Gluck's Alceste from Munich

Conductor: Antonello Manacorda
Director, Choreographer: Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui

King Admète: Charles Castronovo
Queen Alceste: Dorothea Röschmann
High priest of Apollo: Michael Nagy
Évandre: Manuel Günther
Ein Waffenherold: Sean Michael Plumb
Hercule: Michael Nagy
Coryphée(s): Noa Beinart, Anna El-Khashem, Frederic Jost, Caspar Singh
Apollon: Sean Michael Plumb
Das Orakel: Callum Thorpe
Ein Gott der Unterwelt: Callum Thorpe

This version of Gluck's Alceste comes live from the Bayerische Staatsoper.  I understand it to be a regie production, so we'll see.  This is the French version.

Act I

Well, this isn't regietheater to me.  It's more like a Rameau opera ballet.  I think the costumes are intended to look at least semi-Greek.  There is constant dancing in a style with a lot of arm waving, apparently so the singers can participate.  Alceste and the priest of Apollo are the main characters.  The king is ill, and Alceste volunteers to die instead of him.  This is an excellent role for Dorothea Röschmann.  At the end of the act she sings the hit tune for this opera:  "Divinites du Styx."  It might be a bit heavy for her.

Act II

Children are picking up what appear to be plates of food and handing them into the prompter's box.  This will give you a flavor of the dancing.

 

At last the King makes his first entrance not looking at all ill. Husband and wife are happy to see each other.  Neither one is dead.  Then he finds out Alceste will die and wishes it was him.

Intermission

Act III

Admète follows Alceste to hell.  They sing together without benefit of ballet.  People on stilts appear.  A man dressed all in white appears, and I assume he is Apollo.  He blesses everyone, grants immortality to Hercules, etc.  The family is united, including the children.  This part is the most like regie, but I think the original is also confusing.  The dancers are back.  And that's the end.

This was mysterious.  They tried very hard to make it interesting, but it won't make my favorites list.

Les Troyens from the Paris Opera

I am viewing a film of Berlioz' Les Troyens from the Paris opera.

Conductor:  Philippe Jordan
Production: Dmitri Tcherniakov

The Trojans at Troy

Aeneas: Brandon Jovanovich
Cassandra: Stéphanie d'Oustrac
Coroebus, Cassandra's fiance: Stéphane Degout, bass

Something like a movie marquee announces in French and English that the Greeks have abandoned their positions around Troy, and the war is over.  The streets fill with celebrators.  This is a regie production of Berlioz' Les Troyens from the Paris opera.  The characters are introduced with text at the top of the screen.  Priam looks a lot like Generalissimo Franco.  The billboard clarifies the action as perhaps never before.

I found Act I very coherent.  We don't see a horse, but the death of Laocoon is vividly described.  Cassandra warns and laments, but no one listens.

Where Act II should begin, we see soldiers with automatic rifles enter and shake hands with Aeneas.  Hmm.  So are we to believe he is a traitor?  His wife is dead and sends him a note explaining she is ashamed by his betrayal.  This is unclear.  Perhaps I have completely misunderstood.  His own people still seem to honor him.

Priam and his wife are shown dead.  Stéphanie d'Oustrac is wonderfully intense.  The men all head off and leave the women to die or be taken into slavery.  They choose death, and Cassandra goes up in flames.  I seem to remember a play by Euripides called The Trojan Women which describes a somewhat different fate for them.

This part of the opera is well presented.

The Trojans at Carthage

Dido: Ekaterina Semenchuk
Aeneas: Brandon Jovanovich
Anna: Aude Extremo
Narbal: Christian Van Horn

A title announces that we are in a Psychological Center for Victims of the War.  The set looks a bit like a hotel lobby.  This is my third insane asylum opera after Carmen (also Tcherniakov) and Oberon.  This part of the staging has nothing to do with either Berlioz's opera or the staging of the first half.  Yes, people in war are often in need of psychiatric care, but the opera is about the triumph of Rome, not mental illness.  Perhaps it is better to just listen.  The audio is gorgeous.  This staging is definitely boo worthy.

I may never have realized before what a great opera for chorus this is.  Dido enters and the chorus holds up a homemade sign saying "Tu es notre Reine." [You are our queen.]  Aeneas's son holds up his cell phone to show pictures of Troy to Dido.  Ach!  One is interested in the translation because nothing in the visuals is giving you a clue.  I missed before that these people of Carthage are from the eastern Mediterranean, just like the Trojans.  That explains a lot.

A black guy comes in and Aeneas tries to beat him up.  Weird.  The essential feature of an insane asylum is the keepers who now enter in red vests and lead everyone out.  It is hard to imagine any other tenor besides Jovanovich playing this scene.  I'm determined to watch it to the end, but it gets goofier and goofier.

