Concert Review: Symphony of a Thousand Years

Jordi Savall opens La Serenissima at Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The elegant and scholarly Jordi Savall and friend. Image by Molina Visuals.

A millennium is a long time, but not in the hands of Jordi Savall. Mr. Savall took the main stage of Carnegie Hall last Friday night, to lead the opening concert of the three week La Serenissima festival. This is a citywide celebration of the music, culture and rich history of Venice, Italy, curated by Mr. Savall, a musicologist, conductor and master of the viol, an 18th century instrument played between the knees.

Concert Review: The Most Exquisite Claudio

John Eliot Gardiner conducts Monteverdi at Carnegie Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Photo of Sir John Eliot Gardiner © 2014 by James Cheadle Low.
Painting of Claudio Monteverdi by Bernardo Tozzi circa 1640. Photo alteration by the author.

Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir rose to prominence fifty years ago with a concert of Monteverdi's Vespri della Beata Vergine at Cambridge. Last week, conductor and choir celebrated that anniversary at Carnegie Hall with two concerts. These performances, featuring Monteverdi's Vespers on Thursday and the opera L'Orfeo on Friday, were the culmination of Carnegie's month-long Before Bach festival. They mark a half century at the vanguard of the historically informed performance movement.

Opera Review: The Rules of Engagement

The Gotham Chamber Opera offers a twin bill at the Met.
(The other Met.)
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The Arms and Armor Court of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, setting for last week's
performance by the Gotham Chamber Opera.
Photo © 2014 The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Gotham Chamber Opera has a reputation for staging opera in obscure, even impractical locales. From the planetarium dome of the American Museum of Natural History (Il Mondo della Luna) to the cramped burlesque club The Box (last season's Eliogablio), this company has come to embody a new aesthetic of opera, freed from the confines of an opera house or theater. Last week, the company came up with an innovative way to mount two works in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Monteverdi's I combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda and the world premiere performances of I Have No Stories To Tell You, by Gotham's very own composer-in-residence Lembert Beecher.

Opera Review: Slaughter on Tenth Avenue

Opera Omnia presents The Return of Ulysses.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Bad things happened when Ulysses came home in 1178 B.C.
Image from classical antiquity.

The brief silence of New York in early September as the city gears up for the coming opera and concert season was interrupted on Tuesday night, as Wesley Chinn's company Opera Omnia unveiled a new production of Monteverdi's The Return of Ulysses (in an English translation) at the Baryshniknov Arts Center on the W. 37th St.

Mr. Chinn's company does not appear often (this is just the third Opera Omnia production in the last six years) but when it does, they offer a chance to hear some interesting young singers specializing in the repertory of the 17th century. Here, they took Monteverdi's late masterpiece and trimmed it to a lean two and a half hours, omitting much of the opera's sweep, mythic grandeur and humor. The plus: the production retold the story in a concise, clear way that was ideal for the newcomer.

Opera Review: She Just Can't Wait to Be Queen

Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble mounts L'Incoronazione di Poppea
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Passion in the palace: Nerone (Alison Taylor Cheeseman, left) macks on Poppea (Greer Davis) in
Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble's L'Incoronazione di Poppea. 
Photo by Brian Long © 2013 Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble.

The Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble took a major chance with this year's Summer Repertoire Project, pushing into the deep waters of Renaissance opera with its first production of Claudio Monteverdi's 1642 masterpiece L'Incoronazione di Poppea. Although it is the last of Monteverdi's works for the Venetian stage, Poppea is a milestone opera in that it was the first opera to portray actual historical figures on the stage instead of mythological or allegorical figures.

The Superconductor Interview: Victoria Crutchfield

The director brings L'Incoronazione di Poppea to Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Fresco from the Villa de Poppaea at Oplontis in southern Italy.
This house was built for her by the Roman Emperor Nero.

Can an opera from 1642 work in today's culture? That's the question facing director Victoria Crutchfield. Her new production of L'Incoronazione di Poppea ("The Coronation of Poppaea") is part of Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble's 10th anniversary Summer Repertoire Project. Superconductor had time for a few quick words with the director, whose production opens at the E. 13th St. Theater.

Opera Preview: What Goes On in the Capital

Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble's Standard Repertoire Project goes to Rome.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Roman emperors Nero (left) and Titus (right) are the stars of the
summer Standard Repertory Project as Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble
celebrates its tenth anniversary season.

