A couple of weeks ago, D.S. Spring braved the crazy summer weather of Santa Fe to catch some cool operas.
Life is a Dream by Lewis Spratlan
Photo credit: Ken Howard
Santa Fe Opera continues in its tradition of expensively producing new and challenging operas with this premier. This opera, based on Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s play, La Vida es Sueńo, has had a long gestation. It was originally commissioned in 1978 for the New Haven Opera Theatre, which subsequently closed before this opera could be performed. Even though the original play was written in 1635, its theme of dream verses reality for life is universal and is as valid today as it was in the seventeenth century.
Spratlan’s “pan-tonal” music, led by conductor, Leonard Slatkin, was very expressive with respect to what was being sung and acted out on stage. The costumes were as if from a courtly fairy tale, but it was set on an esthetically-pleasing minimalist stage. Director, Kevin Newbury, brought the characters to life with their actions and interactions. The difficult role of Segismundo was ably sung by tenor, Roger Honeywell, who will be starring in Vancouver Opera’s premier of Lillian Alling. With the exception of the weak bass, John Cheek, as King Basilio, the other singers performed admirably.
Kudos to Santa Fe Opera for taking Life is a Dream from its dream-like state to reality.
Tales of Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach
Photo credit: Ken Howard
This is a beautiful production of Hoffmann’s stories of his lovelife within a story all being told to a crowd in a classic German beer hall. It was directed by Christopher Alden with conductor Stephen Lord. Paul Groves, with his solid tenor voice, was an impressive Hoffmann. Soprano, Erin Wall, whom Vancouver audiences will hear again later this season in La Traviata, capably handled all of the roles of Hoffmann’s love interests. Understudy, Wayne Tigges, stepping in for Gidon Saks, who withdrew from the production, confidently sang the various villain roles while the theatrics of tenor, David Cangelosi, as the servant in each story, almost stole the show. Almost, because the star, who did steal the show, was mezzo-soprano, Kate Lindsey, who sang Hoffmann’s muse. She was absolutely perfect for this character and will reprise the role later this year at the Met. The versatile Lindsey recently starred as the pregnant Amelia in Seattle Opera’s recent premier by the same name and is certainly a rising artist to watch.
Albert Herring by Benjamin Britten
Photo credit: Ken Howard
This delightful comic opera of the antics of small town society is in stark contrast to Britten’s Peter Grimes. Unfortunately for some unknown reason Director, Paul Curran, felt he had to ham it up with slap-stick actions rather than letting the characters stay true to type and just be themselves. The stodginess of Lady Billows, her housekeeper and other citizens in the town compared to the easy-going Sid and Nancy, when played straight, is normally more than sufficient to bring out the humour of the story as we observe Albert Herring coming of age and discovering himself. The statement that Britten was trying to make about society in small towns by poking fun at it was totally lost in this production.
Tenor, Alec Shrader, sang Albert Herring satisfactorily, but without being impressive. The rich baritone of Canadian Joshua Hopkins as Sid and the already-mentioned fabulous mezzo of Kate Lindsey were the vocal highlights of this performance.
This year Mother Nature presented her own magnificent show and competed with what was happening on stage. Each night around this covered, but open-air, amphitheater there was intermittent loud heavy rain that competed, and in some cases drowned out, the singers on stage. The continual lightning strikes in the distance, especially during the performance of Tales of Hoffmann, were awe inspiring. Each evening I felt we had two good shows on simultaneously for the price of one.
~ D.S. Spring
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