In Act IV the patients are in a circle, and enact a story.  They hold up signs to indicate where they are and what is going on.  The title of the story is "La Chasse Royale."  Perhaps you will recall that Dido and Aeneas go out into the country on a hunt.  "The forest" is next.  The audience for these signs appears to be Dido alone.  We have nymphs and naiads and satyrs.  When the sign says "The marriage of Dido" [you're not required to trust my translations], Aeneas is handed a bow and arrow which he waves around.  He shoots Dido's companion and Dido faints.  The arrow is theater, and the companion is fine.  We were wondering why they would give a mental patient a weapon.

Dido goes back to her room, and a ping pong table appears.  Two keepers in red vests then proceed to play ping pong and sing about triumphing over the Africans. These are Dido's advisers?  Oy.  They plot the marriage of Dido to Aeneas.  There has been nothing that even remotely resembles ballet.

This director seems to be under the impression that psychiatric treatment consists of arranging fantasy scenarios for the patients.  Problems arise because the patients react as though they were real.  This doesn't correspond to any therapeutic method I have heard of.  In a nuthouse apparently anything can happen.

When everyone else has left the stage, Dido and Aeneas sing a very gorgeous version of "Nuit d'ivresse," one of the most beautiful duets in all of opera.  The ending is kind of cool.

Orphée et Eurydice from Chicago

 Orphée, Amour

Harry Bicket Conductor
John Neumeier* Director, Choreographer, Set, Costume & Lighting Designer

Dmitry Korchak, tenor Orphée
Andriana Chuchman, soprano Eurydice
Lauren Snouffer, soprano Amour

PBS has brought us Gluck's Orphée et Eurydice from Lyric Opera of Chicago with the Joffrey Ballet.  It's rather more like a ballet with three singers. If you are annoyed by the presence of ballet in opera, this is not the version for you.  In the French version of 1774 which we are seeing here Orphée is sung by a high tenor, called a haute-contre. Each time you see this opera it's different, apparently.

The outfits should tell you it's regie.  We are at a rehearsal, and Eurydice is late.  When she finally comes in dressed as a dancer, Orphée berates her for wanting to show off her stills, and she slaps his face and goes off in a huff.  Then she dies in an auto crash.  After lamentation, Amour explains the bargain he must make with the gods.  Eurydice will return with him from hell as long as Orphée does not turn and look at her.  He rejoices in a really quite spectacular coloratura aria.

Hell is a ballet with chorus. The entire opera is in a way a solo for the tenor.  I wish I liked him better.  I think I like the production.  It is an excellent idea for the Joffrey.  During a long ballet our tenor is holding a score to the Italian version Orfeo ed Euridice.  About 54 minutes in, after a long ballet, the soprano has her first singing.  She tells us how peaceful it is in hell.  The singers are sometimes choreographed into the dances. 

I feel this opera requires a great star to pull it off.  The music is rather monotonous.  The resurrected Eurydice stays under her veil, and when he tries to remove it, she disappears.

Samson et Dalila in HD

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Conductor................Mark Elder
Production...............Darko Tresnjak

Samson..................Roberto Alagna
Dalila.....................Elina Garanca
High Priest.............Laurent Naouri
Abimélech..............Elchin Azizov

Today was the HD broadcast of Camille Saint-Saëns' opera Samson et Dalila.  There was a lot of complaining about this very flashy production, but except for the rather perverse ballet I loved it.  I can't help wondering if the Philistines would have dressed so colorfully and the Israelites in contrast so drably.  One imagines really more similarity.  The production handled well the task I normally assign to it--explaining the plot.  Each transition of the story is well demonstrated.

Les Huguenots

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Conductor : Michele Mariotti et Łukasz Borowicz
Director:  Andreas Kreigenburg

Marguerite de Valois, catholic queen : Lisette Oropesa
Raoul de Nangis, protestant: Yosep Kang
Valentine: Ermonela Jaho
Urbain, Queen's page: Karine Deshayes
Marcel, Raoul's servant: Nicolas Testé
Le Comte de Saint-Bris : Paul Gay
La dame d’honneur : Julie Robard‑Gendre
Une bohémienne : Julie Robard‑Gendre
Cossé, un étudiant catholique : François Rougier 
Le Comte de Nevers : Florian Sempey 
Tavannes, premier moine : Cyrille Dubois
Méru, deuxième moine : Michal Partyka
Thoré, Maurevert : Patrick Bolleire
Retz, troisième moine : Tomislav Lavoie
Coryphée, une jeune fille catholique, une bohémienne : Élodie Hache
Bois-Rosé, valet : Philippe Do
Un archer du guet : Olivier Ayault
Quatre seigneurs : John Bernard - Cyrille Lovighi - Bernard Arrieta - Fabio Bellenghi

From Paris Opera Bastille I have found a film of Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots, 1836, which I wanted to watch live on Thursday.  The action takes place in 2063[?] according to a text on the screen.  The Catholic men wear clown-like ruffs around their necks while the protestants look a bit more like business men.

