A Taste of City Opera's Season
High priced galas and opera opening nights go hand in glove, but for the last three years, the New York City Opera has turned its back on conventional economic wisdom by inaugurating its fall season with Opera-for-All, a mini-festival for which ticket prices are not jacked up but rather slashed to $25 a ticket. The company maintains that by cutting the price of tickets, it attracts new audiences to opera. Maybe so, but the regular operagoer also gets to enjoy an all-too-rare bargain. In these times of transition for the company, it is good to see it reaffirming its historical mission, set by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia upon its founding in the 1940s, as the people's opera.
The first Opera-for-All concert previewed the forthcoming fall and spring seasons. Five new productions will hit the stage of the New York State Theater, though one of the more unusual of them — Purcell's "King Arthur," which doesn't make its premiere until the spring — was not represented at the concert Thursday night, conducted and hosted by the City Opera's music director, George Manahan. But a lively gospel chorus, with solo contributions by Tracie Luck, Lisa Daltirus, and Gregg Baker, served notice of the musical eclecticism of Richard Danielpour's "Margaret Garner," an opera about a fugitive slave with a libretto by Toni Morrison that made a strong impression at its world premiere in Detroit two years ago; it receives its New York premiere tomorrow night. Brandon Jovanovich and Carl Tanner offered stirring glimpses of the virile music for tenors that keeps those familiar twins, "Cavalleria Rusticana" and "Pagliacci," sizzling. A duet by Ariana Chris and Eric Margiore supplied a taste of the glitzy charm of Massenet's Cinderella opera, "Cendrillon," and an aria by Jennifer Tiller from Samuel Barber's "Vanessa" reminded of why this 50-year-old score continues to fascinate operagoers.
Fragments of the seven operas returning from prior productions were also heard.
The other two Opera-for-All events brought performances of two popular operas. Friday evening saw James Robinson's 2001 productionof"LaBohème,"which can be warmly recommended, as long as one likes Puccini. The intellectually rigorous future music director of NYCO, Gérard Mortier, who will begin work in 2009, has made known his misgivings about the master from Lucca, and the composer does look a bit overrepresented with three of his operasinthecurrentrepertoire. This "Bohème," however, does not argue for a cutback. Neatly updated to the time of World War I, it makes the point that Mimì's is not the only young life imperiled. David Grabarkewitz's sets are compelling, too, especially the transformation of the garret apartment and the life-size locomotive in Act III; the function of the latter is not clear, but it certainly looks impressive.
The staging's cogent direction is ideal for showcasing young talent. Inna Dukach's rich, slightly darkish soprano proved an excellent match for Mimì's music, even if it does lose a little of its bloom on top, and she invested the girl with a welcome dose of personality. Elizabeth Caballero contributed an assertive, firmly voiced Musetta. Brian Mulligan's warm, substantial baritone made for a first-rate Marcello. I couldn't get my mind off Pavarotti (who died earlier in the day) whenever Dinyar Vania sang, which did not work to the latter's advantage, but Mr. Vania's Rodolfo was quite satisfactory — a little tight sounding on top but fluently delivered in a respectably Italianate manner. Raymond Ayers and Young Bok Kim made solid company debuts as Schaunard and Colline. Ari Pelto's dynamic conducting brought some fresh ideas to the venerable score.
Of course, the main question about Mr. Mortier, a known provocateur, centers on the extent to which he will bring Europeanstyle Regietheater (director's theater) to the City Opera. Some of his Salzburg productions were infuriating, but one longed for a little controversy to liven up Hal Prince's surprisingly bland 1989 production of "Don Giovanni," which returned to the stage on Saturday night. Perhaps one point in its favor is that it goes against the grain of modern productions by stressing the opera's comic dimensions rather than portraying Giovanni as some kind of sadist. But it is inexcusable that the production, revived by Albert Sherman, discloses so little about Mozart's fascinating characters. And the garden setting of Rolf Langenfass's designs, inspired by the cemetery scene, works awkwardly for much of the opera. Phasing out this kind of theatrically ho-hum evening will surely be at the top of Mr. Mortier's list.
Musically, the performance had its rewards. Aaron St. Clair Nicholson, in his company debut, brought a flexible baritone and stylish manner to the title role, even if his Giovanni lacked the ultimate in charisma. He was well partnered by the lively Leporello of Daniel Mobbs, who gave an arresting account of the catalog aria. In her debut, Mardi Byers was a rather cool presence as Donna Anna and the voice sounded a little wiry, but there were some nice details in her singing. Julianna Di Giacomo won cheers from the audience for her aggressive, powerfully sung Donna Elvira, but I found it a little over the top. A greater sense of nuance would have deepened the portrayal.
My favorite of the women was another debutante, Ji Young Lee, whose lustrous, resonant soprano glowed in the music of the peasant girl Zerlina. Matthew Burns kept up with her with a robust Masetto, and Bruce Sledge offered a vocally polished Don Ottavio that showed good breath control in the aria "Il mio tesoro." Daniel Borowski's weighty bass served imposingly for the Commendatore. Conducting the familiar composite of Mozart's Prague and Vienna versions of the score, David Wroe imparted a sense of drama to the opera that was too often missing from the staging.
