11/17/09: La Damnation de Faust

two words: pure magic. gg and i were stunned. and i take back my warning about advent calendars: robert lepage's production was so tight, so imaginative, so necessary - i can't imagine a better way to do a modern faust. i loved every second and never wanted it to end.

one of my biggest pet peeves in theater/opera nowadays is the superfluous use of video and projection. let's throw a couple of random televisions on stage and run black and white static on them - BECAUSE WE CAN. if the production works when you take out the video, then the video hasn't been used to it's fullest capability. i really believe that.

and while this production of faust is lush and visual, it's also incredibly economic. two elements are never used when one can do - he just pushes the possibility of that one element as far as it will go. for example, when mephistopheles takes faust on a boat ride:

lepage take the boat lengthwise, across the stage, and then "dumps" faust out of the boat, letting him fall into "water" 3 projections deep. beautiful. poetic. perfect.

the production has closed for the season, ye unlucky non-viewers, but you can catch a little video clip here.

11/16/09: From the House of the Dead

for a lot of personal reasons, i have been looking forward to this opera ever since i heard it would be coming to the Met for the first time this season. first, it would be my chance to see maestro esa pekka salonen make his met debut.
formerly of the l.a. phil, currently of the london phil, he's a conductor i've been crushing on for many years now. second, the opera is an adaptation by the composer, leos janacek, sans librettist, of a dostoevsky novel called "the house of the dead."


a collection of searing narratives loosely based on his time in prison, i was completely stunned when i read this novel for the first time as an undergrad - and subsequently began my comparative literature studies in russian literature. third, it's the debut of renowned opera director patrice chereau - who not only staged a bayreuth ring cycle that is now legend, but also happens to be a film director. who happens to have made a film (not a great one, but made it, nonetheless) based on a novel called "intimacy" by hanif kureishi. his short story of the same name is one of my favorites.

so from the viewpoint of a writer, a director, an opera lover, a russian lit lover, a lover of great adaptations - the talent and material coming together for this production was truly prodigious. add to that the great reviews and i was shaking in my boots as i stood in line for rush tickets and the box office told me had a single ticket left... for me. hurrah!

but...

maybe they were all having an off day yesterday?

because the here's the thing. the show i saw last night had enormous potential. it started off with a stealthy bang, in fact. maestro salonen snuck into the pit without taking applause and dove right into the prologue, not giving you a moment to think. as your eyes adjusted to the darkness and janacek's opening chords began to swell, you saw figures appearing out of the mist. men, in chains, shuffling forward, holding an eagle. and the set - giant concrete slabs hovering high over the prisoners. there was no specific time or place, but instead a perfect, minimalist evocation of prison life. period.

i swear, i was close to tears for the first fifteen minutes.

but then i heard this god-awful noise that sounded like plastic cups being crushed over and over again in someone's hand. i looked around for the culprit with my hardest eyes and found no one. i realized, a few more minutes in, that the shackles on the men were making that sound. and it was interfering with the orchestra - this terrible plastic noise! really, monsieur chereau? really??

everything was a little downhil from there. the second act lost energy - it was as if singers and musicians alike had simultaneously gotten the sleepy-weepies. the second act is no time to nap! there were some fun comedic flourishes in the play within a play - men running around in drag playing loose women for prison entertainment. but for the most part - the singing felt really low energy and the orchestra seemed to come down to meet it - it started so strong maestro salonen. what happened last night?

the design was a real highlight. the smallest touch was felt in the minimalist layout. a single, florescent light hanging over a row of rickety metal beds conjured the saddest, most perfect, prison infirmary. a handmade eagle, made to fly by the hands of the singers - an amazing touch and insight. there were beautiful, incredibly meaningful moments of staging throughout. an explosion paper materials, newspapers and the like, are DUMPED onto the stage and then meticulously picked up by the prisoners (the met chorus, who by the way were on last night, unlike everyone else).


