Well, the season announcement has been made, and I was 80% correct in my previous post.
The summer production, from July 30 to August 20, will be Porgy and Bess, with Gordon Hawkins and Lisa Daltirus in the lead roles, with John DeMain conducting.
Carmen will play from October 15 to 29, with Anita Rachvelishvili as Carmen, and Joseph Calleja, returning five years after his local debut, as Don Jose. This will not be a revival of the production from 2004, but a production borrowed from Lyric Opera of Kansas City.
From January 14 to 28 will be the Seattle debut of Verdi's Attila with John Relyea in the title role, Antonello Palombi as Foresto, Ana Lucrecia Garcia as Odabella and Marco Vratogna as Ezio. If the pictures on the Seattle Opera website are any indication, this looks to be a modernized production.
Orpheus and Eurydice by Gluck will play from February 25 - March 10, the one opera I didn't guess. It's the tenor version of the opera with William Burden as Orpheus, Davinia Rodriguez as Eurydice and Julianne Gearhart as Amore.
The season ends with Madama Butterfly from May 5 - 19. Patricia Racette and Stefano Secco make their local debuts in the lead roles.
I can't say that I'm particularly thrilled by the choice of operas--however, the high quality of singers for the season does interest me.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Seattle Opera, next season
Normally, Seattle Opera announces the next season in early January, so the 2011-12 announcement is probably only a couple of weeks away.
But usually, it's possible to figure out, from here and there, what they are planning on presenting. However, this time it's been more difficult than usual to figure out their plans in advance.
Originally, the 2011 summer opera was to have been Tannhäuser, a work not seen in Seattle since the 1984-85 season (Speight Jenkins' inaugural season with the company, as a matter of fact). And the title role was to have been played by Christopher Ventris, Seattle's 2003 Parsifal, in his role debut. However, apparently the production has been cancelled. Instead of Wagner, we will be getting Gershwin: Porgy and Bess, last seen in Seattle in 1995.
The January 2012 production will be Verdi--one of his rarer works at that: Attila, the first time it's been performed by the company. Antonello Palombi, last season's Manrico, will take the tenor role of Foresto.
And in October, March, and May? I actually don't know. I'm pretty confident that Madama Butterfly will be one of the works performed, and Carmen is a very likely pick as well. I'd expect that the remaining fifth opera will also be one of the standard canon as well: likely possibilities include Fidelio, Tales of Hoffmann, Elisir d'amore, and Don Pasquale. Rigoletto is less likely, as they are already performing a Verdi work, and the last time they did it, it bombed at the box office. It's unlikely they'll do two Puccini operas in one season, so that eliminates Turandot. It's been a long time since Seattle Opera has done Faust, but Speight Jenkins is on record as hating that opera, so I can't see him programming it in one of his last seasons as the company's director. Maybe they'll surprise us with a mainstage debut of Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream (based on the interesting production Peter Kazaras did with the Young Artists Program back in 2009).
Anyway, my guesses for 2011-12's five operas are:
But usually, it's possible to figure out, from here and there, what they are planning on presenting. However, this time it's been more difficult than usual to figure out their plans in advance.
Originally, the 2011 summer opera was to have been Tannhäuser, a work not seen in Seattle since the 1984-85 season (Speight Jenkins' inaugural season with the company, as a matter of fact). And the title role was to have been played by Christopher Ventris, Seattle's 2003 Parsifal, in his role debut. However, apparently the production has been cancelled. Instead of Wagner, we will be getting Gershwin: Porgy and Bess, last seen in Seattle in 1995.
The January 2012 production will be Verdi--one of his rarer works at that: Attila, the first time it's been performed by the company. Antonello Palombi, last season's Manrico, will take the tenor role of Foresto.
And in October, March, and May? I actually don't know. I'm pretty confident that Madama Butterfly will be one of the works performed, and Carmen is a very likely pick as well. I'd expect that the remaining fifth opera will also be one of the standard canon as well: likely possibilities include Fidelio, Tales of Hoffmann, Elisir d'amore, and Don Pasquale. Rigoletto is less likely, as they are already performing a Verdi work, and the last time they did it, it bombed at the box office. It's unlikely they'll do two Puccini operas in one season, so that eliminates Turandot. It's been a long time since Seattle Opera has done Faust, but Speight Jenkins is on record as hating that opera, so I can't see him programming it in one of his last seasons as the company's director. Maybe they'll surprise us with a mainstage debut of Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream (based on the interesting production Peter Kazaras did with the Young Artists Program back in 2009).
Anyway, my guesses for 2011-12's five operas are:
- Porgy and Bess
- Attila
- Madama Butterfly
- Carmen
- L'elisir d'amore
Friday, December 10, 2010
La fanciulla del West (Metropolitan Opera DVD), 1992
Giacomo Puccini's horse opera was first performed 100 years ago today, December 10, 1910 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. To mark the occasion, I thought it would be fitting to watch the DVD of the Met production which was premiered in 1991. The same production has been revived and is currently being performed in New York--next month, the Met will do an HD theatre broadcast of the opera.
