Opera Review: The Sod Couple

The New York City Opera climbs Brokeback Mountain.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Save a horse: Daniel Oklutich (right) embraces Glenn Seven Allen in a scene from Brokeback Mountain.
Photo by Sarah Shatz for New York City Opera © 2018

Ten years ago,  New York City Opera commissioned composer Charles Wuorinen to write an opera based on Anne Proulx' short story Brokeback Mountain, which had been made into a much-lauded film by Ang Lee just three years before. That version of City Opera failed and folded, and the opera premiered in Madrid in 2014. On Thursday night, Mr. Wuorinen's Brokeback Mountain (with a libretto by Ms. Proulx) finally had its North American premiere at Lincoln Center's Rose Theater, mounted by the new New York City Opera run by impresario Michael Capasso.

Opera Review: Ding, Dong, Ditch

New York City Opera dredges up La Campana Sommersa.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Ring-a-ding-ding. The titular La Campana sommersa (left) with L'Ondino (Michael Chiodi,
Rautandelein (Brandie Sutton, center) and Fauno (Glenn Seven Allen, in leggings) at New York City Opera.
Photo by Sarah Shatz for New York City Opera © 2017.

This week, the New York City Opera offered La Campana Sommersa ("The Sunken Bell") by Ottorino Respighi. This is an opera that has lain neglected at the bottom of the repertory for many years. A sensation in Hamburg, Germany when it premiered in 1927, La Campana made it as far as New York and the stage of the Metropolitan Opera. There, it sunk to the bottom of the repertory where it has lain undisturbed since 1929.

Concert Review: The Moon in Your Pocket

A Tribute to Glen Roven at Spectrum.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The conjuror: composer Glen Roven's songs
were celebrated at Spectrum on Thursday night.

The evolution of the modern classical art song did not start in the concert or recital hall. No, the preferred performance venue was at the liederabend ("song evening"), a small-scale, informal salon performance with a singer, a pianist and the music of Schubert, Schumann or later, Brahms and Hugo Wolf. On Thursday night, the New York New Music Collective celebrated a modern song-master, Glen Roven with a program featuring world premieres of two song cycles by the Brooklyn-born composer.

Opera Review: The Da Ponte Code

Columbia's Casa Italia premieres Così Faran Tutti.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Cosí monsters: Ariana Chris, Mary Elizabeth Mackenzie, Glenn Seven Allen
and Marcy Richardson in Jonathan Dawe's Cosí Faran Tutti. Photo by Joel Graham.

Writing a new opera takes a certain amount of courage. But when that new work is a prequel to one of Mozart's legendary collaborations with librettist Lorenzo da Ponte, the creation and staging of that work becomes a matter of sheer nerve.