In Roberto Devereux we heard "God Save the Queen" in the overture.  In this opera the well known tune incorporated into the story is Luther's "Ein feste Burg."  This is to represent Protestantism.  Les Huguenots precedes Roberto Devereux.  We know that Meyerbeer was Wagner's patron and got him his start in composing operas, which might help to explain the presence of the Dresden Amen in Tannhäuser and Parsifal.  In spite of his rants against Meyerbeer, imitation is still the sincerest form of flattery.  Perhaps it serves to suggest an aura of religious feeling.  I digress.

I'm finding the production pretty hard going.  I have no background with this opera.  I am here to see Lisette Oropesa, and here at the mid point I must say she is magnificent.  The first scene is men and the second is women, with the queen's page going back and forth between them.  What is one to make of religious persecution in the future?  The set in Act II is very beautiful and includes a bit of nudity.

I am exploring this opera and am surprised to see a male chorus singing "Rata plan"  See also Donizetti's La fille du régiment, and Verdi's La Forza del Destino.  Again, this opera  appears to be the first.  I didn't realize how much borrowing went on.  There's a lot of choral work which I am finding unattractive.  Verdi bombast is somehow more fun.  Things going on in my soul are also interfering with my enjoyment of this opera.  I am tired of hatred and violence.

There is a line across Europe across the Alps dividing the descendants of  Roman culture and the descendants of Vikings, Germans, etc.  The former group remained catholic while all of the north, except maybe Poland, changed to protestant.  I have always felt that when Luther went to Rome, he was mostly experiencing culture shock.  However, in the Catholic countries were also pockets of Protestantism.  There were two results:  war and immigration to America.  My German friends would always ask why we had so many religions in America.  Because when you chased them out of Europe, they came to us.  Again I digress.

Yosep Kang has a very beautiful tenor voice but fluffs a high note later on.  As a lyric tenor he's wonderful.  As a dramatic tenor not so much.  Ermonela Jaho hasn't had much to sing in the first half but sings a lot in the later acts. Jaho is well known in Europe but has not really crossed my path that much.  All the big coloratura show pieces are for the queen while Valentine is a full lyric type with very little coloratura.    That seems to be the pattern with Meyerbeer.  All the coloratura arias are for a specific voice.  I admit to not being wild about any of these operas.

The greatest influences on Wagner seem to be Meyerbeer and Liszt, Meyerbeer for the heavy orchestration and dramatic style, Liszt for the invention of the tone poem which provides the through-composed concept applied to the full act of an opera.  I have to say I very much prefer mythology to politics for opera plots.  The only hit tune from this opera, other than the borrowed one, is the page's aria in act I.

Le Prophete from France

Conductor:  Claus Peter Flor
Director:  Alfonso Caiani

Jean de Leyde, tenor, John Osborn
Fidès, Jean's mother, mezzo-soprano, Kate Aldrich
Berthe, Jean's bride, soprano, Sofia Fomina
Jonas, an Anabaptist, tenor, Mikeldi Atxalandabase
Mathisen, an Anabaptist, bass or baritone, Thomas Dear
Zacharie, an Anabaptist, bass, Dimitry Ivashchenko
Oberthal, a feudal count, bass, Leonardo Estevez

Meyerbeer's Le Prophete (1849) came to me from Toulouse by way of Culture Box.  My only live experience of Meyerbeer was L'Africaine at the San Francisco Opera.  I begin to think Meyerbeer is neglected, perhaps not in France but certainly here.  Perhaps Yannick will change this.

Giocomo Mayerbeer was a truly international composer as very few are.  He was born in Berlin of rich Jewish parents, studied and composed extensively in Italy in the time of Rossini, and then established himself in Paris and Berlin. We know him primarily for his French operas.  However, Robert le Diable was written for Berlin.  It is hard to grasp that such a prominent composer is virtually unknown to me.  As would be expected, his works are orchestrated in the German style, emphasize chorus like a French opera and don't particularly follow the Italian ideal of bel canto.  I think I should delve further before making any decisions about him.  He is the main proponent of Grand Opera, a style that includes:

(a) obligatory spectacular scenes,
(b) death, not happy endings, in librettos by Scribe, (including this one),
(c) potpourri overture,
(d) extended ornate arias, though less ornate than bel canto,
(e) chorus and ballet, and
(f) a new heavier type of dramatic tenor as the featured hero.

Cendrillon in HD

A carriage in the form of the French word for carriage.

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Conductor...............Bertrand de Billy
Production..............Laurent Pelly

Cendrillon (Lucette)....Joyce DiDonato
Prince Charming.........Alice Coote
Fairy Godmother.........Kathleen Kim
Pandolfe................Laurent Naouri
Madame de la Haltière...Stephanie Blythe

Today we were treated to the first production of Massenet's Cendrillon ever to appear on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera.  We begin with a French conductor, a French production and a Frenchman to speak the only spoken dialog heard in the opera.  The rest of the cast is not French but is nevertheless spectacular.

