Opera Ventures Outside the Met
The Metropolitan has so dominated its rivals in the press this season that it is refreshing to report that two of the biggest operatic events of this spring will not be held there.
Rather, the most passionate of all operas will be coming to Avery Fisher Hall for two performances beginning Wednesday, May 2. Dubbed "The Tristan Project," the opera will be presented in a staging by Peter Sellars and accompanied by a three hour and 40 minute video by Bill Viola projected overhead (only the three orchestral introductions are performed to a dark stage).
This production has caused tremendous debate in Los Angeles and Paris, and there are as many opinions about whether the video is an enhancement or a distraction as there are people who have attended these performances. In Paris, a dream pairing of Ben Heppner and Waltraud Meier helped immeasurably. We shall see how relative unknown Alan Woodrow and the highly accomplished Christine Brewer — with Anne Sofie von Otter as Brangäene – fare with Esa-Pekka Salonen leading the superb Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Video also plays an important part in "The Magic Flute" at the Brooklyn Academy of Music beginning April 9. In this production imported from Brussels, South African visual artist William Kentridge combines pastels, charcoal, low-tech movies, and an original erasing and redrawing process to create phantasmagoric projections for this fairy tale. The entire cast and orchestra are transplanted from La Monnaie Opera House and conducted by accomplished harpsichordist, composer and countertenor Piers Maxim. This could be the sleeper of the entire operatic year.
Of course, the Met has much in store as well. On the same night that "Tristan und Isolde" opens, the opera house is to begin its new production of Gluck's "Orfeo ed Euridice," directed and choreographed by modern dance impresario Mark Morris. This promises to be an evening of indescribable emotion, as this premiere was designed for mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, who died last year. Ms. Lieberson was a truly exceptional artist, a paragon of pitch control and natural grace, whose every appearance was eagerly awaited and warmly appreciated. When she began to cancel performances a couple of years ago, this Orfeo seemed so far in the future that there was little sense that it would be affected. After her demise, the Met struggled over a replacement, especially because the role can be sung by at least three different ranges of voice. Although many of us loyal fanatics lobbied for contralto Ewa Podles, the part was placed in the very capable hands of countertenor David Daniels. The poignancy of the evening will be heightened exponentially because the plot centers on the rescue of a maiden from the confines of the afterlife. I dare you to be in that house when James Levine conducts "Dance of the Blessed Spirits" and not cry.
No, it's not opening night, but the Met gala takes place on April 3. It might be easy to make a little fun of this type of fundraising event, except that the two stars, Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón, are just too good to indulge in any pandering. They will perform three sections from three operas, including the Saint Sulpice scene from Massanet's "Manon" in the great Jean-Pierre Ponnelle production and Act II of Donizetti's "The Elixir of Love." The evening begins with Act I of "La Bohčme," and it will be thrilling to hear the couple in this most famous of all love scenes without Placido Domingo in the pit. Bertrand de Billy conducts.
Also at the Met is Puccini's triptych "Il Trittico" with Maria Guleghina and Salvatore Licitra paired for "Il Tabarro" and a revival of Handel's "Giulio Cesare" starring Mr. Daniels. Although it might seem that the New York City Opera is simply marking time until the new boss arrives in 2009, it is offering another installment of its own Handel series, the terribly amusing "Flavio."
There is one promising performance, however, that won't grace the stages of Lincoln Center. Despite my enthusiasm for the dueling opera houses uptown, I'll wager that the downtown Amato Opera's shoestring-budget production of "The Mikado" in April might be more entertaining than the rest of them put together.