it was a totally inspired. in another example, at the end of the second act, a black velvet curtain explodes downward as an ending to the sequence... but it fell a few feet short of the stage, letting the lights for the set change leak through to the audience. it didn't quite has as powerful an effect as it should have. it was an apt moment for a performance that all around, fell just a little bit short.

let me be clear. the production was never, not for a minute, terrible. i recommend it to everyone, as it closes very soon. and janacek's music is transcendent. it's worth it to go just for that. "from the house of the dead" just didn't quite live up to my expectations. at least not last night.

oh, and monsieur chereau? get rid of the plastic clunkers. thanks.

intense opera mania!

11/16: house of the dead (varis rush)
11/17: damnation of faust (closing night, family circle)
11/19: weisgall's esther (city opera detour)
11/21: philip glass' kepler (BAM detour)

10/24/09, Il Barbiere di Siviglia

the last few weeks have been an insane whirlwind, owing to my film being in production. i haven't been able to write about the ONE opera i've seen, let alone watch any others. but now that i'm wrapped, i'm realizing i have some serious catching up to do if i'm going to make my goal. i have to catch at least 5 operas in the next 6 weeks before they close: the house of the dead, the damnation of faust, elektra, le nozze di figaro and il trittico. and that's the bare minimum to make sure i don't miss any this season. yowza.


but first, the inaugural write up. bartlett sher's production of il barbiere rocked my world. and introduced me to the divine goddess that is joyce didonato. which rocked my world some more.

the barber of seville was a great way to start the season for me. arguably the best comic opera ever written, it's also an opera i know really well and have seen twice before in two very different performances. the first time was at the staatsoper, in berlin, with rene pape - the beginning of my love affair with him. the second time was at the met a few years ago. i also knew my friend bob & i were going to be sitting in the SECOND ROW so i was looking forward to catching all the debauchery up close and boy, did i. hello joyce didonato. seriously, i love her now.

based on a play by the french playwright pierre beaumarchais - who also authored the marriage of figaro, which mozart turned into an opera - the barber of seville follows the story of count almaviva, who has come to seville to marry rosina, a lovely young woman he fell for when she passed him in the street. he can't get her off his mind so naturally, he does what any young, hot-blooded, moneyed count would do: pay a vagrant marching band to serenade her at her window. unbeknownst to our hero, however, rosina lives with a doctor named bartolo who, while technically her guardian, is planning on marrying her as soon as he can. when almaviva discovers this, he enlists the help of the town barber, figaro, a local matchmaker. hijinks ensue.

each of the roles were perfectly cast with singers who could not only handle and have fun with the material, but singers who were true comic performers as well. british tenor barry banks was pitch-perfect as almaviva - i was almost in tears from laughing during the scene where he barges into bartolo's house, dressed as a soldier and demanding refuge. john del carlo found a couple hiccups in the singing - i could tell he was getting a little a tired, lumbering all over the stage chasing after the very agile rosina and almaviva - but he held his own and used those necessary gasps for air toward comedic effect. admirable. and rodion pogossov as figaro was flawless: lovable, mischievous, highly capable - everything figaro should be.

playful, smartly executed and laugh-out-loud funny, bartlet sher's production is a golden haze from the center of which shines the unbelievable joyce didonato. i've never seen her before and i was entranced by her rosina, entranced! i did a google image search for the word "entranced" and NOTHING quite captures the way i felt watching her. writhing all over a velvet settee, fibbing badly to get out of trouble, shoving love notes into her heaving breasts, all while stealing every single laugh with the slightest gesture and singing her ass off.


sher's staging is a perfect as well - a series of movable white doorways and windows that can line up to be a wall separating lovers or opened up to reveal a patio. the staging and decoration did so much more than simply provide a backdrop - it added to the joke. there's a meta moment with a giant falling anvil that still makes me laugh when i think about it.

bravo bartlett sher. and helloooooo joyce. no seriously, call me. i love you.