Metropolitan Opera Preview: The Enchanted Island

It's time to go back to the Island as the Met revives its baroque pastiche.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Underwater love: Danielle de Niese (in drysuit) and Plácido Domingo (with trident)
in a scene from Act I of The Enchanted Island.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2011 The Metropolitan Opera.

(Editor's note: As this is the Met's revival of a pastiche, this preview is largely built from the January 5 Superconductor review of The Enchanted Island "Down With the Ship (Slight Return.)" You've got to have your fun when you can get it. )

"Pastiche, the art of pasting together songs by different composers to make a new, playable work of art, has a long history, from the Shakesperean masques of Henry Purcell to Baz Luhrmann's film Moulin Rouge!. By combining Shakespeare's The Tempest with characters from A Midsummer Night's Dream, Mr. Sams and Mr. Gelb (working with baroque conductor William Christie) created a sampler platter of the genre.

When Opera Meets Baseball: The Lineup Cards

That's "Babe Ruth," not "Bay-reuth."

(Inspired by the Twitter conversations of Alan Held and Susan Spector. Thanks to you both!) 
Spring is here, the Mets and Yankees are playing, and I'm going to bring two of my favorite things together in the same post. As opera season winds down and baseball season winds up, we present these two fun lineups for your consideration.

The Heroes All-Stars

C: Calaf: (Turandot) The first player in the majors called up from Tartary. His signs are riddles to the opposition and he packs a wallop in the last act...er inning of the game.

1B: Siegfried. (Siegfried, Götterdämmerung) Too dumb to do anything but catch the ball, tag the guy out, and slay dragons. He's in the lineup for his..uhh durability.

2B: Papageno: (The Magic Flute) He catches pop flies as if they were birds.

3B: Figaro. (The Marriage of Figaro, The Barber of Seville.) He'll keep the pepper up in the infield and he's always willing to play two. Plus, he's the team stylist!

SS: Octavian Maria Ehrenreich Bonaventura Bernand Hyacinth Rofrano: (Der Rosenkavalier) The silver flash at short has quick hands. Good thing this team has no names on their jerseys.

LF: Manrico: (Il Trovatore) Impulsively chases down fly balls when the game is at stake.

CF: Don Alvaro: (La Forza del Destino) He covers a lot of ground out there, especially when Don Carlos di Vargas is after him.

RF: Wozzeck. Originally had him playing left, but he moved to right on the advice of his Doctor after seeing too many hedgehogs.

DH: Casey: (The Mighty Casey. Written in 1953 by William Schuman.) Just called up from Mudville. Strikes out a lot.

P: Fidelio/Leonore: (Beethoven's Fidelio) Has a wicked slider and is great in the clutch innings when the game is on the line.

Relief Pitchers: Lohengrin, Bacchus (Ariadne auf Naxos) Introducing: the bullpen boat!

Manager: Wotan. (Der Ring des Nibelungen) They lost four straight in a series to the Nibelheim Black Elves.


The Villains Team: Bad Guys Have More Fun

C: Don Basilio (Il barbiere di Siviglia) Ex-music teacher turned backstop is good at trash-talking (callunnia) the opposition. Backed up by Leporello.

1B: Attila: They got him in a trade (for two Gibichungs) with the the Budapest Invaders.

2B: Salome: Plays bare-foot. Boy, you don't want to see her contract demands.

3B: Councillor Lindorf/Dappertutto/Dr. Mirakle/Coppelius. (The Tales of Hoffmann) Like getting four players for the price of one.

SS: Klingsor: (Parsifal) They call him "The Wizard." Had surgery similar to John Kruk's.

LF: Boris Godunov: won the batting crown last season under very suspicious circumstances.

CF: Mephistopheles: (Faust, Mefistofele, Doktor Faust, La damnation de Faust) Who else? He moves with the speed of thought.

RF: The Witch (Hansel und Gretel): Pioneered the use of broomsticks in Opera League Baseball. Makes covering the outfield easier. Also, in charge of catering.

DH: Hagen (Götterdämmerung.) This heavy hitter uses his patented swing, the old "stab-in-the-back."

P: Don Giovanni Has an extensive catalogue of pitches. Prefers to have Leporello behind the plate.

Relief Pitchers: The Queen of the Night, (The Magic Flute) Hunding (Die Walküre) Like good villains, they arrive at inopportune times.

Manager: Baron Scarpia: (Tosca) They call him "The Chief." A tough disciplinarian, his team meetings are said to be torture.

