Thursday, August 10, 2017

OKLAHOMA! – REVIEW OF 2017 GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

James Karas

One would have thought that 1943 was not a particularly auspicious year for a leap in the development of the Broadway musical. World War II was raging and there was much else to preoccupy the world. Yet with the premiere of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! an advance was made in producing integrated musicals where the songs advanced the plot and acting became more important. There was precedent for this already but Oklahoma! is a good marking point.

The Glimmerglass Festival production is unfortunately disappointing in many respects. Oklahoma! has some rousing songs, outstanding dance sequels and a good plot but all of that goes to the credit of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II who largely carry the production with some exceptions rather than the other way around.

The major exception is the performance of Jarrett Ott as Curly. He enters from the back of the theatre and sings "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin' " while walking towards the stage. He has a commanding voice, an impressive presence and dominates the production like a colossus.
 Judith Skinner as Aunt Eller and Jarrett Ott as Curly in The Glimmerglass Festival's 2017 production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Oklahoma!" 
Photo: Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival
The rest of the performers fall behind him at various distances. Vanessa Becerra as Laurey has a good but not particularly big voice and she is overwhelmed by Ott. To varying degrees the rest of the cast suffers the same fate. Without Ott, many would have been adequate to say the least.

There are some dramatic scenes and some comic ones with Emma Roos as the dippy Ado Annie providing some laughter.

Color-blind casting is well-established and never raises an eyebrow but in this case it did. In the first scene we see a middle-aged black woman on stage and since we are in 1906 Indian Territory, the future Oklahoma, when we see a black woman we think of a servant or worse. In this case, African-American Judith Skinner plays Aunt Eller. She does a good job but decades of not seeing a black woman of the time in a role like that struck one, quite disgracefully, as peculiar.
 

The Glimmerglass Festival's 2017 production of Oklahoma! Photo: Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival
Oklahoma! has a number of dance numbers including the extended “Dream Sequence” ballet. The choreography and the dancing left a great deal to be desired. I will leave it at that.

With songs like "The Surrey with the Fringe on Top," the beautiful "People Will Say We're in Love" and the rousing "Oklahoma!" you will not be left twiddling your thumbs. But we expected more from director Molly Smith and choreographer Parker Esse who either did not have the best cast or simply did not bring out the best in what they had.

No issue with conductor James Lowe and the Glimmerglass Festival Orchestra and Chorus.

The set by Eugene Lee purported to present a scene or a vista of the wide-open territory. There was very little of that and the set appeared plastic and unimpressive.
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 Oklahoma!  by Richard Rodgers (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II (book and lyrics) based on Green Grow the Lilacs by Lynn Riggs will be performed thirteen times between July 8 and August 22, 2017 at the Alice Busch Opera Theater, Cooperstown, New York. Tickets and information (607) 547-0700 or www.glimmerglass.org

Tuesday, August 8, 2017

XERXES – REVIEW OF 2017 GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

James Karas

When a program for an opera gives you a diagram of who loves whom you brace yourself for a rough trip in trying to figure out the plot. When the names of four of the seven characters begin with the letter “a” you may consider yourself licked.

Fear not. This is opera seria and these people will fall in and out of love, throw in some treachery and all will live happily ever after. Well, most of them, anyway. Yes, Xerxes of Xerxes is the Persian Emperor Xerxes who got his butt kicked by the Greeks around 480 B.C. but Handel had better things to deal with in his opera.
 John Holiday in the title role of Handel's Xerxes. Photo: Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival
A smidgeon of plot. Xerxes was betrothed to Amastris but dumped her. Now he loves Romilda. His brother Arsamenes also loves Romilda and she loves him (but not Xerxes). Atalanta also loves Arsamenes. She wants to trick Xerxes into marrying Romilda so she can have Arsamenes. Hint: intercept a letter and spread lies, Atalanta.

Amastris pops in disguised as a man to check out the situation. Romilda’s father Arodates checks in and all is worked out in the end.

Xerxes is a static opera with no chorus, a few duets but mostly recitatives and arias sung by the characters who tend to walk on stage, do their job and go off. There is no doubt about the beauty of most of the arias as well as Handel’s music.

Conductor Tazewell Thompson and Director Nicole Paiement have assembled a fine cast for the job. Countertenor John Holiday, Jr. leads the cast as Xerxes. He was last seen at Glimmerglass in 2015 as Giulio Cesare in Cato in Utica and again displayed his exquisite and delicate voice.
 
Allegra De Vita as Arsamenes, Emily Pogorelc as Romilda and Katrina Galka as Atalanta in Handel's Xerxes. Photo: Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival
Mezzo soprano Allegra De Vita sings the role of the faithful Arsamenes. It is a pants role, obviously, and her low notes serve her well in a fine performance. My only minor complaint is about her costume. She is a woman pretending to be a man. Her costume should not make her look like a woman. There is enough confusion in the opera.

Glimmerglass has an extensive and redoubtable Young Artists program and five of the seven singers in Xerxes are drawn from that program. The tricky and mendacious Atalanta is in the vocal chords of soprano Katrina Galka; soprano Emily Pogorelc handles the role of Romilda; mezzo soprano Abigail Dock sang Amastris, the jilted one who appears disguised as a man.

