Opera Cabaret: A Caribbean Così

Così fan tutte

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Opera Coopertive 

February 28, 2015 - Park Avenue United Methodist Church

Opera Collective takes Wolfie to the Caribbean

Our second independent opera of the weekend, Opera Cooperative’s Così fan tutte provided an enlightening counterpoint to our experience with New York Opera Exchange’s musically thrilling but theatrically insipid production of Lucia di Lammermoor. Opera Cooperative is the latest addition to New York’s already thriving independent opera scene and this was their maiden production. Director Annie Shikany and music director George Stelluto gave us a production of this Mozart-Da Ponte comic masterpiece that was fresh and had vision. And it’s not that they needed massive funding or elaborate sets or even a stage to do so, which just goes to show that vision can articulate itself in many ways. At every step there were striking little touches that helped to flesh out the characters, further the plot and enliven each scene.

A little imagination can go a long way

The production notes tell us that the opera is set in a Caribbean resort, present day. The sets were simple yet effective in suggesting a hotel suite on one end of the “stage” and a bar on the other, the costumes were summer vacation chic, and the two couples were definitely modern day youngsters glued to their iPhones and taking selfies. The English supertitles also got a present day facelift, peppered with lines like “OMG!,” “Baby, promise to text me twice a day,” and “Despina, you arrogant slut.” Purists may cringe but I have to say that these free translations really conveyed the carefree spirit of adolescents discovering the pains of love, which at the end of the day is the very core of this opera. Taking the characters out of powdered wigs and corsets and making the supertitles funkier made the opera more approachable to non-Italian speakers unfamiliar with Così, all while displaying the utmost respect for the original score, the fierce beauty of its arias and duets, the theatrical narrative and the pronunciation of the original Italian (both sung and recitatif). All it took were some modern clothes, a couple of iPhones and a vision. 

Robert Balonek

The singers were all game and mostly did a great job in acting with great comic timing and a good dose of slapstick, especially baritone Robert Balonek, in the role of Guglielmo, whom he played as the consummate dude and rightly so. Balonek has all the comic control of his body language and facial expressions of a good comic actor. His low, virile voice provided a deeper, more visceral counterpoint to tenor Chad Cygan, in the role of Ferrando, than you usually find in this duo. Cygan has an instrument that is strongest in the middle of his range and was at his best in the ensemble bits, blending nicely with the rest of the cast’s voices. I laughed out loud several times but also found myself perched at the edge of my seat during the most tender and passionate arias. George Bernard Shaw once said that the greatness of Mozart is found in conveying the most profound things while remaining flippant and lively. This unique duality definitely came across in Opera Cooperative’s production.

Chad Cygan

Their presentation of this beloved opera was full of observant details. The way Shikany handled the breakdown during the rather touchy Act II finale was honest and real: the lovers neither reconcile, nor form new couples, but rather seem very skeptical of the whole affair and freeze mid-air each one by him or herself. How can there be anything but hard feelings and resentment after everything the cynical old fogey has put them through in testing the loyalty of their lovers along with their own resilience. Guglielmo’s utter disappointment is felt as is Ferrando’s acceptance of the folly of the whole situation, who is last seen clinking beer bottles with Fiordiligi. Shikany takes her characters from the adolescent phase of text message jargon and all the frivolity of youth to the more jaded phase of what it is to love like an adult, and she doesn’t spare them any of the concomitant growth pains along the way. Così seems frivolous and light at first blush but beneath the surface is a whole world of hurt and disillusionment. It demands deeper treatment than it often gets when your average production tries to reconstitute the original couples with no questions asked. Thank you, Annie Shikany.

Mustacchi, trionfi, pennacchi d'amor

Allyson Herman

In terms of the singers, the female leads really stole the show tonight. Allyson Herman and Eva Parr sang off each other beautifully as Fiordiligi and Dorabella. Herman’s Fiordiligi was the airy breeze (il vento) to the cresting waves (le onde) of Parr’s Dorabella in their rendition of Soave sia il vento in Act I. It sent tingles through my body with its melancholic, yet phony farewell to their two true loves. Rarely do you get such a pronounced difference between the two roles. Parr’s chesty mezzo voice beautifully served to ground Herman’s soaring soprano that was always intrepid and sure. Herman effortlessly floated her higher registers out in front of the pack seizing a leadership role in her contribution to all of the many ensemble pieces. Her Fiordiligi carried the cast without a doubt from start to finish. I usually like my Come scoglio to show a bit more sass, stronger conviction, more teeth, more bite, but Herman nevertheless managed to own it, if not with her sass, then with the forcefulness of her technical ability and winning stage presence. 

