Concert Review: In the Time of Their Singing

Eric Owens curates In Their Footsteps at the Philharmonic.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Eric Owens (left) and Laquita Mitchell sing "Bess, you is my woman now"
at the New York Philharmonic as Thomas Wilkins (right) conducts.
Photo by Chris Lee © 2015 The New York Philharmonic.

Eric Owens has become an unlikely star of this young century, anchoring the grandest operas with his rock-solid bass-baritone and powerful, passionate delivery. This year he is Artist-in-Residence at the New York Philharmonic. As the first of his duties, he assembled In Their Footsteps: Great African American Singers and Their Legacy, a concert celebrating the long history of African-American singing in the United States heard Wednesday night at David Geffen Hall.

Opera Review: A Girl Dies in Brooklyn

City Opera presents La Traviata at BAM.

Violetta (Laquita Mitchell) confronts Germont in Act II of La traviata. 
Photo by Carol Rosegg © 2012 New York City Opera.

The New York City Opera came to the end of a long and rocky year off on Sunday, making a fresh start with La Traviata, presented at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. This is City Opera's first fully staged performance since an April 2011 announcement that the company would leave its longtime home at Lincoln Center.

This production is a nod to the company's past, designed by Jonathan Miller and imported from their former partners upstate at the Glimmerglass Festival in Cooperstown, NY. The staging is a familiar Miller configuration, right-angled walls forming a triangular acting surface, and a corridor in the back to facilitate exits, entrances and any offstage action. The unit set was simple art nouveau, matching the elegant surroundings of BAM's Gilman Opera House. The minimal, elegant rooms allowed focus on the drama without distraction. 

Violetta is one of the most well-known but challenging roles in the soprano repertory. Laquita Mitchell was suited to those challenges, creating a complex, nianced portrait of the doomed courtesan. She flew above the stave in Sempre libera, interjecting doubt into each stanza of the famous aria every time it was interrupted by Alfredo offstage.

Ms. Mitchell was even better in the second act, bringing a quiet dignity to Violetta in her confrontation with the elder Germont. It was good to see this scene played with understated 19th century gravitas, but one could sense the emotions boiling underneath. 

Stephen Powell was a strong presence as Germont, bringing out the complicated facets of this bourgeois gentleman. He even overcame a slight, audible wardrobe malfunction in the second act, getting a fast pants change before delivering a moving "Di provenza il mar." 

Tenor David Pomeroy should be better known to New Yorkers. Often assigned as a cover at the Metropolitan Opera, he is frequently stepped over as that company's general manager signs faded stars in the interest of box office dollars. Today, the Canadian singer had his coming-out party in front of a packed house, delivering an ardent performance with few peccadilloes. 

Mr. Pomeroy has a robust instrument and an enthusiastic stage presence. His Alfred is an innocent fool, made wise through the sacrifices of Violetta and the ultimate compassion of his father. There was real tragic weight in his duets with Ms. Mitchell in the fourth act. No heavy symbolism was needed--just a girl dying on a simple bed as the world moved on outside. 

Stephen White conducted a brisk, energetic performance, doubling as orchestra leader and prompter for the singers onstage. The City Opera orchestra demonstrated their worth to this troubled company, playing Verdi's innovative score with rhythmic snap and panache. The chorus showed their quality in the opera's complex party scenes, which kept the choreographed matadors and bulls to a tolerable minimum.

City Opera Preview: La Traviata

Troubled company relaunches with tubercular trollop.

The grim spectre of death: Act III of La traviata at Glimmerglass.
Photo by Richard Termine © 2009 Glimmerglass Festival.

After a turbulent off-season that saw New York City Opera uproot itself from its Lincoln Center home, the company prepares to make a return with La Traviata. In keeping with the company's new economic policies, there will be just four performances, through Feb. 18.

La Traviata is the last of the "big three" Verdi operas, a tryptich of works that marked the composer's transition to full maturity. It is a searing tragedy: the story of a courtesan wooed by one of her customers--only to have their relationship nixed by his overbearing father and the onset of terminal illness. 

Although this is advertised as a "new production" on the City Opera website, this is really an import. The staging, by Jonathan Miller, first appeared at the Glimmerglass Festival in 2009. This run stars two artists new to City Opera: Brooklyn-born soprano Laquita Mitchell as Violetta and Canadian tenor David Pomeroy as Alfredo. 

Watch a Glimmerglass trailer for the production here:

Recording Recommendations:

As Violetta is one of the most coveted, yet challenging roles in the repertory, there are a lot of "Trav" recordings to choose from. Picking one is largely a matter of individual taste, and may rest with one's opinion of a particular soprano. That said, here's a few good ones:

Coro e Orchestra de La Scala, cond. Antonio Votto (DG, 1963)

Violetta: Renata Scotto

Alfredo: Gianni Raimondi

Germont: Ettore Bastianini

The glories of this 1963 recording are the young Renata Scotto (in prima voce as Violetta) and the rock-solid presence of baritone Ettore Bastianini as the elder Germont. I still recommend it, especially at bargain price.

Bavarian State Opera Orchestra cond. Carlos Kleiber (DG, 1977)

Violetta: Ileana Cotrubas

Alfredo: Plácido Domingo

Germont: Sherrill Milnes

Carlos Kleiber was an extraordinary conducting talent who made very few recordings. This was one of his best, a studio-made, note-complete Traviata with a sensitive heroine in Ileana Cotrubas. The redoubtable team of Sherrill Milnes and Placído Domingo recorded a lot of operas together in the 1970s, but they manage to convince the listener as father and son.

Coro e Orchestra de La Scala cond. Riccardo Muti (Sony, 1992)

Violetta: Tiziana Fabbricini

Alfredo: Roberto Alagna

Germont: Paolo Coni

Expert Verdi conducting and a compelling performance by Roberto Alagna as Alfredo. Tiziana Fabbricini is a very good, involving Violetta who is helped by the live, theatrical recording made in Italy's most famous opera house. Reissued last year.

Vienna Philharmonic cond. Carlo Rizzi (DG, 2005)

Violetta: Anna Netrebko

Alfredo: Rolando Villazón

Germont: Thomas Hampson

I will also put a word in for this entertaining live recording from the Salzburg Festival. Anna Netrebko, captured in great form as Verdi's bird in a gilded cage. Rolando Villazon before he lost his voice. And like the Muti set, this has the immediacy of a live recording.