Opera Review: The Play is Not the Thing

Opera Lafayette returns to New York with Radamisto.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Married life: Zenobia (Hagar Sharvit) and Radamisto (Caitlin Hulcup) are on the run in Radamisto.
Photo by Louis Forget © 2019 Opera Lafayette.

The world of opera was very different in 1720. That's the first take-away from Radamisto, the Handel opera that made a rare stage appearance on Thursday night at the Kaye Playhouse. The performance was a visit from Opera Lafayette, the intrepid Washington D.C. company that specializes in reviving stage works from the 18th century. This was their first excursion into Handel, and it was generally a success.

Opera Preview: A French Double Bill of Distinction

Opera Lafayette returns to Lincoln Center.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

A scene from the Fall 2013 performance of Les Femmes Vengées.
Photo by Louis Forget © 2013 Opera Lafayette.

This week marks the return of Opera Lafayette to New York. This bold and justly celebrated Washington DC-based ensemble offers intimate operatic performances of excellent quality at Lincoln Center's Rose Theater, the venue that is normally home to Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Opera Review: The Golden Road to Samarkand

Opera Lafayette unearths Félicien David's Lalla Roukh.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Exotic: the dancers of Kalanidhi brought color to the opera Laila-Roukh,
performed Thursday night at Lincoln Center's Rose Theater by Opera Lafayette.
Image © 2013 Kalanidhi Kuchupuru Dance Troupe.

The annual Lincoln Center visits from Washington D.C.'s Opera Lafayette allow New York's opera lovers the chance to hear something exotic. Ryan Brown's company specializes in modestly scaled productions of lost classics. Their latest offering is Félicien David's 1862 opera-comique Lalla-Roukh. Although this work has vanished into obscurity in the last century, it was once among the most popular light operas in 19th century Paris.

To underline the exoticism of the setting, the performance opened with the Kalanidhi dance  troupe performing a brief two-part ballet to taped accompaniment, with jingling ankle-bells in the soft glow of blue lights. When the overture actually started, David's score proved to be a slice of "Indian" exoticism, leavened with humor and authentic French romantic melody. Although David's music fell out of favor with the rise of Wagnerism and the popularity of Massenet, a performance like this shows that a revival of interest is long overdue.

Lalla-Roukh is a perfect example of how imperial Europe saw the far East it had conquered. The story transports the classic boy-meets-girl scenario to the Silk Road, playing fast and loose with locations and history. (In case you're interested, the journey here starts in Kashmir and ends in Samarkand, a major trading point that is still a large city in present-day Uzbekistan.) David's music falls somewhere between Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio and Bizet's Carmen. In other words, this is a lightweight piece that is blessed with some good melodies.

Opera Review: Le Magnifique Lives Up to its Name

Karim Sulayman and Jeffrey Thompson
in the preview performance of La Magnifique.
Photo by Louis Forget © 2011 Opera Lafayette 

On Wednesday night, Washington D.C.'s acclaimed Opera Lafayette company visited the Rose Theater, the off-campus Lincoln Center venue used primarily for jazz. The occasion: the second modern performance of La Magnifique, an important (yet obscure) opera-comique from obscure (yet important) composer André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry.


Based on a story from Bocaccio's Decameron, La Magnifique is the tale of two men's return from being sold into slavery--and the title character's attempt to win the hand of Clémentine away from the dastardly fellows who did the deed. The work has never been performed in North America before this week, which is a shame since Grétry is a "missing link" between the rococo music of Rameau and Lully and the modern, operatic reforms of Gluck and Mozart.

The vocal writing in this work is extraordinary, with melodious arias written in the galant 18th century French style. But the way forward is in Grètry's ensembles, which provide a blueprint for what Mozart was to do in Idomeneo and Le Nozze di Figaro. As the characters assemble and attempt to gain understanding of what has occured, they engage in whizzing vocal pyrotechnics, arpeggiating up and down the scale over the orchestra as the act builds to its climax.

The performance featured an enthusiastic cast, led by the resonant bass Emiliano Gonzales Toro in the title role. As the heroine Clémentine, soprano Elizabeth Calleo displayed a pleasing soprano with an unusual, woody timbre. She sounded best in the ensembles, paired with mezzo Marguerite Krull or the paired villains, played by Jeffrey Thompson and Karim Sulayman. Mr. Sulayman's comic mugging and dance-based performance made Fabio the most memorable character in the opera.

Conductor Ryan Brown led a simple staging, on a bare stage in front of the orchestra. The excellent young cast did the work in modern evening dress. There is no chorus, and there are no recitatives. An English-language narration (by bass Randall Scarlata, who doubled in the role of Horace) explained the plot of the opera as it went along, stopping so the characters can react with arias and ensembles. He was working from a new version of the text, by Nick Olcott.