Conducting Up a Storm

The June Philharmonic Preview
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Cartoon by Ward, reproduced from the Stockhausen Cartoon Archive. © the artist.

The Metropolitan Opera has shifted into ballet hosting/fund-raising mode. Carnegie Hall is hosting graduation ceremonies. So the eyes and ears of New York's classical music cognoscenti turn to Avery Fisher Hall, the longtime home of the New York Philharmonic.

During Alan Gilbert's term as music director, June has become an exciting time for experimentation for New York's oldest orchestra. The ensemble offers an exciting slate of concerts, from the traditional (lots of Mozart) to the experimental (the season-ending Philharmonic 360 concerts, held in the Drill Hall of the Park Avenue Armory.

Here's what's scheduled:

On June 1 and 2, the Philharmonic offers the last two performances of Carl Orff's massive Carmina Burana under the baton of Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos. A stellar cast of singers (including tenor Nicholas Phan) is scheduled.

DVD Review: Queen Takes Knight

Nina Stemme in the Glyndebourne Tristan und Isolde.
by Paul Pelkonen

First-date jitters: Isolde (Nina Stemme) confronts Tristan (Robert Gambill) at Glyndebourne.
Photo © 2007 Glydebourne Festival/Opus Arte.

In the last decade, soprano Nina Stemme has transited from singing Mozart to heavier German repertory. This three-DVD set, released in 2008 by OpusArte captures Ms. Stemme as Isolde in the Glyndebourne Festival's first-ever staging of a Wagner opera. Jiří Bělohlávek conducts the London Philharmonic in a sweeping, slow reading of the score that draws out much of Wagner's musical detail.

The Irish princess is one of the most complicated roles in opera, traveling from rage to redemption and stopping along the way to fall in love with Tristan, the Cornish knight assigned to bring her to his feudal lord, King Marke. Ms. Stemme sings the two Act I narratives with power and detail, injecting vivid meaning into each word as she tells Brangäne of Tristan's betrayal.

In this Spartan setting by Nikolaus Lehnoff, those details are necessary for the viewer to understand what's going on. Set designer Roland Aeschlimann creates an abstract space, a large torus that looks like the "Guardian of Forever" on the original Star Trek. All the characters move through this torus which is carefully lit to reflect contrasting moods. The only ill effect of this "mystic donut" is that it muffles the chorus and offstage horns.

Recordings Review: Polishing the Apple

Antonio Pappano's EMI William Tell. 
by Paul Pelkonen

Conductor Antonio Pappano in an apple endorsement. Image © 2011 EMI Classics.

Guillaume Tell is Rossini's last opera. Written in 1829, it is a sweeping, sophisticated work with a killer role for the tenor, a baritone part that doesn't get an aria, and a stirring overture that is the only part of the work that remains in the standard performing repertory.

Since this opera is rarely performed, the arrival of a new recording of Tell--let alone a live one is cause for surprise. Even better, this three-disc issue from EMI (released in 2011) was made at six concerts in Rome by Antonio Pappano, an experienced conductor in 19th century repertory. Mr. Pappano, working here with the Orchestra and Chorus of the National Academy of St. Cecilia, (which he has led for the past five years) presents an invigorating account that may do much to restore the reputation of this opera as a vast, sweeping work that, despite dramatic flaws, contains some of Rossini's finest music in its four acts. 

Memories of the Gelb Administration

The Five Best (and Five Worst) Opera Productions at the Met, 2006-2012.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Aithra (Diana Damrau, L.) and Helena (Deborah Voigt, R.) extoll the virtues of the 
Omniscient Mussel (Jill Groves, standing, obscured) in Act I of Strauss' Die Ägyptische Helena. 
Photo by Ken Howard © 2007 The Metropolitan Opera.

Since beginning his tenure as general manager of the Met in 2006, Peter Gelb has been a fierce advocate for new productions. The current administration has ushered in seven new shows each season. If you do the math (and it's not hard) 42 new stagings have taken the boards.

This ambitious program has been advanced through cooperation with other opera houses, including the English National Opera, the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden and the Opera Lyon. Mr. Gelb has followed the old Broadway practice of "road testing" shows in international theaters before bringing them to New York.

Following the recent "kerfuffle" (parterre.box's term) over the Met's attempts at censoring bloggers and opera magazines it seems that the time is right to do a "greatest hits" of the last six years at the Met. Chronological order--click the links for the whole reviews.