Eva Parr

The duets between the tormented sisters are one of the strongest focal points of this opera and Herman and Parr inhabited them beautifully. They sang like a unit whether across the stage from each other or holding hands like life support to one another in their futile quest to remain constant and true. I couldn’t take my eyes off them, they were so much fun to watch and listen to as they flitted around snapping selfies and flipping through photos of their respected beloveds on their smart phones.

I was very fond of Robert Mellon's incarnation of the scheming Don Alfonso, though at times it seemed like he was straining his voice a bit. The brutality of his bass-baritone that reverberated forcefully in this little space on the third floor of the church on East 86th Street lent his Don Alfonso an air of the embittered older man who has a bone to pick not only with the opposite sex but also with the young and naive. He’s out to teach everybody a lesson, if not to simply bring everybody around him down into his level. He has suffered heartbreak, potentially, and so others should too. Mellon’s performance did not necessarily imbue his character with much of a backstory per se, but rather he embodied Don Alfonso’s foibles with a masculine wrath and rage, almost like an Old Testament God pulling the strings of his latest human subjects. Mellon's Don Alfonso was the charismatic glue of the evening. Anytime he was on stage, he keep the pace of the story humming right along, never compromising the fun even of the recitatives even once, with his fully articulated Italian pronunciation. He was like an old pro up there.

Robert Mellon

Though I like to see even Despina give a couple of her aria-lectures to the girls with an even more developed sense of the fact that she (a bit like Don Alfonso) is speaking from a position of experience, experience that may not always have been positive, Kathryn Papa’s interpretation of the girls’ mischievous maid was playful, flippant and knowing all at the same time. Papa’s singing equally embodied all of these qualities with an effortless panache and her Italian was always clear and correct. Aside from knowing this opera almost by heart, I virtually never found myself needing to even glance at the supertitles while Despina sang. She was that immediate and engaging.

Kathryn Papa

The set up of the audience had a more relaxed vibe, with a mix of traditional rows of seats and “cabaret-like” tables at the edge of the stage area, equipped with bottles of wine and flower vases. Next time Opera Cooperative may want to consider transforming more of the seating into cabaret tables, judging by the evening we attended, the “cabaret” tickets were far more popular than the traditional seats, so much so that we did not get our reserved table (but we could sip our wine from the front of the house anyway so no complaints there). The whole affair would turn into a modern day chamber musical salon, in a very good way.

A promising debut for this opera company founded in September 2014 that showed it has the right ideas to prove wrong the haters who say opera is dying and stuffy – we greatly anticipate their next outing with Elisir d’Amore this summer.

– Lui & Lei

In soldati, sperare fedeltà?!?!

A Mad Bride, Her Lover and an Evil Brother

Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor

New York Opera Exchange

February 27, 2015 - Church of the Covenant

Photo credit: NY Opera Exchange

Lei: Lucia and Edgardo are in love, but her evil brother Enrico won’t have it as Edgardo is an enemy of his estate and, most importantly, he needs his sister to marry a rich nobleman to restore the family’s finances. Evil brother and his chaplain sidekick do some letter forging and trick Lucia into believing that Edgardo betrayed her love with another woman. Lucia is very upset and ends up giving into her brother’s pressure to marry the rich nobleman. Marriage contracts are signed but, when it comes to the newlyweds’ first night, the bride goes mad, murders her groom and dies shortly thereafter in full dementia swing with visions of a happy life with her true love Edgardo. When the latter hears the sad news, he cannot stand life without Lucia and kills himself. Curtain.