Concert Review: The Alchemy of Handel

David Daniels and Dorothea Röschmann at Carnegie Hall

Soprano Dorothea Röschmann

Sunday afternoon's concert at Carnegie Hall paired two performers steeped in the repertory of the 18th century: the soprano Dorothea Röschmann, and the countertenor David Daniels. The two singers were expertly accompanied by the Juilliard 415 Ensemble in an all-Handel program that showcased each voice to mesmerizing effect.


In baroque opera, a strict division exists between recitative/plot development and emotional reaction. The latter is expressed through arias, which put an emphasis on development of emotional truth and embellishment second.

Ms. Röschmann, a singer heard often in Mozart, sang with stellar technique, soaring to heights with a clear, firm line that allowed equal balance between the meaning of the words and the starry flourishes that come in the recaptulation of the text. She shifted moods ably throughout the recital, from the erotic charge of "V'adoro, pupille" *from Giulio Cesare) to tragic loss in the excerpts from Rodelinda.

Countertenor David Daniels

Mr. Daniels first sang for New Yorkers as Arsamene in Handel's Xerxes at City Opera in 1997. Those performances, opposite the late Lorraine Hunt, triggered that company's renaissance as a haven for the performance of baroque opera. He then moved on to the Met, rising to heights with appearances in operas like Orphée et Euridice, a role that he will bring back to New York in May.

Although he sings from the "head", Mr. Daniels' voice is radically different from most countertenors. He is equipped with a round, viola-like resonance that is rare among his ilk: producing powerful, fully formed tones that never sound flutey or forced. This formidable technique was best heard on the elegant "Crede l'uomo ch'egli riposi", and the moving "Perfido, di a quell'empio tiranna" from Radamisto.


Jory Vinkour and Monica Huggett led the Juilliard 415 ensemble, which takes its numeric name from the tuning pitch of the note A (415) in baroque period performance. Using theorbo, hautboys, harpsichord, and old-style bassoons, the Juilliard musicians provided expert accompaniment to the arias, including the complex antiphonal passages from Giulio Cesare. The orchestra also had its time in the spotlight, playing engaging accounts of the Rodelinda overture, a Handel passacaglia and a lithe account of the second Concerto Grosso, Op. 3.

The individual excerpts were exceptional, but they paled compared to the molten alloy of these two voices together in the three duets on the program. The first was "Io t'abbraccio", which featured Mr. Daniels and Ms. Röschmann's voices melting together in a complex weave of sound. "Scherzano sul tu volto" (moved earlier in the program) and "Per le porte del tormento passan l'anime" showed that this fusion of voices was no accident. The encore too, featured a gorgeous duet: "Pur ti miro, pur ti godo" from Monteverdi's L'Incorinazione di Poppea, a perfect, intimate end to an extraordinary afternoon.

How They Caught the Bronx Zoo Cobra

A cobra. Not the Bronx Zoo cobra. But a nice picture that I found on Google.

"Officer! Officer! I saw the whole thing. There was this guy named Tommy, from down on Prince Street! He had a buddy with him, Gino--we all call him papí. Anyway, he had just bought a whole bunch of live chickens from the Halal butcher down on Canal.

So there they was, they're runnin' through the park when these three old ladies, real Fifth Avenue types, jumped up from behind a rock and whacked the cobra just as it was about to strike...."

Or something like that. Anyway a video of the opening scene of the Met's old David Hockney production of "Die Zauberflöte" which features a menacing serpent. Or something. Tamino is Francesco Araiza. Papageno is Manfred Hemm. Kathleen Battle hasn't shown up yet. So enjoy.

Opera Review: First the Words, then the Diva

Renée Fleming reigns as the Met revives Capriccio.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

"Hello?" "This is the prompter." Renée Fleming as Countess Madeleine in the Met's Capriccio.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2011 The Metropolitan Opera.

The first-ever revival of Capriccio at the Metropolitan Opera bowed on Monday night. This is a connoisseur's opera, heard only when a prima donna decides to tackle its length and difficult mix of witty dialogue and all-out soprano singing. Right now, Renée Fleming is that diva. On Monday night, she reigned supreme as the Countess Madeleine.

Old-School Mozart: The 1950 Karajan Vienna Recordings

The Man, the Maestro: Herbert von Karajan. © Universal Classics.

These two recordings of Mozart operas: Le Nozze di Figaro and Die Zauberflöte, rank among the earliest LP recordings of an entire opera in a recording studio. (Decca recorded Die Meistersinger in 1950 with Hans Knappertsbusch, but that's another column.) They are also the first two complete recordings led by Herbert von Karajan, at the start of his long association with the EMI label.