The story divides into three contexts:  1. The home of Pandolfe, his wife Madame de la Haltière, his daughter Lucette and his two stepdaughters.  2.  The palace of the King and his son Prince Charming.  3.  A dream-like fairy land populated by the Fairy Godmother and her minions.

Manon at the San Francisco Opera

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Conductor: Patrick Fournillier
Director: Vincent Boussard

Manon Lescaut: Ellie Dehn
Chevalier des Grieux: Michael Fabiano
Lescaut: David Pershall
Comte des Grieux: James Creswell
Guillot de Morfontaine:  Robert Brubaker
De Brétigny:  Timothy Mix
Poussette:  Monica Dewey *
Javotte:  Laura Krumm
Rosette:  Renée Rapier

Last night was the fourth performance of Massenet's Manon at the San Francisco Opera.

I find it helpful to contrast the plot of this opera with Puccini's Manon Lescaut.  To begin Massenet's heroine arrives in town on the "coach" on her way to the convent.  In our production she looks like Eliza Doolittle.  Puccini is similar.  In Puccini Lescaut is Manon's brother while in Massenet he is her cousin.  In both versions there are rich old men who want Manon.  In our production virtually all the characters are introduced in the first act but no effort was made to clarify who they were and how they relate to the story.  There was just a lot of meaningless milling around until Manon and des Grieux arrive.

In Massenet we see des Grieux and Manon living together and see that their separation was caused by the elder des Grieux kidnapping of his son.  In Puccini we go immediately to Manon living with one of the two old men as the result of her brother's dealings.  And when she attempts to escape her keeper, he has her arrested and shipped to America.

Massenet focuses on the relationship between des Grieux and Manon, a much more romantic and appealing approach.  After des Grieux's departure, Manon takes up with one of the old men.  The staging of Manon's gavotte is the highlight of the production.  She is seen high above the stage holding a large bunch of balloons and then floats down to the floor.  Fun.  I was worried she would have to sing from the flies, an acoustic dead spot.

When des Grieux is kidnapped by his father, he goes into the religious life and orates on the meaning of life.  This allows for the sexiest scene in all of opera:  the scene at Saint-Sulpice.  Manon has not forgotten des Grieux and goes to the church to seduce him away from his religious calling.  She succeeds.  "Isn't this my hand?"

The couple get involved in gambling and are arrested for cheating.  They have created their own fate, far less depressing than Puccini where they both die in Louisiana.

This performance was saved by music.  Our lovely French conductor kept the action moving and supported our romantic pair.  Ellie Dehn handled well all the changes of style of her role and sounded lovely.  Michael was intense and exciting as always.  His voice fills our house with ease.  Together they made a very romantic couple and brought the audience to applause over and over.  I loved it.

Thaïs on the Radio

Conductor: Emmanuel Villaume
Production: John Cox

Thaïs:  Ailyn Pérez
Nicias: Jean-François Borras
Athanaël: Gerald Finley
Palémon: David Pittsinger

Because I am an admirer of Ailyn Pérez, I am listening to the Saturday radio broadcast of Jules Massenet's Thaïs.  This production debuted with Renée Fleming in an HD simulcast, so I can still visualize the sets to a limited extent.  Ailyn begins the opera in the blond wig seen below.

Towards the end her hair gets shorter and rattier.  I've been following Ailyn Pérez since almost the beginning of the blog, and I am a fan.  This is a perfect role for her.  Finley is also very good.  The applause was enthusiastic.

Hamlet at West Edge

Conductor:  Jonathan Khuner
Director:  Aria Umezawa

Hamlet:  Edward Nelson
Gertrude, Hamlet's mother:  Susanne Mentzer
Ghost of Hamlet's father:  Kenneth Kellogg
King Claudius, Hamlet's Uncle:  Phil Skinner
Ophélie, Hamlet's fiance:  Emma McNairy
Polonius, Ophélie's father:  Paul Cheak

Hamlet (1868) by Ambroise Thomas was presented by West Edge to open their festival at the Pacific Pipe warehouse in Oakland.  The abandoned train station which was the venue for last season was recently condemned by the city of Oakland due to a recent fire that resulted in casualties.  This resulted in a scramble to find a new space.  I for one was not particularly happy with this.

In a nearby building were people preparing for Burning Man.  Somehow you knew that this was a Bay Area phenomenon.  They played very loudly amplified low pitched thumpy music throughout this performance.  It was like your stereo was malfunctioning and all you could get were the lowest notes.  I thought it was very annoying.  There were three large doors in our space which were kept open.  One faced the other space where the noise originated.  It seemed to me that closing this door would have gone a long way toward reducing the thump thump roar not composed by Thomas.

I could go into a rant here.  Not the right repertoire, etc.  I liked the singing but couldn't see very well.  What if the stage were in the center of the space?  I don't know if this would work. I very much regret having to give this a pan.

