Opera Review: Hot Rails to Hell

The BSO brings back The Damnation of Faust.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Conductor Charles Dutoit (on podium) leads Paul Groves, Susan Graham and John Relyea in the trio from
Part III of The Damnation of Faust. Photo by Hilary Scott for the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

I'm going open this review on a personal note.

Ten years (and change) age, I posted the first review on Superconductor, of the Boston Symphony Orchestra playing Hector Berlioz' The Damnation of Faust. That concert (you can read about it here) was at Carnegie Hall under the baton of James Levine. In honor of that anniversary, I took an early morning Amtrak to Boston yesterday to see the BSO perform The Damnation of Faust.

It was worth the trip.

Concert Review: The Shaper of Worlds

Mostly Mozart ends with Haydn's Creation.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

And lo he said, let there be light: Mostly Mozart music director Louis Langrée.
Photo © 2015 Mostly Mozart/Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

The 2015 Mostly Mozart Festival ended last week with two performances of Haydn's The Creation, that highly stylized oratorio built around the early events of the Book of Genesis. Haydn's work is one of beginnings and creation from the void, and was an apt choice to end a successful run by the oldest Lincoln Center event, one that has largely succeeded in reinventing itself and its image in the face of a challenging musical environment.

Opera Review: March to the Scaffold

The Met's Summer HD Festival repeats La Damnation de Faust.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

 Let's make a deal: Méphistophèles (John Relyea, left) offers advice to
Marcello Giordani's Faust in Berlioz' La Damnation de Faust.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2008 The Metropolitan Opera.

Two key initiatives from the reign of current  Metropolitan Opera general manager Peter Gelb were on display at Lincoln Center Plaza on Thursday night. The first was the company's Live in HD program. The second: the company's recent association with director Robert Lepage. The occasion: a free outdoor screening of Mr. Lepage's 2008 production of La Damnation de Faust, the director's first and most successful show for the Met stage.

Opera Review: Where's the Kaboom?

The Met revives Dez McAnuff's “atomic age” Faust.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Failure to detonate: Piotr Beczala (left) and John Relyea confer over a nuke
in Act V of the Met's revival of Gounod's Faust. Photo by Cory Weaver © 2013 The Metropolitan Opera.

The Metropolitan Opera’s current version of Charles Gounod’s 1859 grand opera Faust has, (like the atomic bombs that inspired its director Dez McAnuff) emerged once more from the opera house’s top-secret laboratories for another round of testing. On Thursday night, the performance failed to reach critical mass.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

Another cancellation for the Met's Don Giovanni.

Dinner guest: Bryn Terfel.
Photo © 2012 Deutsche Grammophon.

In October of 2011, one of the biggest stories coming out of the Met involved Mariusz Kwiecien, who was replaced in the title role of the Met's new production of Don Giovanni after being injured in a rehearsal. He was replaced by Peter Mattei, and the show went on.

Now there are problems with the second cast. Bass John Relyea, scheduled to sing eight performances as Leporello, has bowed out of the production, according to a report on The Wagnerian's blog. Mr. Relyea's doctor ordered the singer to rest his voice. 

Their replacements for the upcoming shows will be Kyle Ketelsen, who will sing the first four performances, and none other than Bryn Terfel, who will sing the last four shows in March. 

Mr. Terfel, last seen as the Wanderer in the Met's new production of Wagner's Siegfried made his early reputation with this opera, singing and recording Masetto (with Arnold Östman) the Don (with Sir Georg Solti) and Leporello (with Claudio Abbado.) He first sang Leporello at the Met in 1995, and the Don in 2000 

This run of the company's new Michael Grandage production pairs the singers with Canadian baritone Gerald Finley in the title role. The cast also includes Matthew Polenzani as Don Ottavio, Marina Rebeka as Donna Anna and Isabel Leonard as Zerlina. James Morris (another famous Met Wotan) is the Commendatore. Andrew Davis conducts.

Don Giovanni returns on Feb. 21.

Recording Recommendation

Don Giovanni is one of the most frequently recorded Mozart operas, and many fine recordings are available. Here are three that I like.

Vienna Philharmonic cond. Josef Krips (Decca, 1955)

Don Giovanni: Cesare Siepi

Leporello: Fernando Corena

Donna Anna: Suzanne Danco

Donna Elvira: Lisa della Casa

Il Commendatore: Kurt Böhme

One of the first stereo recordings of this opera, the Krips recording captures singers of a different age in the fertile ground of Vienna, just a decade after the war. Siepi and Corena play the roles of master and servant with gusto, and the conducting is terrific.

Chamber Orchestra of Europe cond. Claudio Abbado (DG, 1998)

Don Giovanni: Simon Keenlyside

Leporello: Bryn Terfel

Donna Anna Carmela Remigio

Donna Elvira: Soile Isokoski

Il Commendatore: Matti Salminen

This was Bryn Terfel's third recording of the opera, and his first as Leporello. (He was the Don for Solti's recording, and also recorded Masetto.) The Welsh baritone seems much more comfortable as the Don's slippery servant, and gives a great reading of this part. Abbado's conducting is spot on, as is Matti Salminen's terrifying Commendatore.