Both of these sets were made in Vienna in 1950. They are from the early days of LP records, and are in mono sound. (Stereo recording was invented in 1952)

As such, they offer the listener the chance to hear the Austrian conductor at his warmest and most innovative.

Vienna Philharmonic cond. Herbert von Karajan (EMI, 1950)

Elisabeth Schwarzkopf.
Photo by Fayer © EMI Classics

Le Nozze di Figaro
Figaro: Erich Kunz
Susanna: Irmgard Seefried
The Countess: Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
Count Almaviva: George London
Cherubino: Sena Jurinac

Die Zauberflöte
Sarastro: Ludwig Weber
The Queen of the Night: Wilma Lipp
Tamino: Anton Dermota
Pamina: Irmgard Seefried
Papagena Erich Kunz

Figaro was made in June and October of 1950. Erich Kunz is a dark-timbred, sardonic valet, who switches over to warm tone in his intimate scenes with Irmgard Seefried's terrific, pert Susanna. Selena Juranac is a fully embodied Cherubino. It is not an insult to say that this trouser role is sung with boyish enthusiasm. The ensembles bloom with warmth, especially in the second act.

An excerpt: Selena Juranac sing "Non s piu cosa son, cosa faccio" 

from Act I of Figaro. © 1950, EMI Classics

George London sings the Count with real menace in the early acts, which melts away at the opera's climax in Act IV. Karajan slows down the tempo for their reconciliation scene, allowing Elisabeth Schwarzkopf to really shine in the final ensemble. She is a marvel here, helped by Karajan's choice of dead-slow tempos whenever she sings.

The Flute was laid down in November of that same year. Karajan takes an even slower tempo here, especially with the three stately chords that launch the Overture. Other key moments in the score: the March of the Priests, the Two Men in Armor scene are rendered in vivid color by the Viennese forces. The choral singing is firm and well-caught.

This set features essentially the same cast (with the subtraction of Ms. Schwarzkopf and the substitution of Wilma Lipp as the Queen of the Night.) And it's a good one. Anton Dermota and Ms. Seefried are an engaging, ideal pair as Tamino and Pamina. He really sounds panicked in "Zu hilfe," and his fine characterization continues throughout. She is warm in "Bei Mannern", reunited (temporarily) with her Figaro, Erich Kunz, now in the role of Papageno.

Mr. Kunz may be no match for later bird-catchers (the role became a favorite of lieder singers in the stereo era) but he is bluff and good-natured. (I'd love to hear him in the opera's comic dialogue.) Ludwig Weber is an authoritative, but not authoritarian Sarastro. This recording captures the Wagner veteran in fine form just before the re-opening of the Bayreuth Festival the following year.

Both recordings feature the Vienna Philharmonic in top post-war form, playing with warmth and their unique, characteristic timbre. And despite being six decades old, the engineering is excellent, from the rattling tone of the timpani to the warm tone of the singers. The distinctive Vienna brass and wind are also captured with clarity on these CD remasters.

There are a few drawbacks. Figaro is missing ALL of the recitatives, which means you have to know the opera to follow the plot. The same goes for Zauberflöte, as no attempt is made to record the spoken dialogue between scenes. A libretto is helpful when listening if you don't know the operas.

Gustav Mahler...on The Simpsons?

Homer J. Simpson, appearing soon in the Metropolitan Opera's new La Traviata.
From the 2010 episode To Surveil With Love. © 2010 Gracie Films/20th Century Fox.

So this morning I'm on Hulu, catching up on this week's new Simpsons episode, The Scorpion's Tale, where Lisa accidentally creates a new "happy pill" from the extract of a desert flower. About 12 minutes into the episode, there's a montage with all of Springfields' septue- and octogenarians romping about happily. The soundtrack: Mahler's First Symphony, first movement. Conductor and orchestra unknown.

Classical music has long played an important role in the adventures of America's favorite family. The very first episode, "Bart the Genius", featured Marge taking her family to the opera. They saw Carmen. Unaccountably, the opera was advertised asbeing sung in Russian, although the singing was in French. After Bart gave his rendition of "Toreador-o, don't spit on the floor", they left the opera house and went for hamburgers.

In Season 2 (Marge vs. Itchy and Scratchy), Bart's mother lauches a successful crusade against cartoon violence. This results in the children of Springfield going out and playing in the sunshine to the bucolic strains of Beethoven's "Pastorale" Symphony, again the first movement.