Louise

Perhaps it isn't only Renee who can sing this.



Lucia Popp sings "Depuis le jour"  This is glorious.

Rameau’s Le Temple de la Gloire

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Le temple de la Gloire (The Temple of Glory) is an opéra-ballet by Jean-Philippe Rameau with a libretto by Voltaire.  This is all rather well explained in the Mercury News.  This performance by Philharmonia Baroque and the New York Baroque Dance Company was of the 1746 version in a prelude and 3 acts.

Nicholas McGegan, conductor
New York Baroque Dance Company, Catherine Turocy, director
Philharmonia Chorale, Bruce Lamott, director
Catherine Turocy, stage director and choreographer

Gabrielle Philiponet, soprano:  Arsine, Une prêtresse, Plautine
Chantal Santon-Jeffery, soprano:  Lydie, Une bacchante
Camille Ortiz-Lafont, soprano:  Une bergère, Érigone, Junie
Artavazd Sargsyan, haute-contre:  Un Berger, Bacchus
Aaron Sheehan, haute-contre:  Apollon, Trajan
Philippe-Nicolas Martin, baritone:  Bélus, Un guerrier
Marc Labonnette, baritone:  L'Envie, Grand prêtre
Caroline Copeland, principal dancer.

This is a large and complex undertaking.  There is at least as much dancing as singing.  There are three supplicants to enter the temple of glory:   Bélus, a conqueror who forces the kings he has defeated to carry him in on a sedan chair; Bacchus who celebrates love and wine; and the emperor Trajan, who forgives and releases those he has conquered.  Only Trajan is deemed worthy.  We are viewing Voltaire's outlook on virtue.  I understand it to have been a failure because it did not enjoy the king's approval.

This is something that modern commercial opera productions simply don't do--an attempt at an authentic reproduction of a Rameau theatrical work as it would have been presented at the time.  A modern company like the Santa Fe Opera will make the frog Queen look as much like a real frog as possible, such as in Platée here.  Or Glyndebourne will stage his characters inside a refrigerator, such as in Hippolyte et Aricie here.  Or the Bayerische Staatsoper will choreograph break dancing, such as in Les Indes Galantes here.  So an attempt to show something as it might possibly have been in the eighteenth century is a rare treat. The period style dancing was pleasant to see.  A peak part of the dance experience was when someone danced an ostrich in the Bacchus act.

The music still sounded very sweet and nothing like Handel.

The stage is well populated and the stories complex and a bit hard to follow.  There is an intended political message.  Our kings should be seeking more than their own glorification.
 

Orphée et Eurydice

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My education with regard to Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice is woefully inadequate.  In part to compensate for this I have purchased this DVD of Orphée et Eurydice starring Vesselina Kasarova.  The other reason was to see more of Kasarova.

This is the version created by Hector Berlioz in 1859 for Pauline Viardot, making it a legitimate vehicle for a star like Kasarova.  The role in Italian was written for a castrato, and in French it is often sung by a haute-contre (French high tenor).  Only since 1950 has the role been taken by a countertenor.  At Glimmerglass I saw Michael Maniaci who bills as a male soprano.

The curious feature of this production is the genderless costuming.  Whatever style is on display, it is worn by both males and females.  I've always wondered what this would be like.  At first everyone is dressed in men's tuxedos.  The fires of hell are tended by laborers in bakers' hats. Then we see Greek outfits which look a bit odd on the men.  Then back to tuxedos.

An annoyingly large amount of time in this not that long opera is consumed by ballet.  If you are French, this probably is not a problem.  The chorus mimes an orchestra.  Vesselina does not play her violin, but she sings and acts gloriously.  To fully understand why Berlioz would make such an arrangement for Viardot requires that you see such a towering performer in the role of Orphée.  It is a tour de force.

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La Favorite

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Conductor: Karel Mark Chichon
Production: Amélie Niermeyer

Léonor de Guzman: Elīna Garanča (mezzo)
Fernand: Matthew Polenzani (tenor)
Alphonse XI: Mariusz Kwiecień (baritone)
Balthazar: Mika Kares (bass)
Don Gaspard: Joshua Owen Mills (tenor)
Inès: Elsa Benoit (soprano)

We are experiencing a live stream of Donizetti's La Favorite, in French, from the Bayerische Staatsoper. 

If you have Elīna Garanča, Matthew Polenzani and Mariusz Kwiecień, you do La Favorite.  These three are a marvelous trio of singing actors.  We get the full on masculine pig behavior from Mariusz, perhaps in honor of our American pig candidate.  This is, of course, Regietheater.  You know, mostly black modern clothing, no particular set.  There is a section in Act II where Léonor and Alphonse are alone and seem to be watching television together.  This can only have been a ballet.  So he responds in a very manic way to what he's seeing alternating with pawing her.  She finds the whole thing boring.  At one point they laugh.  She tells him that she came to him from her home expecting to be married.