Lui: Based on Sir Walter Scott’s sprawling novel, The Bride of Lammermoor, this Donizetti opera packs a lot of quintessential operatic drama into a tight little package, with a complex score laden with beautiful bel canto. Amazing singers always make a difference, but even more so in an opera like Lucia, which cannot really be done successfully with just mediocre singers. This is after all an opera that has for years served as a vehicle for gifted singers, sopranos, in particular, though the tenor role is also showcased.

Sarah Beckham-Turner

Lei: NY Opera Exchange’s cast not only did not have a single weak link (if only we could say this about every performance at the Met), but also featured some truly extraordinary singers. Lucia’s mad scene was a great display of virtuosity and was also very moving. Soprano Sarah Beckham-Turner made a couple of pauses in her a cappella moments with the flute as her only accompaniment that truly left me holding my breath. Her bursts of tenderness, despair and joy in Lucia’s rollercoaster of mood swings through a series of unhinged, staccato scales as she descends into insanity had me shed copious tears, making me connect and empathize with this character like never before. Before she got to the mad scene I thought this soprano was technically skilled and very powerful (with high notes a bit out of control at times) but not a particularly moving heroine. I changed my mind after hearing Beckham-Turner in the mad scene, that made me rethink entirely how this scene can work and how one can deeply and viscerally relate to it.

Alternate cast NYOE promotional material
Photo credit: Jiyang Chen

Joseph Michael Brent

Tenor Joseph Michael Brent made me weep too, his sound is beautiful, round and tender but also agile and powerful. Brent is truly a romantic hero, with a handsome stage presence and an expressiveness to match. He also worked great in his duets with both Lucia (Ah! Verranno a te sull’aure) and Enrico (O sole più rapido a sorger t’appresta). In his arias in the finale, Brent was heart breaking, particularly in Fra poco a me ricovero, when Egardo still thinks that Lucia betrayed him. He may have rushed a touch too much in Tu che a Dio spiegasti l’ali, but otherwise proved himself as a swooningly excellent tenor.

Alternate cast NYOE promotional material 
Photo credit: Jiyang Chen

Lui: Brent's Tu che a Dio spiegasti l'ali might have come out a bit rushed, but I nevertheless felt that the tempo gave the ending an appropriate sense of urgency. It is certainly one way to take Edgardo's final spellbinding suicide aria, though it may not the most contemplative interpretation. I found it emotionally raw and true to the character in the throes of his big exit from this world. Though I admit I have a weak spot for the plaintive repetition of "bell'alma innamorata" with which the opera ends. I found Brent very confident with his diction. His Italian was very good as was the sound of his voice, which is on the middle to higher end of the tenor spectrum but still remains very manly. He owned his every move in his delivery of this most moving of finales.

John Viscardi

Lei: Baritone John Viscardi as Enrico was by far my favorite singer on stage. True, I have a thing for mellifluous baritones playing evil characters, but Viscardi was next level. Smooth, musical, deep and dark, even snarling at times. His opening aria Crudel funesta smania and the Act III duet with Edgardo were the best moments of the evening. His singing is vigorous, fluid and agile. Viscardi’s acting was spot on too, with an intense and commanding stage presence.  Truly a pleasure to hear and see, this is a young artist to closely follow.

Alternate cast NYOE promotional material 
Photo credit: Jiyang Chen

Lui: Viscardi was out of this world. For such a young singer he really packed a punch. There were moments, like in his opening numbers in Act II, where I even felt like he was channeling his inner Peter Mattei. His voice was really so smooth when he sang: Appressati, Lucia. It was like he too was seducing his sister to his will. You could really feel that he was savoring the sensory sound of the words in his mouth, their flavor and musicality, and this to me is the sign of a really good singer. Someone who is able to open up a space to savor the music of the language in ways that are expressive while at the same manage to stop time. Viscardi did this a couple of times for me. In fact, both of the male leads really did that for me tonight.

Lei: Bass-baritone Antoine Hodge as the scheming chaplain was also solid, his Cedi Cedi very musical, and his recount of Lucia’s madness moving. Mezzo Chelsea Laggan had a minor role as Lucia’s confidante Alisa but sang it accurately and expressively. We discovered her in Die Fledermaus where she played the more comic role of Prince Orlofsky and it was a pleasure to see that she can as easily and effectively portray a tragic Donizetti bel canto character.