Handel does provide a comic role in Elviro sung by bass baritone Calvin Griffin who is given scope for his comic talent as well as singing. Bass Brent Michael Smith plays Ariodates, the father of Romilda who is not involved in a love affair. I name all the Young Artists in recognition of their developing talents and fine performances.

Sara Jean Tosetti has designed some lovely gowns for the ladies. The set by John Conklin consists of three raised platforms and some hanging panels in the background. Changing light effects by Robert Wierzel provide plenty of color.      
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 Xerxes by George Frideric Handel (music) and Nicolo Minato and Silvio Stampiglia (libretto), is being performed seven times between July 15 and August 18, 2017 at the Alice Busch Opera Theater, Cooperstown, New York. Tickets and information (607) 547-0700 or www.glimmerglass.org

Monday, August 7, 2017

THE SIEGE OF CALAIS – REVIEW OF 2017 GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

James Karas

The Glimmerglass Festival is in full swing and provides a cultural experience of the first order in a bucolic setting which might make you think of Arcadia. Where else do you find pastoral harmony and cultural pleasure? For the uninitiated, the Festival takes place on Lake Otsego a few miles from Cooperstown, N.Y. Yes, that is where the Baseball Hall of Fame is but you do not need Special Dispensation to go to both. Seeing the heroes of baseball, operas and a myriad of other cultural activities have been proven to provide have spiritual, emotional and physical benefits. Try getting that in front of a picture of Babe Ruth.

The Siege of Calais, Donizetti’s 48th opera, was a hit in Naples when it premiered in 1836. It did okay until 1840 and then it was mothballed for a nifty 150 years. It was resuscitated by Opera Rara and was even produced on stage. The uncontrollable desire, not to say ambition, to produce the opera in the United States took a few years, until July 2017 to be precise, when the Glimmerglass Festival raised the siege and produced it.
 
The Glimmerglass Festival's 2017 production "The Siege of Calais." Photo: Carrington Spires/The Glimmerglass Festival
The Siege of Calais is quite a remarkable work partly for historical reasons (Donizetti trying to break into the Parisian market with a “French” opera – it did not work) and partly as an opera that deserves to be produced on its own merits. It needs some dramaturgy (it has a third act that requires surgery amounting to excision) but Francesca Zambello, the Artistic and General Director of the Glimmerglass Festival and Music Director Joseph Colaneri have done the judicious editing that resulted in a brisk and fine production of the neglected work.

The siege refers to the blockade of the French port city by the English army under King Edward III in 1346 that resulted in its capitulation in about a year. As such it was an ordinary siege except for the fact that Edward agreed not to slaughter the citizens provided that six nobles agreed to be executed. That and Rodin’s famous statue of “The Burghers of Calais” has helped raise the garden-variety siege into something of mythical proportions.

Librettist Salvadore Cammarano tells the story through Eustachio, the Mayor of Calais, his son Aurelio and the burghers. Emotional punch is delivered by the fate of the people but it is enhanced by the presence of Aurelio’s wife Eleonora and his young son. When Edward demands six victims Eustachio, Aurelio and four others volunteer. The tragedy is averted by the entrance of Edward’s wife Queen Isabella. The six may be saved but the residents know that they have lost everything.
 
Aleks Romano as Aurelio, Rock Lasky as Filippo, and Leah Crocetto as Eleonora in "The Siege of Calais." Photo: Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival
American mezzo-soprano Aleks Romano leads the cast in the pants role of Aurelio. She sings with assurance and conviction in one of the best portrayals of a man by a woman. She has the gait, movements and mannerisms of a man. That is the least of her accomplishments because she has a firm, commanding and marvelous voice to give a memorable performance.

She is well-matched by soprano Leah Crocetto as her wife Eleonora who has a large, indeed powerful, voice such that when she belted out some phrases in the small Alice Busch Opera Theatre she sounded as if she could shatter glass.

Adrian Timpau as Eustachio has an impressive, big voice but unfortunately it displayed strength without color.

Michael Hewitt replaced ably Harry Greenleaf as King Edward and gave a fine performance as did Helena Brown as Queen Isabella. Donizetti provides a wealth of choral music and The Glimmerglass Festival Chorus performed impressively. 

Zambello sets the production in a modern city that has been gutted by bombs. There are numerous examples of such cities in the news almost daily and the setting could not be more appropriate. Scenery Designer James Noone set consists of a revolving shattered building for most of the performance with the exception of a wall representing Calais on the outside.

The Glimmerglass Festival Orchestra and Chorus perform under the baton of Joseph Colaneri.

Donizetti as a composer had many virtues and not a few drawbacks. The Siege of Calais is by no means one of his best operas but it deserved to be produced.

Only at Glimmerglass, eh!        
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The Siege of Calais by Gaetano Donizetti (music) and Salvadore Cammarano (libretto), is being performed eight times between July 16 and August 19, 2017 at the Alice Busch Opera Theater, Cooperstown, New York. Tickets and information (607) 547-0700 or www.glimmerglass.org