This story conflicts with its presentation in this production.  Alphonse is constantly molesting Léonor in every possible context.  It is simply unbelievable that Fernand does not understand what this means.  She marries in black.  Too many clues, Fernand.  We're not buying it when you "suddenly" understand.  He's claiming his honor is lost.  She's saying his soul knows the truth, so why is his pride so inflamed?  Now she's slinking off in her slip.  The chorus is pommeling her with flowers.

Fernand returns to the monastery and Léonor prays.  All three of our singers are wonderful.  She's back, but this time she has on a black watch cap and another black men's suit.  I am seriously loving the singing here.  The ending is marvelous.  One loves most of all the sounds of their voices, which were beautiful together.

Ten years ago I said about this opera:

"It is only recently that women have broken out of their categories. Before that there were good girls and bad girls, angels and whores. It makes a whole opera plot that a whore is mistaken for an angel. You can't always tell, you know.

"In opera angels are sopranos and whores are mezzos. We realize there are exceptions, such as Manon, but generally whores are mezzos. Carmen, Dalila, Maddalena, and Leonor in Donizetti´s La Favorite. She is the king's mistress, and when Fernand falls for her, she refuses to tell who she is. She deliberately lets him think his whore is an angel.

"The opera has a simple beginning--a priest who has not taken his final vows falls for one of his parishioners--and a simple ending--she saves him from hell by dying. In the middle it gets pretty complicated. The king wants to divorce his wife to marry his mistress in spite of the pope's opposition. Fernand also wants her, and when the king promises to grant him any wish, Fernand wishes for Leonor. The courtiers still consider her a whore and tell Fernand now that it is too late and he has married her that he has lost his honor. From there everything just goes to hell. "

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Faust from Salzburg

Alejo Pérez conductor
Reinhard von der Thannen stage director, stage sets and costumes

Piotr Beczala (Faust)
Ildar Abdrazakov (Méphistophélès)
Maria Agresta (Marguerite)
Alexey Markov (Valentin)
Tara Erraught (Siébel)
Marie-Ange Todorovitch (Marthe)

Gounod's Faust from the Salzburg Festival streamed today on medicitv.  It came in a regie production, as you can see in the picture above.  There were many images to choose from, but I have chosen the Rien neon which began and ended the opera.  One puzzles briefly at the start, and then Faust opens his mouth and sings "Rien,"  French for nothing.  Of course.  I have reached Faust's age and listen to his complaining with now more sympathetic ears.  He effectively transforms from a bald old man to a young man with hair.

The white daisies Siebel gives as a bouquet in act III are called Marguerites.

Everything is symbolic.  I have no idea of what.  Abstract shapes that look like nothing at all seem preferable to people in a laboratory for no apparent reason.  Half of the tunes are hit tunes.  I can listen to Pique Dame and recognize very little of the music, while Faust is ever familiar.  The music is intensely nostalgic, a style that grows old for us.  Perhaps a meaningless modernist staging takes away from the nostalgia and makes the music tolerable again.  I actually enjoyed this, an excellent concert with pictures.  The pictures were sometimes odd, but the story line stayed in tact.  Except maybe the baby as a box wrapped as a present.

Maria Agresta gave us a strong Marguerite capable of soaring over the orchestra and chorus.  Ildar was perfection as Méphistophélès, growly and nasty.  Piotr was pleasing.  They could only have cast Tara because they wanted her soft sweetness to contrast with the angry brother and the evil Méphistophélès.

It is a Faust for today. 

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P.S.  I was reading a review of this production today which covered each of the usual subjects one by one--conducting, orchestra playing, each singer's performance and the production.  Then it suddenly turned into a religious commentary.  Faust is a Christian morality tale.  The lesson is that the devil can do nothing to prevent your salvation.  From a Christian perspective Faust is the essential opera.  We were scolded for our lack of interest in it.

Beginning in 1862 it became the most frequently performed opera in the repertoire for a long period.  Since its premier at the Met in 1883, it has played hundreds of performances, but recently has declined in popularity.  My sense of this is that while people seem never to grow tired of Puccini, Gounod is another matter entirely.  The music begins to sound corny to us.

It is my understanding that this opera didn't sell well in Salzburg.  I don't think lecturing us about Christian themes will save it.

Béatrice et Bénédict

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Conductor: Antonello Manacorda*
Director: Laurent Pelly

Béatrice, niece of Léonato: Stéphanie d’Oustrac (soprano)
Bénédict, Sicilian officer: Paul Appleby (tenor)
Héro, daughter of Léonato: Sophie Karthäuser (soprano)
Claudio, general's aide-de-camp: Philippe Sly (baritone)
Somarone, a music master: Lionel Lhote (bass)
Don Pedro, Sicilian general: Frédéric Caton (bass)
Ursule: Katarina Bradić (contralto)
Léonato, Governor of Messina: ? (spoken)

This is utterly charming.  I am speaking of Hector Berlioz' Béatrice et Bénédict from Glyndebourne.  It is based on Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing and has a libretto by Berlioz.  Beatrice has fallen victim to love, and she is pissed.

