Concert Review: Two Tickets, No Paradise

Gianandrea Noseda conducts at Carnegie Hall.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

Gianandrea Noseda. Photo © 2017 Fondazione Teatro Regio di Torino.

The Carnegie Hall calendar is released every year in the final week of January, but not everything on that august and immense document comes to fruition. The concert originally planned for this Sunday would have featured Gianandrea Noseda conducting Verdi’s grand opera  I Vespri Siciliani in its five-act entirety with the Teatro Regio di Torino. Its substitute: a two part choral concert with Mr. Noseda leading the National Symphony Orchestra, who are based in Washington D.C. at the Kennedy Center.

Concert Review: The Ghosts of Conductors Past

The MET Orchestra and Gianandrea Noseda play the Mahler Fifth.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

Gianandra Noseda in action.
Photo by Ramella and Giannese, courtesy Teatro Regio di Torino

There is no ensemble that has a bigger target on its back this spring than the MET Orchestra. After a tumultuous season at the Metropolitan Opera that included the explosion of a long-building sex scandal involving former music director James Levine, the firing of Mr. Levine (after a 47-year association) and a subsequent flurry of lawsuits that have kept the opera company in the headlines, it would be surprising if the shell-shocked players had the enthusiasm and focus for the three-concert series that ends the current Carnegie Hall season.

Concert Review: A Full Feast of Rare Birds

Gianandrea Noseda leads the New York Philharmonic.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Because photos of conductors get boring, here's a set design for The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh from 1929.

The New York Philharmonic has returned from their mid-November residency at the University of Michigan, just in time to offer their listeners a slate of concerts as the city races toward the holiday season. The first of these programs opened Wednesday night as Gianandrea Noseda led a program of infrequently performed works by Rimsky-Korsakov, Saint-Saëns and Rachmmaninoff, making a good argument for more programs like this in the future.

Opera Review: It's Still the Same Old Story

The Met's new Roméo et Juliette is handsome but unnecessary.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Star-crossed and Bible black: Vittorio Grigolo and Diana Damrau are Roméo et Juliette.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2017 The Metropolitan Opera.

In Second Empire France, the libretto-writing team of Julies Barbier and Michael Carré were the go-to guys for adapting great literature for the operatic stage. They set Faust (for Charles Gounod) and Hamlet (for Ambroise Thomas) with questionable results. However, their cut-down Roméo et Juliette (with music by Gounod) remains one of their definite successes. At the Metropolitan Opera of the 21st century, Bartlett Sher serves much the same function. On Wednesday night, Peter Gelb's director of choice was once more at the helm of this new production of Romeo et Juliette, his seventh show at the Met.

Concert Review: Their Business is Rejoicing

The London Symphony Orchestra at NJPAC.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Miracle man: conductor Gianandrea Noseda in action.
Photo © 2016 Teatro Regio di Torino.

The London Symphony Orchestra are in transition. Valery Gergiev left for a post in Munich, and the orchestra awaits the arrival of its next chosen leader, Sir Simon Rattle, in 2017. Their current North American tour (which stopped at Prudential Hall in Newark on Saturday night) is lead by associate principal conductor Gianandrea Noseda, an Italian maestro who has worked operatic miracles in the pit at the Metropolitan Opera in recent years, and will soon be known to American audiences as the newly minted leader of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington D.C.

The Way the Big Wheel Spins

A look at possible music directors for the Metropolitan Opera.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The Met faces difficult odds in its quest for a new music director.
Photoshop by the author.

The James Levine era at the Met is ending and the opera house stands poised to announce its next choice in the crucial role of music director. Although this subject has been touched on before it seemed time for Superconductor to take a look at available candidatess to lead the Metropolitan Opera and its orchestra. Considering that the posts of Music Director and Principal Conductor are both open, the Met needs to broaden its horizons and look at some new options on the podium.

Opera Review: Taking the Apple

Opera company bows at Carnegie Hall with Gugliemo Tell
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Revolutionary conductor Gianandrea Noseda brought William Tell
to Carnegie Hall on Dec. 7.

Presenting William Tell, the four-act grand opera that prematurely ended the compositional career of Gioachino Rossini in 1829 is no easy task. The opera is huge, with four epic acts that try an audience's patience even when conductors make judicious (and sometimes deep) cuts. The opera marks an important transition between Italian bel canto and the grand opera of the French stage. Its libretto recounts the feats of the title character and his role as a farmer turned crossbow-wielding revolutionary and Swiss folk hero. For an opera company making both its Carnegie Hall and New York debuts, Tell is an unlikely choice.

Concert Review: The Hard Road to the Heavens

Mostly Mozart takes on Beethoven's Ninth.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

Conductor Gianandrea Noseda returned to Mostly Mozart last week.
Photo © 2013 by Dan Porges.

The Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra refocused itself on Beethoven last night, with the first of two concerts pairing the composer's rarely heard Overture for the Consecration of the House with the Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, at once the most difficult, radical and best known work in the entire symphonic repertory.

