Opera Review: Halfway to Hades

Gotham Chamber Opera presents La descente d’Orphée aux enfers.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The ensemble in Gotham Chamber Opera's La descente de Orphée aux Enfers.
Photo by Richard Termine © 2014 Gotham Chamber Opera.

Is half a great opera better than none?

That's the question currently being asked by Gotham Chamber Opera with the first New York performances of Marc-Antoine Charpentier's unfinished La descente de Orphée aux Enfers, an opera which the composer left as a two-act torso in 1687. On New Year's Day, the company unveiled its production of the opera, allowing New York opera lovers to start the year by journeying three centuries back into the past. The opera production is part of Trinity Church's third annual Twelfth Night Festival.

Opera Review: As the Walls Close In, a King is Made

Les Arts Florissants bring David et Jonathas to BAM.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

Jonathan (Ana Quintans, left) and David (Pascal Charbonneau)
greet the Israelites in a scene from David et Jonathas. 
Photo by Julieta Cervantes © 2013 BAM/Les Arts Florissants.

In 1979, the period performance group Les Arts Florissants took their name from an opera by French baroque composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier. This week at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the ensemble, under the baton of its founder William Christie, presented another Charpentier gem, the biblical drama David et Jonathas. Written in 1688 and designed to be played in alternating acts with Saul (a play written by a French Jesuit) this is an example of tragedie-biblique, where a sacred story is treated in the style of early French opera.