For the past decade, Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble has provided a home for young singers, and its Standard Repertoire Project has gotten those singers opportunities on the stage. For its tenth anniversary season music director Christopher Fecteau has put together a formidable one-two combination of operas: Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito and Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea.

DVD Review: Hell is for Minimalists

Robert Wilson vs. Monteverdi's L'Orfeo.

Doomed, I tell you: Orfeo (Georg Nigl) and Euridice (Roberta Invernizzi) prepare to get hitched.
Image by Mario Brescia © 2011 Teatro della Scala Archives/Opus Arte.

Theatrical styles clash across a 400-year gulf in this Opus Arte DVD of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, shot at La Scala. American director/designer Robert Wilson applies his trademark minimalist style to this opera, the oldest work from the Italian renaissance to remain in the repertory today. But fear not. If you can't stand the visuals, turn off the TV and run your player through the stereo. This is a beautiful performance.

Monteverdi's setting of the Orpheus myth is the oldest work in the repertory--a stark retelling of the story that combined dance, solo singing and skilled choral writing in a way that would prove enduring for the next four centuries. First performed in Mantua at the court of the Duke of Gonzaga in 1607, L'Orfeo proved instantly popular. Conceived as an entertainment for the nobility, it was soon discovered to resonate with the common man, sowing the seed for the entire operatic genre.

L'Orfeo takes place on the fields of Thrace and in the underworld below. Mr. Wilson chose a painting by Titian (well actually, a small bit of the background from Venus and Music) to create a Greek grove that, by his standards, qualifies as an actual set. the second act takes place mostly in the dark.There is not much action, but by the standards set by this director's Wagner productions or his work with Philip Glass, this staging is positively hyperactive.

Opera Review: Lust for Life

Poppaea Sabina, Empress of Rome

L'incoronazione de Poppea at Juilliard.
L'incoronazione de Poppea is Claudio Monteverdi's final opera. He died less than a year after its Venice premiere in 1643. On Thursday night, Juilliard's sexually charged new production showed that the first master of opera laid the groundwork for everything that followed.

Looking for sensuous arias that prefigure bel canto? They're here. Plot twists, assassination attempts, cross-dressing? Poppea has all those things. The first opera to eschew mythology for historical events, Poppea is the story of the Roman Emperor Nero and his attempts to upgrade his marriage. His intent: to replace his loving wife Ottavia with Poppea, ancient Rome's answer to Amy Fisher.

The student cast met the opera's decadence with a lush performance that caressed the ears for three hours. Korean soprano Haeran Hong made the most of Poppea, singing the high-lying music with a clear, sparkling instrument. She was ably matched with Cecilia Hall, in trousers and splendid mezzo voice as Nerone. In this opera, rampant lust leads to gorgeous duets. The Act II love scene where Poppea shaved Nero with a straight razor (while they're singing) explored the twisted depths of their relationship and produced the loveliest melodies of the evening.

Poppea has a complex cast of Roman politicians, mistresses, gigolos, would-be assassins, and even gods. As Ottavia, Naomi O'Connell has a bright, diamond-hard soprano which reflected her tenuous state in Nero's court. Nick Zammit's handsome countertenor suited the hapless Ottone, who gets suckered into the assassination plot. Devon Guthrie sang with warmth and lyric power as Drusilla, whose attempt to take the fall for the cross-dressing Ottone nearly lands her in Nero's torture chamber.

Liam Moran made a fine impression as Seneca, the philosopher and Roman senator who is rewarded for his hard work tutoring Nero with a death sentence. This might be the first serious role for a bass in the operatic repertory, and Mr. Moran hit some splendid low notes in his death scene. At the other end of the spectrum, tenor Daniel Curran nearly stole the evening as Poppea's female attendant Arnalta. He sang the role in full drag (a la Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie) and provided much-needed comic relief amidst all the backstabbing.

This production has opted for Roman columns, cafe tables and modern dress for its leads. The gods leap on and offstage, interfering with the already complex lives of the mortals. The modern dress makes the drama seem more relevant, and allows the cast to make the most of the gender-bending nature of casting Monteverdi in an age where there are no longer castrati.

Harry Bickett led the Juilliard415 Musicians. Conducting from the harpsichord, he lead a crisp, tight performance that made this opera's long running time fly by for the listener as the plot unfolded. This is one of the essential period-music performances of the fall season, and a chance to see one of the most brilliant, original operas ever written. Monteverdi was a genius. And with Poppea, he set the bar for everything that followed.