The Changing Face of Evil

Offenbach, Stephen King and the Man in Black.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Randall Flagg? Walter O'Dim? Richard Fannin? He's the villain of Stephen King's The Dark Tower.
Art by Jae Lee © Marvel Comics. Character © 1978 Stephen King.

Jacques Offenbach saved his very best work for last. His final opera Les contes d'Hoffmann (playing at the Metropolitan Opera this week) was left incomplete at his death, but quickly entered the repertory in various completed versions. Offenbach based the opera on three stories by the author/poet/composer E.T.A. Hoffmann, working from a libretto that placed the poet himself as the hapless protagonist in his own stories. Standing in his way: four leading ladies (often played by two sopranos and a mezzo) and four villains, all of whom are designed to be played by the same bass-baritone.

A Clown Shows in Brooklyn

Pagliacci postponed: gang of plucky kids may be responsible.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Pennywise the Dancing Clown (Actor Bill Skaarsgaard) visits LoftOpera.
Pennywise image © 2017 Lions Gate Studios. LoftOpera image © LoftOpera.
Photoshop by the clown that writes this blog.

Opera lovers may notice a gaping hole in the schedule this week. LoftOpera, that plucky and innovative company that mounts wonderful operas on the cheap has been forced to postpone   its planned production of Pagliacci, the bloody Leoncavallo verismo drama about a clown who goes berserk and murders his wife.

Entry of the Xenomorphs into Valhalla

Wagner and Ridley Scott's Alien: Covenant
by Paul J. Pelkonen
"One wrong note eventually ruins the entire symphony."--Walter, Alien: Covenant

Piano android: Michael Fässbender in Alien: Covenant.
Photo © 2017 20th Century Fox.

The search for the meaning of mankind's existence may have inspired the creation of that greatest of operatic works, Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. It also is a central thread of Alien: Covenant, the new film in the Alien franchise that serves as a sequel to the 2012 Prometheus and as a lead-in to the original 1979 horror classic Alien. Unexpectedly, it starts with...Wagner.

Opera Review: The Pit and the Piano

On Site Opera and the Crypt Sessions unearth The Tell-Tale Heart.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Hanging on a heartbeat: Elizabeth Pojanowski performs The Tell-Tale Heart 
by Gregg Kallor (center) with cellist Joshua Roman. Photo by Andrew Ousley.

There's nothing scarier than Edgar Allen Poe.

The writer and poet, who grew up in the Bronx and called New York home for much of his life is responsible for setting the template for the modern horror story, for inventing the detective tale, and for using simple words to give nightmares to millions of readers, this writer included. You can keep your tentacles, your chest-bursting aliens, your psychopaths wielding baseball bats bound with barbed wire: Poe's stories cut right to the heart of what terrifies us, our own inner demons and darkest moments laid bare for all to see.

Opera Review: Out Comes the Evil

New York City Opera presents The Turn of the Screw.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Benjamin P. Wenzelberg (seated), Sara Jakubiak (standing) and the cast of Star Wars
in Benjamin Britten's The Turn of the Screw at New York City Opera.
Photo by Richard Termine © 2013 New York City Opera.

On Tuesday night, the New York City Opera took a further step towards reclaiming its identity with this new production (the second of four new shows this year) of Benjamin Britten's The Turn of the Screw. City Opera has historically been a haven for important works of the 20th century that are too intimate for the cavernous stage at the Met. Screw, a chamber opera based on a famous ghost story by Henry James, meets all of those requirements.

The Roots of Horror

Richard Strauss and the 20th Century.
"A viper in my bosom." That is how Kaiser Wilhelm II described Richard Strauss, following the 1905 premiere of the shocking, bloody opera Salome. In 1909, he offended the ears of English monarch George V with the slashing score of Elektra. Upon hearing a 'selection of themes' played by the Buckingham Palace band, the King sent out his major-domo with instructions that the music was "never to be repeated."

Fraught with tension, atonality, brilliant orchestral effects and bloody climaxes, Salome and her sister Elektra are the most notorious among Strauss's 15 operas. These two one-act dramas each laid the musical framework for much of the 20th century, particularly the horror-movie scores of Hollywood composers like Bernard Herrmann (Psycho), John Williams (Jaws) and Wendy Carlos (The Shining).

Strauss used atonal harmonies, minor-key chords and dark, menacing figures in the woodwinds to create an atmosphere of depravity, decay and dread. Salome is all orchestral color and faux-Oriental shimmer, until Jokaanan (John the Baptist) gets decapitated. His head is then served to the title character as a reward for the Dance of the Seven Veils.

Elektra is built from heavy, monolithic chords with slithering strings and winds that preface the matricidal revenge of Elektra's axe-wieding brother Orestes. Composers in Hollywood took inspiration from Strauss, culminating in Bernard Hermann's use of shrieking violins in Psycho as Janet Leigh is murdered. The idea was borrowed from Salome, where scraped double basses evoke the sawing noises as the prophet Jokaanan (literally) loses his head.

Two excellent recordings made by Birgit Nilsson, Georg Solti and the Vienna Philharmonic provide the best opportunity to hear these "shock operas" in all their glory. Each set was recently remastered and reissued as part of Decca's mid-priced The Originals series, and they sound (nearly) as good as the original vinyl. Nilsson is the ideal singer for both operas.

In Salome it is no insult to say that she is surrounded by an appropriate freak-show cast, featuring the twisted Herod of Gerhard Stolze. The Elektra features a demented performance by Regina Resnik as the heroine's mother, Klytaemnestra.

Both were recorded using the much-ballyhooed "Sonicstage" stereo technique developed by John Culshaw for the famous Decca recording of Wagner's Ring Cycle. They are must-haves for Strauss aficionadoes and horror fans alike.

Georg Solti and producer John Culshaw. Photo © Decca.