It's staged like a movie in black and white with the set pieces mostly made up of gray boxes.  Symbolism.  You knew that.  Beatrice does not wish to be in a box.  At the end she appears with her Benedict in one of the boxes and declares that tomorrow they will be enemies again.

It is an opera comique that is nothing like an Italian opera buffa.  Frantic tempos are replaced by sweet melodies.  Spoken French dialog replaces recitative.  There is a buffo bass (Somarone) and a lovely, marvelously comic couple that find each other at the end.

I have long loved Berlioz, read The Aeneid because I knew he loved it.  You can feel throughout this excellent opera with duets and trios of female voices, comic choruses and a comic tenor and soprano, how very much he loved Shakespeare.

Philippe Sly looked like the man on the wedding cake when he marries Hero, but it seems he was hired for his beauty and his excellent French because he hardly sings at all.

:-)
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Werther from the ROH

Conductor:  Antonio Pappano
Production:  Benoît Jacquot  (same as Paris)

Werther: Vittorio Grigòlo
Charlotte: Joyce DiDonato

It was interesting to me when the announcer explained that it took a long time for Massenet's Werther to become truly popular.  Now it is the most frequently performed of Massenet's operas, passing Manon.

I am not going to write a long review.  This is the same production as the one I saw in Paris.  The music was French enough, but the acting was a bit over the top.  I love Vittorio, but I don't feel that I want Werther to be quite so mad.  Maybe I truly love this opera only when it is Jonas.  I want him to be unhappy but not mad.

Christine Goerke wants to be sure that reviewers don't blame the actors for the acting.  The director, Jacquot, must have approved it.  Some will prefer it this way.

Les Indes Galantes

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Conductor Ivor Bolton
Director and Choreography Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui

Lisette Oropesa:  Hébé and Zima (soprano)
Ana Quintans:  L'Amour (soprano en travesti) and Zaire (soprano)
Tareq Nazmi:  Osman and Ali (baritone)
Anna Prohaska:  Phani and Fatime (soprano)
Mathias Vidal:  Don Carlos and Damon (haute-contre, a French high tenor?)
Goran Juric:  Bellone (baritone en travesti)
François Lis:  Huascar and Don Alvaro (bass)
Cyril Auvity:  Valère and Tacmas (haute-contre)
Elsa Benoit:  Emilie (soprano)
John Moore:  Adario (tenor)
Many dancers, supernumeraries and an invisible chorus.

Les Indes galante, an opéra-ballet by Jean-Philippe Rameau, came to me by way of the Bayerische Staatsoper.  From an historical perspective this is Rameau's most significant theatrical work, though I think it's only rarely produced.  In music history he is most famous for his invention of the idea of the fundamental bass.  [I'm not going to try to explain this.  Complain in a comment.]  Harmonically he is quite complex.

Opera production in the twenty-first century consists of two contrasting parts:  historically meticulous musical production accompanied by clumsy, often unsuccessful, attempts to transfer the staging of the story into modern times.

The musicology was impressive.  The parts that show up most distinctly are the period sound of the orchestra and the beauty of the sung ornaments.  The conductor describes this as a big Baroque orchestra:  strings, bassoons, brass, theorbo, very busy harpsichord, etc. The singing is remarkable in how it does not sound like Handel.  If I were to compare it to something, it would be bel canto.  Light and beautiful.  Lisette was especially lovely.

We are in a timeless twentieth century, I believe, for our three love stories.  It is all about tangled love affairs among the native populations.  It's all very chaotic, as can be seen in the photo above.  There is much modern dancing and what looked to me like break dancing.  Don't trust me on this.  The break dancer was the janitor.  Cross dressing, both female to male and male to female, was a frequent feature here, and was from the original.  This opera is from the French Baroque, so there were no castrati.

We begin in a school with students.  There are many small flags but only one large flag, the stars and stripes.  So an American school?  For our love stories we go to Turkey, Peru and North America.  The Peru section includes a religious ceremony which has been translated into a catholic mass.  The priest goes around on a Segue and gives people wafers that are drugged.  They fall down.  This is designed to scare the girl he wants.

It's one of those operas that you just have to go along with.  It was fun, but a little long.  If I require the production to explain the opera, that has not happened here.  The chaos seems to have been enhanced.  It's still entertaining.
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Carmen

Conductor: Carlo Montanaro
Production: Calixto Bieito

Lillas Pastia (speaking): Yusef Lambert
Moralès: Edward Nelson †
Micaëla: Ellie Dehn
Zuniga: Brad Walker † *
Manuelita: Jamielyn Duggan
Carmen: Irene Roberts
Don José: Brian Jagde
Escamillo: Zachary Nelson *
Frasquita: Amina Edris † *
Mercédès: Renée Rapier
† Adler

The bare bones production of Carmen currently playing at the San Francisco Opera seems to be placed in the present.  When Micaela and Don Jose meet in the first act they take a selfie together.  Now a selfie requires a digital camera where the display screen points in the same direction as the camera lens.  You can only do that with a phone, I think.