Season 15's Margical History Tour featured an entire sketch based on the play and movie Amadeus. Bart was Mozart. Lisa, a jealous, angry Salieri who decides to sabotage the first performance of Bart's opera, The Musical Fruit. The episode also featured school bully Nelson Muntz as a hopeful young composer named Beethoven:

Nelson Muntz as Beethoven in a scene from Margical History Tour. © 2004 Gracie Films/FOX.

Seasons 16's The Seven-Beer Snitch featured the opening of a brand new concert hall in Springfield, designed by architect Frank Gehry. The concert hall closed quickly after the first performance of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony (the audience left after the opening "Dah-dah-dah-DUM") and became a prison.

Bart Simpson as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in a scene from the Mozart and Salieri
segment of Margical History Tour. © 2004 Gracie Films/20th Century Fox.

Marge Gamer (Season 18) featured Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings. Placìdo Domingo showed up in The Homer of Seville, (Season 19) gave Homer some career tips on singing opera, and then snapped him with a wet towel. And, the highly amusing Da Vinci Code spoof Gone Maggie Gone (Season 20) featured a choir of nuns essaying the opening bars of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana.

Although the show's episodes average 20 minutes in length, (shorter than the opening movements of most Bruckner symphonies!) it is encouraging to see that the writers on America's longest-running situation comedy keep the classical music flag flying. And who knows? Some kid watching Our Favorite Family might get into classical music and some day start a blog and call it...oh, I don't know...Ultraconductor?
...Megaconductor?
...Hyperconductor?!

Here's some music:

The Los Angeles Philharmonic plays Mahler's Symphony No. 1 "Titan". Gustavo Dudamel conducting. © 2010 Universal Music Group

Opera Review: Armida's Last Dance

Renée Fleming returns in Rossini's problematic fantasy.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Renée Fleming in Act III of Armida. Photo by Marty Sohl © 2011 The Metropolitan Opera

In the year since this production premiered, Armida has gone from much-hyped spectacle to what it really is: a vanity opera about to be returned to the mists of obscurity. The fact that the run is almost over helped Tuesday's performance. The vocal fireworks were still stunning, but the cast, choristers, and ballet corps looked like they were actually having a good time performing this Rossini rarity. And the joy in performance of any opera, (however dreadful) is something to be treasured.

Opera Review: Bishop Takes Sacrifice

Iphigénie en Tauride at the Met

Paul Groves (left) and Placìdo Domingo, trapped in Iphigénie en Tauride
Photo by Ken Howard © 2011 The Metropolitan Opera

The dreaded "backstage plague" struck the Met on Wednesday night, sidelining mezzo-soprano Susan Graham for that evening's performance of Iphigénie en Tauride. Placìdo Domingo went on as Orest, although he too was suffering from a cold.

The story of Iphigénie picks up where Elektra leaves off. Orestes is hounded by the Furies, running for his life in the company of his friend Pylade. He winds up in Tauride (modern-day Scythia) where he is scheduled to be sacrificed by the high priestess of Diana. What he doesn't know is that this is his sister, Iphigénie.

The Metropolitan Opera makes a policy of hiring cover singers to take over a role at the last minute in the event of illness. On Wednesday evening, it was Elizabeth Bishop in the title role. Ms. Bishop, a winner at the 1993 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, made a strong impression as the Greek princess-turned-priestess in Gluck's drama.

Like Ms. Graham, she is an American singer, with a good command of French and a strong onstage presence. However, she was at her best in the lower reaches of the role, as her voice tended to compress and develop a vibrato whenever she reached for her higher range. She was well matched with the ailing Mr. Domingo as Orestes. The 70-year-old super-tenor managed some fine, heroic singing despite his illness. There was nothing wrong with his acting.


With one star down and another suffering, that left tenor Paul Groves to carry the evening as Orestes' best friend, Pylade. Mr. Groves has a fine heroic instrument and an idiomatic command of French. He took the lead in the third act, singing his ensemble with the other two leads as Orestes and Pylade each attempt to be first on the altar under Iphigénie's knife.

The second half of the show had more momentum than the first, with a driven dynamic intensity as the cast settled into their roles. Patrick Summers led a crystal-clear performance in the pit, allowing the audience to hear the radical, almost revolutionary nature of Gluck's score, which paved the way for every opera that followed in the next 250 years.