I love La fanciulla del West. I think it's Puccini's best opera for reasons both musical and dramatic. By 1910, Puccini's skill at composing atmospheric orchestral and vocal music was greater than it had ever been. For an opera set in Gold Rush-era California, Puccini composed music evoking the vast open spaces of the new country--in the opening moments of Act 3, there are some notes from the brass that sound Coplandesque--although Aaron Copland himself, born in 1900, would have been in short pants at the time this opera was composed.
However, this music is unfairly neglected. After composing four operas (Manon Lescaut, La boheme, Tosca, Madama Butterfly) that seem to consist of almost nothing but one hit tune after another, he then composed five that had almost none: in Fanciulla del West, La rondine, Il tabarro, Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi, there are maybe three famous arias: "Ch'ella me creda", "Che il bel sogno di Doretta", and "O mio babbino caro." Not until Turandot did Puccini become a hitmaker again.
The problem is, Fanciulla's arias are so connected with the drama that it's hard to sing them as separate excerpts: the tenor's Act 2 aria "Or son sei mesi" is, I am convinced, one of the most dramatic arias Puccini ever composed: its heartfelt anguish blows away the cheap tenorial whining in Cavaradossi's "E lucevan le stelle." (For the record, I really really hate Tosca.)
Certainly anyone who thinks Fanciulla is unmelodic should note the case of Mr. Andrew Lloyd Webber. The one and only good tune from his grotesque musical The Phantom of the Opera (the 'hook' from "Music of the Night") was taken directly from Fanciulla del West--it starts off as a waltz tune in Act 1, and turns into a love theme that is used to great effect in Acts 1 and 2, and eventually turned into an almost hymn-like tune of redemption and sadness in the final act. The Puccini estate quite rightly sued Webber (at the time, the opera was still under copyright) who paid an undisclosed settlement for his misuse of the melody Puccini created.
But enough of Andrew Lloyd Webber. Besides the music of Fanciulla del West, I also love the drama itself. The opera is occasionally compared to Tosca, and there are superficial similarities: the soprano loves the tenor, the tenor is in trouble, the baritone lusts after the soprano and wants to kill the tenor and, scarily, has the weight of the law on his side. But while Floria Tosca was a whiny little self-pitying brat, Minnie is a strong, independent woman who loves her friends and does her best to help and protect the people she loves. While Cavaradossi is a self-righteous artist (the worst sort of self-righteous person), Ramerrez is a criminal who recognize his evil deeds and is desperately trying to make himself a better person. While Scarpia is, essentially, a complete monster, Sheriff Jack Rance is a harsh, angry, lonely and wildly unhappy person who, unlike Scarpia, keeps his promise, and loses like a gentleman. There is no perfectly good and no perfectly evil character in Fanciulla's universe.
The end of the opera is a true rarity in Puccini: a genuinely happy ending. No one dies, and Minnie and Ramerrez leave forever, not in despair or in a spirit of cynicism, but in one of hope for the future. The real climax of the opera comes in the miner Sonora's big moment near the end when he sings the now transformed Act 1 waltz tune as the miners, won over by Minnie's love and Ramerrez's genuine repentance, let them go to start a new life. For once, Puccini can bring tears to viewers eyes without killing off a soprano. It's a wonderfully cathartic moment.
The Metropolitan Opera DVD, recorded in April 1992, is a glorious performance of the opera. Leonard Slatkin, normally best-known as a symphonic rather than an operatic conductor, brings a freshness to a performance, not to mention performing some bits that are usually cut from performance (Sadly the extended version of the Act 2 tenor-soprano duet was not kept in). The production was originally meant to star Eva Marton, however, between the time that the production was planned and it was actually staged, Marton and the Met Opera management had a falling out, and she left the company for several years. Instead, Barbara Daniels, a singer not often recorded, plays the difficult role of Minnie. She manages the high-lying dramatic lines well, and portrays a tomboyish Minnie, fiercely protective of the miners and later, of Ramerrez.
Sherrill Milnes, near the end of his career here, is Jack Rance, authoritative and violent. But even Rance is human, and Milnes' portrayal of Rance's disbelieving shock of losing the poker game in Act 2 is shattering. The director, Gian-Carlo del Monaco, cannily has Rance be the first and last character seen onstage in the opera.
And Placido Domingo, age 51 at the time this was recorded, was in his late career prime. These performances may, in fact, have been the last performances of this opera that he ever sang: it's not an easy role. His tone is burnished, his high notes, while secure, are just slightly insecure enough to make the performance sound dangerous. (In fact, I believe in the radio broadcast of the opera, one of his high notes was muffed, so the sound of the video may have been fixed in the studio slightly).
Kim Josephson, who has gone on to sing the larger role of Rance elsewhere, is a friendly, mellifluous Sonora. Dwayne Croft, near the beginning of his career here is Larkens (he currently sings Sonora in the Met revival).
The sets and costumes by Michael Scott are very realistic and beautiful, making use of California's mountains and, in the final act, a ghost town. Del Monaco's production emphasizes, I think, the spirit of redemption heard throughout the opera.