Concert Review: The Mother Weeps, the Voices Soar

Rossini's Stabat Mater at Mostly Mozart.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Gianandrea Noseda made his Mostly Mozart debut with Rossini's Stabat Mater

When you think of the name Giaoachino Rossini, it is usually in connection with the 39 operas he wrote by the age of 37, and not with choral music. On Wednesday night, the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra offered the second of two performances of the composer's Stabat Mater, one of the few products of the composer's long retirement. The concert was conducted by Festival newcomer Gianandrea Noseda.

Opera Review: Making Plans for Duncan

The Metropolitan Opera revives Macbeth.

by Paul Pelkonen

Thomas Hampson and Nadja Michael discuss dinner plans for King Duncan.
Photo by Marty Sohl © 2012 The Metropolitan Opera.

The Metropolitan Opera's recent hot streak continued Thursday night with the return of Verdi's Macbeth. This revival of Adrian Noble's stark 2007 show featured two debuts, making for an evening of bloody good Shakespeare.

As Macbeth, American baritone Thomas Hampson remains an uncommon singer, taking on a role that is on the heavy side for his smooth, pliant instrument. He pushed the limits of his voice at times, using all of his skill as an interpreter to find the dark, murderous heart of the character. His voice fades slightly at the lowest notes--audible in the Act III scene with the Witches. However, he handled the wide dynamic range, going from horrified whispers to shouts of bravado. The quality of singing in the final act made one long for Verdi's (original) 1847 ending, where the King gets a proper monologue and death scene at the opera's end.

Opposite him was German soprano Nadja Michael in her house debut as Lady Macbeth. Mr. Hampson and Ms. Michael have played the Macbeths before, notably at Covent Garden. They play Shakespeare's ambitious Laird and Lady as an old married couple, whose blood-drenched quest for the Scottish throne presents a welcome alternative to haggling over haggis.

Lady Macbeth is not a long part. Her vocal demands are even greater than those placed on the hapless husband, with whispered passages, muttered oaths, a soaring brindisi and moments of sheer, lung-busting power. Ms. Michael brought her 'A' game, starting with the Letter Scene. She brought steely determination to the central acts, egging on  Mr. Hampson, singing with power where a lesser soprano would have screamed.

But that was all appetizer for the main course: the Sleep-walk in Act IV. Here was a performance where Verdi's music expertly underpinned the translated Shakespearean text. Ms. Michael opened the door into the unworldly mind of the mad Lady M., hissing out "Va il tico maladetto" and floating the last notes of the scene with impressive technique.

Tenor Dimitri Pittas made one wish that Macduff was a bigger part with his Act IV aria mourning his murdered children. But his voice vanished after that scena into some ugly sounds. Günther Groissböck was a bluff Banquo who was more dramatically interesting as a ghost. The choristers were solid as the Witches, the Murderers (though the "Murderers Chorus" is Verdian overkill.) They also delivered a tight "Patria oppressa", an effective 19th century protest song.

Conductor Gianandrea Noseda showed his skill and experience, leading the revised 1861 version of the score minus the ballet. He chose fast tempos that had the orchestra moving briskly through Verdi's dark Scottish landscape. Mr. Noseda conjured the dark forces of the Witches scenes effectively, and brought off the complicated finale with panache.

Mark Thompson's set: soaring black columns, a fieldstone disk stage and background of trees scream of New Bayreuth. Goofy modern touches remain: Scottish warriors armed with AK-47s, IKEA furniture, and drop-down light fixtures. The Witches are a gaggle of society ladies, with lit flashlights in their clutch purses. Are they supposed to represent the donors who funded this show?

DVD Review: Catch a Falling Tsar

A new edit of Boris Godunov from Turin.
by Paul Pelkonen

Throne for a loop: Orlin Anastassov in Andre Koncalovsky
Photo by Ramanella & Giannese @ 2010 Fondazione Teatro Regio di Torino.

In 1869, Modest Mussorgsky first submitted his opera Boris Godunov to the Imperial Theater. It was rejected for its lack of female characters and novel dramatic structure that placed equal emphasis on the plight of the titular Tsar and the suffering of the Russian people. His later revision (with some tweaking by Rimsky-Korsakov) was a success in 1874.

Today, opera directors and conductors usually choose one of these two versions. This DVD from OpusArte, shot in 2010 at the Teatro Regio del Turin, offers a compromise. Director Andre Konchalovsky chooses the 1869 version of Boris for its dramatic momentum, but inserts the finale of the revised version (the march of the false tsar Dmitry through the Kromy Forest) between the St. Basil's scene and the death of Boris.

Orlin Anastassov is a youthful, convincing Boris, giving the impression from the get-go of being in over his political head. His Mad Scene is something to behold, acted with wide, staring eyes, the camera unforgiving and in his face. Heldentenor Ian Storey sings with loud, raw tone as Grigory, the monk who becomes the false Dmitri. Unaccountably, he is alone in the Kromy Forest scene--his paramour Marina (star of the missing "Polish Act") does not appear in this production.