Chelsea Laggan
Photo credit: Jiyang Chen

Sets were virtually non-existent, boiling down to a black box of a stage framed by the curtain. The whole thing cried for something more to engage the eye. Some drapes in the background, a chandelier, some branches, some rocks, something. While this simplicity made scene changes as quick as it took to close the curtain and bring in or out a desk and a chair, I think that the overall experience could have benefitted from some more stage props. True, simplicity can help focus on the singing but I do stand by the fact that a staged opera is a full package that needs staging and here sets were just not there and direction was extremely basic.

Lui: If nothing else some attention to setting more the scenes could have contributed to the storytelling aspect of the performance, which needed just a little livening up. Though it really is about the music and what a pleasant surprise it was that the music was delivered so impressively by this cast. It is clear that the company is limited by the minuscule size of the stage. In scenes when the chorus is out there too, there really isn't much space for anything else. Solid singing that is bolstered by solid acting is enough for me to elevate a show like this from the level of a mere recital to that of a staged production. And these young singers had some pretty solid acting chops when it came to that.

Alden Gatt

Lei: While the 43 piece orchestra led by Alden Gatt did justice to Donizetti’s score and kept tempos brisk, the space’s acoustics were a bit unfortunate for an orchestra this size. The music was often too powerful for the space and singers were forced to go in full cry, other times the volume of orchestra and singers were off, not fully working together. With all the unused theaters around NYC, why on earth a company with this level of artistry cannot perform in a venue with better acoustics is beyond me.

Lui: I was actually glad to hear the orchestra playing all out. I felt like it gave the singers a chance to really go big. And all of the principals were strong enough to sing out over the orchestra. Rarely were they ever drowned out by the orchestra, which was remarkable. It is not a bad makeshift space for an evening of opera. Something more comfortable with a better balance between orchestra and singers, stage and audience could work better. Not only does the orchestra take up a third of the house but as it is the conductor becomes a bit of an obstacle for viewing the action on the stage from time to time. I would love to see the NY Opera Exchange find a place where they can spread their creative wings a bit more. They have incredibly well developed marketing and branding, their promotional photos have dramatic vision, and their website is first class, with character studies and informational materials to lure even the more reluctant contemporary opera virgin to the medium. They deserve a stage where they can realize a similar level of production values for their shows, a space capable of more nuanced lighting perhaps or one that opens up possibilities for staging a spectacle that matches their solid musical talent.

- Lei & Lui

Crazy for the Lady of the Lake

Rossini's La Donna del Lago

Met premiere - February 16, 2015

Elena, the beautiful lady of the lake
Photo credit: Ken Howard / Met 

I am always excited when underperformed bel canto gems are brought to the spotlight, even more so if through a new Met production with a stellar cast. We got to the Met ready to be swept away by bel canto fireworks and to discover an unknown opera seria. Based on Sir Walter Scott’s 1810 poem The Lady of the Lake, Rossini’s La Donna del Lago premiered in 1819 and is truly epic in tone. One can really feel proto-Verdian touches lurking here and there, especially in its massive choruses and its patria oppressa (oppressed fatherland) themes.

Rossinian tenor fight!
Photo credit: Ken Howard / Met 

While this all sounds wonderful, the plot turned out to be rather weak, with the main tensions coming from Elena being the love interest of three different men, one (Malcolm) she loves back, one (Rodrigo) is a rebel army leader her father wants her to marry, and one (Giacomo) is the King and enemy of her clan of Scots (but when we meet him he’s lost in the woods and disguised as the hunter Uberto). There is some vague theme of duty versus love but otherwise no particularly stirring passion, other than that of the three men all crazy about Elena, who remains rather distant. The best dramatic moments are when the King and Rodrigo fight over Elena and when Malcolm is suicidal because he thinks he’s losing her.