At the very beginning of the opera a man dressed in a white suit, Lillas Pastia we decided, comes out and says "Love is like Death."  This means we are doing the original version of the opera with spoken dialog.  There is a lot of silly business in this production.  Micaela says Don Jose's mother tells her to deliver a kiss from her.  She then plants a serious one on him.  He follows this kiss with staring into the distance and reminiscing about his mother.  Micaela knows that she is toast.

When the other girls come out together from the cigarette factory smoking cigarettes (no smell of tobacco), no one can find Carmen.  She is in the phone booth making a call.  So why doesn't she have a mobile phone like every other modern girl?  The phone booth is the only scenery besides a flag pole and flag.

A half naked, and possibly also completely naked, man (sorry, forgot binoculars) appears for no discernible reason.  I thought as a message to gay pride celebrators outside, "hey, I bet we have more naked men in here than you do out there."

Cars.  Five of them in one scene.   A line marking machine appeared and drew a circle. 

The music was very lively, fast paced and fun.   I enjoyed this for no reason that I could explain.  Brian Jagde is far sexier than our Escamillo, so we are confused about why Carmen doesn't prefer him.  Ellie Dehn was a lovely Micaela, and I enjoyed Irene Roberts as Carmen.

The Damnation of Faust from the Paris Opera

 Bryn, Dominique, Sophie, Jonas

Conductor Philippe Jordan
Director Alvis Hermanis

Marguerite: Sophie Koch (mezzo-soprano)
Faust: Jonas Kaufmann (tenor)
Méphistophélès: Bryn Terfel  (baritone)
Stephen Hawking (mute): Dominique Mercy

The basic premise of the Eurotrash movement seems to be that any music and set of words can be fitted to any set of pictures and movements.  Any actual relationship is unnecessary.  Faust is supposed to be a scholar, so we will make him a scientist working on the space program.  Why not?  This is at least a tenuous relationship.  This staging of La Damnation de Faust from the Paris Opera is more a comedy than a serious drama.  No one cares about souls any more.

Of the above characters the one who spends the most time on stage is Stephen Hawking.  For most of the opera he sits in his chair.  At the beginning he speaks in his mechanical voice.  He is immediately recognizable without use of a program.

Act I

The intention to establish a colony on Mars in 2025 is announced.  The colonists are announced.  In any opera there are people who look one of two different ways:  they are uniformly young and thin or they are representative of all mankind.  The former group is, of course, the ballet, and the latter is the chorus.  People identified as going to Mars are all from the ballet.  They remove parts of their dress and appear in various stages of dress and undress until the last scene.

Jonas Kaufmann as Faust appears, except for the addition of horn rimmed glasses, as himself throughout.  He doesn't suddenly become young, as is traditional with Faust.

Act II

Faust, Hawking and Méphistophélès appear.  Potential colonists are tested like lab rats.  Méphistophélès chloroforms Faust who falls on the floor and dreams of Marguerite.  We see films of the Mars rover, and a copy appears on stage.  An orientation confusion device is brought on stage and Faust refuses to go into it.  So they choose Hawking instead who while still in his chair, rotates in all directions for a while.

Then Hawking is back in his chair, nude (body stockings?) women dancers appear, Jonas and Sophie interact.

Act III

Marguerite sings.  Almost nude ballet couples become intimate.  Perhaps on Mars they will have to pair up.  Then duet with Faust and Marguerite.  Then a trio with Bryn.  The male dancers have abandoned the females who now look injured.

Act IV

This is the best part of the staging.  Marguerite is Hawking's nurse.  She sings the most famous aria so far.  There was much discussion in reviews of snails mating, but for us this is not seen and we have closeups of Sophie instead.  She takes off her lab coat and strokes Hawking's cheeks.  So you see the love she sings about is for Hawking.  She lays her cheek against his.  The Mars rover goes by.  And finally she kisses him.

Jonas comes out and sings "Nature immense" with an erupting volcano behind.  Very nice.

Bryn comes out with 3D goggles and tempts Faust into putting them on.  The colonists, including Marguerite, put on their space uniforms and we see a rocket blasting off.  Perhaps it's time to depart.

Faust finds Marguerite's dress in the pile of clothes and searches for her among the colonists.

Ending:  We are supposedly sending Marguerite off to heaven, but instead Hawking gets out of his chair and does an extended ballet.  Sort of.  Faust gets in the abandoned chair and drives it off the stage.

So is this The Salvation of Stephen Hawking instead of The Damnation of Faust?  The music was lovely.  We heard no booing.