he sets up the scenes with skill and lets the singers have ample space to breathe and sustain their lines.

Duet II

Edwaard Liang and Maria Kowroski.

IMAGINE

NUTCRACKER 2008 #6

Wednesday December 24, 2008 matinee - No, I have not ODed on the Kingdom of the Sweets yet this Winter. And even with all the lovely Sugar Plums dancing in my head, I would not have missed Kaitlyn Gilliland's debut in the role for anything.

Maestro Karoui was on the podium again this afternoon but several of the niceties that decorated last night's reading were glossed over in favor of a quick and straight-forward reading of the score.  Henry Seth's exceptionally detailed Stahlbaum (with Ellen Bar as his gracious wife) and Kyle Froman's arthritic, convincing Drosselmeyer were among the treats in Act I, along with the dancing dolls: Rachel Piskin, Lauren King and Vincent Paradiso. The Snow scene was again a choreographic highlight.

Mary Elizabeth Sell and Devin Alberda led off the divertissement, repeating their lively Spanish. Rebecca Krohn managed to calm a somewhat restless audience - full of tiny children - with her alluring Arabian. It's time to see Rebecca's Sugar Plum, by the way. Troy Schumacher made the most of the brief Tea solo with his easy jump and flashy spins off the ground. The charismatic Craig Hall looked great in Candy Cane and Alina Dronova's technical clarity as Marzipan built her tip-toe (and very difficult, I think) solo confidently. Tiler Peck, fresh from her success as the Sugar Plum Fairy, turned in a sparkling performance as the Dewdrop. A top-class turner, Tiler flashed thru her combinations with ease: the more pirouettes, the merrier she seemed. Gwyneth Muller and Ellen Ostrom waltzed with serene charm while the corps of Flowers subtly attempted to rid the stage of a small bit of costuming that fell off during Spanish. They managed, with teamwork, just in time for the pas de deux.  

Watching Kaitlyn Gilliland's debut as the Sugar Plum Fairy was a wonderful Christmas Eve gift. The young ballerina, who put a very personal stamp on the role of the Siren in PRODIGAL SON this past Spring, today showed an arresting presence, with cool glamour and a serene style aligned to a face that you can't take your eyes off of. What I like best about her, aside from her poised musicality and poetic port de bras, is the unique flavour of her performances. She's inimitably Kaitlyn, and it's going to be real pleasure to watch her take on new roles over the next several seasons.

Ask LaCour was her attentive cavalier and - except for that recalcitrant metal pad on which the Sugar Plum must glide - things went smoothly. Seeing the tall ballerina fly up to the shoulder of her even taller prince  - twice - was exciting and Kaitlyn's sustained balance at the end of the adagio was her crowning moment.

Seeing our young dancers from the soloist and corps ranks performing major roles during this NUTCRACKER season is very reassuring. I feel that we have a lot to look forward to in so many respects and that the talent and personalities of the up-and-coming generation will keep me happily focused on this Company for many years to come.

NUTCRACKER 2008 #5

Tuesday December 23, 2008 - Teresa Reichlen as the Sugar Plum Fairy in Paul Kolnik's perfect photo. It was to see Tess and her cavalier Charles Askegard as well as a host of other favorite dancers that I went to my fifth NUTCRACKER of the current season. Tess and Charles gave a sterling rendition of the pas de deux, topping off a very enjoyable evening.

Joshua Shutkind and Maria Gorokhov (Andrea Mohin photo, above) as the prince and Marie led the children's cast which also featured Jeremy Wong's very rambunctious Fritz. Robert LaFosse was a rather subdued Drosselmeyer tonight while Ask LaCour and Gwyneth Muller as the Stahlbaums used their expressive arms and hands to fine effect in the party scene. Erica Pereira, Brittany Pollack and Austin Laurent were characterful dolls and Max van der Sterre an animated Mouse King. Are the dancers sick of NUTCRACKER? If they are, it doesn't show.

With Faycal Karoui on the podium, things moved along briskly. He gives the score a full-bodied symphonic feel but sometimes throws in subtle textures, as in the sort of echo effect he obtained in the Mother Ginger number (which he concluded with a brilliant prestissimo). Kurt Nikkanen's playing of the Act I interlude is really dreamy. 

It's always fun to spot dancers in the big numbers who aren't supposed to be there and tonight one of the Snowflakes caught my eye with her regal femininity: Amanda Hankes. She used it as a warm-up for her Spanish senorita in Act II, where she danced with the authoritative Jason Fowler. 

Kathryn Morgan also had double duty, leading off the Snow scene with lyrical grace and then dancing a spectacular Marzipan. With her pretty back-up quartet (Faye Arthurs, Katie Bergstrom, Lauren King and Stephanie Zungre) Katie reveled in the demands of the choreography while captivating us with her lovely face. Giovanni Villalobos sprung out from his Chinese box into a couple of high leaps, and then spun off a dazzling flurry of air turns. Daniel Ulbricht wowed the crowd with his effortless, personable Candy Cane. Justin Peck was Mother Ginger; Rachel Rutherford and Saskia Beskow led a stylish Waltz and it was very thoughtful of the powers that be to put Kaitlyn, Sophie and Lydia next to each other in the opening segment. 

Dena Abergel was a vividly dramatic Arabian, an unattainable icon dancing in her own private world. In the finale, Dena came down the diagonal striking one long arabesque balance and then holding a second one even longer. I thought for a moment they were using freeze-frame. Brava! 

Megan Fairchild (Paul Kolnik photo, above) danced Dewdrop this evening. She opened the Waltz standing in utter stillness on her pointes; then the feet begin to trill and she's off on her myriad spins and jumps, a complete delight. Buoyed by continuous waves of applause, she swept thru each solo passage with sparkling lightness. [Megan is featured in Kristin Sloan's latest video.]

And so we come to Tess Reichlen's Sugar Plum who looks like a goddess when she first bourees out; the solo is mesmerizing with her long arms flowing thru the port de bras and her pristine footwork. With her prince of a partner, Charles Askegard, Tess gave a majestic adagio - everything really smooth and refined with her two breath-taking leaps to Chuck's shoulder. The metal plate on which the cavalier leads the Sugar Plum's magical glide was very stodgy tonight, giving them a momentary jolt. But what a plush ending: a big balance from Tess and then Charles pulled off the final fish-dive to perfection. Tess looks so gorgeous...totally captivating.

{Headshots: Paul Kolnik}