Stephen Wadsworth's production remains an imaginative exercise in grimness that combines elements of Indiana Jones and Saw--imagining Diana's temple and its bloody altar as a chamber of horrors. That said, the imaginative use of actual torches on the stage, carefully choreographed ritual dances and (unaccountably) a ballet that takes place behind a big, solid wall (thus, invisible to the audience) makes this one of the more innovative productions of the Peter Gelb era.

Metropolitan Opera Preview: Armida

Renée Fleming and Lawrence Brownlee in Armida.
Photo by Ken Howard  © 2010 The Metropolitan Opera

This month sees the first revival of the Met's 2010 production of Armida. Written in 1817, this Rossini rarity is only performed on rare occasions: in this case as a vehicle for soprano Renée Fleming.


Rossini composed Armida for soprano Isabella Colbran a bel canto diva with an agile instrument. In fact, the title role is the most difficult role written by this composer for a female voice. Sadly, he chose a cliche-riddled story that had been set by other composers, including Lully, Vivaldi, Salieri, Gluck, Haydn, and Handel. The story comes from Gerusalemme liberata, an epic poem by the 16th century bard Torquato Tasso.

Armida is a sorceress who tests the loyalties of six knights during the Crusades, complete with a magic castle and garden. (In other words, it's like Parsifal but with more sex and more singing.) The Mary Zimmerman production veered into silliness in the second act, which featured a controversial ballet sequence that outfitted the Met's crack dance corps in horns and tails as the critters within Armida's garden. One wonders if the company's revival will veer to the side of good taste and amputate the ballet.

Devils dance: The ballet from Act II of Armida.Photo by Ken Howard © 2010 The Metropolitan Opera.

Although Ms. Fleming is the unquestioned star of this revival, she is surrounded by a small solar system of tenors, including the redoubtamble Lawrence Brownlee in the role of Rinaldo. John Osborn, Antonio Siragusa, Barry Banks and Kobie van Rensburg are the outlying planets.

Recommended Recordings:
Luckily for Rossini lovers and fans of Ms. Fleming, the diva's 1994 recording of Armida is back in the catalogue. Daniele Gatti conducts. The Met's HD broadcast of the opera from last season--featuring roughly the same cast as the coming revival, and with the silly ballet in place, arrives on DVD on Tuesday.

Finally, fans of the great Maria Callas should investigate a bootleg 1952 recording of Armida which arrives on CD this Tuesday. Although it's in mono and the sound is somewhat dodgy, the set features La Callas at the peak of her powers.

Opera Review: Le Magnifique Lives Up to its Name

Karim Sulayman and Jeffrey Thompson
in the preview performance of La Magnifique.
Photo by Louis Forget © 2011 Opera Lafayette 

On Wednesday night, Washington D.C.'s acclaimed Opera Lafayette company visited the Rose Theater, the off-campus Lincoln Center venue used primarily for jazz. The occasion: the second modern performance of La Magnifique, an important (yet obscure) opera-comique from obscure (yet important) composer André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry.


Based on a story from Bocaccio's Decameron, La Magnifique is the tale of two men's return from being sold into slavery--and the title character's attempt to win the hand of Clémentine away from the dastardly fellows who did the deed. The work has never been performed in North America before this week, which is a shame since Grétry is a "missing link" between the rococo music of Rameau and Lully and the modern, operatic reforms of Gluck and Mozart.

The vocal writing in this work is extraordinary, with melodious arias written in the galant 18th century French style. But the way forward is in Grètry's ensembles, which provide a blueprint for what Mozart was to do in Idomeneo and Le Nozze di Figaro. As the characters assemble and attempt to gain understanding of what has occured, they engage in whizzing vocal pyrotechnics, arpeggiating up and down the scale over the orchestra as the act builds to its climax.

The performance featured an enthusiastic cast, led by the resonant bass Emiliano Gonzales Toro in the title role. As the heroine Clémentine, soprano Elizabeth Calleo displayed a pleasing soprano with an unusual, woody timbre. She sounded best in the ensembles, paired with mezzo Marguerite Krull or the paired villains, played by Jeffrey Thompson and Karim Sulayman. Mr. Sulayman's comic mugging and dance-based performance made Fabio the most memorable character in the opera.

Conductor Ryan Brown led a simple staging, on a bare stage in front of the orchestra. The excellent young cast did the work in modern evening dress. There is no chorus, and there are no recitatives. An English-language narration (by bass Randall Scarlata, who doubled in the role of Horace) explained the plot of the opera as it went along, stopping so the characters can react with arias and ensembles. He was working from a new version of the text, by Nick Olcott.