I love La fanciulla del West. I think it's Puccini's best opera for reasons both musical and dramatic. By 1910, Puccini's skill at composing atmospheric orchestral and vocal music was greater than it had ever been. For an opera set in Gold Rush-era California, Puccini composed music evoking the vast open spaces of the new country--in the opening moments of Act 3, there are some notes from the brass that sound Coplandesque--although Aaron Copland himself, born in 1900, would have been in short pants at the time this opera was composed.
However, this music is unfairly neglected. After composing four operas (Manon Lescaut, La boheme, Tosca, Madama Butterfly) that seem to consist of almost nothing but one hit tune after another, he then composed five that had almost none: in Fanciulla del West, La rondine, Il tabarro, Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi, there are maybe three famous arias: "Ch'ella me creda", "Che il bel sogno di Doretta", and "O mio babbino caro." Not until Turandot did Puccini become a hitmaker again.
The problem is, Fanciulla's arias are so connected with the drama that it's hard to sing them as separate excerpts: the tenor's Act 2 aria "Or son sei mesi" is, I am convinced, one of the most dramatic arias Puccini ever composed: its heartfelt anguish blows away the cheap tenorial whining in Cavaradossi's "E lucevan le stelle." (For the record, I really really hate Tosca.)
Certainly anyone who thinks Fanciulla is unmelodic should note the case of Mr. Andrew Lloyd Webber. The one and only good tune from his grotesque musical The Phantom of the Opera (the 'hook' from "Music of the Night") was taken directly from Fanciulla del West--it starts off as a waltz tune in Act 1, and turns into a love theme that is used to great effect in Acts 1 and 2, and eventually turned into an almost hymn-like tune of redemption and sadness in the final act. The Puccini estate quite rightly sued Webber (at the time, the opera was still under copyright) who paid an undisclosed settlement for his misuse of the melody Puccini created.
But enough of Andrew Lloyd Webber. Besides the music of Fanciulla del West, I also love the drama itself. The opera is occasionally compared to Tosca, and there are superficial similarities: the soprano loves the tenor, the tenor is in trouble, the baritone lusts after the soprano and wants to kill the tenor and, scarily, has the weight of the law on his side. But while Floria Tosca was a whiny little self-pitying brat, Minnie is a strong, independent woman who loves her friends and does her best to help and protect the people she loves. While Cavaradossi is a self-righteous artist (the worst sort of self-righteous person), Ramerrez is a criminal who recognize his evil deeds and is desperately trying to make himself a better person. While Scarpia is, essentially, a complete monster, Sheriff Jack Rance is a harsh, angry, lonely and wildly unhappy person who, unlike Scarpia, keeps his promise, and loses like a gentleman. There is no perfectly good and no perfectly evil character in Fanciulla's universe.
The end of the opera is a true rarity in Puccini: a genuinely happy ending. No one dies, and Minnie and Ramerrez leave forever, not in despair or in a spirit of cynicism, but in one of hope for the future. The real climax of the opera comes in the miner Sonora's big moment near the end when he sings the now transformed Act 1 waltz tune as the miners, won over by Minnie's love and Ramerrez's genuine repentance, let them go to start a new life. For once, Puccini can bring tears to viewers eyes without killing off a soprano. It's a wonderfully cathartic moment.
The Metropolitan Opera DVD, recorded in April 1992, is a glorious performance of the opera. Leonard Slatkin, normally best-known as a symphonic rather than an operatic conductor, brings a freshness to a performance, not to mention performing some bits that are usually cut from performance (Sadly the extended version of the Act 2 tenor-soprano duet was not kept in). The production was originally meant to star Eva Marton, however, between the time that the production was planned and it was actually staged, Marton and the Met Opera management had a falling out, and she left the company for several years. Instead, Barbara Daniels, a singer not often recorded, plays the difficult role of Minnie. She manages the high-lying dramatic lines well, and portrays a tomboyish Minnie, fiercely protective of the miners and later, of Ramerrez.
Sherrill Milnes, near the end of his career here, is Jack Rance, authoritative and violent. But even Rance is human, and Milnes' portrayal of Rance's disbelieving shock of losing the poker game in Act 2 is shattering. The director, Gian-Carlo del Monaco, cannily has Rance be the first and last character seen onstage in the opera.
And Placido Domingo, age 51 at the time this was recorded, was in his late career prime. These performances may, in fact, have been the last performances of this opera that he ever sang: it's not an easy role. His tone is burnished, his high notes, while secure, are just slightly insecure enough to make the performance sound dangerous. (In fact, I believe in the radio broadcast of the opera, one of his high notes was muffed, so the sound of the video may have been fixed in the studio slightly).
Kim Josephson, who has gone on to sing the larger role of Rance elsewhere, is a friendly, mellifluous Sonora. Dwayne Croft, near the beginning of his career here is Larkens (he currently sings Sonora in the Met revival).
The sets and costumes by Michael Scott are very realistic and beautiful, making use of California's mountains and, in the final act, a ghost town. Del Monaco's production emphasizes, I think, the spirit of redemption heard throughout the opera.
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