The inexplicably merciful King
Photo credit: Ken Howard / Met  

The whole nationalistic theme of in-fighting among the Scottish clans is not very fleshed out and merely serves as a framing device for the love quadrangle to develop. Most irritatingly, the finale and role of king Giacomo are not very plausible: if he’s so in love with beautiful Elena and keeps popping up in a hunter’s disguise to try to kiss her and sing her nice stuff and even kills his rival Rodrigo, why on earth in the end does he act like a deus ex machina who suddenly seems to have had a change of heart and only wants to solve everyone’s problems by pardoning all and marrying Elena off to Malcolm on the spot? What’s the deal, is Malcolm any better than Rodrigo from the King’s perspective? They’re both scot warriors leading armies against the King and in love with Elena, all the reason to crash them both. Go figure. The change of heart of the King, which ultimately sets the tone for the finale and thus for the whole opera, is not justified in any way by the libretto except for the chorus blurting “Oh re clemente” (Oh merciful king), which after all his romantic frenzy and womanizing pursuit of Elena throughout the opera really does not make much sense. The theme of unconditional compromise and mercy is clear but forced and feels rushed.

Rodrigo's Scot clan ready for battle
Photo credit: Ken Howard / Met 

Plot issues aside, what is particularly surprising is just how formulaic this opera seems. Because three different love interests have to be set up, Act I basically serves purely as exposition and, as a result, I found it pretty slow and even a bit dragging. The dramatic musical action only really gets going in the beginning of Act II when King James, disguised as Uberto, and his rival Rodrigo go head to head in a battle of the tenors, which is one of the first times that things get interesting musically. A weird Rossini passage, if you ask me. Musically it was exciting and more complex and multi-layered (particularly under Michele Mariotti's baton) than the more buffa works he’s more known for and there are some pretty pleasant bel canto moments, however, the opera did not feel as potent, tight and incisive as others by Rossini. Also, I found the libretto by Andrea Leone Tottola to be too stiff and formulaic, without the poetry or language depth that one finds in Rossini’s lighter fare.  

Uberto (aka King Giacomo) declares his love
Photo credit: Ken Howard / Met 

The cast was very strong across the board but, surprisingly, the second tier roles as Malcolm (sung by mezzo Daniela Barcellona) and Rodrigo (by tenor John Osborn) delivered the best performances. Joyce DiDonato and Juan Diego Florez as Elena and the King were quite good but not as sensational as they can be. It felt like they were holding back a bit and not riding their roles with the extraordinary bravura, energy and confidence I’ve seen them display in the past. A couple of exceptions: Joyce killed it in her last aria Tanti affetti, that really felt like the final aria in Cenerentola both musically and content-wise; Juan Diego only brought out his A-game when battling with tenor John Osborn (Rodrigo) in the beginning of Act II. It felt like the challenge of going head to head with a similar singer propelled him to push harder. Barcellona and Osborn were more impressive, fluid and effortless, owning the Met space and attacking their roles with gusto and depth. Barcellona, in particular, delivered one of the most moving moments of the evening with her interpretation of Stelle spietate.

 

Elena and battle preps
Photo credit: Ken Howard / Met 

Paul Curran’s production is essential and on the empty/sad side of things, not distracting but not terribly engaging either. Most of the opera is set on a rocky platform that serves as backdrop for Elena’s little cabin as well as for all war activities (with ample barbaric display of human heads set on poles). Where are the lush green hills of the Scottish countryside? Beats me. People talked about projections but unfortunately those were not visible to us up in first few rows of the family circle. The final scenes in the King’s castle were more spectacular with the rocky platform opening up down the center to expose a red rectangle underneath that in turn becomes the throne room providing a striking contrast between the court dressed in luminous gold and white and the poor Scottish warriors in their kilts and bloody rags.

All in all I found La Donna del Lago underwhelming, I may have been able to get beyond the weak plot and lukewarm production if the singing had been truly spectacular but, at least on this night, it simply was not.

- Lui & Lei

Dionysian Don Giovanni Casts Orphic Spell

Mozart’s Don Giovanni

Metropolitan Opera - February 14, 2015

Final descent of the Dionysian Orpheus
Photo Credit: Met Opera

Lei: Peter Mattei yet again showed he’s one of the best Mozart baritones around and his smooth elegant voice creates a Don Giovanni who is effortlessly and inevitably irresistible. Every single sound that came out of Mattei’s mouth, be it a recitatif or an aria, was fluid, gracious, playful, mischievous and manly at the same time, and I very much felt the bewitching draw of his character. I totally understood and felt the pain of all the women in the opera who cannot resist the charms of Don Giovanni – if someone sang to me like that I would swoon and go Donna-Elvira-crazy too. This time more than ever I perceived Don Giovanni as a truly magnetic and Dionysian force of nature, that had me rooting for him throughout the opera in a very non-feminist fashion. 

Mattei turns on the charm
Photo credit: Julieta Cervantes

When Mattei delivered Deh vieni alla finestra serenading Donna Elvira’s servant, time just stopped, hearts skipped beats and breaths were held, with the hope to prolong the magic enchantment of the canzonetta. All this for a horny guy trying to lure his ex-lover’s maid into his arms to add another feather to his seducer’s hat – oh, the genius and beauty of Mozart’s music. Mattei’s Don Giovanni was also very physical: aggressively sexual (rummaging with a predator’s urgency under Donna Anna’s and Donna Elvira’s skirts), romantically tender (seducing Zerlina and carrying her in his arms), inexplicably honorable (kissing the hand of the Commendatore he just murdered), energetically playful (dancing around and bursting with energy in Finch’han dal vino) and tragically human (twisting in agony when he shakes the Commendatore’s ghost hand and faces death in the final act).

Peter Mattei is a man possessed
Photo Credit: Met Opera

Lui: Mattei’s buttery voice lent the character a unique appeal, as everything he sang was seductive. He cast his spell on everyone. He had all of the women eating of his hand, which is my favorite take on the story. Despite how much any of his victims are in denial, they are all pursuing him because deep down they find him simply irresistible. Even Leporello cannot help but fall under his sway. Mattei gave an extra jolt to the beginning of Act II in the way that he dispatched his lyric baritone. I was blown away by the way he beckons back his disaffected servant with the smoothest, honeyed call of “Leporello” I’ve ever heard. It was unreal. It was in that moment that I felt not just that he was playing the character not merely as a man possessed by a Bacchic devil, but rather as some kind of twisted Orpheus who is in possession of the gift of song and who is less interested in using it as a civilizing force to conquer the demons of hell than he is ready and willing to use it in service of his demonic libido. The result is a Dionysian Orpheus. Playing up Don Giovanni’s special endowment with the power of music and song is a revealing way to understand this character. More than rethink the questionable morality of the story, it led me to rethink the nature of the score and what Mozart might be doing musically with this legendary figure. Only a great singer like Peter Mattei can bring this level of the character. And what a pleasure and a privilege it was to catch him frolicking amidst the maidens at the top of his game.

Luca Pisaroni balances the books
Photo Credit: Met Opera

Lei: Mattei was so sensational that truly everybody else on stage, no matter how strong, felt secondary to him, though maybe that’s the core of a certain version of Don Giovanni when the Don is so irresistible. Leporello is one of Luca Pisaroni’s signature roles and it shows. His bass-baritone is effortless and smooth and blended beautifully with Mattei throughout the opera as his wingman / alter ego. This Italian singer really savors every single word and delivers his most hilarious lines with gusto. Pisaroni also has great comic tempo and was particularly hilarious in the terzetto at the beginning of Act II when fake serenading Donna Elvira (it’s actually Don Giovanni doing the talking while Leporello mimics the gestures of a half-hearted lover). Russian tenor Dmitry Korchak made his Met debut as Don Ottavio and, while not extraordinary or particularly heart-wrenching, his voice was strong, expressive, Met-filling and tender enough. At times it even soared a bit. I’ve heard much worse at the Met in this role and all in all enjoyed his performance. Soprano Elza van den Heever as Donna Anna was the strongest female singer of the night. She attacked the role with passion and the sheer power and musicality of her instrument were impressive. When we saw her a couple of years ago in her Met debut as Elisabetta in Maria Stuarda we were not as impressed but this time she really delivered a fierce Donna Anna. Donna Elvira played by soprano Emma Bell was also vocally strong, particularly in Mi tradi’ quell’alma ingrata and had good tragi-comic acting qualities, truly embodying female obsession with the irresistible Don Giovanni.

Peasant mirth before the Lord arrives
Photo credit: Marty Sohl

Lui: Kate Lindsey’s Zerlina just didn’t do it for me. She had moments, especially in Batti, batti, O bel Masetto where she was technically very precise, but her sound just did not seem to work, maybe because she’s a mezzo and this role is traditionally sung by sopranos. Her voice is far too trapped in the back of her throat and she didn’t have the lightness and effervescence of the flirty peasant Zerlina. Her husband Masetto by bass-baritone Adam Plachetka also felt technically accurate but lacked power and the raw abruptness and nervousness of his character. James Morris as the Commendatore put up a good fight in the opening scene but was not terrifying or thundering enough when he comes back as a ghost in Act II.

The Don makes a narrow escape in the Act I finale
Photo Credit: Met Opera 

Lei: Maestro Alan Gilbert’s conducting was sensational. The last time we saw Don Giovanni at the Met it was like the orchestra was only half there. Under Gilbert’s baton they attacked Mozart’s score with the kind of energy and enthusiasm that really brings this classic to life. It was a muscular and powerful show from the orchestra, and Gilbert seemed to also bring out the best in his singers. At curtain call the maestro even took the time to individually thank each of the singers, which was a very nice touch I’ve never seen before. I’d look forward to see Gilbert conduct more often at the Met, maybe once he’ll leave his post at the NY Phil he’ll have more time? A final word on Michael Grandage’s nice enough production: while the walls of balconies are very functional (they serve as streets, piazzas, cemetery and the Don’s palazzo) and at times pretty effective and all in all the direction is very loyal to the libretto, after seeing this same production for the third time I am definitely ready for a new one - though please have Mattei sing in it.

- Lei & Lui

The Don meets his match
Photo Credit: Met Opera

NYC Indie Opera Wintry Mix

Baby, it’s cold out there – thankfully these brave NYC indie opera companies offer plenty of shows to keep us warm and entertained over the next month:

One can never go wrong with Wolfie and the newly formed Opera Cooperative (“opera by the artists”) opens its first season with a Così Fan Tutte. In case one needed extra incentive, “cabaret table” tickets are available, with a bottle of wine included in the admission…February 17-28 at Park Avenue United Methodist Church, 106 East 86^th Street. 

Photo Credit: Opera Cooperative

We were impressed by NY Opera Exchange’s Die Fledermaus earlier this year and look forward to seeing how they tackle Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. Seriously, who does not want to get some bel canto and a murderous bride delivering one of the most famous crazy scenes in opera? February 27-28 and March 1 at Church of the Covenant, 310 East 42 Street.

Photo Credit: NY Opera Exchange

Image Credit: Pastore Vito

For a lighter hearted Donizetti, Opera Company of Brooklyn offers a BYOB Don Pasquale, performed in a private apartment in Inwood (“exact address is given after tickets are purchased”). The whole affair feels very much like a secret musical salon, we’re intrigued. March 7 somewhere in Inwood.

Image Credit: Regina Opera

We are fans of the work of Regina Opera since discovering them with an indie Rigoletto last summer, be sure to check out their Barbiere di Siviglia. Trust us, this company’s work is worth the trip to Sunset Park. March 7-8 and 14-15 at the OLPH Catholic Academy of Brooklyn, 902 Sixth Avenue (between 59th and 60th Streets).

Image Credit: Heartbeat Opera

Heartbeat Opera (co-founded by the super talented director Louisa Proske) is offering an interesting double bill festival. First goes Kurtag’s Kafka Fragments, a 1985-6 opus where a mezzo soprano and a violin explore forty “fleeting moments” based on Kafka’s letters to Milena Jesenska, ranging from ironic observations to philosophical musings, to fantastical visions. Followed by the New York premiere of Offenbach’s operetta Daphnis & Chloé, a raunchy story of two innocent country youths who are initiated into the art of love by the lecherous God Pan and a horde of rowdy Bacchantes. March 18-22 at Sheen Center Blackbox, 18 Bleecker Street.

- Lui & Lei